Interesting coaching situations at the end of the NCAA football 2009 season

The 2009 NCAA college football is ending with another onslaught of head coaches and schools parting ways. Nearly all of the men so far really didn't have much say in the matter. Before you read any further, please know that this is a mini Bobby Bowden tribute. Yes, I am a Gator fan, but this man deserves it.

So far we have separation between:

• Charlie Weis and Notre Dame,
• Steve Kragthorpe and Louisville,
• Mark Mangino and Kansas,
• Bobby Bowden and FSU,
• a handful of Georgia Assistants being shipped out,
• as well as a list of others from different schools.

I, like many recognize that this is merely a component of the college football business. But this year is starting to stand out. Someone to to step up and speak to the obvious. There can only be so many undefeated and #1 schools every year. I know that you can only be the best by striving to be the best, but recently it seems like expectations are in some cases ridiculous. In my opinion, the schools should let the scenarios play out a bit longer. Let's talk about the 3 biggest names to date: Charlie Weis, Mark Mangino, and Bobby Bowden.

Charlie Weis. Yes, I know every big school wants to be #1. Or, at least in the mix annually. But the way Notre Dame heaps on the pressure is just ridiculous. Not to say a 6 and 6 season should be acceptable, but maybe you are just in a rut right now. Your NBC contract irks me every time I think about it. Join a conference already. Wake up Notre Dame, you are not college football. You are just one of the 100+ teams. Maybe if you joined the Big East and stopped stacking up your schedule you could get back on track.

Mark Mangino. I know little about this situation and can't even tell you Kansas' win loss record. But why is everyone thinking the same thing except those with the decision making power at Kansas...hello, you are a basketball school. Mark was doing a good job.

Maybe I'm getting softer in my older age or maybe I just don't have all of the information the insiders have. Or maybe I have been focusing on the Gators and watching the long overdue Charlie Strong about to get his own squad. But as of tonight I think that at Mark Mangino should have stayed. And as for Notre Dame, it's not just the coach - there is a lot more to it. I know you have a tremendous following domestically. So what. Do you really think bringing in another coach is going to get you in the BCS game within 3 years? You are an educational institution after all. Study the odds, study something, it isn't going to happen. It is going to take some time and more importantly someone to realize that.

This brings us to Bobby Bowden. Yes, if you know me personally you know that I always start my FSU smack talk with something to the matter of FSU being a girls school, since it started as a an all women's college. I put the I hate you act on with the rest of them on game day. However, I still have a lot of respect for the Seminoles even though I am a true Gator fan. Especially for Mr. Bobby Bowden. One could claim he invented football in Florida. He has more wins than any other college football coach except JoePa and numerous consecutive seasons with top 10 teams. I just feel strongly that the man should have had a better exit AND on his terms. If he wanted one more year for the next five years than so be it. There wouldn't be the brand of FSU football without Bobby Bowden.

Thank you Bobby Bowden for what you gave the game and the State of Florida. And I hope you go out for another coaching job and whoop up FSU.

Credit to Whig.com, where this picture was pulled from.

When is enough?

I attended the Florida Gator football game this past weekend in Lexington, Kentucky against the Kentucky Wildcats and I saw the hit that took Tim Tebow out of the game live and then later saw the ambulance drive by with him inside on the way to the hospital. It was a scary sequence of events but not something most of us football fans haven’t seen before. The difference last night was that it was Tim Tebow, our Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, who may now be out for a while. He will most likely be back at the helm for our next game against LSU, but either way, out for a bit – and I am by no means a medical doctor.

We all know that concussions are part of the game of football. One of the ugly parts, but the players understand and choose to take this risk. It’s easy for me to sit here and talk about this type of thing having never actually played a down of organized contact football, but I respect the situation none the less. I bring all of this up because it is going to be interesting to see and hear the commentary the next 2 weeks from the media and other schools regarding whether or not Tebow should have even still been in the game figuring the Gators were up 31-7 in the third quarter and in control of the game.

