Return to Sender (April 8-14, 2008)
To read the original article the comments are in reference to, click the heading of each section.
The National Championship Game
Cleat Chaser: A house divided. Mrs. Bull Gator goes with Kansas.
The Bull Gator: Yet another reason why I should never be allowed to pick college basketball games.
I’m so glad my girlfriend chose “Cleat Chaser” as a screen name considering I haven’t played an organized sport in 11 years.
Pinto’s Outrageous Claims: Tampa Bay Rays
KP: I hope for the sake of the franchise Pinto is right. That is the only way that the new stadium plan will work. If the Rays continue to rack up seasons more full of expectations than results, the seats won’t fill, and the city will be left with a multimillion dollar empty stadium instead of an old crappy empty stadium. Oh, but the view will be so nice.
The Bucs are the best example. Couldn’t sell out a game for years, they start stacking the roster and decide to pay for some players, start to win, and a Super Bowl comes and everyone from Sarasota to Lutz is on board. But now, even when they make the playoffs, the fans don’t go to the games and the team becomes less relevant. Winning is an evil twisted thing. It raises expectations to levels of absurdity and seasons a fan once craved are now not good enough.
Each preseason – and this one more than ever – the Rays are the darlings of March and April. By May, people are on the beach and golf course because there is no reason to watch an inferior product. Until the execs put a product on the field worth watching, the bandwagon will remain empty. This preseason was a great start with securing the roster. Now if injuries don’t derail things, pieces are beginning to fall into place. Win, and you won’t be a Tampan (I love the fact that a person from Tampa is a Tampan) if you don’t claim Ray allegiance. So get on the bandwagon, be a Tampan.
TBG: Add to all of this that the stadium is in an awful location. As nice as the plans for the new stadium look, it’s still in St. Pete! Inferior product or not, I have to believe more people would attend games if they were easier to get to. I have probably averaged 1 Rays’ game a year for the last 5 years. Being that I’m not a huge fan of watching baseball as it is, I can’t say if I would go to more or not, but it would definitely cross my mind if it was right up Dale Mabry. Raymond James Stadium is in the perfect location for a Tampa-based team. Tropicana Field is not.
Pinto: For the Rays to be 6-6 with 9 people on the DL – including their “ace” Scott Kazmir – is quite an accomplishment. I’m pretty high on this team (No? Really?!?), and it’s not just from the Kool Aid. They are young, talented, and very frisky. They are going to be fun and exciting to watch this year.
Looking at it from a different perspective, they are 6-6 without the top 4 of their lineup (Aki Iwamura, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, and B.J. Upton) hitting above .300. They are still winning games despite not getting huge production from their big guns yet. They’ll come around.
TBG: I just hope they can keep this up with those guys not producing, because if it takes longer for them to come around, I doubt the rest of the Rays can maintain the current pace much longer. A lot of the first month of the season is played on pure adrenaline. Let’s hope they can get it going once that runs out.
And frisky? Are you allowed to use that word to refer to sports teams? I think it’s reserved for cats and certain women.
Emmanuel Moody’s Playbook Struggles
Pinto: What a shame.
TBG: Where’s Aldo when you need him? I will just have to copy and paste it. “Noles suck.”
Jonathan Mitchell Transferring
One-Eyed Willy: Now if Marreese Speights stays, we have enough scholarships to cover all the guys coming in. Not to be mean, but 1 of the 9 scholarship players from last year had to go to make room for the freshmen class and I think it was either Mitchell or Adam Allen. It’s best for everyone…he was not going to play AT ALL next year.
Speaking of the freshmen coming in, I really hope Speights stays because it would be nice to see him play a year at power forward – where he is going to be playing in the NBA – while one of the big freshmen guys takes over at center. Speights will be much better at this position not having to battle the other team’s big man night-in and night-out. Defense was never really a strong point of Speights’ game.
TBG: Speights would be stupid to not return with Kenny Kadji and Eloy Vargas coming in the fall. Those 2 will allow him to work on his game for the NBA. If he spends the summer conditioning himself, he could be a force next year and boost his draft position.
One-Eyed Willy: I think I speak for the rest of The Bull Gator readers when I say “who?”
TBG: Don’t worry he’s gone. None of us have to take the time to even remember his name.
Dolphins Considering Jake Long
One-Eyed Willy: You get Jake Long and put him at left tackle and you not only make your O-line better, but you instantly improve your running back and your QB. I am a big believer in going with O-linemen with the first couple of picks if they are a sure thing like I believe Long is.
TBG: If Long can be half as effective his rookie year as Joe Thomas was for the Browns, the Dolphins won’t be disappointed with the pick. Plug him in as the starter from day one and just watch him grow over his career. Long is an 8-10 Pro Bowl potential guy.
