“The Best Thing That Ever Happened”

Tebow, not winning the Heisman, Mike Bianchi explains in the Orlando Sentinel:

Tebow was victimized by being Tebow — perhaps the most famous and highly publicized player in college football history. Some fans and voters are obviously sick of the massive Tebow lovefest that has permeated college football since Tebow signed with UF. How else do you explain Tebow receiving more first-place votes (309) than any of the other candidates, but finishing third because he was completely left off 154 of the 904 ballots?

“They either love the Gators or they hate us,” said Tebow, who failed in his attempt to become the only player in history other than Archie Griffin to win two Heismans.

Florida fans who are upset because Tebow finished third — don’t be. This might be the best thing that ever happened to the Gators heading into the Jan. 8 national title game against Bradford’s Oklahoma team. Tebow, although he was the first person to congratulate and hug Bradford after he won Saturday night, was more than a little perturbed he didn’t win.

“I’ll use this as motivation,” he vowed. ” … . On Jan. 8, we get to decide something a little bit better and I’m excited about that.”

Again, this is no knock on Bradford. He’s had a spectacular year. But let’s be honest, shall we? Bradford won because of his gaudy passing numbers, many of which were accumulated at the end of blowout victories against outmanned Big 12 defenses.

Could I get a clarification, please? On the top of my Heisman ballot, it says to vote for the “Most Outstanding College Football Player” and says nothing about voting for the quarterback who put up the most obscene passing numbers. The word “outstanding” in my book means you “stand out” above the others. And, to me, Bradford and the other Big 12 quarterbacks in contention ( runner up Colt McCoy of Texas and Graham Harrell of Texas Tech) were all clones of one another. Tebow stands out as a once-in-lifetime athlete.

The Big 12 quarterbacks are about numbers and statistics; Tebow is about moments and memories. The Big 12 quarterbacks are measured in passing yards accumulated; Tebow is measured in folklore created.

•Like when he gave the emotional, tear-stained speech after the team’s only loss of the season against Ole Miss. The Gators haven’t lost a game since and the speech was compared to Knute Rockne’s “Win One for the Gipper” pep talk by CBS broadcaster and college football historian Verne Lundquist.

•Or like the Florida State game when some FSU fans angered Tebow by cheering after UF star Percy Harvinlay on the wet, muddy field with an injured ankle. Tebow went up to his coaches and insisted on carrying the ball because he wanted “to hit somebody extremely hard.”

On the very next play, Tebow bulled into the line and moved the entire pile 3 yards into the end zone. After getting up from the bottom of the stack, Tebow ripped off his helmet to show a face caked with mud and streaked with FSU’s garnet end-zone paint.

Following the game, iconic FSU Coach Bobby Bowden called Tebow “The greatest football player I’ve ever seen at quarterback.”

Tebow is the greatest football player one of the greatest coaches in history has ever seen — but not the most outstanding college football player of the year?

Doesn’t quite add up, does it?

Then again, Gators fans should be ecstatic with Heisman voters. They did exactly what Ole Miss did three months ago: They not only inspired Tebow; they incited him.

Not just for one more game, but perhaps even for one more season.

“Maybe,” Tebow said and smiled coyly, “this is motivation to come back for another year and try to tie Archie.”

Ready for the SEC Championship

Obama and I Agree

There should be a college football playoff, involving the top 8 teams.  From USA Today:

With President-elect Barack Obama supporting a playoff system to decide college football’s national champion, the future TV home of the Bowl Championship Series could become a political football.

BCS commissioners could make the call Monday on whether to move TV rights for five bowls, including the national championship, to ESPN from Fox starting in 2011. The title game would be the first major American sports championship shown on cable. There’s still roughly 16 million U.S. homes that don’t get ESPN. While ESPN has other sports properties such as Monday Night Football, a few college fans without cable have complained they’d be shut out.

So it wouldn’t be surprising to see politicians champion their cause, given that Obama told CBS’ 60 MinutesSunday that a playoff system is “the right thing to do,” For example, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., intervened last year when fans howled about Major League Baseball moving its “Extra Innings” package of out-of-market games exclusively to satellite provider DirecTV.

Fox spokesman Dan Bell said the network will let the BCS know today whether it will match ESPN’s reported $500 million offer to telecast the BCS championship and four other bowls from 2011 to 2014. ABC, ESPN’s Disney sister network, will broadcast the national championship and Rose Bowl in 2010.

ESPN declined comment.

During Sunday’s interview with CBS’ Steve Kroft, Obama laid out exactly what kind of playoff system he envisions: “Eight teams. That would be three rounds to determine a national champion. It would add three extra weeks to the season. You could trim back on the regular season. I don’t know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this.”

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Gators live up to hype, beat South Carolina senseless! Meyer’s expresses excitement that Jimmy Buffet is in the  locker room…Mike Bianchi reflects on the end of the Spurrier era in the Orlando Sentinel:

From now on, we must all cease and desist making a big deal about Spurrier coaching against his former team. These days, it’s more exciting when Houston Nutt comes to Gainesville than Steve Spurrier.

