For some reason, everybody only wants to talk about Tim Tebow. Every single goddamn talking head on ESPN is apparently paid per Tebow reference. Which is ok with me, because at least it's not Jerry Sandusky.
The only real problem is that every single person that talks about Tebow tries to view him through the lens that they force down our fucking throats.
How about we think outside that box for a second?
First, they regard this Bronco's scheme as some sort of batshit insane scheme - the likes of which we have never seen before. Don't they call this the wildcat in every other offense? Is there something I'm missing that makes this different? Oh yeah, Tebow's white.
Furthermore, they can't help themselves from sensationalizing EVERYTHING. The dude is 24. Why not actually try watching him play a little football, instead of skipping all the steps and asking "CAN THE BRONCOS WIN THE SUPER BOWL WITH TEBOW?!" Why not ask whether or not the Broncos can make the playoffs first? (Spoiler: Yes, the Broncos can make the playoffs. The AFC West is like the derpshit teenagers in Scream: EVERYBODY'S A SUSPECT) Why not ask if the Jaguars can win a Super Bowl with Blaine Gabbert? Or the Vikings with Christian Ponder? Aren't they his peers?
What would be nice and refreshing would be if we could all take a step back to look at Tim Tebow.
Believe it or not, there was a time when quarterbacks didn't just sit in the pocket and throw the ball, benefiting from the myriad of rules that protect them. They were just one of several ball carriers, and didn't need to slide if they ran. Tim Tebow happens to be a football player, and that's what nice about him.
I'm really sorry he flies in the face of the Tom Brady and Peyton Manning NFL that pundits and writers have been pushing at us for decades. Sorry you're having a tough time explaining him to the Sportscenter crowd. It might make it a little easier if you showed more games, and less Around the Horn.
People like to talk about how awful he is at throwing the ball. He's pretty bad at it. But so are 20 or so other starting quarterbacks. At least Tebow's useful besides that. And instead of comparing him to current pass-only quarterbacks, why not try to talk about what his strengths are?
Because they're haters. I don't exactly like Tebow or the Broncos, but I hate the haters, and I like watching somebody who's going to stick his face into the pile to try and score touchdowns.
Special Teams: Picking up jersey chasers because they know Tebow.
Initial thoughts: Tebow.
Tebow. I ended last year's post with this statement.
He may not win the Heisman this year, but he'll lead his team to a undefeated NC season only to return his Senior year to win both the Heisman and NC. In the off season he'll end AIDS if Africa, and after he graduates, wins a minimum of two super bowls, he'll save the world from the looming apocalypse in 2012... So raise your glass to Tim Tebow, because he only drinks Gatorade and milk.
So that pretty much sums it up this year. The Gators return 7 on offense and 11, yes E-L-E-V-E-N on defense. Including Tebow-defense Brandon Spikes. But the schedule must be hard right?
/Looks at schedule
Florida had to squeak by Charleston Southern 62-3 and then they face a brutal... tough, Ok they play at LSU, Georgia in Jacksonville, and FSU at home to end the season. Basically, whoever comes out of the West in the Championship game.
In terms of actual analysis, Some people will point to the loss of Percy Harvin, but I don't buy it. They have Delonte Thompson coming up along with guys like Rainey and Moody. Meyer is one of the best adjusting his scheme to the players so look for guys like Nelson and Hernandez to have big years. ...Did I mention Tebow?
Defense? Again they gave up 12.9 pts per game last year and they return 11. ELEVEN!!! Also, Tebow.
At the end there really isn't much to talk about, as long as Florida Tebow doesn't have a slip up like last year they are looking at player the SEC west Champion and #2 in the BCS. Awesome.
So what can we talk about? Ahhhhh yes, the future of Tebow Florida football. Obviously Tebow will leave after this year and go onto do great things in this world. It's an interesting debate, which we will most likely have around April. However the question remains, What will the Florida program do? On one hand Meyer is the same guy who made stars out of Smith, Jacobs, and Leake and has had success everywhere he's been. On the other hand what else does he have to prove in CFB? Before he signed his extension I would have guessed heading off to ND because of it being his "dream job." After reading parts of his book, I got the impression that he chose to go to Florida over ND for two reasons. 1. The stuck up alumni at ND didn't want his offense (read-not pro style) 2. He cared a lot about his kids at the time. To recruit at ND you need to fly all over the country, Florida is a trip down the road. Just my interpretation. I know the contract extension is huge, but hear me out on my crazy ass theory. Let's just assume Florida wins the MNC. And let's just assume some team like the Cowboys have a similar season to last year. That is, they underachieve. Knowing that Urban has nothing more to prove. And always looking for better challenges, what's not to say that the double J or Al Davis tries to make him bolt to the NFL, draft Tebow. Not saying it will happen, just a crazy theory of mine.