I think there is a lot more to the situation then people give it credit for. There is of course the primary conversation of whether or not the game was over and then there is the discussion of running up the score. But, I think there is more to it. As far as the game being over, sure Florida was dominating the game, but try and tell either football team that with 20+ minutes left on the clock that the game was over, or the 50,000+ paying fans. Yes, I do think the game was more or less over (where Kentucky couldn’t come back) at the end of the 1st quarter, but there’s more to it than that which I will get to in a minute. As for running up the score, maybe it’s because I’m a Gator fan, I do think it’s okay to score 50-60 points on another NCAA opponent…especially in this specific game against another SEC eastern team. Kentucky is a good squad and is capable of scoring 4 touchdowns of their own. So what am I really trying to say? I guess what I am getting at is that when is it acceptable for a team like Florida to go out there and test lots of their plays? We keep hearing that teams like Florida leave starters in too long, run up the score too high, and the games are more or less over when they are 20-30 points up.

Let’s take a look at the overarching goals at hand. Florida is gunning for another championship, the 3rd in 4 years. So Florida needs more than 15-30 minutes of football to work through their playbook and test out different packages with all of the players. This was only Florida’s 4th game this year. In the first game, Tebow only played into the 2nd quarter. The second game he played into the 3rd quarter. And then Tebow played the whole game against Tennessee, their 3rd opponent. I know Tebow and the other Gator athletes practice quite a bit, but they really need to play 60 minutes to ensure they are prepared for upcoming opponents. I think having an athlete like Tim Tebow in during the middle of the 3rd quarter is completely acceptable when there is a 24 point margin. Yes, it was taking a risk, and yes, this is what will happen sometimes. I’m sure if the exact situation was to present itself again, Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow would do it all over again.

I hope Tim Tebow ‘s head is okay and he is able to quickly to recover from this injury. But, I think the critics really need to look deeper into the situation before criticizing what Florida Football and many other schools are doing to prepare for a title run.

Florida @ Kentucky '09

I have been working in Louisville, Kentucky every other week for over a year now and made sure to get tickets to this past weekend's NCAA football game with the University of Florida at the University of Kentucky down in Lexington. Below are some of the pictures I took on Saturday. Not the best photography, but something to share. It rained almost all week before and some more the morning of the game. We were lucky during the actual game time to see the sun and not have any rain.

The cloudiness in some of the pics is actually some smoke from a cannon or fireworks.

Headed to Lexington

Well, the 3rd weekend of college football is over already. Me and the rest of the NCAA football fanatics wait all year for the season and then it just goes by so fast.

Florida pulled through and beat Tennessee as expected but not by the margin that was widely predicted. The upsets came this weekend with Washington over Southern Cal and Florida State beating up on BYU.

I am really looking forward to attending next weekend's Florida game at Commonwealth Stadium against the Kentucky Wildcats as it will be the 5th SEC stadium I get to visit. And I have tickets ahead of time. Having tickets before the day of a Florida game is a rarity for me as they are always so hard to get. Or should I say, how expensive.

I will try to post some pics next week.

NCAA Football Week 1 2009

There are only 2 more games left to finish off week 1 of college football. Tonight's Labor Day showdown with Miami at Florida State and Cincinnati/Rutgers. With that said it was nice to see the SEC go 11-1 Thursday through Sunday. Our only loss was Oklahoma State beating Georgia.

Football season is back!

NFL Network is a gift.

I just recently realized that we now have the NFL Network. Although I really think it is some big tease just for pre-season football, it has been nice. All of last year we did not get NFL Network on tv in my area (south Florida) without paying extra. So I never check the channel. Of course, the first several months when it went from free to pay by channel a couple of years back I used to check hoping it would be back all the time, but not recently. So a few weeks back when my brother from New York was visiting I walked into the living room and saw football on and the NFL logo. I was like, "What. What is this?" And of course he said, "It's NFL Network." Duh.

So there you have it. Comcast is giving us NFL Network again in one of the basic or extended cable packages. I just wish someone told me sooner. Let's just see if it lasts past the first week of the season. Thanks either way Comcast. Football everyday on tv is the best.

SEC football stadium sizes

The last post I wrote got me thinking about stadium sizes, particularly the SEC stadiums. After reviewing the sizes of the largest college football stadiums I learned that 6 of the largest 15 stadiums are in the SEC as well as 8 out of the largest 25.