This game is no longer about Steve Spurrier coaching against Florida. It’s only about Florida. It’s no longer about Steve Spurrier vs. Urban Meyer. It’s only about Urban Meyer.

Meyer’s very first words in his postgame news conference after handing Spurrier the worst loss of his coaching career: “Can you believeJimmy Buffett‘s in our locker room?”

That’s right, Meyer seemed more excited about his favorite singer being in the locker room afterward than he was with beating Spurrier’s Gamecocks like they were some outmanned 1-AA team. Meyer’s favorite Buffett song is “It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere.” If Spurrier had to name a favorite Buffett song after the beating he took Saturday, it would probably be, “Why Don’t We Get Drunk” (and figure out a way to score a freaking touchdown).

Actually, a more appropriate tune for how Spurrier must have felt Saturday might be “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.” In that song, a nostalgic Buffett twangs: “Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure makes me want to go back again.”

Those good times for Spurrier must seem like a million miles away now. For Florida fans and media members who witnessed Spurrier’s greatness at UF, it’s shocking to see just how pedestrian his offense has become. It’s sort of like watching Bob Dolegoing from presidential candidate to making Viagra commercials. Or like watching a young Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront and then seeing him years later at the end of his career playing a bloated prison warden with dyed red hair in that awful comedy Free Money.

Spurrier used to be so cocky and sure of himself — a proud perfectionist who only talked about winning championships. But after Saturday’s dismantling, he sounded so unfamiliar. He uttered unSpurrier-like phrases such as: “We were just trying to keep the score respectable.” Or: “We’re having a good season. We’re 7-4 with a chance to go 8-4.”

These are words you never thought you’d hear out of Spur-Dog’s mouth, but that is the reality of his situation right now. As great as he once was, he’s now just another coach for the Urbanator to seek out and destroy. Spurrier may have once been the king of The Swamp, but on Saturday the deposed king returned and the Urbanator guillotined him.

In 309 games as a head coach in college and pro football, Spurrier never has been beaten this badly — not even when he was at Duke. But at least he’s not alone. Urbanator’sGators are dismantling anybody and everybody who gets in their way. They became the first team in Southeastern Conference history Saturday to win six consecutive conference games by 28 points or more.

A dozen years after Spurrier won his first and only national championship at Florida, Meyer is potentially on his way to a second national title by dominating SEC opponents much like Spurrier did back in the day. In the middle of Spurrier’s 1996 national championship season, the Gators went on the most dominating stretch in school and SEC history — a six-game SEC winning streak where Florida won by an average score of 49-11. If you’re scoring at home, Meyer’s Gators are on a six-game SEC streak, winning by an average score of 50-11.

Said Spurrier: “We have to recruit us some athletes like Urban’s recruiting.”

Funny, huh?

Urban Meyer came to Florida and wanted to be like Steve Spurrier.

Now Steve Spurrier is at South Carolina and wants to be like Urban Meyer.

Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes.

What Gator Fans Fear

Not to mention the looming Florida State game as well.

The normally right on Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel and native rural Floridian totally misses the point of this week’s game involving former head coach Steve Spurrier. No Gator fan wants the ole ball coach to win this game, but all secretly fear that he might. From Bianchi’s blog:

Believe me, I know University of Florida fans would never admit it publicly but there are many of them who, deep down in places they wish didn’t exist, will be secretly rooting for Steve Spurrier to beat their own team Saturday.

That’s right, I’m saying there are some Gator fans who want Stevie Spurrier to turn into Stevie Spoiler Saturday.

They are like the conflicted kids from the broken home who, even though daddy ran off with another woman, somehow blame mommy for the divorce. And they want daddy to come home and make things like they used to be.

They want the old Swamp Fox, Stephen Orr Spurrier, to come back and turn the Swamp into his own personal playground once again.

When South Carolina’s Spurrier comes back to the Swamp for the second time Saturday, it won’t be at all like when Alabama coach Nick Saban made his return to LSU last weekend. Saban is truly despised by LSU fans, who consider him a traitor. He was never truly part of the LSU family.

In contrast, Spurrier is still beloved by Florida fans. He is a bonafide UF icon — a player who won the school’s first Heisman Trophy and a coach who won the school’s first national championship. For long-time UF football fans, he is their first love. And we all know that you never forget your first love.

Admit it, Gator fans, you love Steve Spurrier. You’ll always love Steve Spurrier.

If the Gators win Saturday, you’ll be happy for the way things are.

If the Gators lose Saturday, you’ll be nostalgic for the way things used to be.

Saturday Night in Nashville

Not to see the Grand Ole Opry, but to see the Florida Gators take on the Vanderbilt Comodores. This is the first time I’ve been there for a night game, and in November that isn’t necessarily a good thing for the person watching the game or for those warm blooded Florida players on the field–but on this night the chill in the air did not stop the Florida team from performing on all eight cylinders. From the Tennessean:

 

The Gators (8-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) scored on each of their first four possessions — taking advantage of an interception and a pair of blocked punts for three of those touchdowns — and converted five of their six first-half drives into a 35-0 lead at halftime.

