Sunday, November 29, 2009

Football Overtime


The Sun network had a show called College Football Overtime that I loved, so they canceled it...But, this was a weekend of Overtime games. From the Apopka - Dr Phillips FIVE overtime game Friday night, to the 2 SEC games last night. Kentucky and Tennessee went into OT, before the Vols prevailed. Arkansas and LSU also played some "bonus time", before LSU won. Georgia Tech had a great comeback fall short against UGA, when the best receiver in the ACC dropped a first down pass with ~ a minute to go...

So, now we move on to CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY. Pitt and Cincinnati fight for the big east BCS birth, Nebraska and Texas duke it out for the Big 12, Georgia Tech and Clemson (who both lost to middle of the pack SEC foes yesterday) play for the ACC title in a non full stadium in Tampa, and the big one, the SEC game has #1 Florida vs #2 Alabama Saturday afternoon in the Georgia Dome.

Olathe North (Kansas) won the 6A title yesterday. Talk about a dominant power house in their state...Niceville plays Tally Lincoln this week in the playoffs. So far all 3 of Niceville's playoff foes have been teams that they played during the regular season. After Apopka's win over DP, I think they will win the next 2 games and play Miami Central for the 6A title here in Orlando.

Bobby Bowden wants to "coach" another season, and they will probably let him. Very sad. Notre Dame will fire Weiss in a day or two. Virginia gave Al Groh the pink slip and I saw where Georgia Southern hired an assistant from Georgia Tech.

I watched the Florida / FSU game with my son Josh. It has really been hard that his 4 years at FSU have been their worst in the last 30 years...We still had a good time, went a bought a slab of Holy Smokes ribs. YUM!

Good Monday Night Football action tomorrow night, as the Saints try to stay unbeaten against the Patriots.

FANTASTIC TIME OF THE YEAR!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Last big Saturday of the regular season...



OK, it is RIVALRY day in college football, but first a little high school stuff.

My dad and I went to Dr Phillips to see the Apopka 6A playoff game. Apopka won 58-52 in FIVE overtimes! Apopka has speed and quickness all over the field. Miami Central beat Northwestern, so I think it will be Central vs Apopka when the rest of the playoffs settle down to the finals.

Niceville took care of FWB and now gets a return trip to Tally Lincoln. Freeport made it to the semi finals for the first time ever.

Up in Georgia, Newnan beat top dog Grayson ( I expected it) to advance to the semi's, along with Camden County, Colquit County (Rush Probst is their coach, who was famous at Hoover, Al for several reasons...).

Abilene High beat the snot out of the #1 team in Texas - Cedar Hill :) OK, enough already.

FSU goes to the Swamp today and I don't expect it to resemble the Auburn/Alabama battle. The Gators have too much everything for the Noles. Coach Bobby did say that next year the Noles will be right up there w/ the Gators (think he is campaigning for another year?). The broadcast on CBS will probably make the "Tebow's last home game" a sickening soap opera. The over hype aside, he has been an incredible football player and leader. I hope he sticks to his spirituality, because a human slip up will be a HUGE opportunity for the media...in a very bad way.

South Florida host Miami in what could be interesting. Some great in state battles include Miss St / Ole Miss, Oklahoma and OK State, Georgia/Georgia Tech, Clemson / South Carolina, etc. Notre Dame goes out to Stanford and I think Arkansas will beat LSU tonight.

Gotta go get my chores/ honey do list done so I can settle in for some serious HIGH DEF action today :)

DJ

Monday, November 23, 2009

Rudy...Rudy...Rudy!


My son Denton wanted to know if going to the Notre Dame game has turned my "un fan" attitude around. I have to admit that the trip softened my stance some. Then tonight I watched Rudy. I had seen parts of it years ago and it did not really make much of an impression. Tonight it made a huge impression! The Rudy's out there are what are really good about sports, or about any goal that a person is after.

Crap, I kind of hoping Notre Dame gets a good coach now...yikes!


"Die'in aint much of a livin"

The fog is lifting


Shaking off the tired from the weekend. After the Notre Dame journey, I stayed up and watched the double OT thriller between Oregon and Arizona. My pulling for Arizona didn't help, so now the Ducks and the Beavers play their Civil War for the Pac 10 title and the Rose Bowl.

Among the surprises in high school playoffs last weekend, was Fort Walton Beach beating Pine Forest. NOBODY saw that one coming, as FWB lost their star QB a few weeks ago and had zero momentum coming into the game. Lowndes County lost to Camden County up in Georgia in a huge showdown. Grayson vs Newnan is the monster match up this week in the Peach state.

