Fired Up

Fired Up Fridays:  Hockey is back, Gators Against Mississippi State, and Panthers Bench Bryce Young

GatorTimSports

Hockey Preseason is Here

Hockey is back as the Boston Bruins will open up their preseason at TD Garden versus the New York Rangers.  The biggest question right now is, however, who will start as the goalie?

Linus Ullmark was traded to the Ottawa Senators for Joonas Korpisalo and Jeremy Swayman hasn’t signed a deal so he isn’t on the roster, yet.

This leaves Brandon Bussi, Michael DiPietro, and newly acquired Korpisalo to compete for the starting job.  As of now, it looks like Boston will be going with a tandem of Bussi and Korpisalo, but the Bruins would prefer to have Swayman in the mix to get him ready for the regular season. Hopefully, the Boston Bruins and Swayman can come to an agreement before October when the regular season begins.

Florida Gators Keeping Two Quarterback Rotation

The Gators will be using a two-quarterback rotation during the matchup against Mississippi State on Saturday as Florida prepares to secure a win on the road.  Not sure how productive this will be as it really didn’t matter against Texas A&M, yet Coach Napier and company seem focused on making it work.

Per CBS Sports, “The impressive thing to me is just how both these guys have handled themselves, how they’re working together, the camaraderie they have.  Ultimately, my expectation is they both prepare well, they both practice well and they both play lights-out when given a chance,” Coach Billy Napier said.

At this point, I just want them to start winning games and if it means using a two-quarterback system, so be it. 

To make matters worse, Coach Napier’s future with the Gators is still up in the air.  As of now, there are no plans of replacing him, but there are plenty of rumors swirling on the internet that Lane Kiffin would be a good replacement.  A loss on Saturday, though, could speed things up exponentially.  We’ll see.

Bryce Young Benched for Andy Dalton   

Speaking of quarterback woes, the Carolina Panthers are having their fair share of those.

With an 0-2 start and Bryce struggling behind center, Carolina had no choice but to pull him and put in veteran quarterback Andy Dalton.  The news cycle is reporting of a potential trade, but for now Carolina plans on keeping the young quarterback to see if he can get better.

Benching Bryce will hopefully give him time to regroup and focus on the playbook as well as learning from Dalton. I’m sure it was a shock, considering he was the first round pick, but something had to be done as the wide receivers were getting frustrated due to the lack of thrown footballs and losing two games back-to-back isn’t helping.

Regardless of what happens, l just hope the Panthers can get things back on track and at least get their first win for the 2024 season. On Sunday the Panthers will play the Las Vegas Raiders and getting a win there would be a great start.

Friday is here!  Let’s get Fired Up!!

Around the Interwebz …