My Guys, Again

I got a bone to pick with Urban Meyer.

After beating Georgia 14-10 this weekend, Florida's head coach made this comment about Eric Wilbur's third-quarter fake punt: "I think that's the slowest 20-yard run I've seen in the history of college football."

Better check yourself, Coach. That's my guy right there. Trinity Prep in Winter Park doesn't produce many Division I college football prospects, and we Trinity alums are pretty damn protective of our boys. Take it back.

Alright, alright. Just a little fun. Fact is, Meyer knew exactly what he was doing.

Wilbur, as many hard-core Gator fans probably already know, was second team all-state at Trinity Prep as a free safety, and also saw time at wide receiver. In his senior season, he recorded 87 tackles and four interceptions while simultaneously going first team all-state as a kicker and punter. He also found time to win Trinity's MVP award on the track team and capture a district title as a long jumper. So all Meyer jokes aside, the coach knew what he had back there when Georgia left half the field open - an athlete, not just a punter. Knowing his personnel takes Meyer's fake punt call from merely sneaky to downright perfect. Luckily, Mark Richt never saw Wilbur line up in the slot at Trinity, or de-cleat an unsuspecting kick returner. Gator fans should be thankful that once upon a time, Ron Zook did.

* * *

Emily Badger, the excellent Florida State beat writer for the Orlando Sentinel, beat me to it, as did Sentinel columnist Jamele Hill.

In the fourth quarter of FSU's comeback win over Maryland, redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Weatherford scored the most important points of the day on a keeper from 15 yards out. Badger's line from the Sentinel's story on Sunday morning: "In a slow-motion replay, you can almost see the moment when his goal shifts. Who cares about field position? He was going for the touchdown."

From Hill's column: "With one play, Weatherford went from inconsistent redshirt freshman to poised, confident and emotional leader."

Not sure I agree with the "inconsistent" tag - Florida State does have the top-ranked passing offense in the ACC, after all - but other than that, bingo. At that moment, Weatherford became the quarterback of the future for Florida State, not just the quarterback right now. Since Jamele captured it so eloquently in her column, and Emily led her story with that play, I'll leave it at that.

However, one quote from that column caught my eye. Lorenzo Booker, the man who wears Warrick Dunn's number 28 for the Seminoles, had this to say about the quarterback from Land O'Lakes: "He has this swagger we haven't seen around here since Chris Weinke."

Wow. Heavy stuff. I'm not quite ready to name Weatherford the next FSU quarterback to win the Heisman, but I'll give Booker the benefit of the doubt in the euphoria of a comeback win. Florida State is 7-1 and one victory away from clinching a spot in the first-ever ACC title game, and a child is leading them. Wyatt Sexton may indeed be practicing this week, as Bobby Bowden said during his postgame press conference on Sun Sports, and there is still a vocal "Play Xavier Lee" section at Doak Campbell Stadium, but this is your quarterback. Enjoy him - for now, and for the future.

* * *

Miami's throwback uniforms for the North carolina game were atrocious. There, we got that out of the way.

George O'Leary's stunning turnaround at UCF took a dramatic turn this weekend, as the Golden Knights won on the road at East Carolina to seize first place in Conference USA East. The win was the Golden Knights' first in the conference away from the Citrus Bowl, and puts them in the driver's seat for a berth in the conference's title game - which, by the way, will be played at the home field of the team with the better conference record.

In other words: UCF has gone from 0-11 to potentially playing for a conference championship on their home field, and moving on to a bowl game, all in the span of one summer.

In case I haven't said this plainly enough before - this is the best story in college football today, period. You can have Alabama, Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, the spread option, the Cocktail Party, Florida State's QB, UCLA, Marcus Vick, all of it. You can have it. Great stuff, top to bottom. Me, I'll hitch my bandwagon to the Golden Knights, regardless of what happens from here on out.

When UCF gets a football stadium built on campus, I hope they someday give serious consideration to naming some part of it for O'Leary.

The NBA Votes Are In

Fascinating stuff in the Inbox this week regarding the NBA.

For the fourth year in a row, the league conducted a poll of all 30 NBA general managers, asking for their opinions and predictions for the upcoming season. Since I am, in the words of ESPN.com's Bill Simmons, one of the 17 remaining NBA fans on Earth, this was a must-read. Each GM responded anonymously, so you have to think they really mean it.

The thirty NBA general managers have selected San Antonio and Miami as the 2006 conference champions. Miami got 73 percent of the Eastern vote, with Detroit and Indiana trailing far behind, but the Spurs earned a whopping 96 percent of the vote in the West. Oddly, when asked who was going to win the '96 Finals, 77 percent took San Antonio, 15 percent took Miami, and the remaining votes went to Detroit and Minnesota -- two teams that nobody picked to win their respective conferences. Umm, was this a trick question?

