In case you hadn't heard, that's what Joe's grandkids call him. So good to finally ahve that question answered for me last night. I can't tell you how long that's been bothering me.
I'm glad that's over. I'm not just speaking of my unquenchable thirst for the answer to thahe afformentioned question, or even about the Florida-Tennessee matchup that I so long windedly (not a word, I know) covered in this space, but my entire weekend. Don't get me wrong, I had an unbelievable time but my body damn near shut down towards the end of the trip. By the time yesterday morning rolled around I had a full fledged sore throat. I also felt like the alcohol quantity in my body had finally surpassed the combined totals of all my other bodily fuids. If I had to spend one more day in the Bahamas I would've ended up being the guy who sleeps for an entire day while he's on vacation. Not good times. As it is, I spent all of yesterday resting and ingesting ungoldy amounts of Vitamnin C in an attempt to stave off the cold that threatened to make the rest of my week a living, breathing hell. Do you have any idea how mind numbingly annoying it is to listen to a soccer mom bitch about how horrible and tough her life is? Of course you do. Now just imagine doing this all day long, while dealing with a borderline case of strep (is that how you spell it?) throat. Thankfully for me I had the foresight to take today off of work as well. I slept until 1:30 this afternoon while continuing my all vitamin C, all the time diet. I think I may just be able to keep this under control. Then again, probably not.
As for the weekend in sports, I have to admit that I missed a great deal of it. Surprisingly, the people of the West Indies aren't all that into football. I know, I was shocked too. I was able to catch all of the Tennesse-Florida game at a Senor Frogs (ugh) in Nassau.
The game was certainly not a thing of beauty from an offensive football standpoint but it was a win so you can't complain too loudly. The biggest thing that anybody should take out of this game is that Florida is now extremely thin at a couple of very key positions. Losing Andre Caldwell for the season is huge but it may not have near the impact as the loss of Ray McDonald for 2 months or more. Florida's starting D-Line was one of the team strengths but there was lack of depth at those spots that could be described as frightening. There is a lot of talent behind McDonald but nobody has proven much to this point.
As for Caldwell, he brought another dimension to the Florida offense with his sprinter's speed, as evidenced by his 18 yard TD run on Saturday. Jemalle Cornelius is going to try and fill Caldwell's role in the offense and he certainly has as good of a chance as anybody on this team. The real problem that occurs here is the question of who will step in as the fourth (and fifth, for that matter) wideouts now that Cornelius' role has changed. The two most likely contenders are tight end Tate Casey and backup QB Gavin Dickey, though young the freshmen (David Nelson & Nyan Boateng among others) will certainly get their shots.
As for my thoughts on the actual game, I will try and keep it somewhat short. First, the offensive line needs alot of work. They are going to face three dominating fronts in the month of October (Bama (away), LSU (away), and Georgia (cocktail party)) and there is absolutely NO WAY that Florida can come through that month unscathed if the line doesn't get it's act together, and quick.
Secondly, Chris Leak does have to get better at running the option, that much is obvious. He's still not comfortable running it. That should come as no surprise since he's played in a spread passing attack since middle school. What I took away from this game regarding Leak is that he ran the offense while under an enormous amount of pressure and came up with a number of big plays at the most crucial of times (especially on the 8 minute drive in the fourth quarter). More importantly, he seemed to be willing his team to withstand the fourth quarter collpases that have haunted this program over the last three years. A HUGE game for his confidence and (hopefully, one day) his legacy as a Florida QB.
Any win agaisnt UT is a good win in my book. The thought I liked most about this game came from a poster on Gatorcountry.com . The main point of his post was that we "Out Tennesseed Tennessee", meaning that we controlled the clock, played sound defense and won on special teams. Anybody who has watched even a few UF-UT matchups knows that this was a rare occurrence (at best) in this series. Meyer said he would make this a tough football team. Thus far, he's been proven right.
Here a few of my other thoughts regarding the weekend:
- If you ever get a chance to stay at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. I would highly reccommend it. I didn't stay there (I'm waaaay too poor for that) but I did hang out on the beach and in the bar there all day on Saturday. What a place.
- I only saw the highlight on NFL Primetime but, WOW was Cadillac impressive on Sunday. Some of those runs were jaw dropping, just blowing through tacklers. He runs so much harder than I ever noticed before. I watched him alot but maybe I didn't notice because I thought he should be doing that to college defenders. The way he ran agaisnt a VERY good Bills defense has me more xcited for the Bucs' future since the early years of Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp.
- Joey Harrington looks awful. He has to get out of Detroit. It will never, ever happpen for him there, if ever. By the way, how does Matt Millen still have his job?