“We have a lot of confidence in our defense and our team as a whole,” said safety Ryan Hamilton, who finished with 13 total tackles. “We really felt we were going to come out here and shut them down, make them punt the ball. We weren’t making them punt the ball. We weren’t doing our job.

“Playing a team with that many good athletes, you’ve got to tackle, and we didn’t. We weren’t doing our job.”

Florida — which clinched the SEC East title with the victory — rolled up 407 offensive yards in the opening three quarters, with reigning Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow rushing for 88 yards and a pair of touchdowns while throwing for 171 yards and three more scores.

Vanderbilt, meanwhile, didn’t pick up a first down until the last minute of the first quarter. By that point, the Commodores had seen a Brett Upson punt partially blocked and a Mackenzi Adams pass intercepted, with both plays leading to Florida scores.

The Commodore defense finally came up with a stop in the second quarter, with Chris Marve stripping Percy Harvin at the goal line and Hamilton recovering in the end zone.

Vanderbilt’s offense was unable to take advantage of the break, though, and Florida scored on its next possession to take a five-touchdown lead into halftime.

“That was a huge play,” Johnson said of the Gators touchdown — a 41-yard pass from Tebow to David Nelson — with eight seconds remaining in the half. “From 28 to 35 at the half is extremely different.”

Trailing 42-0 — and with starting quarterback Mackenzi Adams sidelined by a second-quarter hip injury — fifth-year senior Chris Nickson led the Commodores on consecutive scoring drives of 81 and 87 yards. Nickson threw 2 yards to Jamie Graham for a touchdown and 14 yards to Sean Walker.

“We were moving the ball pretty well in the first half,” Nickson said. “We just had some crazy penalties, hurting ourselves. In the second half, we … eliminated the penalties and just executed the way we could.”

The Commodores’ wait for the sixth victory they need for bowl eligibility will carry into next weekend’s trip to Kentucky, which barely lost Saturday to Georgia.

Gators Taking Vandy Serious

Let’s hope, from the Orlando Sentinel:

You won’t find a critic in Florida Coach Urban Meyer, who calls this year’s Vandy squad the best one he’s faced. The Commodores haven’t defeated Florida since 1988, but they’ve lost by single digits in two of the last three meetings in Nashville.

Vanderbilt hasn’t given up more than 24 points all season, and that was to a high-powered Georgia offense. With experienced leadership in the secondary, Vandy’s defense could fluster a Florida offense that’s rolling with a league-leading 42.9 points per game.

“They are very well coached,” Meyer said. “They started off 5-0. We have our hands full. Defensively, they are playing very well. On special teams, they are very well coached. They are a bowl team.”

Only a win over Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee or Wake Forest would guarantee that. And rarely has a Florida team been this hot.

“We just playing with so much pride and so much passion, it’s going to be hard to stop us,” Gators wide receiver Percy Harvin said.

Johnson said his team must maximize its capacity in order to win and be “encouraged” by Florida’s recent blowouts because it should make his players want to work harder.

“They don’t have a lot of weaknesses,” Johnson said of Florida. “The thing I see in those blowouts, the other team helps them a whole bunch. You do all you can to turn it around and have a chance in the fourth quarter.”

If Vanderbilt can salvage what began as a magical season, that’s just part of Johnson’s plan:

“You’re trying to go beyond what you’ve done before, lift your team up to do things no one has ever done.”

Fulmer to Leave with $6 Million

Spurrier commented that it was like he won the lottery. There was great jubilation on Alabama sports radio yesterday and a feeling of justice. Mike Bianchi’s take from the Orlando Sentinel:

It should come as no surprise that Phil Fulmer announced he was stepping down as Tennessee’s coach Monday. In fact, I could tell he was a dead coach walking two months ago after his 30-6 loss to Florida in Knoxville.

  It seems only appropriate that the loss to Florida set the wheels in motion for Fulmer’s demise and his old nemesis, former UF and current South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier, finished him off Saturday.

  Here’s the prophetic column I wrote after the Florida-Tennessee game:

“And pretty soon there’ll be no Phil.”

  KNOXVILLE, Tenn. _ Look what you’ve gone and done now, Gators.

  Hope you’re happy.

  Yes, you showed everyone you are a contender to win the Southeastern Conference title.

  Yes, you showed everyone you are national championship material.

  Yes, you showed everyone that your defense is for real.

  But you probably just got Phil Fulmer fired in the process.

  Way to go.

  The one coach the Gators can always count on lambasting and they’ve had so much fun lampooning is so squarely on the hotseat after Saturday’s 30-6 loss to the Gators that he should be wearing asbestos coaching shorts.

  If we never see you again, Phil, so long.

  You’ve given us great column fodder over the years.