College Gameday and Spring Games
Pinto: Not sure why Chris Fowler feels the need to put down FSU, but from what I’m hearing the crowd at the FSU spring game was around 30,000-35,000. So just a little bit more than the “few thousand” he reported. Good work, Chris.
I do see Lee Corso’s point though – who really cares? FSU still gets 80,000 a game during the season, so who cares if they only get 35,000 for their spring game when UF is getting 60,000? I also have a pretty good theory behind the attendance figures for UF’s spring game. Location. Gainesville is within 2 hours of Tampa/St. Pete, Orlando, and Jacksonville, which happen to be 3 of the 4 largest cities in the state, and all of which have a heavy UF alumni base. Tallahassee is within a 2-hour drive of Quincy, FL, Lake City, FL and Thomasville, GA, which are all thriving metropolises. A 2-hour drive means you can drive to, attend, and drive home from a game easily within a day. Tampa to Tallahassee, meanwhile, is a 4-hour drive, meaning you either need to get a hotel for the night, or you are in for a very long day. I know because I’ve done it many, many times. I’d like to think if Tallahassee was in Gainesville’s location, you’d see similar attendance figures at their spring games.
One-Eyed Willy: I think Fowler has a grudge against FSU and all of a sudden Corso has a grudge against UF. Fowler kept mentioning the 3,500 students that were going to the FSU game over and over again. I thought it was funny (merely because I don’t like FSU), but totally uncalled for. First off, like you said Pinto, he was wrong with his numbers. Second off, who cares? There are tons of schools that don’t get the 60,000 that UF gets or the 90,000 that Bama gets and I didn’t hear him calling those places out. Michigan had their game at some high school stadium and didn’t invite fans at all, but Fowler was fine with that because for some reason ESPN LOVES Rich Rodriguez. (On a side note, Rich Rod is quickly becoming my least favorite coach in the nation. I used to really like Meechigan, but now I hate them with a passion. Of course, them kicking our butts in the Capital One Bowl last year didn’t help much in that aspect. Actually, you know what; I hate pretty much all of the Big Ten. I hate Michigan now, hate THE OSU, hate all the crappy teams like Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, etc. I guess the only team I half way like is Big Red Wisconsin due to some “friends” that I know from there.)
What the heck is Corso’s problem with UF? Oh yeah, he’s a damn Nole. He constantly brought up the fact that Tim Tebow was playing and could get hurt. Lee – he has a non-contact jersey on. Sure, he could hit his hand on a helmet, but that can happen every single day in every single practice. This was no more than a glorified practice for Tebow and he was never in any true danger of getting hurt in my opinion.
Then Corso called out our defense numerous times, which I can’t blame him for because they did suck last year. But then he makes some ridiculous comment about out WR’s and how weak we are in that position. What? Are you kidding me? We are young, but weak? Name me a school that wouldn’t trade for our WR’s. Percy Harvin, Louis Murphy, Chris Rainey (he will be playing WR a lot), Deonte Thompson, Carl Moore, Riley Cooper, Cornelius Ingram, Aaron Hernandez, and David Nelson. Okay, the last guy sucks big time, but the rest of the guys are ridiculously good. Plus, a lot of these guys are the perfect type of WR/RB combo that Urban Meyer wants for his offense. Meyer now has the speedy fly guy in Murphy, the big bruiser who will go over the middle in Moore, the big TE’s that can catch anything thrown to them in CI and AH and the tweeners who can both catch and run the ball in Harvin, Rainey, and Thompson. If there’s one position I am not too worried about these days at UF, it’s WR’s.
TBG: My point really had to do nothing with how many fans go to these games, but more about the fact that Corso spent almost all of Gameday talking about how pointless the entire thing is. Corso has always been quirky, but in a fun, off-the-wall kind of way. On Saturday, he sounded like he had a personal vendetta against all things orange and blue. Did Urban Meyer kick his dog or something? Any comment Fowler or Kirk Herbstreit made about the Gators, was quickly and rather harshly responded to by Corso. Even during the game, he was bashing practically everything about the entire experience. He made a comment about UF doing their spring game right by involving the fans so much, which I can agree with. But other than that, it sounded like he was out to bash anything UF-related. As weird as he can be, Corso has always been good at pointing out all the good things about any program regardless of the school. On Saturday, it seemed like he was out to find everything wrong with the Gators. The guy doesn’t have to praise the team, but if this was a real game and he was singling out a specific school like that, I think ESPN would have a talk with him after the game.
