Are you ready for some football?

[IHateUGAlyDawgs]

Although there are four weeks until the Florida Gators hit the field to begin spring practice, there is a level of excitement and anticipation in the air that probably has more to do with a feeling of unfinished business than anything else. Considering the Gators lost four games in 2007, it’s difficult to imagine anything but a business-like attitude when practice begins March 19, and if that’s the prevailing attitude throughout the spring, then 2008 could be a season to remember.

In a strange way, Florida’s disappointing performance in the Capital One Bowl could actually help the Gators. First off, it put a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. Nobody likes to go out on a losing note, especially competitors like Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin, whom I am hearing are pushing their teammates to take every workout to a brand new level in this most important offseason. Secondly, Florida’s loss to Michigan combined with Georgia’s strong finish to the 2007 season has placed the bulls-eye squarely on the backs of the Poodles. Just about every preseason poll is going to have Georgia ranked number one in the nation so Coach Mark Richt will have to deal with the pressure of high expectations.

There will be high expectations for Tebow at Florida, but with the surrounding cast of playmakers that he has, it’s hard to imagine that he won’t put up some more Star Wars numbers this year. Tebow could actually have a better year in 2008 than in 2007 even though statistically the numbers --- while they should be very impressive --- might not measure up to last year. Having seen the way Harvin tore up the School Out West and Michigan in those last two games, he could actually emerge as the front runner to win the Heisman Trophy in much the same way that Reggie Bush succeeded Matt Leinhart at Southern Cal back in 2005. Leinhart actually had a better 2005 than he had 2004 but the stats were a little bit down because he had more weapons to distribute the ball to.

With Emmanuel Moody and a healthy Mon Williams to complement Harvin and Kestahn Moore at tailback, Tebow won’t have to carry the running game burden this year. Expect his average per carry to soar and his number of carries to diminish. He could end up with practically the same yardage on half the carries if Harvin, Moody, Williams and Moore do their part.

The passing game won’t miss a beat, either. Louis Murphy and Cornelius Ingram are established go-to guys and Harvin proved he can go deep just as well as he can take short passes for huge gains last year. A healthy Riley Cooper and juco All-American Carl Moore are big, physical targets that can run and David Nelson and Justin Williams will be called on to do more than block. Then there is Aaron Hernandez, whom the staff is just figuring out what to do with.

It all adds up to perhaps the most exciting offense the Gators have ever had. Throw that in with a defense that should be vastly improved and Florida has a real shot at winning its second national championship in the four years of the Urban Meyer era.

WHO FIGURED THIS ONE OUT?: I have no idea whose idea it was but we have one of the true quirks in scheduling in 2008 in the Southeastern Conference. Four of Tennessee’s East Division opponents have an open date the week before they play the Vols. Only Vanderbilt didn’t get an open date before it’s November 22 game with Tennessee in Nashville.

Florida is open on September 13 before traveling to Knoxville on September 20. Georgia is open on October 4 before hosting Tennessee in Athens on October 11. South Carolina is open October 25 before facing the Vols in Columbia on November 1 and Kentucky has an open date on November 22 before playing Tennessee in Knoxville on November 29.

Considering the Vols lost their quarterback (Erik Ainge), their best defensive player (Jerod Mayo), their offensive coordinator and a couple of other coaches, this isn’t the kind of year that you would expect Tennessee to make a run at the SEC East title. Given the schedule and how everybody in the East that figures to have a good team will have a week to prepare, this might be a year in which the Vols struggle to break even.

DO YOU LIKE THIS IDEA?: I’ve gotten a barrage of instant and private messages with a great idea of how to fill The Swamp to the rafters an hour before the Orange and Blue Game. I’ve got to admit, this has an element of genius to it and it’s something that I believe would sell out the stadium.

Here it is: Since the Gators might have the fastest or at least one of the fastest teams in the country, let the fastest guys on the team go head to head in a 40-yard-dash challenge an hour before the game. Take the eight fastest guys on the team and have four match races. The four winners would advance to the semi-finals and the two winners to the finals with the winner officially declared the fastest Gator of all.

Can you imagine this first round?:
1. Louis Murphy vs. Joe Haden
2. Percy Harvin vs. Wondy Pierre-Louis
3. Chris Rainey vs. Justin Williams
4. Emmanuel Moody vs. Deonte Thompson

And just to make it more entertaining, let’s let the linemen go at it, too. I’d pay to see the Pouncey twins going head to head with guys like Carlos Dunlap and Torrey Davis.

This is something that could become part of Orange and Blue Game tradition.

LAST ONE TO LEAVE TURN OUT THE LIGHTS: Bob Minnix, the soon to be ex-director of compliance at the School Out West, says this pending NCAA investigation has nothing to do with him leaving in May for the green pastures of Washington State University. Maybe the eternal optimists among the SOW alumni, boosters and fans are buying into this, but have any of you ever been to Pullman, Washington? It’s not the end of the world, but there are signs that will get you there and it’s not all that far away.