  It’s not even Halloween yet and Fulmer _ the coach Florida fans derisively refer to as “The Great Pumpkin”_may well be on his way out at Tennessee. The only thing missing from this sad scenario is an angry Linus clutching his blanket and wailing, “Just wait ’til next year, Charlie Brown. You’ll see! Next year, I’ll sit in that pumpkin patch and the Great Pumpkin will appear.”

  Sorry, son, but it’s looking more and more like there might not be a next year for the beleaguered Fulmer. The only stock more volatile than Fulmer’s right now belongs to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

  After a second-consecutive blowout loss to the Gators, boos cascaded down throughout the game. As Fulmer left the field, a fan above him disgustedly threw some debris in his general direction. When a reporter in the postgame news conference asked the coach how embarrassed he was about his team’s performance, Fulmer’s wife and adult daughter stood up and glared at the mean ol’ reporter.

  “That loss is on me,” Fulmer said. “I’ve got big, broad shoulders. I can take the responsibility.”

  It’s honorable of Fulmer to take the blame, but it’s not like he wouldn’t get it anyway. There is a growing feeling that Fulmer is simply no match for Florida coach Urban Meyer, who has never lost to Tennessee since taking the UF job four seasons ago.

  Here’s all you need to know about Fulmer matching wits against Meyer: Early in the game, the common belief was that Fulmer would attempt to punt the ball away from Brandon James, Florida’s ultra-dangerous return man. Meyer countered the expected move by putting two punt returners _ James and the equally dangerous Percy Harvin _ on the field.

  Sure enough, on the Vols’ first punt, they chose to kick to James, who rocketed up the middle for a 78-yard touchdown burst. The Gators led 17-0 before the UT fans could take their first gulp of moonshine.

  Maybe it’s appropriate that there’s a checkerboard pattern in Tennessee’s end zone. Fulmer is indeed playing checkers. The problem is Meyer is playing chess.

  This game was even more effortless than last year’s 59-20 blowout of Tennessee at Florida Field. At least last season, Tennessee was in the game midway through the third period. This time, the bumbling, fumbling Vols were done by halftime.

  Fulmer may have signed a contract extension after last year, but it’s hard to believe Tennessee is going to keep him after the devastating loss to an awful UCLA team in the season-opener and, now, yet another blowout loss to the Gators.

  Last week, in the home opener, there were at an estimated 20,000 empty seats in Neyland Stadium. This week, many of the 106,138 fans had left before the fourth quarter even started. Was this Neyland Stadium or Tropicana Field?

  Sadly, it seems, Rocky Top has now hit rocky bottom.

  In fact, maybe it’s time for a new opening verse to Tennessee’s famous fight song:

“Wish that I was on ol’ Rocky Top,

“On top of that Tennessee hill,

“Ain’t no smoggy smoke on Rocky Top,

Gators are Above the Competition

For the moment, and a night game in Vanderbilt lurks…a chilly night game, nothing to take lightly…as well as a game against South Carolina and hated rival Florida State on their home turf. From CBS Sports:

No matter what happens the rest of the way, the house-divided Jacksonville Municipal Stadium witnessed the nation’s best one-loss team. That, we can say with certainty after Florida’s 49-10 trouncing Georgia.

Care to argue? Things change and, yes, there is still a wild and wacky November to go. But that’s exactly what the Gators are counting on. Anything to bump them up the BCS ladder.

Ask yourself or ask the Gators, who is playing better?

“At this moment?” Florida safety Will Hill said. “No one.”

Hill didn’t stop there. When the votes are in and the computers stop whirring, it may be a 12-1 Florida having to jump one of the unbeatens at the top to get in the championship game. The SEC is one of the few places that would even be possible. Conference pride would dictate that, of course, a one-loss Florida would be better than, say, an undefeated Penn State.

And yes, Hill has seen the Nittany Lions, one of the two/three unbeaten teams at the top of the polls.

“We know they’re a good team but I feel as though they haven’t played anybody yet, a real good team,” Hill said. “We think we could do a much better job. We play with a lot of intensity and emotion. We would come out victorious if we were to be put into the national championship game.”

Well, there it is. Among the closed-mouth Gators there was some candor Saturday night. Unfortunately for the Gators, getting to that title game is out of their control at the moment. They’re coming from No. 8 in the BCS but that position is guaranteed to improve on Sunday. But by how much?

Since losing to Ole Miss on Sept. 27, Florida has outscored the opposition 201-43 in four games. They came within a point of scoring 50 twice in those games. The Bulldogs may have tap-danced in the end zone last year but it was Florida doing the Gator Stomp after the game. 

Urban Meyer made sure Georgia knew it. He called two obvious timeouts in the final minute for no good reason just to let the Dawgs stew in their own juices. Redshirt freshman returner Chris Rainey took a late kickoff and all but taunted Georgia, faking like he was going to take a knee and then taking off.

“I told him, ‘Catch the ball, Chris and get down. We don’t want to get anybody hurt,’” Meyer said. “He speaks a different language than I do.”