One-Eyed Willy: The problem with putting first string offense against first string defense is that it makes half of the game extremely boring. I am not too anxious to watch the scrub offense go against the scrub defense for the half of the game. And let’s face it, the spring games are more for the fans than anything. I kind of like mixing it up and seeing John Brantley throw to Harvin (an example that obviously won’t come true, but still). And I like seeing Tebow throw to Thompson even though Thompson may be 4th or 5th on the depth chart.
At least neither UF nor USF does the stupid points system in their spring games. That’s the dumbest thing ever. If the D gets a sack or a turnover they get points. Yeah, that’s realistic! That’s as bad as those 3 or 4 golf tournaments a year where you get 3 points for an eagle and 1 for a birdie. Why change something just for the sake of change?!?
TBG: I completely agree with you when it comes to a school like UF. But when it’s a place like USF…they need the work. Case in point, the entire game was boring. 9 total points scored and the offenses got into the red zone twice. When you have a team like the Bulls, you need to use that as an opportunity to work on your primary offense and defense and get rhythm heading into the summer. When it’s a big school, you’re right; it is more for the fans. When it’s a school on the rise or a smaller program, I think they really need to use it as a practice opportunity.
Quote of the year: “Why change something just for the sake of change?!?” Exactly! We could have an entire column of items that were changed for no other reason than to make something different. I would bet almost all of them were changed back almost immediately.
One-Eyed Willy: My pros for the game were Tebow (of course, looked very sharp even with a 102-degree fever and having to throw to our long snapper for most of the game due to lack of WR’s participating), Rainey, Carlos Dunlap, Emmanuel Moody, and some of the defensive guys who don’t get much credit throughout the year – Dustin Doe, Lorenzo Edwards, and Jaye Howard.
If it’s possible for someone to lose a back-up position by playing too much, Cameron Newton did it. He is bigger than me, faster than me, and can read defenses a lot better than me, but mark this down – I can hit a wide open receiver more accurately than him any day of the week. Brantley was smiling all day on the sideline!
Cooper has not impressed me since the day he walked on the field at UF. And he didn’t start doing it in this game either. He had good numbers, but there was no one else to throw to. He is no better than a 4th of 5th WR in my opinion. Guess that is expected for a guy who came from a prissy high school like Clearwater Central Catholic.
RB’s looked good but they have to learn to hold onto the ball. Like I said before, it’s not that hard to do – just ask Tebow how he does it.
Ahmad Black got his jockstrap handed to him by Rainey. Score 1 point for Lakeland High School and 0 points for…oh wait…Lakeland High School. Don’t you think he should know Rainey’s moves a little more after playing against him in high school for 4 years? Guess not. Besides that play, I guess the rest of the secondary looked okay, but it’s hard to tell in this type of game.
Caleb Sturgis is supposed to be our kicker of the future and I know he is really young, but his first FG attempt ever in the Swamp was a shank about 25 yards left of the upright. Not a good way to start things out.
P.S. Corso can kiss my rear!
TBG: I’m seriously thinking of renaming this site www.leecorsoisanass.com.
Poor Ahmad Black. The kid is going to get laughed at the rest of his life for that play. Although, I don’t think anyone could’ve been ready for that. Rainey could’ve told him he was going to fake right and go left and he still would’ve gone right by Black.
Pinto: Finally someone with the balls to tell the truth about CCC! Everyone – especially me – knows CCC is a baseball school. Cooper should’ve stuck with the non-contact sport. He’d be a millionaire by now!
Rainey made that one guy look foolish. I’m not looking forward to facing Rainey at all. He’s a little like Peter Warrick in Warrick Dunn’s body. But did you see Erin Andrews towering over him when she interviewed him on TV. Either a) she’s a giant (unlikely) or b) he’s just a wittle guy (more likely). But man he can ball!
TBG: Be afraid. Be very afraid.
One-Eyed Willy: I agree with Pinto – stick to baseball where the chances of getting injured are limited and you have a glove to assist you in catching the ball. Oh yeah, and stop putting your hand through car windows. Those two things would help Cooper out tremendously. Unfortunately, I think Tebow and Cooper are boys so I see him going to him a lot this year.
I don’t care how big he is – Rainey is going to be a stud. He had an end-around where the D-lineman had him stopped in the backfield and he literally just ran around him and got about 11 yards on a play that should have been a loss of 7 or 8. He is real good and will be even better because the defenses we play have to focus on Harvin and that will leave Rainey open a lot. Can’t wait for our offense this year!
Also, the key to our secondary starts on the D-line which looks much improved. With Dunlap, Jermaine Cunningham, and Omar Hunter in there, I think we will get a lot of pressure on opposing QB’s, which immediately helps out our still young secondary. If defense is able to be 75% of what it was two years ago, I really think we have a chance to win it all.
TBG: Not much I can add to that. Go Gators!