This week in Florida, Apopka plays at Dr Phillips and if I can talk my dad into it, we will go to that one.

It is rivalry week for colleges, as Texas and A&M square off on Thanksgiving. Alabama goes to Auburn on Friday and FSU goes to the Swamp on Saturday. Auburn has the best chance for causing trouble. I like Arkansas to beat LSU and coach "I don't know who told the QB to down the ball" Miles. Georgia Tech has no reason to take it easy on Georgia, and the Egg Bowl should go to Ole Miss over Miss State.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

A Bucket List weekend




The picture on the right/top is explained below, but if I knew how to caption on this dadgum blog it would have read "Roger back in the drooling circle with his ladies" or something like that. I know that is not nice of me and is insensitive and politically incorrect, but I care not. Roger is one of my favorite people. He has stuck with me for ~ 20 years and challenged and encouraged me as a husband, a father and well, as a christian. He would expect NO LESS from me :)

The Notre Dame trip was one of those Bucket List "journeys". I really want to thank Dr Tulley for giving me the tickets and even creating the thought in my mind to go. So, ND stadium is old school, not much with high tech graphics and things like that (lack of scores from other games bugged me). However, the tradition and the way they put on a game is something else! They have some kind of cool color guard (Irish w/ skirts?) who actually take the flag over to the flag pole and raise it during the national anthem (like folks USED to do). It was moving. Two F15s buzzed the stadium and I don't care who you are, that is a goose bump moment.

The Notre Dame band was huge and magnificent. The crowd was more polite than I'm used too, and they were not as loud as the rowdies are in Tallahassee and no where near the bedlam in the SWAMP. That said, it was so cool (well freezing) to experience all the songs and dances and even the little punching cheer thing (reminded me of both the Rockem Sockem robots AND the animated characters on a computer game my boys played a long time ago).

At half time we looked down near the sideline and saw white "things" flying all around (it was cold to me but it wasn't snowing). Turns out that a bunch of people were throwing marshmellows at each other and at the band. Very funny stuff!

After sitting for a few hours, Roger's ankle was inflammed again and giving him fits. I should mention that Notre Dame lost to UCONN in double over time, so coach Charlie Weiss is probably toast after Stanford beats them this weekend. Roger and I didn't care who won the game. Truth be known we would wanted to pull for UCONN, but had the decency to not do so. The Notre Dame experience was a blast and I'm wondering what my next "Bucket List" journey should be.

Roger got a call from his daughter Kristen on the drive to Chicago last night ( I even turned down the volume of the LSU / Ole Miss game we were listening too:)). She plays volleyball for Southeastern University in Lakeland. They were playing in the big Regional playoffs and surprised everyone by WINNING! Guess who was named Tournament MVP? Kristen was! Roger is gonna have to get his ankle in shape so they can go to the NATIONAL tournament in a couple of weeks.

His ankle was so bad this morning, that he called Delta on the way to the airport and asked for a wheel chair. Delta was outstanding in their response. In fact, they put Roger AND ME in first class on the flight down to ATL, since he had to have assistance boarding :)

Waiting on the connection to Orlando, I read the AJC sports page and saw where Georgia Southern fired Chris Hatcher last night. Big bummer! Nephew Nathan is on scholarship as a undergrad assistant and of course this event could jeopardize his spot, or at least that is the first thing that anybody in that situation would think. I'm confident that Nate will come out smelling like a rose. He turns 20 next Monday...

More 1footin football later as Thanksgiving week provides a wealth of FOOTBALL to feast on!

The Notre Dame JOURNEY


I'm using the term Journey because sometimes an adventure just has a way of defining or "theme-ing" itself.

Since South Bend, Indiana is just over a hundred miles from Chicago, it made financial sense for Roger and I to fly into the Windy City and drive from there. He flew into Atlanta from Tallahassee and I from Orlando, but we had the same flight for ATL to Chicago. His flight from Tally was delayed, so he wound up RUNNING to the gate for our connection. It was funny at the time, but set the stage for a painful aspect of our journey.

I'm very good with directions, but Chicago kicked by butt. What a tangled mess up there! Leaving the airport on a Friday afternoon at 4:30 didn't help, but Roger found a good classic Rock station and one of the first songs we heard was by the group Journey. The song was the 2nd "omen" as our rental car choices were a Kia Optima or Dodge JOURNEY :) Guess which one I chose?

By the way, today (November 22) is my cousin Mark's birthday. Mark and I are tight and I'm sure we would be good friends even if we didn't have the same grandparents and uncles and aunts and stuff. When I called him from Notre Dame yesterday to get the FSU score he told me that his son Shawn was selected to play in the big all star football game that pits Escambia County's finest against the stars from Okaloosa and Santa Rosa. Way to go Shawn and Happy Birthday Mark!