The precocious Gators are making their run with one of the youngest teams in the country. Sixty of the 85 scholarship players are freshmen or sophomores — that’s more than 70 percent. Sophomores were responsible for the two of three interceptions of Georgia’s Matthew Stafford.

The Bulldogs had more experience and, somehow, less motivation. Four times in the first half, they were at the Florida 30 or deeper and came away with three points. After a field goal helped Mark Richt’s team cut the lead to 7-3, the coach tried to surprise Florida with an onside kick.

Bad move. The poorly executed pop-up by Blair Walsh was fielded neatly by Buster Rowley, usually a long snapper.

This was supposed to be the renewal of one of the bitterest feuds in the country. It turned into the second-biggest win for Florida in the series history. The biggest? The Spurrier team of 1996 won by 40 in 1996 during that national championship season.

How’s that for an omen?

“This,” Meyer said, “is a game we had to have.”

You might say that. The Gators are this close to returning to the SEC championship game. They can clinch the SEC East with a win next week at Vanderbilt.

The defense that was so soft last season — Urban Meyer used that word about four times in his postgame — has arrived. Big time. Stafford had thrown five interceptions this season coming into this game. He threw three in the second half against the Gators who made him pay on every one.

Joe Haden ran one back 88 yards to the Georgia 1. Dustin Doe picked one off when it was 35-3. Ahmad Black made it a pick party by returning the final interception 64 yards.

“We were extremely soft (last season) on defense,” Meyer said. “I don’t think you can call a defense soft more than we did.”

There’s that word again. This one isn’t soft but it’s younger than a green banana. Fourteen of the 22 in the two-deep are freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores.

“Our defense,” linebacker Brandon Spikes said, “is growing up before our eyes.”

This is the new Florida since Sept 27. The one that looked unfocused six weeks ago in losing to Ole Miss is dead. This is the new Tebow, too. His stats are going to be less impressive from here on in. That’s because there are more weapons than just Tebow doing the jab step into the line and throwing a dart somewhere.

The highest scoring team in the SEC is living up to its other label: The fastest team in America. Receiver/running back Percy Harvin rushed for Florida’s first touchdown. Rainey (six yards per carry this season) and Demps (10.0) are both home run hitters in their first season.

The only thing that might slow them down was the boot on Tebow’s left foot. The quarterback said it was a minor sprain of his ankle. But anything that upsets Florida’s delicate balance is cause for concern. It was Tebow being stopped on a fourth-and-1 against Ole Miss that has the Gators needing help to get to the national championship game.

“I think a lot of good things did come out of Ole Miss,” Tebow said. “One, never take a team lightly, never play haphazardly. Enjoy the moment, enjoy the game.”

And enjoy Meyer, who won’t give up the obvious. So, Urban, who is playing better than you guys?

“I read your articles every week,” Meyer said. “You tell me.”

Just did.

Excessive Celebration

I was at the Florida-Georgia game last year, sitting there in my Gator attire smack in the middle of the Georgia section. I weathered four quarters of abuse, thinking that FL would come back and win in the end. They didn’t, but thankfully this year’s game was never in doubt–and from my couch I enjoyed every minute of it.

From the Orlando Sentinel and Mik Bianchi:

Once again, there was an excessive celebration.

Actually, there was an obsessive, expressive and impressive celebration.

Except this time it was after the game, and it was the No. 5-ranked Florida Gators who romped, stomped and chomped their way around the field after a message-sending, statement-making 49-10 victory over the eighth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs.

Welcome to the World’s Largest Outdoor Payback Party.

The last time we saw dog abuse like this, the Feds were issuing a warrant for Michael Vick‘s arrest.

“Before the game, our coach reminded us they did something last year we didn’t really like; that they disrespected us,” Florida quarterbackTim Tebow said after accounting for five touchdowns and taking a jubilant victory lap around the stadium. “It doesn’t get any sweeter than this.”

UF Coach Urban Meyer and his players refused to address the incident last year in which Georgia Coach Mark Richt ordered his players to intentionally get an excessive celebration penalty after Georgia scored its first touchdown in a 42-30 victory over the Gators.

They didn’t address the controversy in the media all week, but they certainly addressed it on the field Saturday. Meyer wrote in his recently released autobiography that Georgia’s celebration “wasn’t right. It was a bad deal. It will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer and in the mind of our football team. We’ll handle it and it’s going to be a big deal.”

After the Gators dealt Richt the worst loss of his career and handed the Dawgs their second-worst loss in the history of this storied rivalry, consider it handled. And — oh my — was it a big deal.

So big, in fact, that Meyer stopped the clock with two rub-it-in timeouts with less than a minute left on the clock. The message to the beaten and battered Bulldogs was clear: “You’ll leave when we tell you to leave!”

Florida fans roared their approval. Georgia fans, the few that were still left in the stadium, just sat in stunned silence. Meyer attempted to explain away the timeouts by claiming he was trying to give reserve running back Emmanuel Moody a couple of carries. Nobody bought his story. When asked again if the timeouts were meant to send a message, he responded with a one-word answer: “No.”

