Fans chip in after player’s home burns

Nearly $20,000 has been raised in the six days following a fire that destroyed the childhood home of Florida State junior offensive lineman Ethan Frith.

But Frith, a native of Summit, Miss., hopes Seminoles fans can continue to donate and help in any way of their overall goal of raising $50,000 to rebuild his home.

“It’s great knowing that Florida State is an actual family,” Frith said Wednesday. “You don’t really realize it until something bad happens. All these people you never talked to or never met donate $1 or $100. It all helps.”

A GoFundMe page titled “Frith Housefire” had raised $20,975 as of Thursday night to help the family.

Frith was on the FSU campus when he received a phone call last Thursday from his 18-year-old brother,

Everett, with the unfortunate news.

“It happened at about 6:15 in the morning,” Frith said. “Luckily, my mom wakes up at about 5:30 every morning, so she [heard] the dogs barking and stuff. They got out and everybody is safe.”

Frith immediately left Tallahassee to drive seven hours to see his family and the remaining parts of his home.

But Frith was encouraged by people in his tight-knit, small-town community to return to school after five days with his family to focus on school.

“It’s rough, especially being this far away,” Frith said. “I’m the only male figure in the house beside my little brother. It’s tough being so far away letting them deal with that by themselves.”

Frith said his brother and mother, Allyson, are staying with an aunt in the area in the meantime.

Their initial GoFundMe goal was $25,000, but they raised it to $50,000 with hopes of rebuilding their home on the existing land they already own.

Frith hopes the money raised will help relieve his mother from worrying about the situation.

“That’s why I’m doing this,” Frith said. “Just trying to make her feel a lot more comfortable, and let her know something is being done about it.”

To read more and make a donation, visit gofundme.com/frith-housefire.

New coach

A day after he polished off a Top 10 recruiting class, UF coach Jim McElwain turned his attention toward filling two assistant coaching vacancies.

One opening remains following the hiring of West Virginia running backs coach JaJuan Seider, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

A Mountaineers assistant since 2013, Seider is a native of Belle Glade who attended West Virginia and later transferred to Florida A&M.

Seider coached from 2001-08 at three high schools in Palm Beach County. He is considered a strong recruiter in South Florida, where the Gators found 10 of its 23 members of the 2013 class.

The hiring likely facilitates current UF running backs coach Tim Skipper’s move to linebackers coach. Skipper coached the position under McElwain at Colorado State (2012-14). Defensive coordinator

Randy Shannon coached linebackers the past two seasons, but he replaced Geoff

Collins when he left to become the head coach at Temple University.

SEC revenue

SEC schools received on average more than $40 million in revenue in 2015-16, an increase of nearly 20 percent from last season, the league announced Thursday.

The 14 SEC schools divided approximately $584.2 million in total revenue for the 2015-16 fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2016. The figure includes $565.9 million distributed from the conference office as well as more than $18 million retained by the schools that participated in 2015-16 bowl games to offset travel and bowl expenses.

It is nearly a 22 percent increase from the previous year’s mark of $475.8 million distributed in 2014-15, with SEC schools receiving on average $32.7 million.

The increase in revenue that season could be attributed to the creation of the SEC Network.

“It’s great knowing that Florida State is an actual family.” Ethan Frith, FSU lineman