Back to our journey. Being the frugal traveler, I used loyalty points for lodging both nights. First night was in Portage, Indiana. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings (like the in Abeline) and watched the Magic beat the Celtics in Boston. It was a good quiet uneventful evening. That night Roger mentioned that his ankle was sore.

The next morning, I got up and surfed the world wide web for high school playoff scores :) When Roger came down to breakfast he had an awful limp, as the sore ankle much worse. After the ~hour on to South Bend, his ankle was a mess. He did man up, after a few advil and the more we walked around the university, the more it loosened up.

The campus was beautiful and the day was spectacular! As old as Notre Dame is, it did not look run down in any way what so ever. We spent the 3- 4 hours before the game, talking to people, taking pictures and exploring things like the Golden Dome and Touchdown Jesus. We also tasted the local fare (sp?) as the grills were out in force:) People were genuinly nice us, even though I was in billboard level Gator attire, while Roger wore his Bear Bryant - Alabama shirt:)

HALFTIME FOR THIS POST!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Notre Dame weekend "eve"

Packing. My daughter's volleyball game was very exciting today, as they took undefeated Tavares for a scare. Then I went to watch MDB play Leesburg in basketball. MDB was leading 30-20 when I left. Never seen a MDB team with that much size and depth.

Oklahoma State and Colorado are duking it out on TV and there is an NFL game going on too, I just haven't switched it over to peek at the Dolphins on the NFL network.

High school playoffs tomorrow night!

I'll try to blog a bit when I get up north tomorrow!


Outlaw

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The Blind Side


A new movie comes out this weekend, based on a true story. I'm looking forward to it. Hey, it is about college football, recruiting and people looking out for someone who needs some help.

I was thinking about how much fun playing football was when I was a boy. Some of the best times were when my brother and I would play our cousins. Since we lived in the BIG city of Fort Walton Beach, and Mike & Mark lived out in the Auburn community north of Crestview, we called it the city slicker against the country boys. That is pretty funny when you think about it. We also played football in Murder Creek on more than one occasion, using a plastic milk jug (or whatever we could find) for the football. I was ~ 3 years older so I had a size advantage back then. Mike & Mark were real tough, but it was my brother who was probably the best player of our bunch. He liked to call himself Mercury Morris, because he loved the fake and bake moves #22 for the Dolphins was so good at. My brother was QUICK, and that was rare in our extended family. We had lots of cousins who were tough, or mean, or BIG (or all three), but very few who could be described as quick. Marty was, and he had terrific hand-eye coordination. Over the years, we would often get up a big gang on Thanksgiving or Christmas and go up to Twin Hills park, or up to the high school and play tackle football for hours! So much fun!

"you a bounty hunter?"

Monday, November 16, 2009

Welcome to the Future

I often hear a country music song and think that it is new when it has actually been out for quite some time. One time my new song had been out a couple of years. This is because I don't listen to country stations very often. A few weeks ago I heard "welcome to the future" by Brad Paisley. Tonight I found the video and had my wife and daughter watch it with me. Very cool. Just in case YOU haven't seen it, go to youtube and watch it.

The high school playoffs move on to week 2 in Georgia. Starrs Mill almost beat 10-0 Apalachee, before falling in OT. This week the marquee game is Lowndes County against Camden County. I'd buy a ticket to that one!

Just to prove how "peculiar" I am, I have the playoff brackets printing off for the following states: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio, Texas, Kansas and Missouri. I also keep an eye on California, Colorado, Arizona and Louisiana.

Tennessee coach LANE KIFFIN kicked off two of the players involved in the attempted armed robbery last week, including NuKeese Richardson. I have had some fun at Lane's expense on this blog, but he showed more brass in this move than a LOT of coaches would have.

Pats coach Belicek is catching grief for his gamble last night against the Colts. While is not the most likable guy, his record speaks for itself, he is allowed to miss one every once in a while.

CJ Spiller or Mark Ingram SHOULD be in the lead for the Heisman. I'm still pulling for Colt McCoy myself.

Next week is Thanksgiving. However, if you DARE to go outside around dark here in central Florida, you can expect to be FEASTED upon by swarms of mosquitos. We need a freeze...right!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Breaking Training


In the spring of my 11th grade year, our football team was preparing for the annual scrimmage known as the Red / White game. Spring was also a time to skip school and hit the beach. We did that more times than we should have, but somehow one of those beach outings ran a little late and we rushed back for football practice, not quite making it on time. Alas, we had been partying at the beach, because that is what knuckle heads like me and Duane did back then. The next thing I know, Coach Haynes is announcing to the entire team that Duane went to the beach and drank beer and by doing so, was guilty of "breaking training", a pseudo sacred team honor code. Coach went on to say that it was time to find out if Duane REALLY wanted to be part of our team and that the next few weeks of hell would tell the answer.

