by Patrick Zier | Jul 28, 2026 |
(This is the second of a three-part series on Florida’s Big Three, Florida, Miami and FSU. Today, Miami)
There are no catchy slogans in Miami’s locker room, or the stadium it plays in. There used to be. There was one in the old Orange Bowl, above the exit the players used when they charged through the smoke and onto the field.
It was a play on words, on the old adage that ‘you take what the defense gives you.’ Miami changed that. Above the exit, in big, bold letters, the last thing the players saw was a sign that read ‘We take what we want.’
I liked that. Actually, it was put there by the Miami Dolphins, but it fit the Hurricanes’ bad boy image, the aggressive, sometimes arrogant approach that defined Miami’s attitude at the time. The sign is long gone now, along with the Orange Bowl and, at least until recently, Miami’s winning ways…
Mario Crystobal does not bleed red. He bleeds orange and green. He grew up in Miami, played offensive tackle on two of the U’s (as Miami is reverently referred to by former players and alums) national championship teams and watched from afar as the powerhouse built by Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson and others crumbled and fell apart.
So, after Manny Diaz was dismissed in 2021 following three mediocre seasons that were piled on a bunch of other mediocre seasons, Crystobal, then head coach at Oregon, returned to his alma mater.
This would end, now. And he would end it. This was a disgrace. He would put pride back in the program. He would make Miami Miami again. He knew how to get it done. There was no doubt in his mind that Miami could become, once again, what it had been.
Crystobal’s approach to football is entirely different then that of his rival up the road in Gainesville, Jon Sumrall, who was hired this year to do for Florida what Crystobal is doing for Miami.
Unlike Crystobal, Sumrall had no connection with Florida prior to being hired. And again unlike Crystobal, Sumrall has no head coaching experience at a Power Four conference level.
Crystobal, by way of contrast, came to Miami after five highly successful seasons at Oregon, where he won Pac-12 conference championships when the Pac-12 was considered a Power Five conference and compiled an overall 35-14 record.
So, while Sumrall has spent much of his time trying to convince Gator Nation that he is the right guy to pull the program out of the swamp, Crystobal has quietly been marshalling Miami’s resources and making steady progress in getting the ‘Canes back to the top of the mountain in college football.
Last year, Miami made it all the way to the national championship game, where it lost to Indiana, 27-21. But for Crystobal, that isn’t good enough. There’s first place and no place.
“I think in football, we do feel truly at the University of Miami that you never stay the same, you get better or you get worse,” Crystobal commented. “So, elevating every aspect of the program starts with every individual.
“I’m talking about the importance of challenging your coaches and players. We’re blessed to have an excellent coaching staff. But there’s no value in coming back thinking you’re going to be good,” Crystobal said.
“It’s important that we self assess and that we find every possible advantage and edge to give our players so they can go out and be the best they can possibly be,” the Miami coach went on.
“Mentality is everything for us. We like to get on edge and we like to stay on edge. The only way to do that is by demanding certain levels of intensity and urgency as it relates to practice and preparation.
“I think if you speak with our players, I think they’ll echo that,” Crystobal said. “That’s been what has really worked for us. We’re nowhere near where we want to be yet, but we’re certainly gaining ground.
“I owe Miami, I do,” Crystobal declared. “I feel strongly about that as it relates to what we want to accomplish. We don’t have any signs on the wall. For us, it’s as simple as this.
“For us, our culture, this will sum it up. Everybody for everything every single day. There shouldn’t be any misconception or misunderstanding as it relates to that.”
And so, Miami is back, although no one in the program, including Crystobal, will tell you that. And there may not be any signs in bold letters for everyone to see, either. But if you look closely, you can sense it. There’s just an attitude about the ‘Canes again.
They take what they want.
by Patrick Zier | Jul 26, 2026 |
(This is the first of a three part series on Florida’s Big Three in college football. Today, Florida)
He was not Florida’s first choice. Than would be Lane Kiffin, who snubbed the Gators for LSU. So Jon Sumrall, the highly successful coach at first Troy and then Tulane, a team he took to the College Football Playoff, has had to sell himself. To the players. To the donors. To the fans.
He has been trying to convince everyone in Gator Nation that he fits, that despite the fact he comes from a Group of Six program and has very limited experience at a Power Four conference level and none as a head coach, he can pull this off.
That despite the fact that he is replacing another Group of Six coach, Billy Napier, who came before him, tried to lead the Gators out of the swamp and instead drowned in it.
So, if some who follow the team in Gainesville are a bit uneasy, you can understand why. Florida is not just any Power Four program. It is expected to be elite. If you are going to succeed here, you need to fill the footsteps of Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer. Anything less is unacceptable.