Here are the SEC stadiums that are 8 of the top 25:
#4 - Neyland Stadium (102,037) - University of Tennessee
#7 - Sanford Stadium (92,746) - University of Georgia
#9 - Tigers Stadium (92,400) - Louisiana State University
#10 - Bryant-Denny Stadium (92,138) - University of Alabama
#11 - Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field (88,548) - University of Florida
#13 - Jordan-Hare Stadium 87,451) - Auburn University
#20 - Williams-Brice Stadium (80,250) - University of South Carolina
#21 - Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (76,000) - University of Arkansas

And if you were wondering, here is the list of the top ten:

1. Pennsylvania State University (107,282)
2. University of Michigan (106,201)
3. Ohio State University (102,329)
4. University of Tennessee
5. University of Texas
   
6. University of Southern California
   
7. University of Georgia
8. University of California at Los Angeles
   
9. Louisiana State University
10. University of Alabama

Source: List of American football stadiums by capacity by wikipedia.org

SEC Homes

It's a perfect day for a football blog post since there are only 50 days until the first NCAA football game of the 2009 season.

This year should be another great year for me. I have a lot to plan for with an upcoming wedding in May, but I am planning on keeping my weekends full with college football.

I have my annual away game weekend planned with my friends in Starkville, Mississippi. And I am going to add in a weekend in Lexington since I will be working so close in Louisville. Of course it is going to be hard to pass up watching Lane Kiffin and Vols come down to Gainesville.

But the real point of this post is stadiums. I was at a family reunion this past weekend and talked at length to a first cousin once removed about NCAA football as he is a big Alabama fan. Since I learned once again that another SEC team has more than one stadium, I figured I would take the time to review all of the SEC stadiums...mainly because I wasn't fully aware. After doing this research I have realized that the stadium in conversation - Legion Field in Birmingham, AL is only sometimes used for the Iron Bowl.

SEC East
Florida - Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field in Gainesville, FL
Georgia - Sanford Stadium in Athens, GA
Kentucky - Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington, KY
South Carolina - Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, SC
Tennessee - Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, TN
Vanderbilt - Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville, TN

SEC West
Alabama - Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL
Arkansas - Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayeteville, AK and War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, AK
Auburn - Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, AL
LSU - Tigers Stadium in Baton Rouge, LA
Mississippi - Vaught-Hemingway Stadium/ Hollingsworth Field in Oxford, MS
Mississippi State - Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field in Starkville, MS

College Football starts in...

Only 121 days left until Gator Football starts for 2009. There are 10 games the preceding Thursday and Friday.

You can find schedules here:
Gator Football
All NCAA Football

Start counting ladies and Gentlemen, start counting. It's just too bad congress can't change the BCS before we kick off.

The Big12 South stinks..

The Big12 is not all they tried to say they were this year...

During this past year's NCAA football season the media and the Big12 tried to boast about being the exclusive powerhouse in college football. And better yet...better than the SEC.

Just take a look at the bowl scores and do the math yourself. Yes, the Big12 North did close the deal on their 3 games, but the Big12 South, really dropped the ball figuring they were the one's doing all of the talking.

North
W - Missouri skimmed by Northwestern.
W - Kansas beat Minnesota.
W - Nebraska beat Clemson by 5.

The South
L - Texas Tech dropping to Mississippi...the only team to beat the triumphant Gators this year.
W - Texas winning by a spot of a ball in the 4th against THE Ohio State.
L - Oklahoma State losing to Oregon.
L - And Oklahoma losing to Florida.

So they went 4-3 overall and the ones doing all of the talking only won 1 of 4.

In summary...The SEC is still the leader of the pack.

Fixing the College Football Bowl Situation

Playoff, +1, keep it as is... Something has to give.

Everyone that loves college football knows that the current situation needs to change. Yes, if you take a look at history, we are far better off with the BCS than we were a few years back without it. The crime is that it boils down to money, and not football or the students playing the game.

Personally, I blame the gridlock on the Rose Bowl and the PAC10 and BigTen. They won't release their grip off of the rights to the annual Pasadena trip.

I'll cut to the chase...