Now our team (at least 90%) were big time party guys, but most of them were not dumb enough to come to practice with beer breath. Don't know who felt compelled to mention to the coaching staff that Duane was a bad boy, but somehow they got that message. During coach Hayne's announcement, my heart is pounding as I expect to be the next fugitive identified. Crestview was a small town and a small school. EVERYBODY there knew Duane and I spent most of our awake time together. Coach Haynes did not say my name or even ask me about the incident, but he did LOOK at me...So, I slide on out after practice and the meeting head down and avoiding eye contact with basically everyone. Duane is pissed and is concerned with ID'ing the Narc. Me too, but that is secondary.

At the family dinner that night I tell my dad the story and go on to say that I think I should admit to coach that I was part of the day of revelry and disregard for team training rules. This was risky, as my dad was the kind of man who would not hesitate to address such violations on his own, quick and severe. But my dad was also a football guy and I had long heard his horrifying and facinating stories about his coach Keoniger (sp?). This insight is what probably saved me from my dad's wrath, since my dad had keen insight into what would lay in store for me. He was also appreciative of the fact that I was willing to turn myself in and not let Duane walk to the gallows alone. We drove over to coach Haynes house after dinner and dad let me spill my guts. I did not witness it, but I image my dad and coach exchanged a wink somewhere during our visit. It is a guy thing, which would have acknowledged a man to man understanding that "our boy" is gonna pay the price.

The next day AFTER practice, coach had our starting defense line up on the field, one guy every 10 yards. He told me to take the football and at his whistle to run directly into the first defender. After the tackle I was to get up and run into the next defender and then to repeat the process all the way down the field. I was almost 6 foot tall and weighed somewhere around 140 lbs. After the 4th or 5th spear tackle (those are a no no now a days) I was in so much pain that in a weird way, I didn't feel some of the pounding. Around defender # 8, my punishers had to pretty much pick me up and point and push me on to the next "licking his chops" classmate. When I finally reached the end zone I was only partially coherent. My chin strap was dangling from a cracked helmet and my shoulder pad strap was either broken or un done. I lay in the end zone trying to breath and not to cry and then coach said it. He said "alright, now turn around and come back!". I do not remember much about the return trip. I have flashes of contact with names like Thigpen, Cato and others. I remember some guys laughing, and some with actual looks of concern. While it is always fun to take a free shot at someone, nobody really wanted this poor little guy to die or anything.

Duane carried about 30 pounds more than I did and was much faster and quicker and all that stuff, but even his bravado was worn down during those 22 collisions.

That was all for that day, in the 3 week process to see if we had what it takes to remain part of the team. Every subsequent day called for running stadiums and belly flops up and down Jack Foster field. Many times either I or Duane would mutter to the other "it aint worth it, lets quit this crap". But we managed to encourage each other to stick it out. The Red White game could not get here soon enough!

On game night, Duane and I were on opposing teams. I was not a first stringer, but with the team divided into 2 teams, I did get to play. Duane was a 10 grade tail back and in the first half of that game, he broke THREE long touchdown runs to put his team comfortably ahead (I don't remember red or white). Anyway, the coaches actually made him switch teams at the half and he almost led his new team in the come from behind effort. He was fast and strong, and coming off a broken leg in the fall (another good story I might provide some day).

The "funny" scuttle butt going around on the side line was that with the way Duane was playing, "if David does anything at all in this game Coach will send the whole team to the beach to drink beer". Very funny...I was not an impact player, so the team was spared the new training technique.

That is my story and I'm sticking to it. After 32 and a half years, I remember it pretty well and have resisted the temptation to embellish the events.

FLOutlaw

Notre Dame "week"


OK, just in case you might have missed it earlier in the blog posts, this coming Friday I am flying into Chicago. There I will meet up with old friend Roger, who is traveling from Tallahassee. We will rent a car and make our way into Indiana where we will stay the night. On Saturday we will ease on into South Bend, and take in all the traditions and cool stuff associated with Notre Dame football. Again, like most southern men, I am not a fan of the Irish, but I do respect their place in college football lore. ND plays UConn at 2:30 and thanks to Dr Tulley, Roger and I have 2 nice seats in ND stadium, next to Touchdown Jesus and all that good stuff!

