TWO BITS: Georgia Southern, Tip-Off, Chandler

1 » A previously published piece of film from the Florida Gators’ 2011 game against Tennessee has CBS’s broadcasters noting that head coach Will Muschamp, while an assistant at LSU, told Nick Saban that their team should not schedule the Georgia Southern Eagles due to the team’s difficult-to-defend triple option offense.

“Remember when Will told us about Nick Saban? … Will said that there was an opportunity to play Georgia Southern [while] at LSU. And WIll Muschamp said, ‘We don’t want to do it.’ And he spoke to Nick and Nick didn’t know what Georgia Southern did and said, ‘Yeah, no problem, that sounds good.’ And then Will said, ‘Nick, come here, I want to show you this triple option.’ Nick watched three plays, marched down to the AD’s office and said, ‘We’re not playing Georgia Southern.'”

The game against the Eagles was actually scheduled for the Gators while Urban Meyer was head coach of the program in May 2010. Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley was classmates with Georgia Southern AD Sam Baker at Ohio University (both earned master’s degrees in sports administration in 1976) and thought the game would be a good idea. Baker resigned in July 2012 after leading the program for 17 years.

2 » According to ESPN.com’s Andy Katz, the Gators have agreed to participate as the headliner in the 2015 Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic. The annual event, which includes eight preliminary-round games at on-campus arenas, concludes with a four-team semifinal and final at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT. Florida will participate in the Naismith Division of the event alongside Purdue, Saint Joseph’s and Vermont. UF will play two of the teams in the Springfield Division (Buffalo, Niagra, North Carolina A&T, Old Dominion) in preliminary-round action in Gainesville, FL, before travelling to Uncasville to compete against the teams within its own division for the event title. Duke has also been tabbed to headline the 2016 event, according to Katz.

Extra BIT » Former Gators wide receiver Wes Chandler served as the honorary Mr. Two Bits before Florida’s game last Saturday against Georgia Southern. OnlyGators.com forgot to include the video in the post-game report, but you can check it out below.