The Hoops Gators knocked off #2 Michigan State, while Tebow’s Swamp Legacy concluded with yet another pasting of the worthless Seminoles of Florida State… all within 24 hours of each other.

In terms of schadenfreude, could this have been written any more sweetly? ESPN College Gameday dropped by, not because of the enormity of the game — FSU stinks, after all — but the significance of Tim Tebow’s final game in the Swamp. The parallel storyline, Bobby Bowden’s coaching legacy, was necessarily weak in the modern sense thanks to Bowden’s lack of accomplishments in the last 8 years of his career.

FSU’s ship is sinking. HMS Bowden is taking on water faster than Jimbo Fisher can bail it out. Meanwhile, the Gators are two games away from a historic accomplishment, and Tebow’s legacy as the greatest player in college football history is nearly cemented.

Good times, ladies and gentlemen. A halcyon era of Gator dominance… a masterful meld of coaching and players to produce an unprecedented string of success against Florida’s rivals.

But enough on the 6-6 Nolies, who don’t feature a single player on the roster who know the taste of victory over the Gators.

You want to talk about Gator Greats? Sure, Tebow’s one, but many of the Gator Greats of ‘09 play on defense. Brandon Spikes. Carlos Dunlap. Ryan Stamper. Joe Haden. A.J. Jones. While UF enjoyed a field day against FSU’s swiss-cheese offense, against better competition, our defense has carried the day. Thank you, boys. You may have walked through that tunnel for the last time, but you will not be forgotten.

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.

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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Preseason #1. Expectations of a conference title. WINNING TWO IN A ROW over the hated Gators. A BCS title berth, or at the very least, a BCS bowl game. The second coming of Herschel Walker. The OMG-best-ever signal caller in Athens ready to make Tim Tebow’s ‘07 Heisman run ancient history.

Remember all that talk?

I do. I think it’s worth taking a stroll down memory lane and remembering the taunts and jabs of Georgia fans who were so certain that after a rare WLOCP victory and a destructive tour-de-force over hapless Hawai’i in the Sugar Bowl, that the balance of power would finally shift in their favor in 2008. According to Georgia fans, this was THE YEAR. Florida was going to take the back seat to a new era of ‘Dawg dominance.

Heh.

Final result for UGA: 9-3 with blowout losses to their two biggest SEC rivals and a season-ending home loss to hated cross-conference rival Georgia Tech, who under first-year head coach Paul Johnson were playing with a newly-installed option attack. Against the Yellow Jackets the Bulldogs’ undisciplined and poorly-coached defense gave up 409 yards on the ground — the Jackets only needed to pass for a total of 19 yards.
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Watch the score…

Written by a sad soul on Warchant, the FSU message board:

Subject: Why are we here?

“Either we are the true FSU diehards, or just masochists. The number of times we’ve been kicked in the stomach as FSU fans the last couple years is unbelieveable. I mean it’s hard to even comprehend. What do we have, 8 scholarship OL from the last FOUR recruiting classes combined? Does our #3 ranked ‘06 class even crack the top 30 anymore?? Who is our best player? Do we have anybody left on our team that strikes fear in an opponent? Do we have any depth whatsoever? How about leadership? Or better yet, leadership from the coaching staff? This is beyond asinine.”

And here is where “nole96″ cranks his lament into overdrive.

“I wouldn’t wish what we’ve had to go through on our most hated rivals. I can’t even remember the last truly positive thing that happened to FSU football. I keep thinking we hit rock bottom, then we sink deeper. What will it be next? And will it be tomorrow?”

Indeed. What will tomorrow bring for what is our most hated rival? At the rate things are going… nothing good.

A quick look back on what brought the ‘Noles to this point:
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From the mailbag, the father of Gatorpilot writes:

Found this story.

As he leaned back in his garnet leather office chair and chewed on an unlit cigar, Bowden matter-of-factly said he would like to increase his win total from 373 to 400 games and, perhaps, win another national championship before he officially hands his job over to Fisher — in other words, resurrect his once proud program that failed to finish in the national rankings for the past two seasons.

“I’d sure like to,” he said. “And if it doesn’t, I ought to get out.”

At 7 wins a year that is 4 more years! Hooray!

It’s official, ladies and gentlegators. Florida isn’t going to get a shot at three straight titles and is heading for NIT-land. First on the plate is a San Diego team (Not the Rockets or Clippers of old, remember, but San Diego State)

But look on the bright side, folks. The Aztecs are an accomplished sports school, with a distinguished list of stars including Marshall Faulk, pictured here, and Tony Gwynn Sr. Unfortunately, that’s about it.

Hey, at least we get them in the O-Dome! Oh wait, I forgot that Florida hasn’t even done well at home as of late. But the Gators have planted their own seeds, and now they must reap what they sow.

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