OK, so this is the last Sunday Blog now that Florida’s regular season has ended but don’t worry — the blogosphere will still be filled up by my rantings.
It has been great sharing this Sunday mornings with those of you who have taken the time to reads this and especially those of you who leave pithy comments.
Another season flew by and I’m sure a lot of you felt like it couldn’t end soon enough.
THE NOT-READY-FOR-PRIME-TIME
TOP 25 COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLL
1. LSU (12-0): Tigers flexed their muscles after some anxious moments.
2. Alabama (11-1): Is it odd that the Tide has basically clinched the national title game but the team that is unbeaten and beat them in Tuscaloosa has not?
3. Stanford (11-1): Pretty amazing year to have no championship to show for it.
4. Virginia Tech (11-1): The Hokies were so unimpressive early in the year but came on strong.
5. Oklahoma State (10-1): So who do you have next week?
6. Houston (12-0): Really looking forward to seeing Coogs in a bowl game.
7. Boise State (10-1): Struggled with Wyoming but got another win.
8. Oklahoma (9-2): As I asked before, who do you have next week?
9. Oregon (10-2): Pac-10 blowout win still awaits Ducks.
10. Arkansas (10-2): The separation between 1 and 2 and 3 in SEC is pretty amazing.
11. South Carolina (10-2): Steve Spurrier deserves a lot of credit.
12. Kansas State (9-2): Is Bill Snyder the coach of the year?
13. Georgia (10-2): It will be interesting to see the crowd breakdown in Atlanta.
14. Michigan State (10-2): Big 10ish championship game may be best of them all.
15. Michigan (10-2): I haven’t hear anyone say that Brady Hoke is winning with Rich Rodriguez’s players.
16. Wisconsin (10-2): Bucky Badger put a whipping on the poor Penn Staters.
17. TCU (9-2): This is how far TCU has come — this is a down season.
18. Southern Cal (10-2): Trojans wore Pac-12 South Champs t-shirts after boat-racing UCLA.
19. Southern Miss (10-2): A nice job by Larry Fedora.
20. Nebraska (9-3): Huskers rebounded well to club Iowa.
21. Baylor (8-3): The Bears can put up some points, can’t they?
22. Clemson (9-3): Tigers came back to earth at end of the season.
23. Texas (7-4): Longhorns pulled it out against A&M.
24. Penn State (9-3): Everything seemed to catch up to Lions Saturday.
25. BYU (8-3): Cougars finish season against Hawaii this week.
THE SEC FOUR-PACK
1. OK, so right now I have both Tyrann Mathieu and Trent Richardson on my Heisman ballot. I know that Mathieu tested positive for synthetic marijuana and missed a game but against Arkansas they moved him to safety and he dominated again. Really, what player has had a bigger impact on the national scene? And Richardson’s 203 yards puts him somewhere on the ballot. I’m still not sure what the order will be.
2. As bad as Florida fans are feeling today, it could be worse. Imagine if you’re a Tennessee fan and your team just blew a bowl game by losing to a team that had to play a wide receiver at quarterback. Most alarming was this quote from senior running back Tauren Poole — “The whole game, no one wanted to be out there. We’re all trying to encourage people because people were out of it. When it’s like that, you’re not going to be able to execute, I don’t care where you’re at. The result was what it was.”
3. Steve Spurrier now has won three in a row against rival Clemson. The last time South Carolina did that was in 1970. “I hope our fans have come to the conclusion to beat their rival, hating them is not the answer. Hating them, trying to kick their tails and all that is not the answer. The answer is playing the way our guys played tonight, full speed, very few mistakes and play the game the way it is supposed to be played.”
4. And congrats to Mississippi State, which became bowl eligible (probably Music City or Liberty) with an easy win over Ole Miss. Leave it to Dan Mullen to pour salt in the open wound. “Hopefully all the kids in the state of Mississippi know this is where you come to win championships.” Well, to win Egg Bowls anyway.
