In Gainesville This Weekend

I will be in Gainesville this weekend, visiting family and friends and of course, attending the Orange and Blue game. I’ll try to get some good pictures to share.

I’ll be interested to see the progress of Urban Meyer’s prized Gateway of Champions, as detailed by Pat Dooley at the Gainesville Sun. Apparently it’s all covered over and will remain as such until its done, but that’s somewhat of an improvement over the random steel girders blighting the southwest corner of the stadium last fall. It apparently will contain a large alligator near the entrance with the names of every player from the 1996 and 2006 national title teams on it. That brings up two questions:

1. Will Marcus Thomas‘ name be on it? (guess: no)
2. Will they put the names on it like a tag cloud where the most important players’ names are the largest?

My guess on #2 is also no, though it’d be awesome if they did. It would start one of the all-time great discussions/arguments/flame wars in Gator football history. The biggest name for 1996 obviously would be Danny Wuerffel, but for 2006 I’d put Reggie Nelson’s name as the biggest, followed closely by Jarvis Moss.

Never underestimate the importance of Jarvis Moss to the 2006 team.

If you can’t make it to Gainesville, you can watch it on ESPN at 1pm. GameDay will be there, and the first hour will be on from 11-noon on ESPN2 and the second hour is from 12 -1 pm on ESPN.

I’m looking forward to the Race for a Scholarship; it’s not that I think some random kid will beat Louis Murphy, Chris Rainey, or Deonte Thompson in a footrace, but to see just how badly three highly motivated speedsters smoke 15 regular college students. It’s too bad Percy is hurt, but the tradeoff is we get to see Rainey or Thompson go (who we otherwise wouldn’t) after not getting to see much of anything from them last year.

Trophy Day

Three trophies for Tim Tebow the Cheat!

Tonight is the Heisman Trophy ceremony, and by all accounts Tim Tebow will win it. He’s already won the Davey O’Brien and the Maxwell Award, and for him to take home the Heisman would be a great ending to an amazing season. No one deserves it more than Tim does, and I fully expect him to make history tonight.

Unfortunately, I am not in a place with cable at the moment, so I will not be able to watch the ceremony tonight. I have it recording on my DVR back home, so I will get to see it when I get back to Florida. That’s fine though, since most of the show is fluff-ridden biopics of each candidate. I can live without yet another ESPN piece on Colt Brennan, considering there’s been one nearly every week on College GameDay.

Congrats, Tim. You’ve earned it.

ESPN Bowl Special on Florida

Here’s a video of ESPN’s Bowl Special full of glowing praise of Florida and Tim Tebow. An interview with Tebow was included as well. Can we put to rest the myth that ESPN hates Florida now?

FSU

No team gets me angrier, faster than FSU. Georgia may be Florida’s oldest and most traditional rival, but being born in 1985, I grew up in the 1990s. During that time Georgia was Florida’s whipping boy, and the FSU game had national title implications almost every year. That fact is reflected in the fact that College GameDay has visited the Florida - Florida State game more often than any other.

The rivalry looked like it was going to tail off this decade with the coinciding Jeff Bowden and Ron Zook eras, until the 2003 Swindle in the Swamp reignited it. Again, no game makes me angrier, faster than that one. Let’s just move on.

Then you had FSU QB Wyatt Sexton in 2004, visiting the homecoming game against South Carolina while wearing a Florida sweatshirt.

The following year, Florida won what Gators fans call the Ron Zook Field game, launching a 3 game (and counting) win streak. Let’s count how many ways FSU’s hubris showed in honoring ol’ Bobby at the game against its biggest, most fierce rival:

1. Named the field after him
2. Unveiled a statue of him
3. Unveiled the 5th largest stained glass window in North America with his image
4. Announced bronze busts of him would be for sale

Now, not only are items 3 and 4 disturbing on several levels, it also served up more than enough motivation for the Gators that day. It’d be one thing to do all of this for your homecoming game against Duke or something, but you don’t do that against your biggest rival. That is, of course, unless you’re concerned that you’re not going to fill up the whole stadium for any other game, which is entirely possible.

FSU is not known for being smart.

Now, this year has some excitement provided by one Geno Hayes, an FSU linebacker known for physical play. He has said Tim Tebow is “going down,” that “the bigger they are, the harder they fall,” and that he plans on ruining Tebow’s Heisman campaign.

That’s fine; after all, the Semis ruined Matt Ryan’s Heisman campaign a couple weeks ago. However, Ryan is no Tim Tebow. Neither, for that matter, is Mr. Hayes - Geno is listed at 6′2″, 218, while Tebow is listed at 6′3″, 235. Credit to Hayes for picking a fight with someone bigger than him, but he should be warned that Tebow steamrolled LSU’s prized safety LaRon Landry last year, he of the 6th overall pick in the draft. Tebow said he’s going to remember the words on the field, and if you recal, Tebow grew up a Gator fan in the same era as I did so he’s going to have similar feelings about FSU as I do. He’s going to have plenty to play for even if he really is not thinking about the Heisman at all.

