There has been much ado (at least by me) regarding the ratings drop for the NCAA Tournament this year. My curiosity on the subject caused me to dig a little deeper into the issue. There were initial attempts by some to declare the first week’s rating decline as simply a function of Easter Weekend (because of all the avid catholic roundball fans I guess). However when the trend continued into week two that seemed a bit of a stretch (a weeklong Easter Hangover?). But then in the face of those lukewarm first two weekends the 2008 NCAA Tournament revealed to us a dream Final Four . . . a compilation where all four number one seeds had reached the final weekend. But that was not all as it also included three of the most storied college basketball programs in UCLA, North Carolina and Kansas. I mean what could be better than that, right?

Well, I’ll tell you something that could have been better – CLOSE, WATCHABLE games. It’s true, I fell into the trap thinking that this compelling matchup of titans (which also included recent power Memphis who had held the #1 spot in the polls for most of the season) would make for some exciting and dynamic games. Unfortunately nothing could have been further from the truth. The results of last weekends contests between UCLA and Memphis and North Carolina and Kansas were two truly ANTI-CLIMATIC blowouts of 15 and 18 points respectively. Oooooh, what gripping television . . . is that going to boost ratings?

According to the overnight ratings - apparently not. Last weekend’s overnight showed that while the marquee evening matchup of Kansas and North Carolina approximated last years UCLA vs Florida late semifinal game (at least it probably will after the ratings are expanded in the next few days), the preceding game (UCLA vs Memphis) was down almost 14% from last years matchup of Ohio State and Georgetown. Okay so what gives? Why is it that this tournament could end up becoming the second lowest rated Tournament in the past 3 decades? Only the 2003 Tournament will have lower ratings than 2008 and that tournament has the excuse of being played at the beginning of the Iraqi War. (more…)

It’s the height of recruiting season and the attention of many college football fans turns to which high school all-americans will choose to go to their respective schools. A good coach can do many things well. One of those things is to lure the top blue chip recruits to his school. Recruiting is the life-blood of a program. Yet as great as the exuberance may be on signing day, it might never translate into success on the field. History is riddled with great signing classes that either never lived up to their billing or ended up being decimated by grades, transfers and early declarations. What makes a coach great cannot be limited to the talent of his kids so what is it that makes a coach successful?

Clearly there are several factors when defining a great coach. There is a difference between being a great coach and a great person, one does not necessarily mean the other. Integrity is NOT necessary in being a great coach, otherwise coaches like Saban and Franchione would be out of a job while Shula and Coker still gainfully employed. Personality and articulation doesn’t dictate success or Spurrier and Miles wouldn’t have all the wins to their record. Lord knows Weis and Fulmer have proven beyond a doubt that self-discipline isn’t the key to on-field accomplishment. (more…)

After reading an interesting discussion between Heisman Pundit and Get the Picture, I have decided to chime in on the future of the Florida offense.  When Meyer brought his scheme to Gainesville people either predicted it would revolutionize the SEC or it would never work against SEC caliber defenses.  In two years its been hard to decide which is true.  It’s my opinion that players win championships when motivated and prepared by coaches who put them in a position to win.  A coach can’t cradle an interception, make a key third down stop behind the line of scrimmage, find the open receiver or recover a fumble.  Only players can make plays on the field but that doesn’t mean a coach isn’t important.
 
Pat Riley and Billy Donovan believe that the Miami Heat and Florida Gators won Championships because his players bought into the concept of team play.  Despite the claims of columnists like Dan LeBatard of the Miami Herald who espouses that any coach could win with those teams, coaches do have an important effect on a game and on a season.  But how important have the schemes been that Meyer brought to Gainesville?  Defensively the aggressive attacking style has paid huge dividends in meshing with the talent on hand.   

Zook, for all his defensive heritage, preferred a more reactive style defense with lets blitzes to make sure his defenses didn’t give up the big play.  This is a common strategy in football. The thought that the more plays you make the opposing offense run to score the more likely they will make a drive killing mistake or one of your players will make a key defensive play. (more…)

By any standard, the SEC has been impressive this season. 9 Southeastern Conference teams are playing in bowls. 4 teams play in December (but none before December 28th), 5 play in January; two play in BCS bowls, one plays in the traditionally prestigious Cotton Bowl, and the “Big One” — Florida — plays for all the marbles, the BCS national championship.