By division: New Jersey is the favorite to win the Atlantic (92%), Indiana a less prohibitive favorite in the Central (58% to Detroit's 39%), and Miami got every vote in the Southeast. Sorry, Magic fans.

San Antonio got all the votes for the Southwest, Denver took 65 percent of the Northwest (with Minnesota second at 23%, yet some GM out there thinks they're gonna win it all), and Phoenix gets 81 percent of the vote for the Pacific.

Most fascinating, however, were the questions posed about individual players and coaches, the answers to which provide insight into how GM's think. Tim Duncan had four times as many votes for 2006 MVP as did Shaquille O'Neal, yet when asked "Which player forces opposing coaches to make the most adjustments," Shaq outdistanced Duncan by the same 4-1 margin.

Lesson: until he decides otherwise, the game on the floor still goes through and around The Diesel.

Given O'Neal's age, however, he was a distant third to Duncan and Lebron James in the category of "player you would sign right now if starting a franchise." Worth noting that Miami's Dwyane Wade also received votes here, as did central Florida's own Amare Stoudemire. My answer? Wade, hands down. Young, personable, gets along with coaches and teammates, plays both ends, sells tickets. And did I mention young?

I loved this question: "Which player is most likely to have a breakout season?" Orlando's Dwight Howard, with 46 percent of the vote, was the runaway favorite in a category that prompted twelve different answers (including, again, Wade).

The GM's best players, by position, with percentage of their votes:

PG Steve Nash (68%)
SG Kobe Bryant (56%)
SF Tracy McGrady (48%, with Lebron getting 40%)
PF Duncan (78%)
C Shaq (84%)

Miami, Cleveland, and San Antonio were deemed the franchises that made the best offseason moves, with Larry Hughes to the Cavs cited as the acquisition that will make the biggest impact. However, Golden State is foreseen as the squad that will improve the most.

Thirty-eight percent of the GM's in the NBA called "Joe Johnson to Atlanta" the most surprising move of the offseason, which is their polite way of saying "I cannot BELIEVE how much the Hawks paid to get that kid." Antoine Walker to Miami was second in that category, which translates to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it - and especially not with a guy who jacks up shots like it's his last day on Earth while Shaq and Wade stare daggers through his butt."

Larry Brown stepping down as head coach in Detroit received votes for both the most surprising and least surprising move of the summer, which proves that Brown has equal numbers of supporters and detractors in this league. And by the way, Brown was at the top of the list in just about every question having anything to do with coaching.

Andrew Bogut edged Chris Paul in Rookie of the Year predictions, but it's Marvin Williams whom GM's consider to be "the best [current rookie] player in five years."

Ben Wallace was voted the best defensive player in the league and best interior defender in the league, and also edged out Amare Stoudemire as best offensive rebounder. This surprised me a little, but then I saw the truth in it: Wallace is a sublime offensive rebounder in much the same way that Dennis Rodman once mastered that skill. Thing is, neither Wallace nor Rodman ever looked for their own offense - in fact, Wallace has borrowed from the Worm's playbook, in that Big Ben will often snag an offensive board and then walk the ball out to the perimeter and hand it off to a guard, much as Rodman once did. When you're not getting your points off the offensive glass - as Amare does - you're often not perceived as an "offensive rebounder." Yet, that's exactly what Wallace does best.

The GM's call Phoenix the most fun team to watch, with a whopping 60 percent of the vote. Best home court advantage goes to the clanging cowbells and pep-rally atmosphere of Sacramento. Stoudemire and Lebron tied for "most athletic player," while Ray Allen got 58 percent of the vote as "best pure shooter," to which I say: well, duh.

Note on Ray Allen: watch his feet. Ray-Ray never, EVER takes a shot without setting his feet. You could write a shooting textbook and include nothing but photos of his kicks. It's Exhibit A in my sports theory that nothing is more important to an elite athlete than his lower body, but that's another blog.

"Fastest with the ball?" Iverson. Again, duh. Rip Hamilton was voted "best at moving without the ball," while Kobe was considered "best at getting his own shot." Draw your own conclusions there. Jason Kidd topped the charts in both "best passer" and "best in the open court," while our man Amare was once again atop the rankings as "best finisher" (edging out Kobe).

And perhaps my favorite category among the Fourth Annual GM Poll: "Which player does the most with least?" Can we call this the Scott Skiles Award, or is that insulting?