You only choose to leave Tallahassee, where the weather is warm and you’re only an hour from some lovely beaches, for Pullman, where you’re butt deep in snow in winter and wondering if it’s ever going to rain again in the summer, if you’ve got to get out of Tallahassee quickly. Tallahassee has lovely old brick homes on streets lined by tall oak trees with Spanish moss hanging from them. Pullman (population 24,000) has trailer parks. Seven of them to be exact and they’re so popular that there’s a waiting list to get in. Most folks have given up on that utopia and have parked the double wide on an acre just outside of town.

It is safe to say that Pullman is not exactly the garden spot of the earth although it is home of the National Lentil Festival. Bet you’re already booking a room at the Super 8 just across the border in Moscow, Idaho just so you don’t miss out on all the festivities.

So, now that you know all about Pullman, you’re asking yourself why would a Notre Dame educated black man leave a lovely, culturally diverse city that’s home to two major universities and an hour from great beaches for an area of the country that (a) isn’t that scenic; (b) has crappy weather; and (c) is 83 percent white and 2.4 percent black?

The answer, my friend, isn’t blowing in the wind but it is in the hands of the NCAA, which has already sent back one self-report by the SOW and told them to start all over again and come back when there’s something real to talk about. In case you were on summer vacation to Mars (I hear it’s lovely this time of the year), the SOW’s crack team of investigators (or was it investigators on crack? This is all so confusing) turned up 23 athletes and two football players that had cheated. That was in September. The NCAA sent a memo back to Tallahassee that indicated there were two chances that first report would be accepted --- no way and no how. That led to the infamous suspension of about a fourth of the scholarship players when the Semis were about to play My Old Kentucky Home in the Your Cheatin’ Heart Bowl in Nashville.

And that led us to this latest self-report and self-imposed set of sanctions whose side effect is all the rats --- er, former highly paid executives employed by the athletic department at the School Out West --- are jumping the ship and taking their chances of swimming to shore in turbulent waters. What this should tell you is the worst is yet to come. After all, Indiana basketball, which is as sacred a cow as exists among NCAA members, thought it had plunged a nine-inch stiletto deep into its own gut back in October when it self-imposed penalties on Kelvin Sanctions (oops, Sampson) and the basketball program. The NCAA threw those out and Friday night Indiana parted ways (a kind way of saying canned) with Kelvin Sanctions as its way of throwing itself into the erupting volcano with the hope of appeasing the gods. If the NCAA will turn its back on the Hoosier Nation, which hasn’t had any probation of any kind in any sport in 47 years, imagine what is going to happen to the SOW.

Kelvin Sanctions lied to the NCAA and got what he deserved. At least it’s in the SOW’s favor that Bobby Bowden hasn’t been coherent for more than a couple of hours at a time in years.

Minnix is something like the sixth high official in the SOW athletic administration to bag it in the last few months. Just like Spanky Hart, Bob Minnix says his leaving has nothing at all to do with the heap of trouble that SOW is in with the NCAA. Uh-huh.

I actually think Roger Clemens is more believable, if you want my opinion. Roger has denied until he’s blue in the face but at least he never threatened or self-imposed fate worse than death sanctions on himself by moving to Pullman, Washington.

MEANWHILE IN DOLLYWOOD: They’ve got the second-ranked basketball team in the nation and they’re playing Memphis for a chance to be number one for the first time in school history but that’s not the big news up in Dollywood USA. The big news is that Knoxville News-Sentinel sports editor John Adams, who’s one of the most respected sports writers in the country, has called for Phil Fulmer to step down as the football coach.

For reasons that obviously don’t compute in the mind of your average East Tennessee hillbilly booster of the Smoky Mountain School for the Dentally Impaired, there is nothing wrong at all with Fulmer suspending punter Britton Colquitt for five games and taking away his scholarship for the fall all because he got arrested for DUI and charged with leaving the scene of an accident he caused. It’s only his fifth time since 2004 that Colquitt has been arrested on alcohol-related charges.

And that’s why Adams finally drew a line in the dirt and said enough is enough. Fulmer has a reputation and track record of going easy on starters involved in incidents that involve alcohol (I always liked the explanation of that defensive end a few years ago that he merely held that beer mug in his hand and the girl ran face first into it about nine times) and finally he’s gotten called out.

Fulmer’s response? He defended himself as a tough disciplinarian.

The Dollywood Nation’s response? They’re calling for Adams head and urging folks to boycott the paper as long as Adams is the sports editor.

That’s right, go after John Adams. Leave that punter alone. It’s okay if maybe he kills someone’s teenager the next time he drinks and drives as long as he can hang a 50-yarder up around the stadium rim and plop that baby out of bounds at the two.

And while you’re about it leave old Phil alone, too. Old Phil may be fat and balding, but he knows that boys will be boys and ole Britton is just a good ole boy carrying on East Tennessee tradition and seeing the world through bloodshot eyes.

[annarborgator]

Those workouts with Tebow and Percy leading must be brutal.

[G8rMom7]

When is the Spring Game again?

[IHateUGAlyDawgs]

April 12th, m7.