And I'm back...

Not that anybody missed me, well except for my Mom who checks everyday in hopes that I will mention her in this column...don't ever say I don't do anything nice for you Judy.

As I'm sure you know by now, I wrote a column last week only to see it disappear into thin air (or thin cyberspace, I guess) and like any horribly immature person who can't get their way, I pouted. I decided not to try and re-write the original post because I didn't think it would've been as good as the original (is it ever?) so I took the week off. Its a shame that the column from last week was lost because there were some one of a kind observations on such pressing topics as Gene Keady's hair, Josh McCown snoodling Denny Green's daughter, the emergence of one Jamaar Taylor and, of course, why Ricky Davis scares white people, oh well.

I would've posted something about Urban Meyer on Friday but I didn't want to jinx it until I heard him talking about how great the University of Florida is.

By the way, it has come out today that Florida AD Jeremy Foley was sitting in Meyer's living room during Meyer's live on-air interview with ABC during the Texas-Texas A&M game. I actually was watching and listened to that interview and heard Meyer deny that he had had ANY discussions about other head coaching positions. This leads to me to one conclusion...never trust a coach when he says he isn't looking for another job, other than the rarest of exceptions, they're all looking to upgrade and with their job security being what it is (think: shakier than Oksauna Baul behind the wheel at 2:30 AM) can you really blame them? Not me.

Enough has already been said about the reasons behind Meyer's choice but I will say this: Florida is poised to make a legitimate two year run at the National Title (at least) and Urban, along with everyone else who follows college football, knows this. He already has great players in place and should be able to recruit provided that he keeps enough of Zook's old staff around. Zook is a GREAT recruiter but you don't have all that success in recruiting by yourself. You must have an above average group of assistants hitting the trail and laying the foundation. Florida does, now the question is...who stays and who moves on to different jobs?

I couldn't be more excited for the Peach Bowl (never thought I'd hear myself say that) and the thought of a UF-Miami matchup. Not only does Florida have the chance to beat both of the other major Florida teams, thus making Florida the STATE CHAMP, but there is the prospect of ending Brock Berlin's pathetic career with a loss to UF. I never wish injury on opposing players but lets just say that if Brock were to , say, have a horrible concussion and be knocked out of the game...I won't be crying in my champagne. I really hate that guy and it didn't have to be this way. Most Gators wished him well after he transferred to Miami. Then he starts acting like he never got a fair shot at Florida (please, who would YOU start Grossman or Berlin? hmmm) and tops it all off by doing the gator chomp/throat slash combo after beating UF in a fourth quarter miracle against a clearly overmatched UF team. If I ever run into him or his waterhead girlfriend, I may just take the felony for the whole Gator Nation.

Reggie Bush is GOOD. That first run was the stuff that wins Heismans. Don't know if he can win it with as little east coast exposure as he got and especially with Leinart on his team, but he is as deserving as anyone, other than Adrian Peterson and he's not going to win anyway. Bush is very similar to Marshall Faulk, circa 2000, in his ability to do everything good if not great. Even with all of that, I don't know if he can ever be an every down back in the NFL. He strikes me as just a little too small. Then again, I also thought Ryan Leaf would be better than Peyton Manning...yeah I'm a pretty awesome guy.

What kind of money do you think it would take to convince Phil Fulmer to give the starting QB job to Rick Clausen next year? I'm willing to bet that we could reach whatever that number is if we just took up a collection among SEC schools, we may not even have to ask teams from the SEC West. I'm more than willing to spearhead all of this.

For those of you out there who love all kinds of football and will be in need of a fix in the coming weeks, I implore you to check out some of the Div. I-AA playoffs. This weekend is the quarterfinals so you'll definitely see some very good, competitive football. The James Madison-Furman matchup had a heck of a finish and William & Mary completed there second amazing comeback in as many weeks. The names may not be familiar but it beats watching Ron Popeil telling you to "Set it & Forget it". Come to think of it, thats exactly what I did with my alarm clock last night...not good times.

Did anybody else see Drew Bledsoe on Countdown admit that he thought drafting Willis McGahee was foolish at the time? Actually very refreshing honesty which is quite rare these days. Though maybe I shouldn't be patting Drew on the back for that one since he probably lost the ability to lie approximately 325 blows to the head ago.

Did you see the Clips may trade for Dunleavy Jr.? If I was him , I would tell my agent to do whatever possible to kill this trade. I know that Golden State is worse off than Clips right now but you CANNOT play for your Dad in the NBA. High School, fine. College, ok. But in the NBA, there's just no dignity in that. Can't you already hear Mikki Moore calling Dunleavy Sr. "Daddy" during practices just to mess with Dunleavy Jr.? Maybe the Clips are just trying to put together an all Duke roster. I hear Trajan Langdon and Casey Sanders are available.

The Magic are 11-5. Think about that for a couple for seconds. Pretty impressive for a team that needed name tags in training camp. Come to think of it, has there ever been a trip to Las Vegas by a large number of NBA players that turned out this well? For somebody other than the owner of the Bunny Ranch I mean.

I wish I could bet on things like "both Steve Francis and Grant Hill will start in the All-Star game". Hill (if healthy) is a lock at this point and Francis started the last two years including during the trainwreck that was last season. I know Houston has great fans but I don't think that they were stuffing the ballot boxes like a bunch of Ukrainian housewives.

If I have one Xmas wish, it is that Notre Dame is coachless for the better part of January. Maybe that would make the pompous alumni and faculty of that school realize that its not 1965 anymore and the country is no longer entranced by your hokey traditions and boring uniforms. If you hadn't guessed, I hate Notre Dame.

enjoy your monday.