But then he paused for a few seconds and broke out in a huge smile.

He didn’t need to say anything else. His offense, defense and special teams provided the unspoken response to last year’s Georgia end-zone party.

“It’s the only way to answer,” Meyer said. “The only way.”

Unlike Georgia last year, Florida’s players didn’t show much emotion during this game. Their victory was cold-blooded, calculating and ruthless. They dismantled one of the top teams in the country with all the stony-eyed sentiment of an assassin squeezing the trigger.

“This was strictly business,” Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes said.

“They had last year thrown in their face by a lot of people,” Meyer said.

Like UF’s own strength and conditioning coaches. They hung pictures of Georgia’s end-zone celebration in UF’s locker room. They had UF’s players do 188 crunches, pull-ups and sit-ups every day as a reminder of the 188 yards Georgia tailback Knowshon Moreno shredded them for last year.

This time Moreno ran for only 65 yards and quarterback Matthew Stafford was picked off three times. Florida’s defense made the stumbling, bumbling Dawgs look like helpless puppies playing on linoleum.

The Gators, it seemed, figured out the perfect way to keep Georgia from celebrating in the end zone. They kept them out of it until the Dawgs scored a meaningless touchdown with 3:09 left in the game.

For Florida to record a lopsided victory like this in the most monumental game in the history of the series is cathartic for UF fans and followers everywhere. Especially coming on the 40-year anniversary of Georgia’s rainy-day, rub-it-in 51-0 victory in 1968.

Never has a game between these two teams been so big and meant so much. Never have both teams come into the game with such serious national title hopes. The Gators can now clinch the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division next week against Vanderbilt and they are certainly in the conversation for the national championship.

In fact, a case could be made that Florida is the hottest team in the country right now. Since the shocking loss to Ole Miss, the Gators have won their last four SEC games by a score of 201-43. They aren’t just beating teams; they are annihilating them.

Just ask the Dawgs, who trudged hopelessly off the field as the Gators celebrated.

Excessively.

“The best way to celebrate, ” Tebow said with a grin splashed across his face, is after the game.”

The World’s Largest Payback Party

From Mike Bianchi, in the Orlando Sentinel:

The Gators couldn’t have asked for a better tuneup and a more perfect homecoming game than they had Saturday. On Friday night, Gator Growl was headlined by Jon Reep, the 2007 winner of TV’s Last Comic Standing. On Saturday afternoon, the Gators turned Kentucky’s entire defense into a bunch of stand-up comedians.

All that consternation of UF’s offense from a few weeks ago seems downright silly now. Remember all the nonsensical criticism emanating from Gator Nation and beyond about what’s wrong with Florida’s offense? Such disparagement may go down in history with the movie critics back in the ’40s who initially panned It’s a Wonderful Life.

The fact is, the Gators are now more productive on offense than last year’s team that finished No. 1 in the SECand third nationally in scoring. Through seven games last year, the Gators averaged 40.4 points per game. Through seven games this year, they are averaging 42 points per game.

And it’s not like Florida is doing this against chump competition. The Gators have scored a combined 114 points in their last two SEC games against LSU and Kentucky. Say what you will about the overall strength of Kentucky’s team, but you cannot deny the strength of UK’s defense. The Wildcats were ranked No. 1 in the SEC and seventh nationally in points allowed.

The most points Kentucky had given up all season was 24. The Gators had 28 before the first quarter was even over. The 63 points Saturday were the most points the Gators have ever scored in an SEC game underUrban Meyer.

Tebow’s stats aren’t as gaudy as they were last year when he won the Heisman, but maybe they don’t have to be. If the Gators keep winning and stay in the thick of the national championship race, Tebow — the defending Heisman winner — will be a serious contender based on name and reputation alone.

Case in point: Former Ohio Staterunning back Archie Griffin, the only two-time Heisman winner in history. Griffin’s stats decreased significantly in the season he won his second Heisman. You want to take a guess on how many rushing touchdowns Griffin had in the year he repeated as the Heisman winner? Answer: Four.

Tebow has more than that now. He rushed for his fourth and fifth touchdowns of the season Saturday to tie Emmitt Smith for No. 1 on Florida’s all-time list. He also threw for two scores — a 61-yard catch-and-run to freshman flash Jeff Demps and a perfect 33-yard strike to Percy Harvin.

“We’re ready for Georgia,” Harvin declared. “We want to win the SEC and they’re in our way.”

When asked how hard he took last year’s loss to Georgia, Tebow just shook his head and replied bluntly: “Hard.”

The message to the Bulldogs was loud and clear: Hunker down because the Gators are looking to turn this week’s game in Jacksonville into the World’s Largest Outdoor Payback Party.

