Florida football: News and notes from the start of game week

Florida football kicks off the 2019 season on Saturday at 7:00 PM ET against old rival, Miami, in the Camping World Kickoff. The Gators will look to continue the momentum built by a strong finish to 2018.

Quick hitters from Florida football head Dan Mullen‘s Monday press conference

• “It’s game week!” Dan Mullen started his press conference in Gainesville today, “This is such a great honor for us to kick off the 150th year of college football. To do it on the stage we’re getting to do it, in such a high-profile game and, on top of that, have it be an in-state rivalry game, is really, really exciting.”
• There is some familiarity between the Florida and Miami coaching staffs.
  • Mullen described new Miami head coach, Manny Diaz, as a great coach, great motivator, and very intelligent. Diaz worked for Mullen for two seasons in Starkville during his time at Mississippi State.
  • Dan Enos, the new Miami offensive coordinator, received compliments from Mullen based on their previous meetings in the SEC West during Enos’ tenure as the offensive coordinator at Arkansas.
• As fall camp morphs into a game week practice schedule, the team will begin to hold night practices for the first few weeks of the season since the first three kickoffs will be at 7:00 PM ET or later.

Brenton Cox immediate eligibility odds slim

Florida landed a major transfer to cap off the summer.

Ex-Georgia Bulldog, Brenton Cox, has requested a waiver seeking immediate eligibility for the Gators, but according to a Chip Towers report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the request will most likely be denied.

Towers report relied heavily on NCAA transfer expert, Atlanta attorney, Tom Mars. Mars successfully represented former Georgia quarterback and new Ohio State starter, Justin Fields, in his waiver appeal earlier this offseason.

Cox was kicked off the team in Athens following a marijuana possession charge in April.

Mullen seemed hopeful that the NCAA would grant a waiver for Cox to play right away, however, Mars strongly disagreed:

"“When head coaches start thinking that way and figure, ‘why not file for one and see what happens?’ they put undue pressure on their compliance staff to file what’s essentially a meritless waiver request,” Mars said. “That adds to the backlog in Indianapolis, which is what eventually led to the Legislative Council raising the bar.”"

Rivals listed the 6’4″, 247 lb Cox as a 5-star defensive end out of Stockbridge, Georgia, when he signed with Georgia in 2018. As a freshman, he played outside linebacker, racking up 20 tackles, including seven solo tackles, and adding a start to his resume in the Sugar Bowl against Texas.

Credit to Mullen for trying. Hopefully, we’ll see the sophomore on the field for the Gators sooner rather than later, but that seems unlikely for 2019.

Miami home-and-home series announced

Florida and Miami need to bring back the annual rivalry, but in the meantime, the Gators and Canes have at least provided fans with a future home-and-home series to look forward to: Miami will come to The Swamp in 2024 with Florida returning the trip to Hard Rock Stadium in 2025.

The neutral site game in Orlando has created national buzz, but it’s not the first time the pair have played on a neutral site.

Aside from two bowl games (2000 Sugar and 2004 Peach), Florida and Miami have met twice in Jacksonville (1958-59), once in Orlando (1976), and once in Tampa (1984). Each school has knotted three victories over these six meetings.

Florida football has made a solid effort to beef up their future nonconference schedule outside of the annual season finale with Florida State. Here some notable future matchups over the next 12 years.

• 2021 – at USF
• 2022 – vs USF
• 2024 – vs Miami
• 2025 – at Miami
• 2028 – vs Colorado
• 2029 – at Colorado
• 2030 – vs Texas
• 2031- at Texas

Athletic Director Scott Stricklin continues to receive praise from Florida football fans who are tired of watching FCS opponents trot into The Swamp.

Expect the recent surge in quality home-and-homes to continue as there are still dates to fill in 2022 and beyond.