Anyway, Brad Miller of Sacramento wins it with 22 percent of the vote. Ben Wallace (really?), Brian Cardinal, Ryan Bowen, Elton Brand (again, what game were you watching?), and Mark Madsen were among the vote-getters. Seeing as how Wallace, Brand, Manu Ginobili, Andre Miller, Steve Nash, and Paul Pierce (Paul Pierce!) also received votes here, I have to think that some of the GM's didn't quite understand the question.

Great stuff. Let's see how these talent evaluators do after 82 games of the real thing.

What's In A Name?

My five-year-old son has a stunning capacity for asking deep questions, and at dinner the other night, he came up with a doozy.

"Dad," he said, "why does my sister have a nickname for a name?"

Backstory: his sister's name is Elizabeth, but nobody ever calls her that. We call her "Ellie," a name we settled on because her big brother made it so. See, when my wife became pregnant for the second time, we loved the name "Ella" for a girl, but Zachary (the Number One) couldn't wrap his three-year-old tongue around that word. He consistently referred to the unborn baby as "Ellie," so we went with it. When it came time to sign the birth certificate, we felt silly calling her just Ellie, so we made up a "formal" name that could be shortened to Ellie. Hence, Elizabeth. Now you try explaining all of that to a five-year-old while he's pounding a bowl of spaghetti.

Anyway, it got me thinking about nicknames. Many moons ago, when the sports media consisted of tobacco-addled newspaper writers wearing houndstooth hats in smoky bars, a nickname was a sure sign of sports greatness. Over so many scotch and waters, these ink-stained wretches hammered out splendid nicknames on their manual typewriters, forever enshrining our country's most sublime athletes in the pantheon of pop culture.

George Herman Ruth was not just "The Babe," he was also "The Sultan of Swat." Red Grange became "The Galloping Ghost." Ted Williams was "The Splendid Splinter," and occasionally "Teddy Ballgame." The Iron Horse, The Georgia Peach, The Manassas Mauler, the Gashouse Gang, and the Monsters of the Midway became part of our daily lexicon - okay, not ours, per se, but perhaps the lexicon of our grandparents.

In the current day and age, nicknames like these are few and far between. Sure, there are athletes who are better known by their handles - Larry Jones goes by "Chipper," and the last guy to call Magic Johnson "Earvin" was his college coach at Michigan State, Jud Heathcote (whose real name was George) - but in terms of lyrical, newspaper-columnist-style monikers, you have to do a little digging.

The NHL is a pretty good source for nicknames, if only because in the culture of hockey, with its small-town roots, every player in the league has been nicknamed something at one time or another. Take the player's first or last name, cut off a few letters, and add the "-ee" sound, and you've got a nickname. Hence, Stevie Y, Marty Brodeur, and Nikolai "Habby" Khabibulin. However, despite Nikolai's "Bulin Wall" handle, there aren't many old-school nicknames on the ice anymore. Once you get past The Great One - now a coach - and owner/player Super Mario, the pickings are slim. Sidney Crosby may indeed be The Next One, or just The Kid, but we're a long way from The Dominator, The Rocket, Mr. Hockey, and The Golden Jet.

On that note - have you ever noticed how every hockey franchise name, no matter how old or how young, seems to spawn another, shorter nickname? The Isles, Pens, Sens, Habs, Sabes, Leafs, and Caps in the East, along with the Wings, Preds, Hawks, Jackets, Avs, Ducks, and Yotes in the West. I'm telling you, hockey abbreviates everything.

Who's got the best nickname in baseball today? No more Charlie Hustle, Mr. October, or Donnie Baseball. We're left with the Big Unit, the Big Hurt, Big Papi, Godzilla, and the Mayor. The abbreviation trend, with A-Rod, K-Rod, D-Lee, and the like, does nothing for me. And Maurice Richard may have something to say about Roger Clemens' use of the nickname "Rocket."

It's worse in the NBA. Not too long ago, Shaquille O'Neal had a different nickname every week. From the Diesel to the Daddy, to Shaq-Fu to the Big Aristotle to the Real Deal (the name he favored among his friends in Orlando), O'Neal was a fountain of entertainment in print. Now, we get T-Mac, T-Lue, J-Will, K-Mart, and J-Kidd. Yawn.

There are some great newspaper handles out there in the Association. The Answer, the Glove, White Chocolate, the Truth (Paul Pierce), King James, Skip To My Lou (Rafer Alston), Starbury, Q-Dog, Stevie Franchise (sounds vaguely hockey, doesn't it?), the Matrix (best in the league), AK-47, and lots of "bigs" - the Big Fundamental (Duncan), the Big Ticket (Garnett), and the Big Cat (Jamaal Magloire), among others.