The SEC has the opportunity to show well in these games. Here are your bowl matchups:

Oklahoma State vs. Alabama in the PetroSun Independence Bowl

I’m fairly certain that no one in Tuscaloosa is especially pleased with this draw, but at least they did make a bowl game in Mike Shula’s final season as Tide Head Coach. Oklahoma State’s record matches Alabama’s at 6-6. OSU’s best win was over #20 Nebraska, their worst loss was at Houston, and the toughest game to swallow for the Pokes was likely their 27-21 loss against rival Oklahoma. They came within one point of tying #23 Texas A&M, but lost badly to #4 Texas, 36-10.

Alabama’s unimpressive SEC record could easily have been 7-5 with a win over Arkansas had the Tide’s backup kicker, “Tiffin the Terrible,” not had such an awful outing, missing three field goals under 40 yards and then missing a PAT needed to tie up the Hogs in overtime. Bama was also competitive with then #7 Tennessee, losing 16-13, but closed out the year with three consecutive losses, including a tough bow to Auburn — the Tide’s 5th in a row and 4th under Shula. The Auburn game was likely the “straw” for Shula, who was clearly outcoached on national television, and had a deer-in-the-headlights look for most of the game.

The X-factor in this game will have to be interim head coach Joe Kines, Bama’s defensive coordinator. Can he get these guys to play at a higher level? Will the time off to rest and heal help the Tide, or have they been wallowing in the directionless mire created by the Bama administration’s inability to finger a new head coach? Alabama certainly has the talent to beat the Pokes, but do they have the coaching?

I’m going to say “no.” Although I will be rooting for all of the SEC’s teams during bowl season, I think OSU has shown up at most of their games and they can score TDs in the red zone.

Calling it: Alabama 17, Oklahoma State 20

Fan factoid: the “Independence Bowl” is the formerly infamous “Weedeater” Bowl. Intrusive corporate sponsorship made a little slicker with a new name and new sponsor, I suppose.

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Gator fans today have to pinch themselves. Although Monday — December 25th — is Christmas, for Gators everywhere it has felt like Christmas morning every day since the start of the 2006 football season.

After a magical 12-1 finish, an SEC championship, and a confluence of amazing events ordained by the football gods, Florida is going to play in the BCS Championship game against Ohio State. Meanwhile, Florida’s basketball team is back to championship form and has shown the world what they are capable of when they play as a team — and they did so in the process of destroying Ohio State, a highly sensationalized (and perhaps somewhat overrated) team which many pundits picked to beat the Gators.

(Does this remind you of any other Ohio State teams?  Is this not the perfect script leading to a Florida victory in Glendale, or what?)

Those pundits were wrong — very wrong, as it turns out. Even with a group of starters still not able to perform 100%, Florida shut down Oden — often with injured center Al Horford working alone — and beat Ohio State by 26 points. The final score was 86-60, and the game was never in doubt after the Bucks managed to tie the contest one last time at 40-40.

While fans have so much to look forward to from this energetic, team-oriented group of basketball Gators, we also look towards January 8th and the chance to win it all. Could it happen? Florida wins back to back basketball titles with a football championship in between?

There’s no reason to think it can’t. Florida has all the pieces in place to do it. We have championship quality teams in both sports. They can play with anybody. They can beat any team.

So waking up on Christmas Day might be anticlimatic for those of us who live and breathe to follow Gator athletics. We wake up today to give thanks for family and friends, to be together, and most importantly, cherish the peace and happiness that most of us have enjoyed this year. And then we get to giggle and enjoy Florida’s prominance at the very pinnacle of the two biggest sports in the land — football and basketball.

Over the holidays, we exist in that magical bubble where everything is possible. Behind us, Florida’s regular football season and 2006 SEC Championship burn brightly. Ahead, January 8th in Glendale awaits in football, and conference play in the SEC will begin for our championship basketball team.

These are special times. Enjoy them with your family. Kiss and hug someone dear, then cheer your Gators on to victory in Glendale — and then again in March.

Happy Holidays, and Go Gators!

Readers might have noticed the absence of several O&BHue contributors lately. I’m here to assure everyone that things are fine and their time away can be easily explained. I’ll go through and update you on the staff one at a time.

