Good Call Mike

You gave FSU too much credit, and the Gator's took their foot off the gas in the 2nd half.

I think, under the conditions, this was a great victory. I know Harvin will probably be out for the SEC Championship, but I think we have enough offense and a very good defense, we should be able to handle the Elephants on a fast field.

No trash talk this week

It's been pretty silent this week on the blog, but that's because Urban asked us to keep a lid on the trash talk. He didn't want any outlandish predictions or comparisons being posted on the Ode that the Noles could use as bulletin board material.
Well game time is in 7 hours, and and there are no more practices, so I think we are free to comment or predict.
I saw a piece where Bowden said he thought Ponder would be where Tebow is next year. Pardon my Scooby Doo impression, but "huh"!
Let's compare sophomore years:
Yards passing-Tebow, 3,286 to Ponder, 1,747
TD passes-Tebow, 32 to Ponder, 12
Interceptions-Tebow, 6 to Ponder, 11
Yards rushing-Tebow, 895 to Ponder, 390
TDs rushing-Tebow,23 to Ponder, 7
Apparently the figurehead they call coach at FSU needs to brush up on his statistics, because I see nothing in Ponder's numbers that suggest he will be anything like Tebow in the future.
Sure, I am a little apprehensive heading into this game.
--We have been on an unbelievable roll, and sooner or later all good things come to an end.
--This IS FSU! And you can throw out records with all rivalry games.
--FSU had their best game of the year last week, so they are on a mini roll.
--Despite Ponder not being quite Tebow-like, he can give defenses problems with his running ability.
But here is Mike's Top 10 reasons why I think Florida will beat FSU by at least 3 TDs:
Reason No. 10--Come on! It's the SEC vs. ACC.
Reason No. 9--A coach named Jimbo. Sounds like the name of your fourth cousin from Arkansas who's in jail for gigging frogs in the town fountain. Jimbo is a named better suited for a guy who wants to start his own online encyclopedia.
Reason No. 8--Brandon Spikes. Spikes gets up for these big games and when Spikes is up, the defense is up. FSU will have trouble sustaining any momentum today against Spikes and the No. 3 ranked scoring defense in the country.
Reason No. 7--FSU's defense is overrated. Sure they have a top 25 scoring defense, but they did give up 39 to Miami. How much did we give up?
Reason No. 6--Their second leading rusher is Jermaine Thomas. Who? Exactly!
Reason No. 5--FSU's fans don't believe they can win.
Reason No. 4--They scored 3 (yes 3) points against Wake Forest, a team that gave up 24 to Navy and 30 to Duke.
Reason No. 3--Urban Meyer coaches the Gators.
Reason No. 2--We've got Percy Harvin and Tim Tebow.
Reason No. 1--Bobby "Dad Gummit" Bowden coaches the Noles.
Florida, 45, FSU 17

1985

It was the last year Florida beat FSU and Miami in the same year (although, if the Gators played Miami all the time there would have been more occurrences of this I would guess), and it was the last time there was a 5th game added to a winning streak between Florida and Florida State- the Gators won their 5th in a row over the Seminoles that year (it was extended to 6 the following year).

Just Imagining...

the speed (and the stop-and-go's and cuts) we will see on the turf, in Atlanta, from this Gator team.

Texas, Oklahoma, and Polls

There is some speculation about who will get the Big 12 South nod, or, who will be ranked higher after this week, Oklahoma or Texas (assuming both win this week). If both do win, it will be Oklahoma. If Oklahoma loses, it goes to a tie between Texas Tech and Texas, which Tech will win. So, Texas is not going to win the Big 12 South, regardless of whatever "rock, paper, scissors" kind of argument someone makes for Texas beating OK--remember, the 3-way tie exists because the same can be said for each team involved--Tech beat Texas, Texas beat OK, OK beat Tech (Texas' best argument is that they have been ahead of OK since they beat them, on a neutral field). Oklahoma is already ahead of Texas in the Harris and Coaches, and the difference between the 2 is razor-thin, closer than Florida is to Oklahoma, and Oklahoma plays #12 Oklahoma St this week, away. Texas plays A&M, an extremely mediocre, if not bad, team (lost to Baylor by 20 this past week), this Thursday night. If Florida beats FSU and the Tide, and OK loses to OK St or Missouri (ranked 13, but I think OK St has a better shot and they are at home), Texas, with a win over A&M, will be in the Title game (a non-division winner). This is okay with me, I don't think they especially deserve to not be there ('05 Champs vs. '06 Champs, possibly). If you want to look down the line and speculate a little more, USC will maintain their higher (#5, right now) ranking over #6 Utah if USC beats Notre Dame and UCLA, since Utah is done-if they trip up, then Utah may still get passed if OK loses and #7 Tech gets into the Big 12 Championship game and beats #13 Missouri. And yes, if enough of those top teams lose, Alabama will get a rematch against Florida in the BCS Championship game. One more thing, people may wonder if Florida will pass either Texas or Oklahoma if those 3 teams win out-- yes they will, they will pass at least 1. Hope this helped.

Something Dumb From an Otherwise Intelligent Person

He doesn't like Obama's proposal for playoffs. His reason is because he loves the fact that regular season games mean so much more because of there being no playoffs. This is no fact, though. Rankings decide a 2-team playoff at the end of the year, not regular season games. If regular season losses and wins made the final difference, how did we get a 2-loss national champion last year, and many 0-loss teams without a shot at playing for a national championship over the years (there have even been schools like Auburn and Penn St that have been undefeated and not won a title). What this means is that losing does not knock a team from the title game (the Gators won 2 title and have never been undefeated), and winning all your games guarantees nothing. The regular season, with its wildly dispersed measurements for success and differing schedules and levels of competitiveness, cannot be asked to appropriately decide champions without engaging in unfounded and arbitrary declarations, as well as ignoring certain teams and conferences, and being just generally unsatisfying. Also, playoffs would add excitement, not decrease it. Even with a 16-team playoff that I would support, which gives spots to conference champions and the 5 teams estimated to be the best non-conference teams, teams would not be allowed much room for error--does even winning the SEC East usually allow for many losses? Would Florida take it easy against Florida State this week if we knew we were in the playoffs if we beat Alabama? When are these mythical moments of tampered down excitement supposed to occur in a college football world (Division I) with playoffs? Did the fact that the Gators could not afford to lose to The Citadel make that game more intense? Would the fact of being able to lose to The Citadel and still make a playoff by winning the conference have made that game more uneventful? Yeah, right. Upsets will still be meaningful for championship implications, even more so because more teams will be vying for higher stakes. Rivalries will remain intense, if not more so since playoff spots will be at stake.

I can go on, but I already did here and here.

I will add that this year could provide even more reasons to mock Curtis' suggestions about the regular season. We could see, if Oklahoma loses to Oklahoma St or Missouri, a non-conference champion in the Title game (like OK was in '03), and a slew of 1 and 2 loss teams to choose from, as well as a couple of good 0-loss teams in Utah and Boise St. Texas and USC are the 2 teams I'm thinking of as far as non-conference winners. So only 1 of those exciting upsets Curtis probably loved--Oregon St over USC, or Tech over Texas, or Ole Miss over Florida, may prove to mean anything.