So, Florida began its drive to reclaim the SEC East throne yesterday by… having four key players miss the first practice?
The Florida Gators kicked off preseason practices Monday but at least key four players skipped the workout.
UF wide receivers Kadarius Toney, Trevon Grimes and Jacob Copeland and defensive end Zachary Carter all missed Monday’s practice, a source told the Orlando Sentinel. Sports Illustrated’s Zach Goodall was the first to report the players skipped the workout.
Florida coach Dan Mullen, during a videoconference Monday, confirmed the Gators didn’t have perfect attendance, but he declined to identify the athletes or their reason for sitting out. The absences come against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic and movement among players seeking long-term health protection and compensation for their performance.
For someone potentially looking at his receiving corps being gutted, the Portal Master™ sounded remarkably nonchalant about the situation.
“We had a couple guys not practice today, but we’ll see how that goes moving forward for us,” Mullen said. “But, you know, I wouldn’t be surprised if you have guys opt out. I’m going to support them fully. Really wouldn’t be surprised if we had coaches opt out, to be honest with you. Coaches are at such high risk because of the age group that they’re in.
“But we’ll figure it out.”
If you’re cool with it, Dan, so am I.
Get The Picture 
Coaches opt out? Yeah, right. They won’t because they’d have to give up that sweet, sweet paycheck. Big difference between a coaches and athletes. STFU Dan.
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Paychecks don’t help if your dead.
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Or not asked back, aka fired.
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Who needs them?! Plenty of 2-star WRs in the portal just itching to be molded into superstars. Walk-ons and campus try-outs too. Go get em Danny!
You’ve got 5 whole weeks to get them up to speed. Trask will drop those laser-guided darts right into their waiting arms. Not. a. problem.
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Correct. As long as Trask is QB and Mullen is whispering in plays, you could roll up 500 passing yards throwing to walk ons.
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You hate to see it.
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Don’t jinx us. This could easily be Georgia.
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Except it isn’t. All hands on deck. No reason to Munson this.
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That could change tomorrow. Follow these kids on Twitter.
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Yeah, no offense, but I’m not gonna follow college kids on twitter for the same reason I don’t follow or tweet at recruits. It’s weird.
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You don’t have to because I just told you.
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Exactly – schadenfreude, at this early point in the (pre)-season, is like tempting fate, given the circumstances…
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Dan now has his excuse when the Gators lose their opener on the road at Ole Miss. Either that, or they were looking ahead to the Cocktail Party.
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I can’t think of a better way to start the season than to watch the Lane Train going in for a fun tack-on TD at the end of the game against Floriduh to win 31-14.
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Thanks, man. Now I’ve got to go shower.
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How many Coaches are over 70?
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Excellent point. Cousin Eddie may be having a flashback to the olde tyme days when sailors could quarantine themselves from Bird Farms in San Diego/North Island to stop going on WestPac pleasure cruises:
“The Stop Our Ship (SOS) movement, a component of the overall civilian and GI movements against the Vietnam War… was directed towards and developed onboard U.S. Navy ships, particularly aircraft carriers heading to Southeast Asia…. As the ground war stalemated and Army grunts increasingly refused to fight or resisted the war in various other ways, the U.S. ‘turned increasingly to air bombardment’. By 1972 there were twice as many Seventh Fleet aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin as previously and the antiwar movement, which was at its height in the U.S. and worldwide, became a significant factor in the Navy.
While no ships were actually prevented from returning to war, the campaigns, combined with the broad antiwar and rebellious sentiment of the times, stirred up substantial difficulties for the Navy, including active duty sailors refusing to sail with their ships, circulating petitions and antiwar propaganda on board, disobeying orders, and committing sabotage, as well as persistent civilian antiwar activity in support of dissident sailors. Several ship combat missions were postponed or altered and one ship was delayed by a combination of a civilian blockade and crewmen jumping overboard.
The major targets of the SOS movement were four different aircraft carriers, the USS Constellation, the USS Coral Sea, the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Enterprise, with lesser but significant activity on and around a number of other ships.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Our_Ship_(SOS)
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