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Florida’s win against Alabama on Wednesday night was one more huge milestone for coach Todd Golden.
He may look like he is 18, but he’s coaching like he has been doing it for 18 years. He already is making history, winning more than any other Florida coach in his first 100 games (in his case 99) and winning two games against top-10 teams on the road for the first time in school history.
But when it comes to Coach of the Year honors – either in the SEC or nationally – I’m not sure he is getting the respect he deserves.
The High Five looks at the five reasons he should or could be the Coach of the Year:
- As far as the SEC goes …
Golden will get some votes, but Auburn’s Bruce Pearl will probably win the award, because of his team’s 15 wins against Quad 1 opponents. Mark Byington should as well, because Vanderbilt was picked to finish last in the 16-team SEC. Missouri’s Dennis Gates won zero games in the SEC last year and was picked to finish 13th but is headed to the tournament this year.
Florida was picked to finish sixth in the league. Florida went 5-1 against the teams picked in the top five with the one loss coming at Tennessee.
- And we knew this …
Auburn was going to be good. We hoped Florida would be – especially for our Tailgate listeners – because it’s way more fun to talk about a great season than a bad one.
But I don’t think anyone saw this coming from Florida. The league schedule the Gators were handed was brutal with road games against four of the top 13 teams ranked in the top 13 of the NET.
- He built this city …
… On rock and roll. Sorry to conjure up that awful song, but Golden has shown that he can recruit, develop and get players to buy in. I know Auburn had to overcome Johni Broome’s injury in the middle of the season, but think of the Florida players who have missed time.
Walter, Alijah, Condo. Will Richard has played with a toe injury that required cortisone shots.
Next man up is a cute saying, but how you handle multiple injuries to your star players is huge.
- Let’s go national …
Because I almost think Golden gets more respect nationally than in his own conference. The hacks who write and talk about Florida around the country have been impressed.
A deeper dive will tell you Golden’s theory about scheduling is something that has been a huge part of Florida’s success. He believes in multiple neutral site games, because they help your NET and KenPom and whatever other stats they put out there.
I could do another full High Five on Golden’s ability to develop players.
- And in the end …
… the love you take is equal to the love you make. Now that is a great song.
The bottom line is Pearl’s season is one that has been amazing. There are other national coach of the year candidates like Pat Kelsey (what a great name) at Louisville and Jon Scheyer at Duke (like I couldn’t win 20 games with that lineup in that conference) and certainly Rick Pitino at St. John’s.
In many ways, this has been a weird season for the Gators. It started with the Title IX investigation, weaving its way through Micah Handlogten’s in-and-out-and-back-in as well as other strange days indeed.
But this coach at Florida has a chance to win the most games in a season than any coach in program history. Of course, all he has to do is win out to tie the 36 wins Billy D put up in his penultimate season at Florida.
That we will take and not care about any coaching honors. Donovan, who came to Gainesville in 1996, had to wait until 2011 to win the SEC award.
WRUF.com sports columnist Pat Dooley can be heard on “The Tailgate” along with Jeff Cardozo from 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday on 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.