What’s got two thumbs and players who can’t keep their traps shut? This guy!

FSU comes into the game a minor mess of a team. The much ballyhooed change of coaching staff has yielded almost exactly the same stats as last year’s team. The Weatherford-Lee quarterback carousel has been spinning again, though Lee is now permanently out the rest of the season with severe brain cramps. Only a Weatherford injury will cause him to see time again.

In recent weeks, FSU had an epic 4th quarter collapse against Virginia Tech, and it nearly blew a big lead against Maryland. The best success they’ve had on offense ironically has come from taking a page out of Florida’s playbook - having WR Preston Parker take over at running back. The Semis needed some stability back there after having no less than nine players register a carry against VT.

As for the passing game, the Jeff Bowden jump ball will likely be employed early and often against Florida’s weak and banged up secondary, especially since 6′3″ DeCody Fagg and 6′6″ Greg Carr are going to be the targets under those jump balls. Hopefully, the SEC refs will grab the correct glasses for the game, because Carr commits offensive pass interference on nearly every jump ball thrown to him, but I guess it’s never called because he’s just so big and tall.

I can say without snark that the offensive game plan for Florida will likely play out how it did against FAU. FSU is 15th overall against the run, but 74th against the pass. It’s likely going to be Tebow distributing the ball at will with his arm, and some running every now and then on the side to keep the defense honest. I really don’t see a situation that leads to FSU winning this game if Florida plays up to its potential and continues its hot streak from the past couple games.

Another FSU season spirals down the drain.

FSU has finished conference play tied for 6th (!) in the ACC with Georgia Tech. I don’t know how the ACC tiebreakers work, but the bowl that takes the ACC #6 is the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte on the 29th, and the bowl that takes the ACC #7 is the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. Right now, GT and FSU have identical records, but if GT beats UGA this weekend (oh Lord, please make it so) and UF beats FSU, then the Semis will probably end up reprising their role as the ACC rep in the Emerald Bowl. Florida, for its part is still hoping to sneak into the Sugar Bowl.

But, back to the game on hand. FSU will move the ball and score some points. Our defense hasn’t shown it can hold anyone but Western Kentucky to under 20. However, I expect Florida to win, and possibly win big. Why?

For one, Urban Meyer has come out with the right game plan each of the last two years. Last year, Florida was just happy to get out Tallahassee with a win, which is fine since UF has had so much trouble winning there over the years. The year before that, though, it was a 34-7 drubbing that could have been worse. Meyer has the team playing some of its best football of the season right now, and Tim Tebow is playing at an unbelievably high level. Saturday, we make it 4 in a row.

This Just Happened

College GameDay, at the Amherst vs. Williams game:

“You see this? This is a Lord Jeff!” (unintelligible yelling at the crowd behind, tosses Lord Jeff off camera in front of Kirk)

“Purple Cows! Go Purple Cows!“

Mighty strange things happen when GameDay visits a D-III game.

Lee Corso + Dilapidated Purple Cow Head = Funny. You’d think they could have spruced it up a bit for GameDay, though in fairness, Lord Jeff’s wig was a little ragged too.

Gators Pregame: LSU

Pregame Jaws
Florida is 22-5 since 1980 in the 7th game of the season. In 1988, Florida lost to Vanderbilt 24-9, the last time that’s happened. In 2002, Florida lost to LSU 36-7; in 2004 it lost to Mississippi State 38-31 in the game that cost Zook his job; in 2005 it lost to LSU 21-17; and in 2006 it lost for the only time to Auburn 27-17.

Urban Meyer Fanfare
Urban Meyer is 4-2 in the 7th game of the season as a head coach. At Bowling Green, he beat Akron 16-11 in 2001 and Ball State 38-20 in 2002. At Utah, he defeated UNLV 28-10 in 2003 and 63-28 in 2004. At Florida, he has yet to win the 7th game of the season, falling to LSU 21-17 in 2005 and to Auburn 27-17 in 2006. In both of those cases, it was the last game before a bye week; this year it’s the first game after the bye week. Urban Meyer is 22-2 as a head coach when he has more than one week to prepare for a game.

Orange and Blue
This game would be one of the few times where it is not just acceptable but recommended for Florida fans to wear orange to the game since they are in Big Blue country. I doubt it’d ever happen, but it would be pretty cool if a bunch of Gators invaded Lexington wearing orange to create a nice orange and blue effect in Commonwealth Stadium.