In the NFL, I love "The Human Joystick," Dante' Hall. The only person who calls Cadillac Williams by his given name of Carnell is probably his mom. Famous Amos Zereoue reminds me of cookies, which is always a plus. Football seems more inclined to nickname entire units - the Killer B's, the Purple People Eaters, the Hogs, the Steel Curtain, the Orange Crush, the Doomsday Defense, the Greatest Show on Turf. Not that individual football players don't have nicknames, just that the best ones seem to encompass bigger groups.

Here's my call for entries. Click on "reply" and send me your list of favorite individual sports nicknames from the present day. I'm looking for professional athletes, still active, with cool handles. The best submissions will appear in this space in a future blog. Help me out.

Drop It Like It's Hot?

Two notes I saw this week, seemingly unrelated, that may go a long way in predicting this year's mythical national champion:

First, Texas head coach Mack Brown was interviewed at halftime of the Virginia Tech-Maryland game on ESPN on Thursday night. What he said in response to Rece Davis's questions was irrelevant; it was the graphic under Brown's talking head that caught my eye.

Did anyone else realize that under Brown, Texas has won at least nine games in each of the last seven years? Curious, I looked it up: in the last four years prior to 2005, Brown and the Longhorns went 43-8. How many national championships during that span? Zero. Zip, zilch, nada.

By comparison: in the last four years prior to '05, Ohio State was 38-11, with one national title. Miami was 44-5, with one national title. Southern Cal was 42-9, with two national championships. Again, Texas is 43-8 over the last four years - one game better than Southern Cal, and on pace with Miami - and still, no national championships under any measure since 1970. Insert sarcastic comment here about Brown, Texas, and winning big games (see "Red River Shootout, 2000-2004").

Second thing: I listened to a Texas newspaper reporter on national sports radio this week describe the impact that Texas QB Vince Young has had on his Longhorn teammates. The reporter's main argument was that Young brings a sense of relaxation to the 'Horns, leading them in (rap) song before each game and even convincing Brown to download Snoop Dogg into his iPod.

Hey, if Pete Carroll can do "The Trojan" - a spastic locker-room dance that his players find absolutely hilarious - to celebrate every USC win, I suppose Brown can fire up his guys with a few choruses of "Drop It Like It's Hot."

Does anyone see the USC train jumping the tracks sometime between here and a third straight national title? Okay, maybe not - but you have to admit, Texas seems a lot less puckered than normal this year. Mack Brown has been under the gun from the moment he took over in Austin - the five straight losses to Oklahoma not helping much there - but this year just feels different. Call me crazy, but I'm not ready to engrave that trophy just yet.

Meanwhile, Georgia is feeling Auburn's pain. The Bulldogs are one of seven 6-0 teams heading into the weekend, and ranked fourth in the first BCS release, behind USC, Texas, and Virginia Tech. If the three teams above the Bulldogs win out, UGA has little chance of reaching a national championship game, no matter what they do. Shades of Auburn, 2004. Is this an SEC thing, or just a coincidence?

Georgia suffers because its schedule is back-loaded. Their toughest game to date was against Tennessee (a vastly overrated team, it would appear), with Florida and Auburn the only two "big" games remaining. The trouble with the BCS, as every college football fan knows, is that once you're down in the standings, it's almost impossible to catch up.

But then again, check the schedules of the teams ahead of the Bulldogs. USC has quality wins over Arizona State and Notre Dame, with key matchups remaining against Cal and a resurgent UCLA. Texas has finally beaten Oklahoma (not nearly as impressive this year, however), and did beat Ohio State, but all that's left is this weekend's meeting with the paper tigers from Texas Tech and the emotional finale against Texas A&M. Virginia Tech struggled to beat N.C. State in their opener, won their next three games by a total score of 141-7 (really), and now has Boston College, Miami, and a confident Virginia to worry about. My point: there's nothing in any of those schedules to separate one team from the rest, yet the BCS claims it can do it.

Look, piling on the BCS is hardly a bold stand. It's a flawed system, as Auburn knows, and Georgia is about to find out, probably along with Virginia Tech. But until and unless we get a real playoff system - not an "and-one" extra bowl game - somebody is going home unhappy every year. Conventional wisdom, gleaned from impending television contracts, university presidents' stances, and the financial and logistical challenges of playing football for an extra month, suggest that this is the way it's gonna be for the foreseeable future.

In its first few seasons, the BCS got bailed out by upsets. Last year, Auburn (and, to some extent, Utah) was the fly in the ointment. It's going to happen again this year, with Georgia or Alabama, with Virginia Tech, maybe even with Texas Tech. We'd better get used to it.

