College football notes: Florida wide receiver gets waiver, but no Uga for Georgia

Some college football notes heading into this weekend:

▪ Florida wide receiver Justin Shorter says he was given an NCAA waiver to play this year after transferring from Penn State. Considered the nation’s No. 1 wideout prospect in 2018, Shorter caught 15 passes for 157 yards and a touchdown as a Nittany Lion. The Gators are still awaiting word on Texas wide receiver transfer Jordan Pouncey. Shorter joins a group that includes Trevon Grimes, Kadarius Toney, Rick Wells, Jacob Copeland, Ja’Markis Weston, Trent Whittemore, Xzavier Henderson and Jaquavion Fraziars.

Meanwhile, Syracuse offensive lineman Chris Bleich had his NCAA waiver denied after transferring from Florida. Bleich enrolled at Syracuse last January. “This one’s smoking hot right now, so I’m going to turn over and give (the NCAA) the other cheek,” Syracuse coach Dino Babers said during his radio show Thursday night. “Half their people are furloughed, and I guess we got the other half.”

Of course, Kentucky football is still awaiting word on an eligibility waiver for quarterback Joey Gatewood, a transfer from Auburn. And Kentucky basketball is still awaiting word on an eligibility transfer for center Olivier Sarr, a transfer from Wake Forest.

▪ Ohio State football coach Ryan Day released a statement Thursday that read more like a tantrum. Day asked why can’t Big Ten teams play when other conferences are playing football. “While I understand the Big Ten Conference’s decision to postpone the football season because of health and safety considerations, the communication of information from the Big Ten following the decision has been disappointing and often unclear,” he continued. “However, we still have an opportunity to give our young men what they have worked so hard for: A chance to safely compete for a national championship this fall.”

Penn State’s James Franklin is not happy with the Big Ten either, chastising the league for a lack of communication. “We just haven’t gotten great communication from the beginning,” Franklin said. “We never really have fully been told or understood why the season was shut down in the first place. And then there hasn’t been a whole lot of communication since. When I say communication, we’ve had meetings, but I’m talking about kind of really understanding why and what and how we got here.”

▪ Lee Corso reportedly won’t be in attendance for ESPN’s “College GameDay” show this season. The 85-year-old former Louisville and Indiana coach will still be part of the show, he just won’t be traveling or the GameDay set. Corso will be the doing show from his home outside Orlando, Florida. Fans won’t be allowed to show up for GameDay, either. Saturday’s first GameDay will be in Winston Salem for the Clemson-Wake Forest game.

▪ Georgia mascot Uga won’t be on the field this season for Bulldogs’ games. Uga X, a white English bulldog, falls under the SEC mandate banning live mascots from the field this season. Only players, coaches and “essential” personnel will be allowed on the field. As cute as Uga may be — and he is cute — he is apparently not essential.

Speaking of Georgia, word is D’Wan Mathis is making a move at quarterback now that Wake Forest transfer Jamie Newman has opted out of 2020. JT Daniels, the USC transfer, is considered the leader at the position, but the 6-foot-6 Mathis has reportedly impressed after having a brain cyst removed that forced him to miss the 2019 season.

[College football on TV this weekend (Sept. 10-12)]

▪ Clemson transfer Chase Brice has been named starting quarterback for Duke in its Saturday opener against Notre Dame. A grad transfer, Brice completed 82 of 136 passes for 1,023 yards and nine touchdowns with four interceptions while backing up Trevor Lawrence and Kelly Bryant at Clemson. Duke-Notre Dame is a 2:30 p.m. start on NBC.

Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney on Notre Dame playing in the ACC this season: “I’m happy they’re in the league. I wish they were a permanent member of the league, to be honest with you. I think it’d be great.”

▪ According to the Texas Tribune, students hoping to attend the Longhorns’ Saturday opener against UTEP will be required to take a COVID-19 test on Friday and test negative before the game. “The mandatory pregame tests will be provided by the university for free. Students will have from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to get tested on campus Friday,” according to the university athletics website. Texas is limiting stadium capacity to about 18,000.

▪ Two Pac-12 offensive linemen with NFL aspirations have opted out of whatever the conference decides to do about a football season. Walker Little of Stanford and Penei Sewell will both go straight to the NFL Draft. Either player could end up being the first offensive tackle selected in 2021, though Sewell is believed to have the edge.

Ohio State offensive lineman Wyatt Davis, another potential first-round pick, is opting out of college football to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft.

▪ If you missed it, the Baylor-Louisiana Tech game scheduled for Saturday has been postponed because of a COVID-19 outbreak at Louisiana Tech. It’s the third opener involving a Big 12 team to be postponed. SMU at TCU and Tulsa at Oklahoma State were also pushed back because of coronavirus concerns.

▪ LSU will allow 26,000 fans into Tiger Stadium for home games this season, but the school is banning tailgating. Tiger Stadium seats 102,321. And you can make a strong argument that LSU football without tailgating is not LSU football.

▪ Miami said it would allow 13,000 fans into Hard Rock Stadium for Thursday night’s 31-14 win over UAB. The official attendance was announced at 8,153, though the Miami Herald’s Susan Miller Degan reported that it was “seemingly smaller.” Houston quarterback transfer D’Eriq King completed 15 of 23 passes for 141 yards and rushed for 83 yards on 12 carries for the Hurricanes.

▪ The big news in Knoxville this week was the spotting of a Tiger on the loose in town. That caused Vols’ football coach Jeremy Pruitt to skip his noon walk. On his Zoom call with the media, Pruitt wanted an update on the status of the tiger.

▪ Christine Brennan of USA Today wrote that she loves college football, but just can’t watch because of COVID-19 concerns. “In what has to be the riskiest roll of the dice in the history of college sports, 76 universities, many of them in the South and Southwest, are embarking on the most reckless action ever perpetuated on college campuses in the name of athletics, pressing on with their quest to play football in the middle of a pandemic.”