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Chomping at Bits: Is LSU's turmoil likely to be Florida's gain?

For once, the Gators stand to benefit from chaos involving Les Miles.

By Andy Hutchins
Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports

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Is LSU's turmoil best for Florida? The current, seemingly deranged interest in hanging out a national championship coach to dry at LSU just baffles me. There's no coach who is unequivocally better at college football coaching than Miles and also available (the three I'd argue are: Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer, and Nick Saban), so this is really more fans getting fed up with Miles and having eyes on anyone their checkbook could woo than fans rationally deciding it's time for an upgrade.

But the turmoil alone is probably going to help Florida substantially on the recruiting trail, and the boosters' preferred outcome might be a boon to the Gators, too. Elite quarterback recruit Feleipe Franks, long rumored to be a primary target for Florida's coaching staff, decommitted from LSU on Monday night, and has been in Gainesville twice in November, with a third trip planned for Saturday's game against Florida State. And we'll have more on this (and the commitment Florida got Monday night) later this morning, but almost all the recruiting world expects him to be a Gator at this juncture.

If a wobble from Miles or the prospect that offensive coordinator and Franks recruiter Cam Cameron won't be back in Baton Rouge is what has finally spurred Franks to reopen his recruitment, that alone provides the Gators with a significant opportunity that didn't previously exist.

And if LSU goes hard after Jimbo Fisher, those few chatty boosters' preferred coaching candidate, it might be even better for Florida. While FSU can offer plenty to retain a national championship coach, and has done right by Fisher and his staff in regards to compensation in the past, the SEC is a powerful lure for all sorts of coaches, and LSU did make Miles the highest-paid coach in the conference even after Saban's return to it.

Florida wouldn't lose a Fisher-coached team from its schedule if he were to take I-10 west, but it would be a blow to Florida State, which is inarguably a larger obstacle to Florida's programmatic success, and a substantial one. The optics of a great coach leaving an FSU he rebuilt for a chool that hasn't even won its own division in the SEC in four years would make the pitches of SEC supremacy that Seminoles fans love even more potent, and would be easily spun as Fisher fleeing a competitive state in which he was at a program that can't be more than 1A in a list with three proud and competitive teams for one in which his school was the unquestioned king.

I'm still skeptical that Miles will even be dethroned (what we've heard this week suggests rogue chatty boosters and an athletic director who can't really keep them quiet), much less replaced by Fisher. But even the instability to date has been a windfall for Florida, and any further shakeup might help the rising Gators more.

Florida knows how far it has to go: This isn't a team that's been pleased with its recent performances based on its results. (Chris Harry, GatorZone)

Jake McGee ready for (another) Senior Day: How the first graf of this article can contain a sentence so garbled is beyond me. (Robbie Andreu, The Gainesville Sun)

Comparing Mike White to Billy Donovan: They ... walk similarly? (Kassidy Hill, Gator Country)

A eulogy for Florida's soccer season: This was really well-done, I thought. (Scott Carter, GatorZone)

Your Gators moments of zen:

 

 

 

 

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