- Speaking of never happening...the Saints will absolutely never be a consistent team with Aaron Brooks as their QB. He has got to be the most scattered brained QB I've seen consistenly start in the NFL in a decade. It's not so much his overall play as it is his mental errors. They are inexcuseable and most often crippling blows to his team's drives (and chances to win).
- The moment when I realized that I am a horrible dude: When the bill for my on-board expenses came and I saw that I'd spent $50 on internet access. Screw you Bill Simmons.
- What did I say about Daunte Culpepper? What did I say? My favorite part of this whole Vikings meltdown is that the media (for the most part) is still refusing to take back what they said about the Vikings being better without Randy Moss and his divisive personality. I can't ,or don't want, to count how may times I've heard, "You know the guy they really miss is center Matt Birk?" Or, "They're just not the same team without Scott Linehan calling the plays, he meant soo much to Daunte." I'm sure that Daunte has been affected by all of of these changes but how can these guys not see how unbelievably stupid they sound. Sure, Moss may be a reclusive, brooding dick but he's also the most dominant offensive player (from a game planning standpoint) in football. Can't you just admit you were wrong?
- If your gilrfriend ever tells you that two of her friends are going on the same cruise as you, immediately freak out (not in a roid rage way, more of a scared rabbit way) and inform her that you can't go. Hell, won't go unless you can successfully recruit one of your single guy friends to join you. Just trust me on this one.
-What Notre Dame lost...to Michigan State...(Nelson voice ) Ha Ha! Can we slow down the hype machine now? Just for a few weeks I swear.
- I hate anyone and/or thing that has ever been associated with Bobby Bowden. Yet, in the words of Wes Mantooth, "AJ Nicholson, I hate you. From the bottom of my soul I hate you...but damnit, do I respect you." Did you see his stat line for Saturday's game against BC? 19 tackles (17 solo) 2 int, TD.
-Whenever I'm in a different country (especially, shall we say, underdeveloped ones) I always feel like no matter how nice people are to me that on the inside they hate me and would love to punch me right in the face. I guess that's why I find it so funny when you see some redneck from Kentucky making smart ass comments and generally being a total asshole to everyone around him. Don't these people know that everybody hates Americans?
- Speaking of hate, I can't stand either the Cowboys or the Redskins. I don't hate either of these teams for any particular reason. I just do. That's why I usually pay little attention to their (almost always) annual Monday Night Matchup. Last night was suppossed to be no exception, but with the Giants blowing out the Saints I had little choice. For a game that was downright boring to watch for the first 55 minutes it sure made up for it in the final 5. So much so that I'm giving it it's own section.
- What a gutsy finish by Mark Brunell, that run especially. Nice to see that he still has some juice left in those legs.
- I think that Santana Moss proved you can't overthow him on the second TD.
-I also think that Roy Willimas, once again, proved how inept he is in pass coverage. Though nobody in the media will ever mention this. How does he get a free pass on being awful as a pass defender? He does still play safety, right?
- Can we stop crying for Patrick Ramsey now?
- Who said naps aren't good. I mean, does anybody really believe that Coach Joe Gibbs would've still been awake last night had he not tucked hmself in for a little "quiet time" yesterday afternoon
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Great call on The Atlantis. That place is obscene. And it's Michael Jackson's favorite place to stay. No joke.
Do you think the reason that UF out "Tennesseed" UT is that they have a coach that stresses the little things now? Playing solid special teams, grinding, in your face defense. Not to say that Spurrier's teams didn't play defense, because they really didn't need performances like Saturdays. I thought it was a great game. Even though I was watching it in a bar at UVA b/c I couldn't get into Blackalicious (they said it was sold out, I think it was b/c I'm white). It was surprisingly a very pro UF crowd considering my proximatey to the awful state of Tennessee. One more thing, I'm sure that you missed the KC-Oakland game Sunday night. Not only was it a good game, but I actually enjoyed watching it w/o those blabbering monkeys Theisman and Maguire in the booth. Tirico and Sterling Sharpe did the game. I thought they were great. Its amazing how much better Sterling is when he's not annoying the hell out of you by not looking at the camera (which he managed not to do during the pregame).
I actually did catch the KC-Oak game and I couldn't belive how great it was to not hear Maguire go, "You want to see a guy who can really hit...watch this, watch this right here...bumphhh!" God that guy kills me.
Calvin,
On the UF note, that's exactly what I think. Spurrier didn't emphasize those areas and he also didn't have a ton of hitting (actually, barely any at all)during his practices within the season. On the other hand, Zook made a point to emphasize these sort of things but he was so inept that he couldn't get it to work. Surprise.
Finally, UF has a coach who is competent and also emphasizes the little things. Last Saturday night was the end result.
As for the Blackalicious show, most underground rap groups have rabid followings and it's been my experience that you often have to buy tickets in advance in order to ensure entry into the smaller venues that these groups often play at.
Post a Comment