State Of The State

A tip of the cap to Tom Block, our Sun Sports FSU reporter and the hardest-working man in Tallahassee, for snagging UVA's Wali Lundy and Marques Hagans for on-field interviews after the loss on Saturday. Tommy was the only Seminole to lay a hand on Hagans all night.

Virginia's upset of Florida State came on the tenth anniversary of FSU's first-ever loss in the ACC, a game played at Virginia, at night. The starting quarterback for UVA that night in 1995 was Mike Groh, whose daddy Al is now the Cavaliers' head coach. Warrick Dunn, the electrifying FSU running back who came up inches short of winning that 1995 game for the Seminoles, wore jersey number 28, now sported by running back Lorenzo Booker, who accounted for FSU's only rushing touchdown on Saturday. And the 2005 game was played under a full moon.

With Halloween still two weeks away, it was downright spooky for the Seminoles in Charlottesville.

Somewhat lost in the loss was this tidbit: Drew Weatherford passed for 377 yards against UVA, setting a new career high for the redshirt freshman. Were it not for 123 yards of penalties against the 'Noles, we'd be talking about Weatherford as the next great FSU quarterback right now.

Fear not, Seminole fans. Your path to the ACC Championship Game in Jacksonville is still clear. You've already beaten Boston College and Wake Forest in the Atlantic Division, and you've got Maryland, NC State, and Clemson coming up - while BC has to go to Blacksburg to face Virginia Tech in two weeks. Your fate is in your hands.

On that note, Virginia Tech is now the bellwether in both ACC divisions. While the Boston College game might determine the Atlantic side, the Hokies' own Coastal Division will likely come down to the winner of the November 5 meeting with Miami. While fans in Florida may think that an FSU-Miami matchup in the ACC's first-ever title game is a given, imagine the statement that the two new kids on the block could make if it's Boston College against Virginia Tech in December.

Meanwhile, in Gator Nation - when Urban Meyer started to choke up during his live postgame press conference on Sun Sports, I asked our analyst, Brady Ackerman, for an explanation.

"He looks like he's melting down," Brady said. After a pause for reflection, he added, "he's emotionally invested in this team."

Having interviewed Meyer on several occasions, I knew he was a passionate coach, but I was stunned to see him struggle to compose himself during the presser. One sure sign that I've been doing this too long - I immediately began to wonder how the message boards would respond to the sight of Urban Meyer pulling a semi-Vermeil. The answer: "Urban Crier." Save your e-mails, I didn't come up with that one.

One newspaper columnist in Orlando termed Meyer's comments about the passion of his players as an "Oprah moment," adding that "people could care less about team bonding." Some people, yes. Maybe even most people. But Meyer actually DOES care about such dated concepts as football players trusting each other, and he's the head coach, so it will continue to matter, whether we in the media like it or not.

Meyer allowed that he was choked up in part because he finally saw signs that his players were buying into his concepts of team, family, and trust. I don't know what those signs are, and I certainly don't know which players are finally "getting it" in Meyer's eyes, but we all know this: it's not translating into offense, and it's not translating into wins in big games.

Facts are facts. Florida didn't throw a single touchdown pass in three games this season against Tennessee, Alabama, and LSU. For the first time since 1991, the Gators will face three ranked opponents in one calendar month, with the Tide, the Tigers, and the Georgia Bulldogs all on the docket in October. They're now zero for two, with a week off before the Cocktail Party.

Many in the media - especially those who don't cover Florida on a regular basis - look at Meyer's passionate devotion to the team concept, with his Champions' Dinners and player merit system, as hopelessly hokey, but I like hokey. At least he believes in it. There's something to be said for a coach who capitalizes on the emotion of college-aged athletes, and there's nothing wrong with a system that places a premium on player responsibility.

But as I also wrote in this space, none of those concepts guarantees Florida an SEC title or national championship. At this point in time, the "team bonding" is struggling to put up numbers.

Here's my tortured analogy: when longtime South Florida resident Raymond Floyd was at the height of his powers as a professional golfer, winning at Doral three times, capturing each of the three American major championships, and making his nine Ryder Cup appearances, he had what his wife Maria called "The Look." When the match was on the line, those steely eyes would narrow, his finger-pistol would start firing at birdies, and the rest of the field was pretty much playing for second. Call it a game face, or "the zone," or what have you - Mrs. Floyd called it "The Look."

Speaking of The Look, Maria Floyd once said: "I've seen him win without it - but I've never seen him lose with it."

College football teams can have trust, team bonding, "The Look," and still lose. They can get beat by better teams, as Florida did on Saturday. But without those seemingly antiquated concepts, no team wins. The romantic in me hopes that Gator Nation won't abandon the Meyer way as quickly as some in the media have done.

