Bobby Bowden on the Booster Tour. Love it! From the Orlando Sentinel’s “Chopping Block” FSU blog:

8:41 – Another good joke from Bowden. We’ve heard it before but it’s worth repeating. Says his wife Ann doesn’t travel much these days. But she loves watching these cooking shows. Loves Emeril. So I come home the other night, Bowden says, and I’m starved. Walk in the house expecting to have a good meal, and there’s old Ann, watching Emeril cook … and I say all you do is watch them cooking shows – but you don’t ever cook. And Ann says, “Yeah, well … You watch football.”

How lovely that Ann’s depth and breadth of comedic skills include skewering her husband.

Oh, joy — the relative and deepening obscurity of Florida State athletics is another source of pleasure for Gator Nation.

David Whitley writes:

I regret to inform you that the debate is over. Newspapers undeniably prefer the Gators, though not for the reasons persecuted fans think.

It’s not an orange-and-blue thing. It’s a green thing.

Money is becoming scarce in the newspaper business. That has led to cuts in space to print stories, people to write them and editors to mess them up (inside industry joke). That has led to two papers covering FSU’s first-round NCAA Tournament game on Friday.

A half-dozen state papers used to go on the road for regular-season games. Florida hasn’t felt the pinch nearly as much. Seven papers still have writers covering UF. Most live in Gainesville.

It used to be the same in Tallahassee. Now when Bobby Bowden walks off the practice field, he is usually greeted by the Sentinel’s Andrew Carter, someone from the Tallahassee Democrat and maybe a couple of students working part-time for state papers.

That’s not to toot our horn. If the boss is ever ordered to choose between covering FSU and Florida, he’d pick the Gators.

FSU fans have long felt insecure living in the shadow of one of the nation’s most successful athletic programs, just as they have long felt that the Orlando Sentinel is guilty of bias. And guess what? They’re right. Because Gator sports sells newspapers.

Guilty by reason of business insanity.

I’m glad the FSU fan kept that supposedly incriminating photo from long ago. It does prove at least one thing.

The only thing worse than being covered by newspapers you think dislike you is to not be covered at all.

We can only hope and pray that Bobby Bowden lasts ’til the bitter end. I think the old man is still rather spry-looking for an octogenarian. Can we start the chant? Five more years, anyone?

Luckily, on the heels of the second crystal football brought home to Titletown in three years, the performance of our rebuilding hoops team is more an irritant than a wrist-slasher.

In that vein — heh — let’s dig into some FSU schadenfreude.

Case #1: Bobby’s Back.

Oh, good. The ‘Gators For Bowden’ club (okay, me) created the following in total support:

“I am glad to get it signed, up for another year like I said I would do after each year,” said Bowden. “I appreciate the university’s support. We are busy recruiting and looking forward to next season.”
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Controversy? What controversy? Florida gets to throw number one up in the sky.

And amidst excitement over Tim Tebow potentially returning for his senior season (he will be back — trust me) FSU has exciting news as well: that Bobby Bowden will be returning for his 34th season as FSU’s head coach.

Good times, Gator Nation. Good times.

We at O&B Hue apologize for the light coverage before, during and after the BCS championship game. Rest assured we will back with more… but as it currently stands, resident Head Janitor Gatorpilot is out, well, gatorpiloting. Back atcha soon, ladies and fellas.

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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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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The latest BCS standings feature three teams ahead of Florida.

1. Alabama
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida

Some members of Gator Nation are screaming and running around in terror as though the sky is falling. Fear of Texas?! Relax, fellas… if Florida wins out they will play in the BCS National Championship game for the second time in three years.

Here’s why.

1) Texas has one game remaining, against lowly Texas A&M. Florida has two — both ranked. No. 20 FSU, on the road, and No. 1 Alabama at a neutral site. If Florida wins both, their record will be 12-1, while Texas’ best possible record is 11-1.

2) The BCS computers don’t care which conference or division a team plays in. Texas and Oklahoma will be compared as relative equals. But humans, who have a vote in this just like the machines, do care. We saw this in 2006 when Michigan was denied a rematch with Ohio State and I believe the human voters will make the same choice in 2008.

3) At some point in the near future, Texas will begin to slip and they’ll be powerless to prevent the slide. This will occur because Florida, Alabama and Oklahoma will keep playing, but the Longhorns’ season will have concluded. Their only hope of holding onto a No. 2 BCS ranking is for all three of their immediate competitors to lose.

4) Frankly, it doesn’t really matter whether Texas or Oklahoma win the Big 12. In fact, it doesn’t matter if either of them win — don’t forget about 2-loss Missouri, who would love to win the conference and spin up a massive BCS headache for the rest of the nation. Florida will hold onto its berth and the only question is, who will they play? If Missouri wins the Big 12, Penn State and USC re-enter the conversation, but USC has to hope that Oregon State doesn’t win the Pac-10.

5) Bottom line? All Florida has to do is win their next two games, and the Gators can book their trip to Miami. It’s simple, cut, and dried. It would take some crazy scenarios to keep a one-loss Florida squad out of the title game; those involve the Gators winning, but playing poorly against FSU and Bama. But even that is unlikely to be enough considering that both are quality opponents.

I dislike this man. But I like it when he wears this expression. Which is often.

Like the rabid Defender of Freedom who is perhaps just slightly too patriotic (and a little creepy), I am viciously protective of my team and have a bright stripe of animus in my blood when Florida’s rivals pop up on the ledger.

