Tuesday Afternoon Linebacker

All is well in the football world, except for my fantasy team. The Bucs won, the Gators got their coach, and there is an interesting college bowl season approaching. The world of football starts getting interesting from here on out. The NFL playoff drive is in effect and we’ll see how things end up in the world of major college football’s Mythical National Championship. Oh, sorry this is late. Had a busy day at work for once yesterday.

Roasted Falcon
The immortal Jay Taylor stepped onto the field in the second quarter and nailed a fifty yard field goal. Destroying Marteeen Gramatica in the process. When you can put a guy out on the field and have confidence that he can hit the 40-50 yard figgies, then you can win some games. You can play field position late and establish the running game early. That right there is something the Bucs have lacked since early last season. One game does not a career make. But Taylor was confident and ready to kick. Since last year, Marteen has looked scared when he was lining up to kick.

What can you say about Mr. Derrick Brooks? If you’re Mike Vick, all you can say is “ow”. 55 was pissed off about not getting that pick late in the game. He wanted to score off of Vickie. I’ve never seen 55 that angry before. Fired up, sure. But never that angry. It’s because he knows that a guy like Derrick Brooks should have caught that pass and should have run it back for six.

An all around domination of the Durrty Buurds. I’ll take it. And the sight of Vickie on the sideline with that knot in his melon and Art Blank consoling him was priceless.

Bowling For Dollars
With the Gators’ regular season finished the only game of importance to those of us following UF football was this past weekend’s default ACC Championship game at the Orange Bowl. And the mighty Canes lost to the Hokies of Virginia Tech. I almost said “go Hokies!” to a couple wearing VT shirts at the Depot on Saturday morning. This now sets up the game I’ve been waiting for; UF versus UM. We both beat FSU, so this is for state bragging rights. Just prior to the UF-UGA game I was fully expecting to not give a damn about Bowl season this year. Now I’ll be grabbing two games (Peach and Fiesta).

In other Bowl news, everyone got the shaft it would seem. Cal got left out of the BCS. Pitt got in on the “strength” of being the Big East champion. For all the grousing about how Auburn got “left out” at least the teams ranked 1 and 2 in the sacred human polls are playing each other. But you know what Auburn, that’s what you get for putting The Citadel on your schedule. Would Auburn/Utah make for a more compelling game? Sure. But that’s not how it works in the BCS after the “Championship” bowl chooses. You’ve got 5 undefeated teams this year, only two can play for the Mythical National Championship. Get used to it.

Cloud 9
So I lost. To a team that I should not have lost to. Thanks Jake Plummer and your -3 outing. Who knew Matt Hasselback would rack up 28 points? Now I sit in 9th place needing to win against a very good team and/or have some other teams lose. On paper at least, the other teams that need to lose are facing tough opponents. This is the final week of the regular season and I need to come up with the top roster to get in. Like Prof Savage, I think that if I can get in I have a good shot.

8-3? You’re Fired!
With a ton of coaches in the college ranks fired every year with winning records you generally find some NFL-centric analyst chime in with “how can you fire a guy with an 8-3 record?” I’ll tell you how. The same way you can fire a guy like Tony Dungy, Dennis Green, Buddy Ryan, and many more in the NFL. They have damn good regular season records, but they struggle in the playoffs. And in Division I-A college football, the regular season is the playoffs. A pro coach who gets into the playoffs every year, but gets bounced out in the first round every year is in the same boat as a coach from a big college school that is out of the running by the first of October.

Newsflash, college ain’t the pros. Things are different. Expectations at Notre Dame, Florida, Oklahoma, and elsewhere are different. These teams are expected to compete for championships every season. When they don’t, things have to change. And it is definitely not about race. It’s the expectations stupid. As I’ve said many times in the past, just because something bad happens to a minority does not mean that it’s automatically racism/sexism/*-ism.

Ironically, the best way to avoid this type of situation is to institute a playoff. Since teams will merely be looking to qualify for the playoff, they won’t have to be so intent on going undefeated. If you can win your conference with two losses, then you can get in and still win the mythical national championship. But we will see neither a playoff nor an end to the coaching madness anytime soon.

Urban Warfare
So I was wrong. As has been said ad infinitum this weekend, the Notre Dame job just ain’t what it used to be. So the tastefully named Urban Meyer will be heading to Gainesville to coach the Official College Football Team of TALB for the foreseeable future. I like the choice. By all accounts he’s a great recruiter and a true leader of the team. There are two ways to be “player friendly” in coaching. One is to be like a father and keep the guys in line but allow them have a good time. The other is to be their buddy. Urban is the former and Zook is the latter. Both coaches are/were loved by their players, but you can see what each approach brings in terms of performance. Welcome to town cousin Urban. Can’t wait for this ride to start.

Running Items
Breath Of A Salesman
The Leon spots are teh best!!11!
“Jospeh, if that’s your good side maybe you should stick to radio.”

Grated Cheese
The hated Packers got crushed by the hated Eagles. They got a couple of TD’s late in garbage time, but it was over early. Since the Packers are #1 on my hate list I’m glad to see them taken out back behind the woodshed like that.

Oh Ricky
In a (not so stunning) reversal, Ricky Williams will NOT be returning to the NFL next season. For now. Who knows what will happen in the coming weeks and months. Maybe he should hang out with Maurice Clarett in the off-season.

Super Bowl XXXIX
Steelers vs. Packers