Men of Florida
We haven’t had to see the Men of Florida deal with back-to-back losses in a while, and the bulk of this team has not dealt with it yet in college. Urban Meyer promised the team would come out smokin’, but will that happen? The Wildcats’ 99th ranked pass defense should be accommodating, but the 27th ranked pass defense will have something to say about that.

Chimes/Alma Mater
Florida will be playing with a heavy hear following the deaths of Michael Guilford and Joe Haden’s girlfriend in the unfortunate motorcycle crash. I’m sure it will be good for the team to get out of Florida for a bit and get back to playing to help get their minds off of it. It will be an emotional game for the team, and it will be emotional for them the next time they play at the Swamp where there will undoubtedly be a tribute.

Boys March
For the first time in a while all of Florida’s receivers are healthy. That would generally indicate the chance to throw the ball down the field, but Kentucky will probably play zone to prevent those from working. That means a steady diet of Moore and Tebow rushing with Harvin and Ingram over the middle should work well. Then, if the Cats adjust to that, the longball should be wide open.

Gators Spell Out
G: GameDay
Today is the first time College GameDay has ever visited Lexington, and the fans are out in full force. Kentucky is not your standard nouveau riche football program like USF where the fans are just trying to imitate the big boys. Kentucky has the craziest basketball fans in the world, and they can just move over to the football stadium and be some of the craziest football fans in the world. Especially since UK could sell out the football stadium if they put some hardwood down and played the Wildcats’ SEC schedule there.

A: Andre Woodson
One of two Heisman trophy candidates in the game, Woodson must have a great game from the QB spot to win. He must be able to avoid pressure, should it get to him, and avoid costly interceptions and bad plays like what hurt his team in the last loss. If Woodson makes big plays and leads his team to victory, not only will his team move up in the polls, but he’ll become a permanent fixture in the Heisman race for the remainder of the season.

T: Tim Tebow
One of two Heisman trophy candidates in the game, Tebow must have a great game from the QB spot to win. He must be able to avoid pressure, should it get to him, and avoid costly interceptions and bad plays like what hurt his team in the last loss. If Tebow makes big plays and leads his team to victory, not only will his team move up in the polls, but he’ll become a permanent fixture in the Heisman race for the remainder of the season.

O: Offense
As in, you’ll see plenty of it. It’s the SEC’s best drop back passer against one of its most suspect defenses. It’s the SEC’s best running quarterback against a defense that has no idea how to stop a running quarterback. It should be a shootout for sure. First to 40 wins.

R: Rich Brooks
He looked like a dead coach walking to a lot of people just 14 games ago, but those people forgot about the sanctions Kentucky was dealing with at the time. After going 11-2 in the last 13 games, he looks like the new King of Lexington, at least until Billy Gillespie gets to playing games. Believe it or not, up at Autzen Stadium they call the playing surface Rich Brooks Field since he brought them from nothing to the Rose Bowl and built the foundation that Mike Bellotti has enjoyed during his tenure there.

S: Soreness
Kentucky has it, Florida doesn’t. While the Cats were getting beat up playing essentially 5 quarters against the brutal LSU Tigers, the Gators were chillin’ in Gainesville, sipping delicious cool drinks, and perhaps even cranking that soulja boy. LSU wore down at the end, probably as a result of getting beat up by LSU, just like Florida wore down at the end versus LSU after getting beat up by 7 consecutive quarters against Auburn and LSU. Now it’s Kentucky’s turn, and so hopefully Florida’s defensive line will be able to flush Woodson out of the pocket at least once today.

Suwannee
Derrick Locke can really run, being a track star and all, but he did everything you’d want a running back to do. He picked up tough yards, was a decent blocker, and overall didn’t look like a 4th string track guy trying to play running back. With Rafael Little still out, Kentucky will need Locke to flow through the UF defense like a river to free up Woodson and the passing game.

Tunnels
Kentucky had a great game last week, and is definitely tougher at home than on the road. However, the Wildcats are beat up, and they can’t stop a running quarterback like Tebow. Florida is hungry, looking to avoid a three game losing streak, and looking to stay alive in the SEC East race. Urban Meyer will have them ready, and Florida should win this game.

Picks

These are my ESPN College Pick ‘EM Picks, and as always, they are listed in order from 10 points to 1. I only got three correct last week, but I actually moved up in the standings from the 84th percentile to the 87th percentile. No one did well last week.

Miami over North Carolina

Ohio State over Purdue

Oklahoma over Texas

Virginia Tech over Clemson

Georgia over Tennessee

Nebraska over Missouri

Rutgers over Cincinnati

Kansas State over Kansas

Florida over LSU

Illinois over Wisconsin

Season: 29-21, .580; 189 points of 275 possible (69%), 87.8th percentile in game

You’ll note that I picked almost every undefeated team to lose. ESPN is calling this Gut-Check Saturday; I think it’s Regression to the Mean Saturday. A lot of these unbeaten teams aren’t that good, and it’s time for some of them to take on the first of their probable several losses.

