Everybody take a deep breath. Notice how the air seems sweeter, the colors more vivid? That stale hot dog which you’d have spat out just 4 short weeks ago tastes better than the finest sirloin? That simply means that college football has finally, mercifully, arrived.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

In recent years it’s become somewhat of a tradition to watch South Carolina open the season. The Gamecocks typically face off against a) an uncompetitive SEC team, i.e. Mississippi State, or b) a mediocre ACC team. Being an SEC fan, it’s generally good to get a win for the conference, but Florida fans don’t want it to be too good. One certainly doesn’t want a Steve Spurrier-coached team getting any undue confidence, particularly in their offense.

By this standard, South Carolina has performed brilliantly these past few seasons. And your resident patron and host, Gatorpilot, an outspoken anti-Spurs advocate, certainly appreciates yet another uninspiring USC win, one which joyfully beckons to another season of frustration and disappointment for Spur-dog. Anything which hastens the retirement of the former Florida icon, and ends the awkward love-hate phase of this long relationship between fans and coach, is also welcome.

7-3. Seven-to-freakin’-three. Really? Against NC State? The Wolfpack is unlikely to be competitive in the Almost Competitive Conference. No worries, Gamecock fans, there’s no rush to book those tickets to Atlanta. Am I still a bit bitter? Why, yes. I still remember Spurrier smugly proclaiming that his team was good enough to compete for an SEC Championship as recently 2006.

Kiss the rings, fellas. Kiss the rings.

Anyway, tonight was just a tasty little morsel previewing what Gators everywhere hope will be a magnificent season for the boys in orange and blue. The SEC is ours for the taking, ladies and gentlemen.

The opening weekend is full of excellent football. Beyond the obvious Charleston Southern matchup at 7PM on Saturday, we have Georgia taking on Oklahoma State and a prime-time national telecast featuring Alabama vs. Virginia Tech. By the way, kudos to both of these SEC teams for adding to their already difficult slate by scheduling Top 25 opponents. Instead of ‘guarantee’ games we get must-watch TV. Sadly, UF is behind in this regard, but then again, if your goal is to go wire-to-wire wearing the #1 label, why make things any more difficult?

Orange and Blue Hue is back and ready to rock. GO GATORS.

There are many corroborating reports of FSU fans descending to new lows in the course of the Florida-Florida State rivalry game. From ESPN:

[FSU fans] cheered wildly when Harvin, the team’s leading receiver, left the game in the second quarter with a sprained right ankle. He limped off the field with the help of trainers and didn’t return.

I’m finding it very difficult to comment on this rationally. I’ve tried, but I can’t find the words to express how despicable this is — it feels like a gut punch. Not from FSU; they’re harmless. But rather that in a game which cherishes sportsmanship, a group of people — any people — could cheer injury to their fellow man.

Luckily for the Gators, there’s one man out there who doesn’t need words.

Tebow was incensed by the reaction.

“That kind of irritated me,” Tebow said. “I told the coach to give me the ball because I really wanted to hit somebody.”

Meyer obliged, and Tebow carried several defenders into the end zone from 4 yards out two plays after Harvin’s injury.

Add another chapter to the legend that is Tim Tebow. And add reason #9924 to hate FSU.

Let’s be honest: this is really bad. As Urban Meyer would say, this is a big deal. It’s hard to fathom cheering a kid getting injured on a football field. Even in the nastiest college rivalries, this is something that just isn’t done. For example, it’s hard to believe that Georgia fans would have done the same if they were in FSU’s shoes. Say what you will about Georgia and their fans — they’re far from perfect — but they wouldn’t do that. O&B Hue has received reports from Gator fans in Doak Campbell indicating that grown men cheered as the nation’s greatest playmaker was helped off the field, while their young children watched them, mystified.

Kids knew better.

Before this incident, I could have understood if flames of this rivalry began dying down. It’s hard to maintain a red-hot blood rivalry when two teams are so obviously speeding in opposite directions — FSU is years away from competing with the Gators. I could have understood if, next year, Urban Meyer was forced to dig deep into his bag of tricks to get the Gators up for yet another mediocre FSU team visiting in the Swamp. But now… ?

Now I think we aim to drop 100 on their sorry asses next November. Welcome to the Swamp, you sorry sacks of sh*t.

Anyone surprised by today’s final? The Gators produced 502 total yards and scored 45 points in terrible weather conditions. Given they sacrificed most of the 4th quarter to pound the rock and kill the clock, the conclusion is that Florida has a pretty damn good offense. Despite four punts and a fourth down stop at the goal line, I believe the Gators were actually better than they were offensively against South Carolina in the first half. You’ll recall I had some criticisms of the offense at that point.