My solution isn't original, but also is the fastest to implement and the best middle ground offering compromise.

1. Keep the current BCS ranking system. No, I don't think it is all that fair either, but it is a system that floats the best to the top.
2. (Optional) Institute mandatory conference championships. This would equal out the amount of games and create harder schedules for those without. The 2 strongest conferences do this already.
3. Keep the same BCS bowl rotation. 5 trump games in New Orleans, Miami, Pasadena, and Phoenix. And maybe switch up the sites every few years. By now, you are thinking...Huh. This guy is stupid.
4. Here is where my +1 solution comes in. Make the 2 previous bowl games that hosted the championship the playoff sites with 1 vs. 4, and 2 vs. 3. The 1 vs. 4 would have been held in the Sugar Bowl, and the 2 vs. 3 would have been held in the Fiesta Bowl this year.
   
5. Allowing the Orange Bowl to host the 4th most important matchup, with 7 vs. 8.
6. And the Rose Bowl to have the 3rd most important with 5 vs. 6.
   
7. The winners of the 2 'playoff' bowl games in Phoenix and New Orleans go to the final in Miami. Still allowing for the week after game. The dates would have to be shuffled around a bit every year. But I'm certain the Rose Bowl Parade fanatics would be the only ones to complain.
8. The system will have to eliminate who gets automatic bids in to each bowl by way of conference leader.

And there you have it. A +1 with no season extension and a semi-playoff offering 4 spots. The catch is that we would need to decide on this new layout in advance and maybe even a couple of years so everyone knew what was coming...No big deal.

The Positives are:

• This formula keeps the current quantity of bowls.
• Does not extend the bowl season.
• Allows for 4 teams to make their way into the final after the final BCS rankings.
• Somewhat of a compromise of the current system, a +1, and a playoff.
  

The Negatives are:

• The total amount of bowl teams are reduced by two because the 2 final teams play another game.
• Particular conferences do not get locked into select BCS bowls...boo hoo.
• Additional money for 2 of the 4 final teams. This could possibly be reworked or donated to other deserving causes or programs.
• Fans may not dish out the cash to go to 2 bowl games if their teams are that good. Ohhh my gosh.... ticket prices might have to go down. How crazy would that be?
  

College Football Playoff...Never

This podcast with Herbstreit and Mike & Mike really sums it up. I like to blame the Rose Bowl scenario... i.e. PAC10 and SmallTen. Really good listening.

And the comments about the bathrooms are right on. What's up with that...Wash your hands.

Definitely dated if you are checking out this post in the future: week ending 14 November 2008

Click HERE to listen.

Who gets to go to Miami?

The BCS may very well be in for another dose of "Who do we leave out this year?" With the Big 12 stealing the spotlight from the superpowers of the SEC, we are being led to believe that the champion crowned in Kansas City, Missouri on December 6th will certainly have proved their worth in the NCAA Football title race to compete for the overall championship in Miami.

And what about the SEC? Surely when the cloud of dust settles in Atlanta on the same day (06 Dec) and the one left standing has however many loses, they deserve to scrap it out in Dolphins Stadium. Don't they?

Well the BCS Standings come out for the first time next week and we'll get a peek of what's to come. It looks like we're due for USC, BYU, Boise State, or Ball State to spoil the easy pick 'ems. And don't forget about Penn State. If they run the table, JoePa's crewAtlanta, Auburn University, Ball State, BCS, Big 12, Boise State, BYU, College Game Day, Kansas City, Lee Corso, NCAA football, definitely deserves a shot at an early Spring Break.

I can just see it now. College Game Day at the Iron Bowl at the end of the season, when Alabama tries to finish the regular season undefeated. Corso incorrectly picking the War Eagle...I mean Tiger...what is the Auburn mascot anyway? And all of the Playoff signs in the background being hoisted by my beloved SEC brothers and sisters.

a BCS playoff...not at least for 5 years

For those of you who haven't seen the news flash or can't read between the lines...there will be no BCS playoff. Best case scenario is 2014. I know this is old news, but this season is shaping up to be another blockbuster and who knows how it will end this time.

Click HERE for an article posted on the Fox BCS site that paints the situation as "healthy".

