Wednesdays with Willy: Urban Meyer’s Comments, Notre Dame, and Mascots

Another question and answer session with

Urban Meyer’s comments about the state of the program when he got to Florida…something people (i.e. Ron Zook, the media) should care about? Or nothing of any importance? Here is the thing…whether or not people SHOULD care about them, we all know that people (including myself and you TBG) DO care about them. For right or wrong, it’s just how we are. Mainly because in a weird way we care about almost everything that comes out of Urban’s mouth and about 99.9% of the stuff that relates to the UF football team. Urban should know this fact better than anyone given what happens every time he says something about coaching at Notre Dame or Shane Matthews or our third-string freshman LB that no one has even heard of. My biggest thing is that there is no reason for Urban to say what he said. Who cares how the program was 5 years ago – it’s not like that today and today we are winning. So don’t take a jab at Zook or Steve Spurrier, that’s our job as fans. If asked the question about the state of the program and how it has changed in 5 years, Urban should merely say that every coach does things differently and he is doing things the way he feels will best prepare the team to win each and every Saturday. It may not be the fun and exciting answer, but it’s the right answer in this situation. Remember, bulletin board material will come back to haunt you 9 times out of 10.

Due to their schedule, many think Notre Dame could have a pretty good season (hell, Lou Holtz believes they’ll be in the national title game). Can they really do it? Or is this just another case of people getting hyped on the Irish? Could Notre Dame go to the NC game and maybe even win it? Absolutely not. Could ND have an above-average season and turn some heads in the process? I think so. Let me first say that I, like 75% of this nation, hate everything there is to hate about ND. They are my NY Yankees or LA Lakers of college football. And I especially hate the fact that they get the benefit of the doubt year-in and year-out. A 9-3 ND team is comparable in the mind of the pollsters to most 10-2 or 11-1 major conference teams and that makes no sense to me. It seems to me like they are given a free game or two each year to lose which won’t have a huge negative effect on their final rankings or bowl participation. But if you look at their schedule, they really have no reason to lose more than 2 or maybe 3 games this year. The only preseason AP top 25 team then play is USC. And they play them at home. And I for one believe that USC is in for a huge letdown year this year behind their all-world freshman QB and could lose as many as 3-4 games. Besides that they play #28 Pittsburgh, #29 Michigan State (at home) and #40 Boston College (at home). These are the only teams in the AP extended preseason poll that they play and the extended poll technically goes out to 54 teams. So even if they lose 2 out of those 4 which I think is a decent possibility, I wouldn’t be surprised to see ND still in a BCS game or at worst a second-tier bowl game. Oh yeah, and Jimmy Clausen should be better this year and I actually think their offense will be pretty good and score a lot of points…if anything lets them down it will be that slow D that teams in the Midwest like to put on the field for some unknown reason.

What’s your take on mascots? Real people (the previously mentioned Notre Dame for instance)? Or those dressed in large animal costumes? As far as mascots are concerned, I am really ok with either the human mascot (ala the aforementioned Notre Dame – although he does look a little like the creepy guy from the movie The Burbs that lives in the basement of his parents’ house) or costume mascots (ala the National Champion Florida Gators). What I am not ok with is half-and-half mascots (ala the Purdue Boilermaker retard). I am also not ok with double mascots like the Auburn Tigers/War Eagles or the Alabama Crimson Tide/Elephants. Make up your freakin’ mind already. Lastly, I am definitely not ok with mascots that just flat out don’t make any sense like the Stanford Cardinal tree. Best mascot ever – the Western Kentucky Hilltopper. Hands down.