The 1FootIn blog will certainly provide you with reports on the trip and the sights!

I try to resist football on Sundays, since I completely ignore moderation on Saturdays. However, a few minutes ago I saw Bernard Scott of the Bengals return a kickoff for a TD against the Steelers. It is a big game, and Mr Scott is a former ACU Wildcat. He, along with Johnny Knox and Danieal Manning of the Bears, are representing Abilene very well in the NFL.

Saturday post mortem: One reader objects to my "Al Gore invented the internet" jokes. Tough, its my blog and I can have fun any way I want too :) No college football team would want to play Stanford right now. The crushed USC yesterday, and Oregon last week. TCU crushed Utah in their last big game before bowl season. The Horned Frogs are pretty impressive. They beat Virgina and Clemson on the road out of conference, and BYU in conference. With respect to Boise St, TCU is the one team out of the non BCS schools that could embarrass one of the big boys (like Utah did to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl last year). So, while I am very impressed, I do think it would be tough for TCU to run the table in the Pac 10, Big 12, or the SEC. Not many teams could do that either, thus we will likely only have Texas and the SEC champ pounding their chests in the BCS Championship. Cincinnati is good too, but I would favor TCU if they played this week. Back to the Pac 10 for a moment. With Oregon, Stanford, Arizona, Oregon State and USC, there is some exciting football out there, and some really good offenses.

The conference championship games are shaping up like this: Florida vs Alabama in the SEC. Georgia Tech vs Clemson (unless they fall to UVA) in the ACC. Stop here for a moment. I love the Noles, but the ACC championship PALES in comparison to the SEC. The stadium in Tampa will be lucky to sell HALF the seats, while the dome in Atlanta could sell over 200,000 of they had that many seats to sell. Texas will probably play Nebraska in the Big 12. Conference USA has a Champ game, but it is hard to get fired up for that one. Now if UCF somehow made it, that would be worth watching. The Lil 11 does not have a Champ game and in fact they usually quit playing football around Thanksgiving (the bowl games are exhibit A). The Pac 10 does not play a C game, and would need to add a couple of teams to really make that structure work. The Big Least does not have a C game either, but this year they kind of do. Cincy will play Pitt on 12/5 for the championship. It is a regular season game, not at a neutral site, but the winner will be the East's BCS representative. Bearcats are undefeated, while Pitt's only loss was an upset to NC State. I though USF might be a factor, but I was WRONG.

Nap time :)

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Beautiful Saturday in November


So much to catch up on! Chamber of Commerce day in central Florida today and I started it off with a golf tournament for the MDB booster club. Much fun was had and while we shot 12 under, we lost the tie breaker for 2nd place in our flight. But I digress :)

Choctaw rallied to beat Fort Walton Beach last night, with both of their QB's knocked out of the game with injuries. I listened to the 2nd half, thanks to Al Gore's internet thingy...Another great prep game last night had the Cocoa Tigers beat Bolles up on Jacksonville, rallying from 3 TD's down. First round of playoffs for Florida teams next weekend.

The early college games went great today. Florida State looked like a football team and beat Wake Forest! Who knew? EJ Manuel looked GOOD!. The UCF Golden Knights beat the high flying Houston Cougars and their red hot QB Casey Keenum (from Abilene). Very exciting action out at BrightHouse stadium. Ole Miss stomped Tennessee. That was quite a surprise to me, as the Vols have been really improving. But the Rebs lived up to their pre season expectations today and Dexter McCluster ran wild. Georgia Tech beat Duke, but probably did not ruin my brother Marty and sis in law Laurie's day in Durham. Clemson beat NC State and CJ Spiller again looked like the best football player in the country.

The afternoon slate was a dandy as well. Florida does not have a good offensive team (despite the stats), but they have a MONSTER defense and the D bailed them out again today in Columbia, South Carolina. Miami could not win in Chapel Hill, and Ohio State beat Iowa in OT, to essentially win the Big 10 and a berth in the Rose Bowl (where they will get beat down - again). The Big 10 better not get a 2nd BCS bid, they do not deserve it. Tebow better not win the Heisman Trophy, same reason.

The evening line up has Alabama beating an inspired Mississippi State team, Auburn leading Georgia, TCU leading Utah and Pitt and Notre Dame just under way.

Abilene Christian beat Midwestern State in the first round of the D2 playoffs today, the same team that they lost to last week. Next they get a trip to NW Mizzu, a team they beat in the first game of the season in August. I do not expect ACU to win again...

Georgia Southern lost a close one at home (homecoming actually) to the Furman Palladins. Next weekend nephew Nate gets to host Grandaddy and Nana, as they go up to Statesboro for the game against the Citadel.