Oh, yeah - and Miami hammered Temple. Can we all agree that the Owls should cut their losses and drop to I-AA? Wouldn't they be an excellent fit with UMass, Hofstra, James Madison, and the rest of the Atlantic 10? It works for them in basketball. I'm not sure the MAC is the answer, either.

Speaking of the MAC - the University of Central Florida, a MAC refugee, ran into a buzzsaw in its new Conference USA schedule, getting shellacked by Southern Miss 52-31. On the same night, South Florida suffered a bad loss - a REALLY bad loss - to Dave Wannstedt and Pittsburgh. The common link: both UCF and USF were wearing white tops. There, I've found the solution. Tell George O'Leary and Jim Leavitt to burn those jerseys.

Not the best weekend for Florida's Division I programs. Six of the seven D-I schools in the state - Florida, FSU, UCF, USF, Florida Atlantic, and Florida International - lost on Saturday, with Miami being the sole bright spot. However, Bethune-Cookman routed Savannah State, and the NAIA Webber International University Warriors ran their winning streak to five games by beating Division II North Greenville University - on the road, no less.

In football, hope is where you find it.

Trust Me

You'll have to forgive me this week - I'm feeling just a little saucy.

Every week on Rec Warehouse College Kickoff (Fridays, 7pm, Sun Sports, shameless plug), Brady Ackerman, Terry Norvelle and I are asked to pick the winners of three or four major college football games. The games are chosen by our senior producer, Jamie Shapiro, and usually include at least one Florida school, one top-25 matchup, and one conference matchup that matters to fans of UF, FSU, Miami, and the like. We do have some advance knowledge of which games we'll be picking, but my schedule just doesn't allow me to do much homework on those games. I'm a gut prognosticator, always trusting my first instinct. And my gut went 3-0 last week.

My rationale for each pick should give a clear picture of how I go about this. The first game was Cal against UCLA. Thought process: UCLA is on a roll, having beaten Oklahoma two weeks prior and bringing back memories of the Good Old Days among Bruin faithful. Cal was ranked in the top ten, but they're still Cal. As in Berkeley, the school that counts Stanford as its biggest rival. Last year, the average SAT score of the incoming freshman class at Cal was a robust 1310, and their average high school GPA was 4.1. Not saying that smart kids can't play football, just giving you my thought process. Jeff Tedford is a marvelous coach, and has thrust the Golden Bears into the national picture, but in my mind, there was no way they were beating a hot UCLA team, on its way up with a bullet. Correct. 1-0.

Next was Georgia at Tennessee. As I stated on the show, Georgia had to be the quietest undefeated team in the country. While the national media was swooning over Southern Cal, Texas, and Penn State, the Bulldogs were flying under radar, storing energy for their SEC run. Tennessee, on the other hand, still couldn't settle on a quarterback, and looked pretty awful offensively against Florida. If the Vols got down in that game, I didn't see anything to suggest they could get back up. Correct again. 2-0.

Last was Ohio State at Penn State. Sorry, but I am not sold on the Buckeyes this year, especially since I went "all in" on the Bucks to beat Texas in one of these pick segments a few weeks ago. No way I was taking them again. Plus, the game was at State College, among the frenzy of 100,000 Nittany Lion faithful who have been waiting a decade to see a meaningful national-picture game at Happy Valley. The players are kids, ages 18 to 22, and emotion matters. Playing Ohio State at home, on national television, with a chance to remain undefeated? No-brainer. Correct again. 3-0 for the week, and 14-6 for the season (all picks are straight up). Brady and Terry are specks in my rear-view mirror.

Tooting my own horn? Hardly. Heck, I'm admitting that I do zero research on these picks. There's something to be said for trusting your instincts, I guess. That's a life lesson, too, but you didn't come here to read a Tony Robbins essay.

If I was a gambling man (and as has been discussed in this space, I am not), I would never bet on college football. Too much emotion, too many hormones, too many swings in momentum. Sure, Duke will never upset Miami - but USF will shock Louisville, TCU will knock off Oklahoma, and UCF will win three in a row. One way or another, it happens every year. Sports radio shows and television networks like ours love to include "pick segments" as part of the show, because it generates discussion, e-mails, and phone calls, which means listeners and viewers. I wouldn't place too much stock in who picks whom each week.

But did I mention that I'm 14-6?