Sumrall is spending a lot of time trying to convince people he understands.
The resources are there, he says. The talent is there, as well as the commitment of those involved with the program, from top to bottom, he says.
All that is needed is somebody to put it all together, and he is that somebody. “I want everybody in our building to have an appreciation for the privileges that we’re afforded each and every day,” Sumrall declared at the recent SEC media days.
“When I interviewed for this job one of the questions the committee had for me was ‘Coach, what do you view as our negatives at the University of Florida?’ I said the biggest one I see is we haven’t been winning enough.
“At the places I’ve coached; look, I’ve got a full time nutritionist now. I didn’t have that at Troy. I’ve got a staff of nutritionists. Like there are so many great resources we have,” Sumrall said.
“Every time you walk into a place that’s different, the most important thing you do as a new head coach is you listen to maybe what’s gone right and you listen to what’s gone wrong, and you try and identify where you have to recalibrate. Try to get the right people in your building. Maybe it’s okay if some people leave.
“I’m just trying to inject an attitude we’re going to attack every day with enthusiasm,” Sumrall continued. “I may have some bad moments, I don’t have bad days. I got life pretty good.
“So for me, I think you have to have a great attitude in what you do. I define attitude as demeanor, drive and desire. Demeanor is your body language. Drive and desire is the mindset That you never arrive, you can always get better.
“I am a firm believer that the only disability in life is a bad attitude,” Sumrall commented. “I ain’t going to have a bad attitude. When things go bad I am still going to have a positive attitude.
“That’s not purple skies and butterflies. We are going to have some moments that don’t go our way. There will be adversity, but when adversity hits, I don’t change.
“You know things are going to go bad. When things go bad, how do you respond? You better respond with the right attitude. I want everybody in our building to be filled with urgency and excitement and passion about what they do,” Sumrall emphasized.
Sumrall’s effusive praise of Florida football and the program’s potential has gotten him some buy in. He has a believer in Nick Saban, who, even in retirement, towers above the SEC. His word is regarded as gospel by many.
“I think Jon Sumrall is very, very impressive,” Saban said on the SEC Network. “That guy has the right stuff. He talks about the right things, in terms on intangibles, to build a program and a culture that’s going to sustain itself. Florida, I think, is a sleeping giant,” Saban added.
And there are many who echo Saban, calling Sumrall a breath of fresh air and an inspiration to those around him. So he’s made his point, calmed the masses. Now all he has to do is turn words into wins.
(Next: Miami)
by Patrick Zier | Jul 22, 2026 |
Joey Logano crushed the competition at North Wilkesboro Sunday, leading 323 of the 450 laps on his way to winning the race. For Ford though, the question is whether this is an indication of things to come or a one-off. I mean, has Ford finally figured out the Next Gen car or not?
Because only Ryan Blaney has shown any real competitiveness in a Ford over the last two years. Prior to Sunday and dating back to May 4th, 2025, a span of 45 races, Ford had won six times, all by Blaney. So we’ll see.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Sunday’s race was the performance of Shane van Gisbergen, the 37-year-old New Zealander who has been tearing it up on road courses and flailing frantically everywhere else.
At a point in his life when most Cup drivers have established who they are and trying to maintain as they approach the end of their careers, van Gisbergen is attempting to learn how to drive on ovals.
And Sunday was his best effort yet. Driving for Trackhouse, he piloted his Chevy to a fifth-place finish, the first time in his short NASCAR career he has ever been in the top five on an oval.
He also led 49 laps, the most ever in a single race on an oval. Prior to the North Wilkesboro race, he had only led 28 laps total on oval tracks not counting superspeedways.
“What the (expletive) do I do now?” van Gisbergen joked on his radio after passing Denny Hamlin for first place according to NASCAR.com’s website. “I was just having fun,” he commented after the race. “It’s pretty cool to get up front and then be able to pass for the lead genuinely. We just got to enjoy ourselves.”
That’s a change from the superspeedways (Atlanta, Daytona and Talladega), where typically the cars run in long lines and gain positions with faster pit stops or when one line breaks up and another forms.
Running up front is very different from running in the back, where he is usually stuck, van Gisbergen said. “It’s just calmer when you get up there,” he remarked. “Everyone’s really respectful.”
Interestingly, Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek, also used to being backpackers, made the same kind of comments after they finished sixth and fourth, respectively, at Pocono recently.
“It was just a real solid day,” Stephen Doran, van Gisbergen’s crew chief, said according to NASCAR.com’s website. “You speak about the race yesterday (the truck race Saturday), I feel that helped him a ton.