My cousin Mark (aka Dawg-Bite) won the Panhandle Pickers regular season on the FlVarsity forum. He also is about to win the same honor in the FWB newspaper Pickem contest, although his handle in that contest is Knight-Rider, as his oldest son Shawn plays for the RBC Knights. I have done OK in both contests, but not like Mark.

Counting down to the NOTRE DAME trip next weekend! :)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

College Football & thugs


Three Tennessee Vol players were arrested in the wee hours, for attempted armed robbery. One of the 3 is Nukeese Richardson the recruit from Pahokee, that Lame claimed Urban Meyer cheated when recruiting. Lame was wrong. Tennessee football is on the rise. They will be a force next season I am sure. All the big time programs have kids that get in trouble, and the big 3 in Florida often lead the nation in that category too. So, I'm piling on in jest, the Vols are no different than any of the others, but armed robbery? Dang.

South Florida is playing Rutger and turned it over 4 times in the first half. Not good. On the NFL network we have a Thursday night game between the Bears and the 49ers.

Abilene Christian lost last week, but DID make the playoffs, thanks to 2 other ranked teams losing as well.

Gonna be a good weekend for football! :) A movie comes out next weekend called BLIND SIDE. Looks like my kind of flick.

Applebees gave me a free lunch yesterday, since I am a veteran of the USAF (and the Army). Thanks Applebees!

Outlaw

Monday, November 9, 2009

Monday Morning Quarterback


OK, Monday evening...During the dismal 4th quarter Saturday night Christian Ponder (he with broken ribs already) made a tackle following an interception and severely separated his shoulder. He is done for the season. To be honest, he WAS FSU this season. No defense at all, inconsistent receivers, and running backs who fumble. With all that AGAINST them, they still had a shot at a bowl game and to extend the longest such streak in the country. Don't see it happening now. The post game interview with coach Bowden was the worst to date, and that is saying something. If they're really are gonna let him stay, somebody in the athletic department should step in and prevent him from interviews, especially after games, and double especially after night games. Very sad.

Counting down to the visit to Notre Dame and very excited. While I do not pull for the Irish to win, I will be very respectful when I visit in person. I admit Jimmy Clausen is a good passer, but I have not liked the kid since he showed up in a Limo in South Bend...

This week offers some good games. Floria @ South Carolina, TCU and Utah, South Florida and Rutgers, Georgia and Auburn, Alabama @ Mississippi State might be interesting. Ole Miss and Tennessee, Iowa and Ohio State to determine the Lil 11 champ and a visit to the Rose Bowl for a beat down.

High school playoffs are underway in most states and very near in Florida. Georgia has started, as has Tennessee, Alabama, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona and Mississippi (and those are the ones I follow, brackets and all!).

It is all good!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Every Day Should Be Saturday :)


That is the name of a blog I read a couple times a week. They are edgy to the point of vulgar most of the time, but they are funny.

Navy beat Notre Dame in South Bend today, to help celebrate Veterans Day.

Cal RB Jhavid Best took a gnarly hit/fall diving into the end zone against Oregon State. Very scary stuff.

Noles hanging on 17 - 14 at the half. Ponder uncharacteristically tossed 2 pics... Florida still ho humming along against the Commodores..

SEPARATION SATURDAY


Well, the Iowa bubble burst this afternoon with Northwestern ending the magical season. Oregon crushed Southern Cal last week, but let Stanford put of 51 on them today!

Before I go any further, let me point out that at the end of the first quarter, Florida State leads Clemson 17-6! :)

Alabama gutted out and beat LSU, but the conspiracy theory folks (the ones that say the refs want Alabama and Florida to stay unbeaten) will be screaming, as an LSU interception was ruled incomplete. Very close and tough call to make, but it sure looked like a pick to me...

Ohio State won the showdown with Penn State, to PROVE that if Joe Pa played ANYBODY, they would have more "L's"...The Buckeyes get Iowa next week, with the winner going to the Rose Bowl.

Wake Forest almost ruined Georgia Tech's dreams, but the Wreck prevailed in OT. Duke could not finish the deal against the Tar Heels, but David Cuttcliff is still one of the best coaches in the land.

The Gators are taking care of Vandy, and are really on cruise control. Spurrier and the Gamecocks might give em a fight for a quarter or two next week, but not for the entire game.

Georgia Southern stumbled at Samford.

Shawn Josey of Rocky Bayou Christian was one of the Northwest Florida Daily News players of the week, with a stat sheet full of pancake blocks and tackles!