In short we'll have that Tebow debate at some point, and Florida just needs to take care of business in order to get to the MNC.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — At the precipice of his senior and final year at the University of Florida, a wayward QB Tim Tebow is rethinking his decision to stay in and not hang out with the massive throng of inebriates, Jezebels and heathens at Florida, all of whom would gladly think he was the coolest guy ever.
"I mean, you only go to college once, right?..." said an obviously uncomfortable Tebow. "They can't ALL be THAT bad?"
Tebow claims that his devotion to the craft of circumcision prohibits him from delving into the ranks of the godless sodomites that routinely give him high fives and ask to hang out with him. However, as of late, Tebow has been expressing what many consider to be a change of heart on the matter, especially with regard to drunken frivolity with members of the opposite gender.
Rodney "Two Hole" Branski, a 6-year business or history junior at Gainesville, says that he's "totally stoked" Tebow may be starting to loosen up, and would gladly buy him a shot or nine.
"Dude, he's the best," said Branski. "WHO'S BETTER THAN TEBOW?! NOBODY!!" Branski then ended the interview by throwing up everywhere.
LIVE BLOG!!! National signing day is hilarious. Yesterday was essentially the day where every college football fan in America does one of two things.
1. Predict their National Championship Season.
2. Scream at their coach for getting the one star kid from nowhere high school USA.
The best thing about this whole process, is the fact that the analysts typically have no idea how most kids will pan out. A good book to read on this subject is (suprisingly) an ESPN book Meat Market By Bruce Feldman. It chronicles one recruiting season for Ed Orgeron while he was at Ole Miss. Anyway, the best part of the book is when it talks about how sites such as Rivals, and Scout really have no idea what is going on. Basically the two sites give star rankings based off of what type of offers a kid receives. So if Johhny Stud QB, from Generic High gets offers from places like Kentucky, the kid might get 3 stars. However, if Johnny then gets an offer from Florida, his star ranking may go up to 4 or five stars. What's the point? Well basically these sites don't bother to look at film and actually break down a kid like my main man Mike Mayock.
So, yesterday I live blogged all of the SUPER HUGE SUPER IMPORTANT SIGNINGS.
Enjoy.
10:00 ESPN hypes this as the most important day for every team in America. 9 HOURS OF COVERAGE!!!!
10:11 Surprise surprise USC has the #1 QB, #1 DE, #1 MLB, #1 G, and #1 DB
10:20 One of the major undecided recruits is Jelani Jenkins. An OLB out of MD. This guy is in fact an insane player. Observe:
It looks like USC, Florida, ND, Penn State, and Stanford. Choose that hat wisely young Jelani.
10:30 LSU is tabbed as the #1 class in the country led by Billy B.A QB Russell Shepard, hailing from H-Town.
1st Hat alert: Sam Montgomery #2 DE. The choices: LSU, UNC, and Tennessee. The Winner...(Sam is wearing a Grizz hat) LSU. Fine choice young man. (Fan response) Thank god he didn't Pick UNC
10:45 Tommy Tubbs is an analyst on ESPN, and he is actually doing a great job.
Hat alert: Daryn Miles #5 safety. (tossing hats, please stop doing that) Tennessee is the winner. (he's also predicting becoming an All American next year)
Jelani update: Florida. (The kid actually seems like he has a square head on his shoulders) Urban wins again.
Pete Carroll Twitter update: "Just woke up from a short nap... Signing day is off the ground!!! Now the excitement begins!!"
Win forever Pete.
Tajh Boyd From the Hampton Roads area of VA. (AI, Vick, Vick, Curry, etc.) Goes to Clemson. 1. He was a WVU commit, and was considering Tenn. and Penn State. He's now going to Clemson (Fan response: Shit) But the guy looks solid. Good footwork, and a quick release.