Also, anyone notice how placid the LSU fans are at GameDay? In 2003 when I was there, they were like that the whole game after we took the lead. Kind of worked up sometimes, but mostly quiet. If we can get an early lead, the crowd will flat-out disappear tonight.

Bowden Bowl 9

My goodness, what a horrid game. FSU came out completely flat and looked like a helpless team in falling behind 21-0. Then, a snap over the punter’s head by Clemson led to a momentum change in FSU’s favor which led them to a deficit of just 6 at 24-18. Then, it became an epic battle between Tommy Bowden’s proclivity to give away games and Drew Weatherford’s uncanny ability to get sacked in the worst possible times.

ESPN’s Lou Holtz and Mark May didn’t have their A games either when it came to picking the winner in this stinkfest.

The most exciting part of this game was watching the students run on and off of the field as the final play was reviewed and the stadium announcer told them to get off of it. Now, maybe the Clemson students were just looking for an excuse to rush the field, but a word to Tiger fans: beating FSU doesn’t mean much anymore.

The GameDay guys both missed it too.

The FSU defense only looked fast and nasty for about 10 minutes on the game clock. Players were routinely missing tackles, leading to numerous stat boxes showing that something around 80-85% of Clemson’s rushing yards came after the first contact. The FSU offense wasn’t much to speak of either. FSU had only 1 first down in the first half. Drew Weatherford had only one good drive, and the Noles couldn’t run for most of the game. So much for Jimbo Fisher and Rick Trickett coming in and having an immediate impact. There was a priceless shot of Jimbo right before halftime talking to Weatherford from the booth looking like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and not in the good way.

Jimbo Fisher, center, had no idea what he was getting into. Then again, which is worse: working at FSU, or working for Les Miles?

Hopefully this will put to rest the idiocy that FSU is a good team. I was surprised to see such a smart guy as Phil Steele predict that FSU would compete for a national title this year. In addition, the Semis were names as the most underrated team by the BlogPoll roundtable, though that was heavily influenced by Mr. Steele. I still don’t understand why because as I pointed out on my rankings, while many coaches are new it’s still the same old players who went 7-6 last year on the field. Add on to that bit the fact that offenses usually struggle under new offensive coordinators, and any talk of FSU deserving to be ranked - much less be a title contender - are absurd.

As it is, I know why the ACC puts Florida State on Labor Day evening. It’s because it has the strongest brand in the conference and probably drives the best viewer ratings (I don’t have any stats to back that up, but it’s a pretty safe guess). It’s a risk though, since FSU has been in decline and has offered up some truly eye-scarring games the past couple Labor Day evenings. It may be time to pick someone else to feature. You know, someone who will likely finish over .500 in the conference.

On a side note, bravo to ESPN for the revamped on-screen graphics where the each team’s timeouts appear under its name and the relevant stats for the relevant players appear above the score after each play. It managed to add two very useful things without adding clutter or annoying sound effects. A lot of people around the net hate ESPN, but you have to give it credit for the new graphic.

Herbstreit on ESPN Radio Next Two Days

Love him or hate him, Kirk Herbstreit will be joining Mike Tirico on ESPN Radio Wednesday and Thursday in Dan Patrick’s old spot 1-4 pm EST. Today was Tirico and Scott van Pelt, and they were great together. Tirico is just good at everything he does, and he plays a great straight man to Scott van Pelt’s funny man.

I know a lot of Gators seem to hate Herbie over his pushing Michigan over Florida for the BCS title game last year, but I blame that more on ESPN corporate than I do him. He’s spent a lot of the offseason trying to mend the bridges that Gator fans burned with him last December, and he’s done an admirable job at that. He may have a slight Big Ten bias, but he’s still one of the best college football analysts out there.

College GameDay’s Preseason Top 5

Last fall, I built myself a PVR computer, and last night I was looking through the videos I had from the BCS championship game. During the SportsCenter after the game, the College GameDay guys gave their preseason top 5s as of January 9th. Because the preseason coaches’ poll was just released, and a lot of sites are releasing their preseason rankings too, I thought I’d put up their rankings just for fun and comparison:

Coaches’ Poll

1. USC

2. LSU

3. Florida

4. Texas

5. Michigan

Lee Corso

1. USC

2. LSU

3. Michigan

4. Texas

5. West Virginia

Kirk Herbstreit

1. USC

2. LSU

3. Florida

4. Michigan

5. Rutgers

Desmond Howard

1. Florida

2. LSU

3. USC

4. West Virginia

5. Michigan

Not too many surprises, although Desmond having Florida #1 and Kirk having Rutgers #5 are not really what you’d expect. I don’t know if Herbie gets to keep his AP Poll vote this year, but if he does I’m definitely putting it up for reference.