Road To Hogtown

Two words: Gainesville Marriott.

Now THIS, my friends, is the glamour of sports television.

I'm here on an overcast evening, watching the (first-place) Rays play Toronto on FSN Florida, as I prepare for Saturday's Hurricane-Gator Pregame on Sun Sports. The room is adequate and smells like gym clothes. There is no kitchenette, not even a fridge. The television sporadically and randomly shows me a Settings menu, which disappears on its own after a few seconds. I've stopped trying to figure it out. Oh, and the ice machine is broken on my floor.

Like I said, glamour. I will not complain, however, because tomorrow night I will see a college football game in person, on a Saturday, for the first time in five years.

This is only possible because the Sun Sports programming lineup has changed this year. After five seasons of live postgame shows after every Florida and Florida State football game, the network shifted its focus to Monday's "Tailgate Overtime" and the presentation of five live, on-location pregame shows at selected games around the state. The first of these is the reason why I'm in Gainesville.

Last week, the opening weekend in college football, I did what everyone else in America has been doing for the last five years -- I sat on my duff and watched football from my living room. It was nice, but odd. My body had become programmed for 12 hours of writing scripts, taking notes on games, and preparing for (at one point in our history) four hours of live programming on every college football Saturday. Over the years, those hours dropped -- we moved "College Kickoff" to Friday night instead of Saturday, and dropped the "Tailgate Saturday Football Wrap" highlight show -- but it was a bear of a day nonetheless.

Now, with the exception of the five weekends of travel, I can watch at home like everyone else. I have mixed emotions about this change of schedule, as I had an emotional attachment to both the Friday "College Kickoff" show as well as the postgames, which were unscripted exercises in information management (something that I happen to relish as an announcer). The reasons for the change in programming are numerous, and I agree with only a couple of them. However, until I get tapped to run a network (shudder), my opinion is only marginally relevant.

So, I'm in Gainesville. Cool.

Five years after I returned home to Orlando to join Sun Sports, my car can now pretty much drive to either Gainesville or Miami by itself. Far and away, those two cities have been my most frequent in-state destinations on the job. I've been to Tallahassee a few times as well, but that's usually a flight. Hogtown and the Magic City are almost always road trips (getting reimbursed for mileage, of course), and they both have become rote memory.

If you've ever made either drive, you'll think I'm nuts when I write this: I think I enjoy the drive to Miami more. It's longer than the Gainesville trip by at least 90 minutes, but for whatever reason, I love passing through the wide chunk of Florida that separates Central and South (understand that I always take the Turnpike, not I-95). It's the headwaters of the Everglades, of course, and the accompanying wide-open spaces. Flatter than flat. Concave, even. Then, civilization gradually creeps up on you in the form of Port St. Lucie, gets fairly obvious in West Palm Beach, becomes unavoidable in Ft. Lauderdale, and then slaps you around in Miami. You have to understand, as an Orlando native, it's a monumental leap for me to admit that I like going to Miami. But I like going to Miami.

Gainesville, on the other hand, is a trip with a totally different vibe. Where the drive to Miami gets more tropical by the minute, the trip north is the direct opposite. It gets hilly and greener and more south-Georgia with every mile. My favorite part: crossing Paynes Prairie. For one, it means I'm five minutes away from my exit, and for another, well, in case it's not obvious, I like a long view.

So anyway, here I am. Out for dinner tonight with my man Mark Wise, then a football tilt tomorrow. Florida will most likely roll the 'Canes, but then again...

I watched Robert Marve play in high school. Jacory Harris, too, as well as all of the Miami Northwestern HS recruits that have signed with Miami. Don't be surprised if the Hurricanes make some kind of a game out of it. For a while, anyway.

No matter what happens, I get to see a football game tomorrow. In person. Not a bad deal.