The Big Deal Again

Florida-Georgia game back to being a meaningful game. Last year I was at the game, sitting in the Georgia section–one of the Georgia fans quipped to me “bad seats, huh”…to which I replied “Nah, I figure by half time we’ll have this whole section to ourselves”–thinking that Florida would blow out a team that had barely beat Vanderbilt the week before and had been blown out by Tennessee–they reminded me of my words in the fourth quarter when they were still there and loudly cheering their victory. From Mike Bianchi in the Orlando Sentinel:

Why are Florida fans, players and coaches so mad at Georgia coach Mark Richt for telling his players to excessively celebrate after the Bulldogs scored their first touchdown in last year’s 42-30 victory over the Gators?

Florida’s players are clearly still upset about Georgia’s players swarming the field and getting an unsportsmanlinke conduct penalty following the Bulldogs’ first touchdown in the first quarter last year. Why else would they refuse to talk about it after the victory over Kentucky Saturday. And although Florida coach Urban Meyer says now that the situation is “old news”, he made his real feelings known in his recently released book — Urban’s Way — written with one of my sportswriting friends Buddy Martin.

“That wasn’t right,” Meyer said in the book. “It was a bad deal. It will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer and in the mind of our football team. We’ll handle it and it’s going to be a big deal.”

And this is exactly why Gator Nation should be grateful to Richt just like I am: Because he’s managed to make this game a big deal again.

Richt has since apologized for the move, but I don’t think he has anything to be sorry about. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: It was a brilliant coaching move that not only turned around Georgia’s season, but may have rejuvenated Richt’s entire coaching tenure at Georgia.

It also put some much-needed juice back into a once-raucous rivalry that had grown stale and mundane.

For that and that alone, I’d like to thank Mark Richt.

And so should Georgia AND Florida fans.

Michael’s Losers

With a hat tip to Leonard Postero, who’s radio show “Leonard’s Losers” often gave me great joy, while riding on the back roads of  North Florida, as a young man–here are my “gut” feeling losers for this weekend (I hope I’m wrong on a few of them:

The Lexington Felines vs. the Florida Swanp Lizards…loser…the Blue Kittens

The Orange Rifleman vs. the Tuscaloosa Pachyderms…loser…in a shocker–the Alabama Laundry Detergent with the roll of toilet paper hanging off of it.

The Georgia Red Clay Dogs vs. the  Bayou Pussycats…loser…the the Athens Puppies

The Columbus Nuts vs. the Penn State Mountain Cats…loser…the Buc Nuts

The Devil Exorcised

The devil less Rays are ready to reach sports immortality. Mike Bianchi’s take from the Orlando Sentinel:

Should the Rays win the Series, they will be the only truly authentic worst-to-first team in the history of American professional sports. They lost at least 90 games in their 10 previous years of existence, including a league-worst 66-96 record last year. Now they are four victories from going where no team has ever gone before.

“If you can’t appreciate this Rays story, you’re way behind the curve. This is magical. They’re living a dream. It’s an elusive thing. It’s like falling in love. You know when it’s happening, but you don’t know how and why it’s happening. It’s an amazing feeling.” 

If anybody should know what “amazing” feels like, it’s the guy who spoke the above words to me Tuesday on the telephone from his home in New Orleans. His name is Ron Swoboda, whose diving, fully-horizontal, rally-killing catch in the World Series against the powerfulBaltimore Orioles became the iconic image of the “Amazing Mets.”

Those “Miracle Mets” are a team that captured the nation’s imagination back in 1969 — the same year man walked on the moon. Which seems only appropriate when comparing the two teams. If the ’69 Mets are Neil Armstrong, then the ’08 Rays areBuzz Aldrin. Even though the Rays are mathematically more amazing (they improved by 31 victories from the previous season compared to 27 for the Mets), the Mets are universally more appreciated.

Maybe it’s a New York thing. Maybe it’s because baseball was bigger back then. Or maybe it’s just a depressing sign of times.

We spend so much time in the media these days focusing on Pacman Jones’ latest altercation or Roger Clemens‘ latest fabrication or Jose Canseco‘s latest book or college football’s latest crook that we can’t even appreciate a history-making once-in-a-lifetime miracle season anymore.

If Madonna is not having an affair with one of the players or the franchise pitcher hasn’t been indicted by the grand jury, then can it really be a compelling story?

Have we really become this jaded and joyless?

I hope not.

I sure hope not.

“The Rays should be celebrated,” Swoboda says. “They’re one of the great stories in baseball history.”

With four more victories, they will rewrite history and be more than just a great baseball story.

They will become the greatest story ever told.

World Series Tickets on Sale

In St. Petersburg, FL today! From the St. Pete Times “Wonder Boys” by Gary Shelton:

 As they rushed toward the field, finally, it did not matter that you had seen their dance before. The sight of this level of joy never grows old.

The darnedest team you have ever seen, the underdog of all underdogs, was bounding across the artificial surface of Tropicana Field. Once again, the Celebration Boogie had taken hold of the Tampa Bay Rays — as familiar by now as the twist or the Macarena — and on a fairy-tale night, the Wonder Boys danced on.

By the time the music stops, they will be in the World Series.

Imagine that.