GatorPilot - Reports that Ryan was kidnapped by aliens while flying back from the SEC Championship Game are completely unfounded. Aliens had nothing to do with Ryan’s disappearance. The truth is he wasn’t kidnapped until after Florida was put into the BCS Title game and by Michigan fans, not space aliens. Apparently some Wolverines were not happy about his gloating after the new BCS standings came out and one thing led to another. We are currently deep into negotiations to retrieve our faithful leader but so far the demands have been unreasonable. As we are not affiliated with the BCS or the University of Florida we obviously cannot force the Gators to abdicate their spot in lieu of the Wolverines and we cannot demand a recount of the votes.

Currently we feel we have a competitive offer on the table of two free O&BHue T-Shirts and a $10 off coupon for the Miami Seaquarium (valid for up to 6 people). We had also offered a used Gator hat but that seemed to enflame Ryan’s captors and negotiations temporarily broke down for a while. They have resumed and are going smooth. Our strategy is similar to ticket scalping, the closer it gets to game time the less value their hostage will have and we can get him on the cheap. In the meantime . . . I hope they are feeding him!

RobG - Any of our regular readers will know that the ONLY reason that Robert won our football picks segment is because he skipped a week with an injured foot. He won by default as he happened to lose nothing while the rest of us took a bath. That’s a cheap and pathetic way to win and karma has caught up to Mr. Greene. Recently his injured foot fell off. Yes that’s right, he woke up one morning (hungover of course) and noticed he wasn’t the same man he used to be.

Since this time Robert has been busy searching for and trying out prosthetics, which for anyone who doesn’t know can be quite a time consuming process. In between his school responsibilities and part time job as a stylist in a hair salon he has been forced to travel to a number of different medical supply stores trying to find something in his size. Unfortunately because he is a student his insurance doesn’t cover much for what they consider “aesthetic” products. As such he is currently forced to wear a wooden peg leg until he can find something he likes at a reasonable price (aka dirt cheap). He’s a good kid and has personally expressed his embarrassment as being called “Rob the Pirate Lawyer . . . Arrrrrrgggghhhhh” by his professors. If you see him, please refrain from making any such pirate comments in his presence.

Swampster - David has actually been around and simply taking an extended vacation from both work and the site. The truth is that David has long harbored a desire to dance and express himself on the stage. In early December he decided it was time to act on these dreams and I applaud him for taking a chance few of us would dare to. He is currently part of a traveling dance troupe in the Southwest US perfecting his skill in the Flamenco dance he grew to love as a child. We expect David to return shortly and perhaps even share some of his stories with out readers. We don’t have any pictures but apparently his dance costume (as common in the Flamenco style) is very bright and colorful. Our best wishes go out to him and his goal of eventually opening up a dance studio on the weekends. But don’t worry people; it will be closed during Gator games.

Apparently there is something very sinister and disturbing in the water up in the State of Michigan.  And this has occurred SINCE I lived there in the late 70s and early 80s.  Somehow this unknown substance is affecting the ability of Michigan fans to think clearly and logically.  Instead it’s leaving much of the state and its Flagship University’s fans mentally diminished.

Here are some examples of this strange microbe’s effects and how it differs from person to person.  According to the Centers for Disease Control each victim shows the traits of a different psychological disorder (see the individual diagnosis).  Some examples are as follows:
 

The point is for the two best teams to play, as I stated before. And the whole “conference champ” thing is bull, as I also stated below. Florida and Michigan both lost in their conferences. The difference is that Florida lost to LSU, who happened to lose twice in the regular season giving Florida a “second chance” at the conference championship, while Michigan lost to Ohio State, who went undefeated. Had LSU won out as Ohio State did, Florida would not have played for the SEC championship game. Neither Florida nor Michigan controlled their own fate once they lost, Florida got lucky and LSU lost twice. Anyway, I’m being repetitive, now.

http://publicfiguresbeware.blogspot.com/

Well repetitive and “ridiculous“.  You can see the great research done here by so called “political blogger” and unmitigated Wolverine Homer PorkyPigg.  This is the kind of factual analysis I am coming to expect from Maise and Blue fans.  His point is that if LSU had been the team going undefeated instead of Ohio State that Florida would be robbed just as Michigan is this year.  That would be an interesting argument except that anyone who follows football or has internet access to something like . . . ohh say ESPN??? . . . would see that LSU and Florida are in different divisions and the SEC has a championship game.  So even if LSU had been the lone UF loss and had gone undefeated in the SEC West UF would have matched up again in the SEC title game.  Nice argument, stick to politics.  At the beginning of his blog he states that he doesn’t like to talk about sports . . . now we know why.