2. What you didn't want to go to VaTech? We have history of a stellar passing game and developing outstanding Qb's??????
Hat alert: Frankie Telfort: #3 OLB winner is...USC
Hat Update: Manti Te'O: From Hawaii...The winner is (Betting USC) Ohhh was I wrong Notre Dame gets the #1 OLB
Russell Shepard update: Life of a student athlete segment. Enrolls early at LSU, Rocks a mid 90's H-town hat, says the right things about academics, hits on a girl in class, eats chick-fil-e, (Jemarcus Russell?) already has groupies, says the right things about fans, gets his pump on, (nice snatch form) thanks us for watching him.
That is all.
Tommy Tuberville is in fact wearing an Under Armour lapel. Protect the house.
Ok we have some dead time so this is a great homerism spot.
Virginia Tech. Ok so everyone signed their LOI. We have the typical great RB's (We had some insane LB's last year) and some good Receivers. (Cole went to a prep school last year) However, we also got our typical 5 star guy, Logan Thomas. (Yes he was 5 stars up until 3 weeks ago) Logan is a 6'6 TE who weighs 230, and runs a 4.6. Logan also played QB in high school.
Basically Frank Beamer, you and I both know Tech will never be able to pass the ball, unless it's a bomb to one of the great WR's we get. So lets cut our losses, call a spade a spade, and run the single wing.
Think I'm crazy? We already get 9 man boxes, and all those receivers are just smoke and mirrors, everyone knows we're running it. So let's just put our athletic qb at the singlewing tailback spot, run the rock, and throw it deep every once and a while. You know Foster is going to shut things down every week. Shit, if you want to get tricky, just put in the spin series.
/end rant.
1:45 Check that. UVA just got Morgan Moses(OT). Morgan Moses is sick. (shit shit shit shit shit shit shti shit shit shit damn shiat shit shit shit shit) Go play LAX
I hate UVA.
/Takes deep breaths.
Hat Update: Dre Kirkpatrick #1 CB chooses Alabama over Texas, why you ask? Swagger...Texas did not have enough...swagger.
Alright lets try to wrap this up in some sensible manner.
But first a Pete Carroll update: "Busy day today...We're moving along quite nicely on Signing Day...Win Forever!"
Ok, So to sum the whole thing up: Rivals has: 1. Alabama 2. LSU 3. TOSU 4. USC 5. Texas
Surprise surprise. Out of those teams, I think LSU is still the winner, they seemed to get some quality players led by the Sheppard Kid.
Darkhorse: UNC. Damn, they really had a big day to round out what seems to be a solid recruiting class. In fact, it seems like the ACC in general fared pretty well.
At the end of the day, recruiting is huge, however there are so many other factors that go into making a championship caliber team. Furthermore, these kids are just 18. Think about when you were 18.
Not necessarily the most mature individual, were you?
Who knows how these kids will turn out.
To close, I basically did this liveblog to highlight what I consider the insanity that is national signing day. We complain all the time about egotistical athletes, and this is just part of the process. Yes go take those hats of other schools, toss them to the floor, and proclaim your dominance. I'm sure the LSU defenders just LOVE seeing that. let's hope you aren't on the bottom of too many piles.
With that being said, my good guy of the day was Te'O, The LB that chose ND. The guy picked up a ND hat, thanked everyone, sat down. (Honorable mention Jelani Jenkins)
"Whoa whoa whoa! What does this title say? Doth mine eyes deceive me? How could one be so bold as to assert that the fine surveyors of College Football who also regularly view this website are not aware that the game this Saturday between No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Florida not only has national title implications, but quite possibly is the national championship, or at least the nearest realization of it, and will probably be a game worth remembering for decades? Sorrow and folly to the portly scribe of said article!"
If you're thinking anything like this, hang up the gown, Shakespeare, and think about it.