The Rays won their Sunday night showdown in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series 3-1. Despite the dryness in your throat, despite the dampness in your palms, despite your fraying nerves and your nagging doubts and the superb Jon Lester, the Rays turned out the lights on the stubborn Red Sox. At last.

You thought it was slipping away, didn’t you? You thought these Rays were doomed to be remembered not by a turnaround but by a meltdown. Admit it. A team spends enough time teetering on a cliff and you cannot help but worry about the jagged rocks below. If this felt like an upset, it was because two out of three voices you heard before the game seemed convinced the Rays were going to lose.

All of which is where this Rays team seems to want you, isn’t it? If you have paid attention to it at all, you are aware that being surrounded by doubt is its natural habitat. If you know nothing else about the Rays, it seems that they have to be counted out before they can be counted on.

As it turns out, the Red Sox will not be an everlasting nightmare after all. The Rays won the series, which means that seven-run lead they blew in Game 5 is no more than a backstory. Leave it to Boston fans to discuss what went wrong.

It was minutes before midnight, and Rays owner Stuart Sternberg stood on the infield dirt, champagne and cheers dripping off him, the American League championship trophy cradled in his arms. Sternberg stared into the upper reaches of Tropicana Field and grinned at the sight of fans still there, still roaring.

Sternberg was asked if, all things considered, it was better that the series worked out the way it did instead of the Rays ending it earlier.

“Absolutely,” he said. “The things that are the most important always take the longest road to get there. And we always take the long road.”

Think of it like this: If the Rays had closed out this series instead of blowing the Game 5 lead, the critics would have written off Boston as an aging opponent. If they had won in Game 6, it would have been because of Josh Beckett’s injury.

This way? This way, the Rays won a game that every one of them will remember on their deathbeds.

“Is it better?” vice president Andrew Friedman said. “You mean better for my heart, or for the story line?

“No question, this is better. All year long we’ve responded when people counted us out. It seems like we want that chip on our shoulder.”

Add “contrary” to the list of descriptions of the Rays. Already you have “resilient” and “amazing” and “surprising.” From now on, you can crack open the thesaurus and let the adjectives spew like champagne. Describe manager Joe Maddon as bold (for inserting rookie pitcher David Price with the bases loaded in the eighth, for instance). Describe the Rays as deep (Rocco Baldelli and Willy Aybar, hitting stars?). Describe them as gritty (Matt Garza, seven innings of two-hit baseball).

Also, describe them like this: World Series-bound.

It seems surreal to say it out loud. The Rays, the team of pinched nickels and blurry blueprints, have won the American League pennant. The Rays, the team of Wilson Alvarez and Danny Clyburn, of Ben Grieve and Vinny Castilla, are going to the playground of Reggie Jackson and Kirk Gibson, of Babe Ruth and Joe Carter.

Considering that, is anything in sports still impossible?

When it was over, the Red Sox seemed stunned. Lately, the Rays seem to have that effect on opponents. They keep beating back the doubts, and then someone raises the stakes, and they beat back the new doubts, and on and on.

A winning season? Check. A playoff berth? Check. The AL East title, and the division series, and the American League pennant? Check, check and check.

The World Series? Four more victories and you can call it checkmate. Also:

Dance Fever.

Never has a franchise redefined itself so quickly. In the blink of an eye, the Team That Didn’t Matter has come to mean so much to so many.

To the fans, the Rays are proof that money doesn’t always buy victory, that higher ground can be reached from low beginnings, and that no matter how bad it looks, perhaps tomorrow will be better after all. In a tough time economically, in a noisy time politically, this team has given a region a reason to smile.

To the small-market teams of baseball, the Rays represent hope that results are not based solely on economics, that if a team is intelligent enough and determined enough, if it finds the right players at the discount rack, it is possible to climb the standings in even the toughest of divisions.

To the players, from the talented kids who rose up through the system to those who came in search of a second chance, there is the possibility of falling in with the right team at the right time.

More than anything, that’s who these players are. They are indeed the Rays of hope.

There are impossible dreams, and then there are the ones you do not even say out loud. Oh, let’s admit it. We all knew the Rays were going to be better this year. None of us suspected anything like this.

This is history’s greatest turnaround, better than the 1969 Mets and the 1991 Braves, better than North Carolina State and Villanova, better than the 2001 Patriots. Better than the Bucs. Better than the Lightning.

Odd. This was supposed to be the lily pad year, remember? This was the year the Rays were supposed to finally be better, but it wasn’t supposed to be the year they got ripe. Instead, it was like watching the movie Big; the trick was that the Rays grew up all at once.

Overnight, it seems, the Rays have become the smartest organization in baseball. They are the best defensive team in the game. They have great starting pitching, great relief pitching and — who saw this coming? — bats made of magic lumber. They are young, they are hungry, and for some reason, they think the spotlight is kind of pretty.

And now, they have this World Series thing coming up.

Think about that for a minute. Let the phrase roll over your tongue. Savor the thought of it. Ponder the improbability.

From here, one dance is left.

From here, only a few steps are left to take.