Maybe I have a biased viewpoint being a big SEC fan, but the PAC10 and Big Ten aren't helping matters not letting go of the Rose Bowl. I understand their perspective a little bit since a trip to Pasadena has been theirs since the start, but if we all ever want a better system we need to shift gears to a playoff of sorts, plus 1, etc...

As for the other conferences, why would they want to let 2 SEC teams lock down on 2 highlight spots every year.

SEC football matchups are thick this weekend.

No matter where you are looking for previews and story lines pertaining to the upcoming weekend's college football match-ups, you are probably reading or hearing about what the SEC has to offer.

The key games being Florida @ Tennessee, LSU @ Auburn and Georgia playing out of conference at Arizona State. One that is off most radars is Alabama @ Arkansas. A lot of action among these 4 games to choose from. And as usual the TV gods have spaced them out for the most part for our viewing pleasure.

On a final note...
Even though I am a die hard Gator fan, I really am subconsciously focused on the Bulldogs Saturday night. They really need to represent the SEC strong this weekend. Especially after the Tennessee @ UCLA upset during week 1.

My personal pics:
Florida and Auburn winning by only a few, but, Georgia and Alabama winning by decent margins.

Miami or USF, which is the better football ticket?

Will someone please tell me how the USF Bulls football program continues to pack Raymond James Stadium in Tampa...while the Miami Hurricanes, or should I say the "U" can't fill up Dolphins Stadium or better yet stopped filling up the Orange Bowl?

Aren't the Hurricanes supposed to be some kind of all-time regime? I know the sports market in Miami sucks, but is it really that much better in Tampa?

Why don't people want to go to Hurricanes football games?

And by the way, this was a series of rhetorical questions...but I would enjoy some accurate comments regarding the recent attendance of each school.

2008 Iron Bowl

The Iron Bowl could be a tough ticket by the end of November. Most likely overlooked by the other 49 states at this stage in the game, but who knows. Even if both Auburn and Alabama have one loss each, this year's clash could decide the SEC West. It's obviously early in the game, but LSU is awfully vulnerable if the weather keeps obstructing their schedule. Alabama has been looking great and the pollsters sure have a high opinion on the other Alabama team.

But you never know with the SEC, there are still South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Mississippi and other teams who don't think either of these squads will be that successful this year. Especially Georgia.

But that's why I said 1 loss and not undefeated.

Gators finally beat the "U"

It was nice to see the Gators finally conclude who currently controls the state of Florida in college football this past Saturday night. Being a sports fan, I am objective enough to admit that the University of Miami has had our number for some time. 23 years to be exact. I didn't get to see every play of the game but I did see some that mattered.

All of that said, the Hurricanes will surely be a force to be reckoned with in the next two seasons, if not sooner. I was very disappointed to see Randy Shannon's immediate reaction to the loss on the field. The mid-field hand shake between Urban Meyer and Coach Shannon was not even a shake, I'd call it a hand slap. I don't know if there has been previous bad experiences or if Shannon was just pissed that Florida kept putting up points in the 4th quarter. On some levels I could see that the final points may have been inappropriate, but as far as I'm concerned, long overdue.

I've been tired of the Canes and their fans for many years. I personally was happy with the 4th quarter score run up and was even more happy that we beat the bloated Vegas spread of 21+. Not to mention how nice it was to see Murphy backing up his mouth with his touchdown.

Even though this will help solidify our reign within the state, I hope we don't start picking up loud mouth athletes that the "U" is so famous for.

Kickoff

It's finally here. The NCAA football season starts tomorrow night. 220+ days since the '07-'08 BCS National Championship. It seemed like a long time, but not anymore.

College Game Day...what else do I need to say.

Bulldogs Celebration Penalty 2007...The Gators will get the last laugh.

Mark Richt and the Bulldogs may have beaten Florida in last year's battle in Jacksonville, but they are going to lose the war. Check out this awesome excerpt from the Jim Rome show.

The Georgia Bulldogs may be the pre-season NCAA football favorites in a lot of polls, but there is only one way to go when you're ranked #1. And that's down. Mark my words... Georgia won't even win the SEC East this year.