More on the flip side...

Thursday, November 5, 2009

November Thursday


The season is going by WAY too fast...At least we have Va Tech @ East Carolina tonight...:) Brandon Spikes increased his punishment by suspending himself for the entire Vandy game. Nice move. The pic with post is making light of comments by Lame Kiffin, that South Carolina recruits will wind up working in gas stations. :)

This weekend LSU and Alabama face off in a big SEC West rumble. Ohio State goes to Happy Vally to tangle with the Nittany Lions. Next week the Buckeyes get Iowa. Should be a great couple of weeks. Also on the slate this Saturday is Oklahoma vs Nebraska. Back in the days of the Big 8 conference, this game was the default conference championship game every year. Now that the Big 8 and the SouthWest conference are the Big 12, the Sooners and the Cornhuskers don't play each other every year. Too bad.

Vanderbilt has been much worse than I expected. They returned most of their starters from last year's bowl team. A trip to the SWAMP should not improve their season. In the early/mid 90s my cousin Bryan started at tackle for the Dores. We watched Florida beat them ~ 54 -0 one afternoon, and the UF students were not only screaming for more points, but picking on the Vandy parents, to the point of violence. Seriously. Aside from pulling for cousin Bryan, we were Gator fans, but my dad and my brother were about to jump in and kick some frat boy butts on behalf of the Vandy parents. It was a scary situation to me and I was busy trying to make sure my wife and little boys were safe. The nostalgia aside, the Gators should not have much trouble with poor Vandy.

FSU plays Clemson at Death Valley (which one is the REAL death valley? LSU or Clemson?) I am certain the Noles will be able to score some points, but I am more convinced that Clemson will be able to score more...

Abilene Christian was ranked #1 in D2 and then lost their next 2 games. They have to win on Saturday to make the playoffs.

Georgia Southern goes to Birmingham to play Samford.

We have the windows open tonight and there is a real nice cool breeze. It is a welcome change from the "run the air conditioner in November" routine we have been having!

One last nugget. My daughter played her best volleyball ever tonight. She had at least a half a dozen legitimate spikes/kills. I don't think she ever had even one before (on purpose). I think it was a break through :)

LIFE IS GOOD!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Down, set ....hut...hut...hut


So one of my loyal reader (out of 2) asked what I thought about Coach Urban Meyer coming down on Brandon Spikes for his eye gouging incident. Meyer suspended Spikes for the first half of the game against Vanderbilt on Saturday night. Well, it is pretty weak. It seems to me that Urban could have suspended him for the entire game and not jeopardized the Gators against the lowly "Dores". A harsher penalty would have made sense, to help appease the backlash from all across the country, AND send a message that Florida can win without dirty play. Oh well.

Mickey Andrews announced his retirement, effective at the end of the season. He has been one of the best defensive coaches of all time, and it is truly as shame that his last season will have featured one of his worst defenses...

Pa in law Frank and I are actually watching the UFL game between Las Vegas and New York at the moment. While I am not the founder of MENSA, I do have a master's degree in business, but for the life of me cannot understand the "model" that this league is trying to pull off. Somebody is pouring good money into a short lived effort (IMO).

My old high school team is mediocre at best this season, and this week they get to play the #1 4A team in Florida, the Niceville Eagles. Probably will not be pretty after the first quarter. We sure had some memorable games against the "Fishheads" back in the day...

If all goes well, I think I take in the Deland vs DB Mainland game Friday night, as the matchup determines the district championship. While I was away last week, Apopka lost a football game. Olympia beat the Blue Darters behind their pro style passing attack. If Olympia holds on to win that district, it will result in Apopka having to play #1 (6A) Dr Phillips in the 1st round of the playoffs...

Life is good, even if football season is going by too fast!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Spikes crossed the line!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDOy-RMIpF0

I enjoy watching the Florida Gators every weekend. In fact, I'm sure that serious confession is in order for the obsessive amount of time I devote to following the Orange and Blue. I'm not a blind loyalist however. I have dinged Tebow for not playing well a few times this season and now it is time to call out Brandon Spikes for the blatant dirty move he pulled against Georgia yesterday. As I mentioned in the previous post, I was listening to the game not watching it, as I drove down the interstate. But I read on FLVarsity where the CBS camera caught Spikes trying to gouge the eyes of the Georgia ball carrier at the bottom of the pile. The youtube link clearly shows Spike's intent was to seriously injure the poor kid.

I remember being on the bottom of piles and having my face poked and scratched, and a few punches to the groin. It was WRONG then and it WRONG when ever it happens in football. There is plenty of legal violent opportunities, so that players do not need to resort to that kind of dirty and cheap play. I really hope Urban Meyer suspends Brandon for at least a game or two to send a clear message that the Gators can win while playing fairly and with good sportsmanship.