“He just learned the track. He used some of the lines he figured out yesterday in the truck, so thanks to Spire (van Gisbergen drove for Spire Motorsports Saturday) for letting him do that.
“I feel like it benefits us a ton at these places, so the more of those we can do, the better,” Doran said. “He’s just got to figure out how to make speed, and that just puts him a step ahead when we get to our stuff (Cup racing) if he has laps in a truck or an O’Reilly car.”
One of the things holding van Gisbergen back on the ovals is the fact that Trackhouse’s cars are not good enough to compete with those built by the elite teams, or even teams like Michael Jordan and Hamlin’s 23XI.
Because he is such a talented driver, van Gisbergen can make up for that on road courses, but competing on ovals is another matter entirely.
The falloff by Trackhouse, once considered a rising team in Chevy’s hierarchy, has been dramatic, as the Old Guy Sport competition index demonstrates.
In 2024, with only two cars, Trackhouse’s Ross Chastain won a race at Kansas and had 183 points, 13th best on the OGS competition index. His teammate, Daniel Suarez, scored 67 points.
The next year, 2025, Chastain won again, this time at Charlotte, but his point total dipped to 124 points. Suarez had just 43 and was released when the season ended. But van Gisbergen, added as a third driver, had five road course wins good for 368 points.
This year, with Chevy’s redesigned body, Trackhouse is really struggling although van Gisbergen continues to get better. So far, after 17 races, he has 15 points on short tracks and 12 on the intermediates plus two wins and 196 points on road courses, a total of 223.
That is in stark contrast to Chastain, with just four points, and Connor Zilsch, Suarez’s replacement, who has only five.
Clearly, van Gisbergen is running better than anybody could expect given the quality of the cars he has to compete in. What he might be capable of in a Hendrick Chevy would be interesting to see, now that he is showing signs of being able to run decently on ovals.
“We have fun with all of it,” Doran remarked. “We try to stay light. There’s a lot of inside jokes going on during the race between him, myself, Josh Williams (van Gisbergen’s spotter).
“That’s why we all do this,” Doran continued, “to have fun, win races. So it’s fun when we can run up front like that.” And the more fun they have, the less fun it’s going to be for everybody else.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Indianapolis: 1-Denny Hamlin, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-Kyle Larson. Last year’s winner at Indianapolis: Bubba Wallace. Top five at Indianapolis last year: 1-Wallace, 2-Larson, 3-Hamlin, 4-Ryan Preece, 5-Brad Keselowski.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport North Wilkesboro picks: 1-Ryan Blaney, 2-Ty Gibbs, 3-Larson. North Wilkesboro winner: Joey Logano. OGS season record after 17 races: 9-8.
OGS competition index top 10 after 17 races: 1-Hamlin 522 points, 2-Tyler Reddick 343, 3-Bell 273, 4-Larson 270, 5-Gibbs 232, Chase Briscoe 232, 7-Shane van Gisbergen 223, 8-Chase Elliott 181, 9-Blaney 157, 10-Logano 117.
OGS competition index top 10 on intermediate tracks (tracks most similar to Indianapolis): 1-Hamlin 406, 2-Reddick 232, 3-Bell 172, 4-Larson 129, 5-Briscoe 127, 6-Elliott 120, 7-William Byron 99, 8-Brad Keselowski 63, 9-Daniel Suarez 51, 10-Wallace 48.
by Patrick Zier | Jul 18, 2026 |
So, has Ford finally found a way to win? Well, we can’t really say that yet. What we know is this: It’s been over a year since anyone in a Ford other than Ryan Blaney has won any kind of a race on any kind of a track.
Blaney won last Sunday at Atlanta, a superspeedway, and he also won earlier this year at Phoenix, and Ford’s last win before that was at another superspeedway, Daytona, in August of 2025, also by Blaney. So, if you’re keeping score, it’s Blaney three, everybody else in a Ford, zero.
In other words, don’t start jumping up and down yet. On the Ford side, as a driver, Blaney is in a class by himself. Nobody else at Ford seems to have figured out how to drive the Next Gen car, and it’s getting worse, not better.
Over the last three years, Ford and its top team, Penske Motorsports, have been in a downward spiral – except for Blaney. In 2024, Ford looked like it might by getting a grip on things.
As usual, Blaney was the leader. Not counting superspeedways, which don’t count because luck and not performance pretty much determine who does well and who doesn’t, Blaney had three wins and 10 top fives.
The other three Penske drivers (the Wood brothers team is included because they get their cars from Penske) Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton, combined for 11 top fives and four wins.
