Pat Dooley’s Back Nine (July 10th)

The Back Nine comes at you after a lazy weekend that included counting the days until football season starts.

10. Certainly, the big story of the weekend around here was the Major League Baseball Draft which I actually watched more of than the NFL Draft. I do think it’s better to have the Draft after the season is over! instead of having players being selected while they are actually playing in Super Regionals. So happy for Wyatt Langford and I will miss seeing him playing for Florida. He was a joy and one of the great clutch performers in the history of the program.

11. And Hurston Waldrep went to my Braves? Two first-round picks for the Gators and my first thought was, “Man, two first-rounders and they didn’t win it all.” Of course, forget that the team that Florida took to the last possible game of the year had the first two picks in the Draft. And I thought it was interesting that Brandon Sproat, who turned down seven figures to come back to school, was drafted by the Mets again.

12. There was a buzz this weekend that Langford could go No. 1 which would have made him the first Florida athlete to ever be taken with the first pick of a draft in any of the major sports. Some of it has been just timing. But it is still mind boggling to think that it has never happened. Maybe Jac Caglianone can change that next year.

13. I actually watched some Wimbledon and some golf (I tried to explain the LIV Tour graphics to my wife. She found it unwatchable). And I watched the Braves take the series against Tampa Bay. I need to find a new hobby. Steve Spurrier once told me that you can only play so much golf and I laughed and I laughed. As usual, he was correct.

14. This is my new take on Florida’s 2023 football schedule and I wrote about it in my Dooley’s Dozen on GatorsWire. People need to quit being so a-scared (a phrase we used as kids) of it. It’s not Georgia easy, but it’s manageable. People are suddenly acting like Florida can’t win in Lexington and Columbia. I’ve been to those places and I know better.

15. It’s funny how the SEC Media Days have crept up on us all, which tends to happen when the baseball team is playing deep into the summer. Where is Florida picked? It really doesn’t matter. The lower the better. Give these guys a chip on their collective shoulder. Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton added incentive when he said, “I don’t lose in Florida.” This isn’t about revenge. There have been too many Revenge Tours of late. This is about this team playing smart football and finding ways to win a bunch of close games.

16. None of us really know what happened at Northwestern. Be careful about jumping to judgment over the hazing until we know for sure what happened. But it certainly could be the end of Pat Fitzgerald. The former Wildcats player has gone 1-8 in the Big 10 in three of the last four seasons, but that’s a job for life if you just win occasionally. Unless you do something really bad.

17. Perhaps the answer for a hobby is just to try to figure out the winners of every major conference and really study it using all of the magazines and websites. OK, I have a project.

18. And a playlist. Heard some great songs this weekend. Here you go:

* “Always The Sun” by The Stranglers (let’s work on that name although if you have been around since I was 20-years old that’s probably not going to happen).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSG4ONpSnqk

* “Sundress” by Ben Kweller. I do love sundresses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2pELHyb-9U

* “Too Much of a Good Thing” by The Sons. Great opening riff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVhAJpdf7nI