The SEC Championship is building an enormous hype, which it will in all likelihood live up to. Since losing to Ole Miss, the Florida Gators have been on an unprecedented tear, scoring 414 points to their opposition's 97 points. Prior to that it was 112 to 19, so without a 31-30 slip up in the Swamp, these guys are more than No. 1 in the BCS, they're probably getting inaugurated in January. Nobody - save for that pesky Houston Nutt and his band of Rebel Scum - has been able to touch the Gators. The chatter among the talking heads is the offensive explosion that is bound to happen in Altanta, with Urban Meyer and Timmy Tebow sitting on the detonator. And what about ol' reliable Alabama? If 2007 was a season marked by nothing but parity, 2008 can be remembered as a year of consistency with the Tide at the helm. While some of these games have been closer than perhaps they should have been, namely LSU and Ole Miss, there is only one statistic that matters in football, nay, in all of sports: wins verses losses. Without a doubt, the Crimson Tide have earned their respect.
Nick Saban's method, in college anyway, is proven: get freaking men-freaks on your respective lines, and get some corners. In fact, the former defensive coordinator has been hanging his hat on that tremendous defense. The corners play strong, man coverage, and they've got defensive lineman that look like Michael Clarke Duncan's older, bigger, and less-jolly quadruplet fathers, especially that one who "slimmed" down to just under 400 pounds.
Quick! Name me three good players on Florida's offense. I'll give you time...wait? Tebow and Harvin and...? No, Emmanuel Moody doesn't count. Well? That's right. No one. What people forget is that Florida's defense is also one of the best in the country. Remember that stat earlier about their point spread? Look at how few point the other schools had. Florida's defense is one of the highest scoring defenses in the country, and has an average higher than some teams at the bottom of some conferences. This team is much more balanced than previously thought, which is easy to do when you have a Heisman Trophy winner taking your snaps.
Speaking of balance, what about Bama's offense? It lacks pizazz. It lacks flare. It lacks a male quarterback. But what it doesn't lack is strength and a bunch of mistakes. Bama ranks dead last in the SEC in penalties, and has a future Hall of Famer in 340-pound left tackle Andre Smith anchoring a behemoth line that allows kids like Glen "Starbucks" Coffee. John Parker Davis Thomas George Daniel Edward Wilson is also an adequate quarterback that manages his offense well, in spite of the fact that no one will ever remember his name following this season. Look for his name to be an Aflac Trivia Question during an ESPN halftime around 2010.
Not to mention that the Tide has been rolling deep in fake ID's this season. Bama plays 15 true freshman, and that was at the beginning of the season. The most notable is WR Julio "I'm No Spaniard!" Jones, while his recruitment was highly documented and the others are hidden behind a veil of anonymity hung by their impressive veteran-like play.
So while this game is highly touted and publicized (and rightly so), don't believe all the hype. This game will be much closer than the Vegas line purports of Florida's offense and the undefeated defense of Alabama would let on.
Offensively I don't think you'll see Tebow put up the kind of numbers he did last year. Specifically, the emergence of Chris Rainey and USC Transfer Emmanuel Moody will help the running game tremendously. Not to mention WR's Percy Harvin, Louis Murphy, and 3 offensive lineman return as well.
The defense was naturally the achilles heel for last year's 9-4 campaign. While the Gators ranked 10th in rush defense the pass defense ranked 98th in the country. This is certainly a concern for Gator Nation, however, the young secondary from last year returns 3 seasoned veterans in the Defensive backfield along with 4 starters from the front 7.
Looking at the schedule the big games will come on Oct 11th when the Bayou Bengals come to town, and of course the pivotal match up on Nov. 1st against Georgia. (Even if they lose to UGA, the dogs have such a meat grinder schedule that Florida is the likely SEC east champion)
I was going to sit here and talk about how great TimTebow is, but you guys already know that. I can't talk about Florida's future as a program because they're already established and will be for years to come. Everyone knows the Georgia game will decide the SEC east and most likely the SEC championship. Furthermore, considering the last two NC games, a one loss SEC team can provide a pretty convincing argument to pollsters and easily gain a BCS title berth. Really the only thing you need to accept is the fact that Tebow is the Michael Phelps of CFB. He may not win the Heisman this year, but he'll lead his team to a undefeated NC season only to return his Senior year to win both the Heisman and NC. In the off season he'll end AIDS if Africa, and after he graduates, wins a minimum of two super bowls, he'll save the world from the looming apocalypse in 2012.
The only thing that can stop him is off the field related iss.... never mind.
So raise your glass to Tim Tebow, because he only drinks Gatorade and milk.
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