That being said, here's a few more gut instincts for the season, and a halftime report card:

The Florida Gators have LSU, Georgia, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Florida State remaining on the schedule. Of those, I think South Carolina is the only sure thing - but I'm not exactly on the Vandy bandwagon, either. That leaves LSU, Georgia, and FSU. Two out of three is not impossible, but will require Gator performances vastly different from those of the last two weeks. And don't ask me to explain this, but if Florida State enters the Florida game at 10-0, I think the Gators have a better chance of winning than if the Seminoles come in with a loss already on their record. There's just no logic to the UF-FSU series - for proof, go back and watch the videotape of Ron Zook being carried off Bobby Bowden Field last year. Emotion matters, especially when you're playing your most hated rival.

Florida State's biggest hurdle in their quest to enter that Florida game in November at 10-0 appears to be either Maryland or North Carolina State. Wait, those are both home games at Doak? Never mind. Still, something tells me that the Seminoles will trip somewhere along the line. Virginia, as bad as they've looked the last few weeks, is a benchmark game for these young Noles. If FSU pounds the Cavs, I believe the runway is clear until Gainesville, when all bets are off.

Miami plays Virginia Tech on the road on November 5th. The winner of that game will be your Coastal Division representative at the first-ever ACC Championship game in Jacksonville in December. Will Miami get tripped before or after the Hokies? You tell me - combined record of the other five teams on Miami's remaining schedule is 10-17. Beat Va Tech, and punch your ticket. A tall order. That game will turn on a freak play.

South Florida will beat Pittsburgh, but lose to either Rutgers (seriously) or Connecticut. Both are road games, and any native Floridian (like me) who has ever spent a November in New England (like me) will understand my angle here. Seven wins in a first-ever Big East campaign would be a great year. Eight wins would require a parade. Nine wins, and they better start building that Jim Leavitt statue outside Raymond James Stadium. But it won't happen.

UCF, winners of three in a row and your first-place team in the Eastern Division of Conference USA, will go from 0-11 to bowl eligible in one season. Book it. Seriously, is there a better story in college football right now? Check out these numbers from the win over Memphis last Saturday: 38 points, a season high and the best output for the Golden Knights since November 30th, 2002. 540 total yards, their best effort since October of 2003. Steven Moffett passes for 290 yards, 157 of those to Mike Walker, who had all of 9 catches and 191 receiving yards in 11 games last season. And Kevin Smith runs for 153 yards, outgaining DeAngelo Williams of Memphis by 20-plus - and Williams leads the country in yards per game. UCF won't win out, but they'll win enough.

Believe it or not, after an 0-5 start, Florida Atlantic can still compete for the Sun Belt title. The Owls have five conference games left, against teams with a combined overall record of 7-15. Three of those teams - Troy, Arkansas State, and four-time league champ North Texas - are ahead of FAU in the Sun Belt standings. The problem is, your league leader is Louisiana-Monroe, who beat the Owls by a touchdown on September 22nd. When the 2005 story is written for FAU, that loss will loom as the turning point in the season.

Florida International, with Louisiana-Monroe, FAU, Troy, Middle Tennessee State, Louisiana-Lafayette, and North Texas still on their Sun Belt schedule, can not only play spoiler to any of those teams, but can actually salvage their conference season. However, it would take a heroic effort from the Golden Panthers. FIU is still a year away from competing on a weekly basis.

Grounded in statistics? Nope. Not this time, even though I'm an admitted stat-lover. Pure speculation. If I'm wrong, I'll admit it, gladly. But if I'm right, you better believe that Brady and Terry are gonna hear about it.

All Part Of The Game

When Mike Shula was hired as the head football coach at Alabama on May 8, 2003, he wasn't exactly strolling back to Tuscaloosa on a Crimson carpet.

To review: Alabama was reeling from the Mike Price fiasco. Shula, then 37 years old, was the youngest Alabama head coach in 72 years. He had spent 15 seasons on NFL staffs, but only once was he a coordinator - with Tampa Bay from 1996 through 1999, where his offenses were ranked 28th or worse in three of those four seasons. He had never been a head coach at any level, and in fact, had never served on a collegiate staff anywhere. All of this, by the way, was conveniently spelled out for America in a Sports Illustrated article.

After reading and hearing the incessant chatter about his lack of experience, Shula then had to watch national media coverage on the topic of his hiring versus that of Sylvester Croom - a former Alabama All-American under Bear Bryant - who was passed over for the job despite 16 years of NFL coaching experience and 10 years in the college ranks (including coaching linebackers at Bama). When Shula was hired over Croom, one Alabama state senator called it "a sad day" for his state, and Jesse Jackson announced plans to protest the hiring.

Welcome to the SEC, coach. By the way, thanks to various violations, you're also down twenty-something scholarships. Now get to work.

2003: Alabama goes 4-9, with a 2-6 record in the SEC, including losses to Northern Illinois, Ole Miss, and Hawaii. Stud QB Brodie Croyle passes for 2300 yards, but misses two games due to injury.