And then, just when it was looking good, it all started to fall apart. In 2025, Blaney had 13 top fives and three wins. The rest of Penske could only manage 11 top fives and two wins.
This year, it’s worse. Much worse. Blaney has three top fives and one win. The rest of Penske? Just two top fives. So what’s happened? Well, as has been pointed out before, the new aero paradigm in NASCAR relies mostly on generating downforce by controlling air flow under the car, and except for Blaney, Penske might be having some issues there.
Whatever it is, Penske’s pathetic performance – it doesn’t even qualify as an elite team anymore – shows up sharply in the Old Guy Sport competition index.
In the 16 races so far (remember, the OGS competition index doesn’t include superspeedways), Blaney has 157 points, ninth overall but light years behind the top four, which include three Toyotas – Denny Hamlin, 482 points; Tyler Reddick, 343, and Christopher Bell, 274, plus Chevy’s Kyle Larson, 270.
The other Penske drivers? Logano has a sickly 42 points, Cindric 13 and the Wood brothers entry, Josh Berry, none.
Blaney’s ability to separate himself from the rest of the Fords is evident when you look at the OGS competition index over the last three years. In 2024, Blaney had 392 points, the rest of Penske 353. In 2025, Blaney pulled farther ahead with 516 points compared to 272 for the other Penske drivers, and he is widening the gap again this year.
“I have a great group around me and (crew chief) Jonathan Hassler is unbelievable,” Blaney said after the Atlanta win according to NASCAR’s website. “I’m really fortunate I get to work with him.
“Then everybody else on this 12 team, engineers, mechanics, truck driver, pit crew, they do an amazing job,” Blaney continued. “Their attitude is always incredibly positive no matter how it’s going. They always have confidence that they can show up at any racetrack and win.
“It’s just a neat group to be around,” Blaney said. “I’m fortunate that most of us have been together for many years honestly. I think Johnathan is the number one. It’s fun to drive his race cars and work through things with him when we feel like we need to get better, figure out where do we need to get better.”
The question remains, though. If Blaney can do this, and he’s proven he can, why can’t drivers on the same team emulate him? What’s going on here? Well, the answer may be a simple one.
“In my mind, he’s the best in the garage,” Hassler commented. “I’m proud to have the opportunity to work with him.” Blaney may not be the best in the garage, but he’s close. And at Ford? Well, he’s by far the best they’ve got. And that’s not close.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at North Wilkesboro: 1-Ryan Blaney, 2-Ty Gibbs, 3-Kyle Larson. Last year’s winner at North Wilkesboro: No race.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport picks for Atlanta: No picks, OGS does not pick winners in superspeedway races. OGS season record: 9-7.
OGS competition index top 10 after 16 races: 1-Denny Hamlin 482 points, 2-Tyler Reddick 343, 3-Christopher Bell 273, 4-Larson 270, 5-Shane van Gisbergen 208, 6-Gibbs 207, 7-Chase Briscoe 201, 8-Chase Elliott 181, 9-Blaney 157, 10-William Byron 111.
OGS competition index top 10 on short tracks (tracks most similar to North Wilkesboro): 1-Blaney 112 points, 2-Gibbs 91, 3-Larson 83, 4-Hamlin 76, 5-Bell 61, Elliott 61, 7-Joey Logano 41, 8-Reddick 20, 9-Byron 11, 10-Briscoe 10.
by Patrick Zier | Jul 10, 2026 |
Kyle Larson was doing what he does best Sunday at Chicagoland, shadowing the top Toyotas. He isn’t quite good enough to beat them, but they know he’s there.
This particular Sunday he was running a comfortable third when, all by himself in turn four on the 93rd lap, his car spun as he exited the corner. And Larson couldn’t save it.
Instead, he slid across the wet infield grass, his tires going flat and tearing up the car’s underbody. Cup cars now have an underwing which covers the bottom of the car from the splitter in front to the diffuser in back.
It keeps the air flowing smoothly under the car and has totally changed how teams look at aerodynamics because with the underwing, creating aero doesn’t depend on the shape of the body to produce downforce. Instead, the air rushing under the car creates a vacuum which sucks the car down.
Eventually, Larson was able to get back out on the track, but his day was effectively over and he ended up 34th. “I thought I had a good corner going,” he told reporters after the race, “but a bump just bounced me loose and it was backwards in a hurry.
“I got stuck and when I got out of the grass, I had a flat. It dragged the bottom of the car off and I had no downforce the rest of the day,” Larson said. “Obviously, I made a mistake,” he added.