Readers of this blog know that I am no fan of Steve Spurrier, choosing to focus on his recent misdeeds as Florida’s rival and jabby comments rather than former savior status. I’m tied with Orson Swindle when it comes to Krispy Kreme/Fat Phil jokes. And I’ve picked on Mark Richt’s middle-parted bangs and the awful leadership decision he made, the one which led to the “Incident” in the 2007 WLOCP. All this despite the fact that these men are sterling examples of human beings and that the world — outside of college football, anyway — is a better place with them in it. There’s a line, and I’m staying on the sane side.

But let’s cut the crap right here and now. It’s FSU week. FSU. A team whose fanbase is as good as gone when the team starts to lose but are unbearably arrogant and annoying when they win.

And it starts from the top. Bobby Bowden does not fall into that “lovable bastard” category. Nor does Mickey Andrews. Nor does FSU as a whole. They are a blight on the sport, Bowden is selfishly dragging FSU down with him and it’s a sad, disgusting spectacle that I perversely love and loathe with equal measure.
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Proof that God loves college football: the black leather Citadel purse

Just kidding. How can you hate Citadel? This is basically a glorified bye-week. Florida will get to double-digit wins under Meyer and the Gators will have a chance to prepare for FSU — not that the coaches will publicly admit anything of the sort. Ideally Tim Tebow will be done at halftime and John Brantley, Emmanuel Moody and the rest of the backups will get some much-needed playing time.

Some Citadel-week thoughts, in random order:

1) I looked closely at the USC game and determined that Florida’s offense still has plenty of room for improvement. Of Florida’s 10 first-half possessions, only 6 “count” in terms of an actual kickoff and “reasonable” starting field position — the other four were considered “NA” due to turnovers or end-of-half. Of those 6 possessions, there were two fumbles, three punts and a single TD. Not so great. In the second half, the Gators had 8 possessions, and four went for TDs. Two of those TD drives started inside USC’s 42-yard line — again, thanks to defense (one possession started at USC’s 40-yard line after an INT) and special teams. If the Gators didn’t enjoy such great field position, it’s hard to imagine that they’d have gotten four touchdowns out of that deal. What it boils down to is this: without a superlative special teams and defensive effort, the Gators would probably have scored 28 to 35 points in this game. It’s not a big stretch to imagine that without such great starting field position in the second half they might have been held to as few as 21. Our boys on the offense better be thinking about playing better — Bama and/or a possible Big 12 opponent will be a lot better at scoring points than South Carolina, and likely won’t be as turnover-prone.

2) Speaking of turnovers, the Gators have “made their own luck” this year. Turnovers in big games have helped a great deal. Versus Georgia, Matthew Stafford was intercepted three times. Against LSU, the Gators picked off human-turnover-machine Jarrett Lee twice and recovered a fumble. And against South Carolina, the Gators intercepted three Gamecock passes and scooped up a fumble on the 1-inch line on special teams. Those are the three best teams Florida has faced, and in every one the defense has put the offense in a position to capitalize. And they have certainly taken advantage of those opportunities… but does anyone remember what happened the last time we lost the turnover battle?

3) The real story of the 2008 Gators should be the fact that this is a great team as represented by all three units — and I’m not convinced that the defense isn’t superior to the offense right now.

4) Looking ahead, I expect FSU to be a tricky game. If the Gators can blow the game open early, the ‘Noles will fold quickly. They are not a team that likes to be punched in the mouth. But if they fail to do that, and FSU starts to have hope and belief in themselves, this one could get pretty tight. Let’s not forget that Florida has won in Doak Campbell precisely two times in the last 19 years, and both of those wins were damn close (20-13 in 2004 and 21-14 in 2006). And for FSU, this is the Superbowl. Beat UF, and the season is saved. Better go in ready for a cage match.

5) Kentucky looked pretty bad against North Carolina on Tuesday night. Their uniforms looked worse: the “shorts” now fall well below the knees and look like high-water waders. Please tell me that Florida will not succumb to this insane new look for college basketball unis. EPIC FAIL.

We interrupt Georgia Hate Week for this brief announcement: we also hate FSU.

We’re a long time removed from Spurrier’s infamous rants about late quarterback hits and Bobby Bowden’s “echo of the whistle”. We all know that FSU plays dirty on defense, they always have, and always will, at least as long as Mickey Andrews is in charge of the Tallahassee insane asylum.

For proof, look no further than FSU’s victory over Virginia Tech, in which both starting QB Tyrod Taylor and backup QB Sean Glennon left the game with ankle injuries.

The Father of Gatorpilot emails O&B Hue:

From Sunday’s Orlando Sentinel, re: SOW’s win over VT:

Afterward, Brown said the tenacity of FSU’s defense had “definitely been missing.”

It returned, at least in some form, against the Hokies.

“Getting to the quarterback and not just getting him on the ground, but putting him out — that’s what Florida State defense is all about,” Brown said.

This is Everett Brown, an FSU defensive end. Surely our coaches don’t tell our D to twist ankles or to injure other star QBs. AT least, that’s what FSU is bragging about. These weren’t hard hits, these were twisted ankles. I hope our gameplan against Georgia isn’t to twist Knowshon’s knee while in the pile. To me, that’s not right. Am I alone here or taking this the wrong way? When I read this in the paper, my first thought was “What a THUG”.

No, Dad, you’re not alone, and you’re not taking it the wrong way. Same old Criminoles. The college game has no place for this nonsense, but it has been alive and well in the Bowden administration for decades. FSU will feel the pain when the the NCAA sanctions are finally levied; it’s too bad they can’t also be penalized for teaching their players to injure their opponents. Bobby Bowden and Mickey Andrews are a disgrace to the game of college football.