Temple, Duke and the Ducks


Yes Florida and Texas finally looked like 2 of the best teams in the country yesterday, disposing of Georgia and Oklahoma State respectively. I was more excited for two teams that are usually "O-fers" or very close. The Temple Owls won their 7th game of the season yesterday and appear to be on their way to a bowl game for the first time in forever! Good for them! Duke beat Virginia to grab their 5th W and to move to 3-1 in the ACC! Cuttcliffe can coach! Duke has been sad in football since Spurrier left in sometime in the early to mid 80s.

I watched Oregon beat the crud out of Southern Cal. It wasn't as close as the score indicated. Oregon looked like I had recorded the game and when they snapped the ball I hit fast forward on the DVR control! They were that FAST! A most impressive outing by the Ducks with less than stellar taste in uniforms :)

Auburn beating Ole Miss did not shock me, but did surprise me. Tennessee continued their improvement by beating South Carolina. Actually, a more accurate report would be that South Carolina gave the game to the Vols, with 3 first half turnovers accounting for 21 Rocky Top points. Kudos to the Vols for accepting the gift. South Carolina has a great defense, but a poor offense. Is this not a peculiar situation with SpurrDog as their coach? His OFFENSES turned the SEC upside down when he got to Gainesville. He has been at SCar for several years now, so it is amazing the Gamecocks offense is so bad. I really expect the old ball coach to call it quits after this season. Florida will be a beast in the East for a while, and I am convinced that Tennessee will be their chief competition over the next few seasons. Georgia is still a factor and Kentucky is not an easy out. The SEC is just nasty. Mississippi State, Auburn and Arkansas all are improving too, so the next couple of years should see a lot of parity in the best league in college football.

To prove that we have reached the saturation point, it is Sunday night and UCF is hosting Marshall at BrightHouse stadium.

Next weekend we get the LSU/Alabama showdown. The winner WILL play Florida for the SEC championship and a slot in the BCS title game. So, it is a close as we get to a playoff for big time college football.

Want another good example why I like college football 100 times more than the NFL? Today Brett Favre returned to Green Bay as the QB for the Vikings. It is like having Tim Tebow transfer to Tennessee or FSU for his senior season! It's just wrong!

Here is a shocker, the Yankees are in the World Series...how they manage to win the pennent with that paltry payroll (higher than the GNP of MANY countries) is beyond me! Go Phillies! I've like the Phillies since my son Denton was 11 and his Little League Phillies won the District 19 Top Team tournament! :)

Roger turned 50 last week, so when we go to Chicago / South Bend later this month, maybe we will get the senior discount :) Not to be out done, old Pal Duane turned 49 today. I hang out with too many OLD guys...:)

Peace out.

Trip Report

OK, so I make my way to Tallahassee and go to Leon High school to see their homecoming game against my Crestview Bulldogs. Crestview scored twice in the first 6 minutes to take a 14 - 0 lead. After that, the Lions took control and wound up winning the game 42 - 36. Leon busted big play after big play to the point that it kind of reminded me of the Florida State secondary - some plays you think they only have 9 men on defense, because there are NO db's anywhere near the receivers...As a reward for Crestview, they get to play the #1 team in 4A next week - the Niceville Eagles (FISH HEADS!).

Anyway, I had a bunch of extra tickets for the FSU game on Saturday. I wasn't the only one. I moved to Tallahassee in 1987, and had been to a few games before then. I have NEVER been to a Seminole game with so many empty seats. Granted, it was an early game (Noon) and that impacts those who might drive up from central Florida, and it did rain a little bit. Those excuses aside, if the team was 6-1, there would have been 80,000 fans instead of ~ 65,000...

My son Josh and I had a really good time. His apartment is right across Tennessee St. from campus, so it is an easy walk to the stadium. After a few minutes at the Ledlow/Camps tailgate party, we went on into the stadium. In the 30 minutes we were in there before kickoff, it rained 3 different times, and in between showers, the sun shine was hot and intense. At the end of the national anthem, the Coast Guard did a fly over with 2 choppers. Way cool. FSU played great on offense again, but the defense RARELY stopped the Wolfpack. A 45-42 win that was not sealed until the final play!

Josh and I grabbed some wings and shrimp and I was on my way back down the interstate, with Mick Hubert calling the Gator game against Georgia on the radio. Florida finally played like we expected them too. UF now has beaten Georgia 17 of the last 20 years!

More on the weekend that was in a few.