Normal Diagnosis - Slight mental retardation, delusional behavior.

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It’s official.

As of 3:54EST, the LA Times is reporting that Florida, not Michigan, will face Ohio State in the January 8th BCS title game.

24 hours ago, no one thought Florida had a snowball’s chance in hell of going to the MNC.

But then a funny thing happened. We did anyway.

Just how momentous is this news to the Gator Nation? Eh, you could compare it to:

…

Monday, July 21st 1969
THE MOON—Jesus fucking Christ.

The distant, lonely, mysterious satellite that has fascinated mankind since the dawn of time is distant and lonely no more.At 4:17 p.m. EST yesterday, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. touched down on the Sea of Tranquility in the lunar module Eagle and radioed back to Earth the historic report: “Jesus fucking Christ, Houston. We’re on the fucking Moon.”

[…]What follows is a partial transcript of the radio communication between the astronauts on the Moon’s Tranquility Base and NASA personnel at mission control on Earth:

TRANQUILITY BASE: This is Tranquility Base. The Eagle has landed. Jesus H. Christ, Houston. We’re on the fucking Moon. Over.

HOUSTON: Roger, Tranquility, we copy you. We cannot believe you are on the fucking Moon. Repeat: Cannot fucking believe it. Over.

TRANQUILITY: It was a smooth touchdown. The Moon, for Christ’s sake, the Moon. Over.

HOUSTON: Roger that. You’re clear for T1, walking on the Moon. Over.

TRANQUILITY: We copy. Walking on Moon. Jesus. Over.

HOUSTON: You’re cleared to hook up Lunar Equipment Conveyor. To walk (pause) fucking walk on the Moon. Over.

TRANQUILITY: LEC attached. Platform lined up. Checking ingress. Over. […]

HOUSTON: You’re clear, Tranquility. Proceed. Over. […]

TRANQUILITY: I’m on the bottom rung of the ladder. Just one more step, and I’m… (long pause)

HOUSTON: Tranquility?

TRANQUILITY: Holy (pause) living (long pause) fuck. (Long pause) Fuck!

HOUSTON: Tranquility, do you copy?

TRANQUILITY: Are you fucking believing this? Over.

HOUSTON: We read you. Over.

TRANQUILTIY: I abso-fucking-lutely am standing on the surface of the fucking Moon. I am talking to you from the god-damned fucking Moon. Jesus H. Christ in a chicken basket.

HOUSTON: Holy Shit.

(HT: The Onion)

You’re playing Florida with SEC Championship hopes on the line. You just scored on a big turnover — after being down 17-0 — and have gone ahead to take the lead, 21-17. The dream is alive! Now, what’s the worst possible thing you can do at this moment? See below:

Chomp at your own peril, Gator Haters.

Is this a team of destiny?

I ask because at 4:30PM on December 2nd — the time of kickoff for the USC-UCLA game — the chances for Florida to appear in the National Championship game against Ohio State weren’t just on life support. More like: dangling unconcsious by a ventilator from the highest, coldest peak on K2 wearing nothing but a speedo.

But something miraculous happened. UCLA won. (I CALLED IT! I CALLED IT!)

And as UF steadily (well, mostly) put Arkansas away, they traded the speedo for a winter survival suit and the ventilator for a parachute. A golden parachute — the BCS pays big bucks, after all. Piloted by Chris Leak to an SEC championship and to a perfect spot landing in the exact epicenter of the “BCS Mess,” the media superspotlight generated by the ESPNs and CBSs of the world.

Clumsy analogy aside… just like that, Florida has gained the national momentum to be selected as the #2 team in the nation, superceding Michigan for a chance to play the Buckeyes in Glendale. The voters could still choose Michigan, but should they? The Wolverines’ loss to Ohio State is a faint memory, weeks old. Florida’s strong win is fresh.

Gary Danielson of CBS talked up the Gators all night. Florida had a perfect opportunity to shine and a great friend in Danielson. They took advantage of both.

Bottom line is this: it’s safe to say that Sunday’s BCS rankings will be watched more closely than Charlie Weis’ chart at WeightWatchers.

Go Gators: 2006 SEC Champions!