2004: Alabama goes 6-6, 3-5 in the SEC. Losses to Arkansas, South Carolina, and Minnesota. Croyle misses nine more games with another injury.

2005: Shula is entering his third season as head coach. Croyle, now on his fifth season, is finally healthy. Alabama starts the year 4-0 entering a home game against Florida, a team they haven't faced in Tuscaloosa since the Steve Spurrier era of 1998. The Tide faithful are jacked beyond comprehension.

This could be the year, they thought. No more Spurrier, no more probation, no more excuses. Since the year 2000, Alabama was three games over .500, a mark unacceptable to the Tide faithful. Nope, it was time to make a "statement," and put Alabama back on the map. For Mike Shula, it was an opportunity to prove himself once and for all, by shutting up the radio talk show hosts, newspaper columnists, and TV talking heads that had been questioning his credentials since the day he stepped on campus. It was time.

Which is how Tyrone Prothro, a junior wideout from Heflin, Alabama, the most electrifying offensive player on Shula's roster, came to be on the field against Florida last Saturday, in the fourth quarter, with less than nine minutes left and a four-touchdown lead, streaking toward the end zone from the 28-yard line on fourth down, attempting to snare one more touchdown pass from Croyle, who was also still on the field.

Lord knows what was going through Shula's mind at that moment. That's not a criticism. I mean, literally, that I cannot imagine the emotions racing through Mike Shula's head when presented with the opportunity to bury Florida. These were the Gators of Spurrier and Wuerffel and now Urban Meyer, the new media darling. This is the program that SEC rivals hate, with inexplicable passion. Burying Florida would be sweet for Alabama - but imagine how much sweeter for Coach Shula.

For Shula, burying Florida would mean burying the demons. It means silencing the "noise in the system" for a long while (or until the next loss). It means a reprieve from the radio idiots, and talking heads, and newspaper hacks. Go for it on fourth down? Got to.

And in the blink of an eye, Tyrone Prothro's season is over. Final score, 31-3 Alabama. And one great kid.

Was Mike Shula thinking along any of these lines during the game? Probably not. Is he responsible for Prothro's injury? Of course not, no more than any football coach is responsible when any player gets hurt. But they did go for it, on fourth down, with less than nine minutes left, at home, in field goal range, up by 28 points, with the starters still on the field. Shula's fault? Hardly. Frankly, this is what college football has come to.

There's no playoff system in Division I football. The BCS is one attempt to crown a true national champion, but it still relies heavily on perception - in the eyes of the media voters in the Associated Press poll, the coaches in the USA Today poll, and whoever is standing still long enough to qualify as a Harris Poll voter. Terms like "signature win" get tossed around, without any objective basis. Simply winning a game is not enough. Instead, coaches have to "prove" something. They have to impress the voters, quiet the critics, and assuage the boosters and bowl organizers. They have to win big. There's simply too much money riding on it, and too many careers. This is the system within which a college coach must operate, but the coaches in question, like Shula, did not create this scenario for themselves.

We did. All of us. Sportswriters in markets that cover college football, and website administrators, and university presidents and athletic directors and television network executives and sports radio hosts and television announcers. And fans. Fans who rail on message boards, fans who organize their schedules around home football games, and fans who donate their discretionary income to football programs. We created this system, and we feed it every day.

Are we wrong? If you judge that question by the laws of supply and demand, no. College football is big business, but more to the point, it's interesting. It captures eyeballs, and captures emotion. We care about it. There's no point in debating the right or wrong of that fact - it just is. And sometimes, college football bites the hands that feed it.

For proof, look in the eyes of Urban Meyer as he tries to explain what happened to his top-five team in Tuscaloosa. Look at Bobby Bowden, the winningest coach in D-I college football history, as he fields a hundred more questions about his quarterbacks after his thirteenth 4-0 start in the last fifteen years. Look at Larry Coker respond to critics of Miami's offense, biting his tongue with a 47-7 record on his Hurricane resume'. And look at Tyrone Prothro.

We did this. We didn't break Tyrone Prothro's leg, but we did this. We put these guys in this spot. Not just the coaches, but the players, too.

College football is a game played by kids. 18 to 22 years old, no clue what their future holds, not ready for anything beyond their class schedule next week. They carry coaches' careers, athletic programs' fortunes, and fans' satisfaction between their shoulder pads, but they're still kids. Just keep that in mind.

There are hundreds of kids like Prothro, and dozens of coaches like Shula. Neither story is particularly unique. I just hope that Saturday was the last "statement" game I have to watch for a while, because I'm not sure I like what it said.