The ABC commentating crew couldn’t stop gushing about Tebow. The Chosen One provided yet another outstanding performance, completing 12 of 21 passes for 185 yards and 3 TDs. He also ran for an additional 80 yards and 1 TD. That stat line might not jump out, but when you watch the film of Tebow splashing around in Tallahassee’s ugliest waterpark, you appreciate exactly what he brought to the table in this game. It was a Hesiman-worthy performance from the burly Gator signal-caller. Has Tebow’s Heisman stock improved? Probably. Will he win it? Probably not. Should any of us care? No. We have more important prizes to win.

As fun as it was watching Tebow and his speedy backs destroy FSU’s secondary, it was even more enjoyable watching the Gator D absolutely hammer the Nolie quarterbacks. Future Heisman Trophy Candidate^TM Ponder was miserable: 5/14, 60 yards, 2 INTs. It was shocking to see Drew Weatherford take the field again, and the redshirt senior didn’t exactly light things up in his final home game: 4/15 for 61 yards and a fumble leading to a turnover. Even “D’Voe” was 1/2 and threw a pick.
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From ESPN’s Heather Dinich:

Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said that in another year, quarterback Christian Ponder “might be where Tebow is.”

As in, Florida’s Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow.

“He can run the ball and throw it, and he’s very intelligent and is making some good strides,” Bowden said of Ponder. “It looks like he’s about a year behind, though, in production.”

A light year, maybe.

Make that 100 light years.

This game absolutely screams ‘trap’. FSU is fielding their best team since 2004 — which is not saying much, I know. But it’s still the best they’ve had in awhile, they’re coming off a strong win over Maryland and they get the Gators at Ron Zook Field.

Since they’ve already lost 3 games this season, their best hope at this point is to play spoiler to UF. It would positively rock the Nolies’ world to beat the Gators and destroy Tebow’s national title hopes.

They will be sky-freaking-high for this game.

I’ve got to give props to Jimbo Fisher for making strides with this team. Drew Weatherford under center was a major limitation for this offense in both 2006 and 2007; once Fisher benched his redshirt senior in favor of rawer, younger, more talented quarterbacks, the ‘Nole offense began to show signs of life. Bobby Bowden wouldn’t have done that.

Speaking of Bowden, pay no mind to the octogenarian wandering aimlessly on the sidelines, far removed from the action. He is just a spectator like the rest of us; he just happens to wear a “head coach” credential badge and has all-access to the ‘Nole sideline. In fact, if you see him wander onto the field, please call stadium security… he could get hurt. The younger dude wearing the headset? The guy with the face like a frying pan and the creased Cro-Magnon brow? That’s the guy running the show.
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With the biggest portion of the Out-Of-Conference (OOC) season slipping away before league games begin, several conferences made some significant “last stands” to try and regain some respectability.  Let’s look at last weekend’s action.

ACC
One of the doormats of the FBS had been the ACC which got off to a terrible start in the first 2-3 weeks.  This week the ACC put forth a quite respectible showing.  North Carolina State managed to win its first FBS game by upsetting East Carolina in overtime.  Miami went on the road and blew out Big 12 team Texas A&M while Georgia Tech dismantled Mississippi State at home.  Despite forcing overtime against South Florida, UCF didn’t put up much of a fight against Boston College.  Inside the league Virginia Tech looks to be winning ugly (or typical Beamer style) after beating Georgia Tech and North Carolina in back-to-back weeks.  Wake Forest solidified its hold as conference favorite by travelling to Tallahassee and extending its winning streak against FSU to 3 games in a matchup mired by offensive ineptitude, turnovers and mistakes.

BIG EAST
Another joke of a conference that has edged its way into respectability is the Big East.  Largely thanks to a number of intersectional matchups against the Big 12, the Big East is on a bit of a run in OOC games.  Going back to South Florida’s upset of Kansas last Friday, the Big East has gone 3-1 against the Big 12 in nationally televised ESPN night games.  Connecticut held off Baylor and Louisville tripped up Kansas State while only West Virginia failed to uphold the conference honor losing at Colorado in OT 17-14.  Rutgers continued its unexpected slide losing to Navy but Pittsburgh managed to outlast Iowa 21-20 and even Syracuse managed to win its first game this season against Northeastern.  The league is down to only one ranked team, South Florida, but at least isn’t the laughing stock it was two weeks ago.

BIG 12
As discussed, the Big 12 almost singlehandedly brought the Big East back to a legitimate FBS conference.  Having a traditional power like A&M getting blown out by Miami at home doesn’t help the conference pride either.  UNLV kept Iowa State winless in a matchup of a good Mountain West team against a bad Big 12 team.  Colorado provided the only significant win when they upset a talented, yet spiraling, WVU team. (more…)

Week three of the young college football season brings us to our third installment looking at conference strengths.  Since it is virtually impossible to identify how a region of football compares to another when conference teams are playing internally, the beginning of the football season is our best, yet far from perfect, indicator of overall conference trends and relative strengths.  So with that lets look at this past weekend.