But why? Why would one of the most talented drivers in NASCAR suddenly lose control of his car when he’s all by himself, there are no mechanical issues and he hasn’t been hit by another car? It has to do with Chevy drivers getting a feel for what the car is doing.
Chevy got a new body in 2026 and, as Chase Elliott pointed out earlier this season, the drivers are all having difficulty telling when the new car has reached its limits. You want to go into, through and out of a corner right on the edge, but you don’t want to go over it. Go over it, and you’re in trouble, like Larson.
Despite the spin at Chicagoland, Larson has proven to be the only driver this year capable of challenging Toyota dominance, the only one who has been able to stand up and compete with Toyota on a consistent basis.
Toyota’s ability to run roughshod over Ford and Chevy is truly remarkable. At Chicagoland Sunday, Toyota’s had seven of the top 10 finishers, the first time in NASCAR history a single manufacturer has ever done that.
And while Elliott and Shane van Gisbergen have won two races each and Daniel Suarez also has a victory along with Ryan Blaney (Ford’s only win this year), none of them have been able to perform at a level high enough to break the Toyota stranglehold.
Including his two wins and using the Old Guy Sport competition index as a guide, Elliott has only been competitive in six of the 16 races and van Gisbergen is only competitive on road courses.
The OGS competition index does not include the three super speedway races run so far because the outcome of those races depends almost entirely on luck and tells you nothing about how a team has performed. But it does show how well Larson is running compared to everybody else trying to catch Toyota.
Heading into Sunday’s race at North Wilkesboro, Larson has 270 points. To put that in perspective, Ford’s four Penske drivers (the Wood brothers car is included in this group because it is built by Penske) and the three drivers for Ford’s other factory team, RFK, have combined for 317 points.
And excluding Hendrick, Chevy’s powerhouse team, the six drivers for Trackhouse and Spire, which also get factory support, have 367 points.
Not only that, but Larson is reasonably competitive with the gold standard in Cup racing, Denny Hamlin. Of the 16 races the OGS competition index has scored thus far this year, Hamlin has won four and finished in the top three four more times.
Larson has only been in the top three four times, but he has done well in some other scoring metrics. For example, Hamlin has scored points in 10 of the 16 races. Larson has scored points in 12. And Hamlin has scored points for leading laps under green in 10 races, Larson 11.
So he’s getting there, and the top Toyotas know it. It’s an old axiom in NASCAR that before you can win, you have to first put yourself in position to win, and Larson has been putting himself in position to win.
Chase Briscoe, who won Sunday’s race at Chicagoland, understands the position he – and Toyota – are in and that the Toyotas need to strike now while they have an edge.
“It (having an advantage over your rivals) goes in ups and downs,” Briscoe commented after his Chicagoland win on NASCAR.com’s website. “A year from now, the Toyotas could be way off and the Chevys and Fords could be unbelievable.
“When you are good, you have to take advantage of it,” Briscoe continued, “especially at the types of tracks where the Toyotas are typically the best, the mile and a halves.
“When you come to a mile and a half, you cannot have a bad day. You need to take advantage of it, because it’s not very often you have a race-winning car and when you have them, you have to try to win,” he emphasized.
JGR team owner Joe Gibbs watched as three of his four cars, Briscoe, Christopher Bell and Hamlin, finished one-two-three at Chicagoland with the fourth, Ty Gibbs, eighth and Michael Jordan’s 23XI entries sandwiched around them. Bubba Wallace was sixth, Corey Heim ninth and Riley Herbst 10th.
“It’s great,” Gibbs said of his team’s and Toyota’s dominance. “I’ve said before that the hardest thing to do is stay up in pro sports. Everybody realizes what great teams we’ve got out there.
“This is the best series in the world for racing cars,” Gibbs declared. “Everybody is working extremely hard. It was a battle today (Sunday) and it was great to get the 19 (Briscoe) across the finish line first.
“We know how hard everybody else is working,” Gibbs continued. “So we know, you know, how competitive this is. One week doesn’t buy you the next week. As a matter of fact, we have been telling everybody at our place ‘hey, let’s work even harder’ because we know everybody else is working so hard.
“It’s really hard to just stay up there and keep performing like this,” Gibbs said. “I think we’ve got great people. I think all four cars, right now, I feel real good when we go to the racetrack. I think we’re capable of winning with all four cars.”
But Gibbs knows you can’t coast no matter how good you are. In NASCAR, they say if you’re not getting better you’re falling behind. And Kyle Larson is coming.
NASCAR NOTES: No race this week. Old Guy Sport does not count super speedway races (Atlanta, Daytona and Talladega) in its standings because the outcome is determined primarily by luck and has little to do with how a team or driver performs.