ACC
For the first time this season, the ACC avoided the image of one of the worst conferences in the country.  North Carolina absolutely thumped Rutgers, in what should have been a matchup of roughly equivalent teams, 44 to 12.  Does this signify that UNC is ready to begin it’s turnaround under Butch Davis or that Rutgers is going to step back from it’s gradual improvement under Greg Schiano.  In a game of two of the best young coaches in the game, Davis seems to have put together a better team in Chapel Hill in his second year than Schiano has in his 8th year.

In another ACC suprise, struggling mid level team Maryland upset Pac 10 upper tier Cal 35 to 27 in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score.   The same Maryland team that was unable to beat Middle Tennessee the week before took a huge 28-3 lead against Pac 10 power Cal and cruised to an eventual 8 point win.  In other games Virginia continued it’s losing ways by getting clobbered by UConn 45-10 while FSU continued feasting on Division AA programs by routing Chattanooga 46 to 7.  Duke has a winning record after 3 games after beating Navy 41-31 under new head coach David Cutcliffe.

Inside the conference Virginia Tech held off Paul Johnson’s up and coming Georgia Tech team 20-17 while Clemson continued it’s bounce back from their opening day fiasco by beating NCSU 27-9.  Two of the conferences better teams, Wake Forest and Miami, had open dates.

BIG 12
The lone conference losses this weekend were Kansas losing a nail biter to USF in Tampa 34-37 in what was perhaps the best game of the entire weekend and Iowa State losing to in-state rival Iowa 5 to 17.  Big 12 powers Oklahoma and Missouri pounded Washington and Nevada respectively.  Baylor also layed the wood this week to Pac 10 BCS team Washington State 45-17.  Nebraska, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State each won big against lesser opponents.  Texas’s game versus Arkansas (SEC) was postponed due to Hurricane Gustav. (more…)

Not too many legitimate college football pundits waste time arguing against the SEC being the best conference in the land.  Personally, I think the Big 12 is the only other conference that should be in the discussion when it is based on quality and depth.  The first weekend of college football led to some interesting inter-conference results.  In total the SEC beat 2 ACC, 1 WAC, 1 MAC, 1 Conference USA and 5 patsies who really need not be mentioned.  The league’s losers were Mississippi State to Louisiana Tech (WAC) and Tennessee to UCLA (Pac-10).

Overall the SEC has often been held as the leading football conference but never before has the league seen the kind of depth of talent as we are witnessing now.  There will be 8-4 teams coming out of the conference this year which would could easily be BCS bound if they played in another league.  It really is becoming a nightmare of brutal competition on a weekly basis these days.  I see three teams - South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee, that I honestly believe would strongly challenge if not win outright conferences such as the Big East, ACC or Big 10.

Upsets abounded across the country and the SEC was no exception.  The MSU loss to La Tech suggests that last year might have been simply a blip on the Sylvester Croom tenure radar and the Bulldogs are headed back to mediocrity.  Despite a defense that plays as hard for it’s coach as any in the SEC you will be hard pressed to win games without any offense for opponents to respect.  The other dissapointment was, of course, the mighty (I jest) Vols.  (more…)

From O&B Huer Rick:

Check it out - Miami suspends 7 for their opener. Sure, it’s basically a practice game with a non-division school, but I think it’s a lot better than what Bowden has done in response to the cheating scandal. And not even Urban Meyer has done anything like that… we have a couple guys playing in our opener that were involved in off-season stuff. Besides, one of these guys was Marve, the starting QB for something that happened like a year ago where charges were dropped, and he has never started a college game. The poor guy will be thrown to the wolves against our Gators. These suspended starters could sure use that practice game before facing our NC contender as their first college game, don’t you think?

Still, I have to admire that decision, and I’d like to see UF do some more of that before we get out of control. What happened to taking the “top 1% of the top 1%”…? All talk…? Win at any cost? Are we the next Thug U? Remember, the higher-ranked and better we get, the more National scrutiny we will face.

Loyal Hue readers, please sound off on this.

Michael of the Braves and the Birds catches Coach Tommy Bowden trying to rewrite history.  Michael of course refers to Tommy’s comment in SI that goes as follows:

“Not long ago, it was Florida State and Miami dominating college football. Where was the SEC then?” said Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. “These things go in cycles. The SEC has had a nice run. I’m sure that the ACC or another conference will take its place.”

To this Michael brilliantly replies “Yes, where was the SEC back when Miami and Florida State were so good in the 90s?”

1993 Sugar Bowl, Alabama 34 - Miami 13 

1997 Sugar Bowl, Florida 52 - FSU 20 

1998 Fiesta Bowl, Tennessee 23 - FSU 16 

I’d say the SEC hasn’t gone anywhere Tommy.  Lay off the booze.