The Long Snapper (2/16/10)
Yesterday was President’s Day, so I salute the presidents of our favorite schools if for no other reason than to avoid discussing the real politics of the world. To Bernie Machen, you are thanked for whatever role you played in bringing
Urban Meyer
to Gainesville. I assume your relationship with Meyer while you were both at
Utah
had something to do with the head coach coming to
Florida
. And even if it didn’t have as much to do as the large contract and stature of the program, we still celebrate your work. In the small sect of the collegiate world I discuss on this site it goes 1) athletics, 2) academics, and Bernie, you’ve succeeded in making #1 very pleasing to cheer for in recent year. Sorry to those of you that have the order of those priorities reversed, but consider this site a fantasy land where sports rule and all else is null and void. To Judy Genshaft, we stand behind you in support of your decision to fire the only head coach the
USF
football program has known and proudly applaud Fresh Mark. Firing
Jim Leavitt
may have been easy considering the circumstances, but regardless, the program needed a shot of life and that may have been exactly what it got. You are both worth our adulation on President’s Day even if the holiday isn’t really meant for your type of presidential work.
National Championships ease the pain, but Machen can’t be pleased with the arrest record the Gators have piled up over recent years. And neither am I or any fan for that matter. It’s becoming less and less easy to make a snide remark about Miami of the 80s or FSU of the 90s. The arrests just keep piling up for Florida. Add another to the list. Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Gary Brown reportedly smacked one woman and scratched another at a party and was subsequently arrested (Brown’s mug shot definitely goes into the hall of fame). Both of the women are okay, but that doesn’t change the fact that you DO NOT HIT WOMEN! It’s just one of those rules. Don’t run with scissors. Don’t eat yellow snow. Don’t hurt puppies. Don’t hit women. If there was an order, you could probably just switch what I just listed around. Not hitting women definitely warrants consideration for #1. It’s an easy enough rule for most of us to remember, but not all of us apparently. Brown has been suspended by interim head coach Steve Addazio and it remains to be seen if he’ll be welcomed back to the program with open arms. Meyer has been known to give players multiple chances in certain situations, but Brown hardly lived up to his potential in his first year. Redshirts are common, but Brown’s was mostly due to a lack of effort. There have been others that had that similar problem as well. They tend to finish their careers elsewhere. That’s more than enough black eyes on the program thank you very much.
A couple of weeks ago I told you about kicker Marvin Kloss. The #1 rated kicking prospect in the nation according to the Kornblue Kicking School, Kloss was close to choosing USF as his destination. Again, I warn about getting too excited. Not to take away from the talent Kloss may possess, but he doesn’t even register in either the Rivals.com or Scout.com databases. After all of that, Kloss won’t become a Bull despite being offered a scholarship if he’ll grayshirt. He has decided to walk on at Florida and hopes to earn a chance to compete for the kicking job in the fall. I’m sure Caleb Sturgis will have something to say about that. Kloss doesn’t lack confidence, which is good, but I’m still weary of his ability. No, stars don’t always matter when it comes to recruiting rankings, but when you don’t even appear in a search, there has to be some question.
Damn you Molly Jones! DAMN YOU! You are a sly she-devil and there is no excuse for your ways. What the hell am I talking about?!? A Miami alum, Jones tricked our beloved superstar Tim Tebow. Tricksy she is. Jones asked Tebow to take a picture with her and just before the snap, she threw up the U. Tebow was of course nice about the whole thing and probably even had a little laugh about it. Part of me commends Jones for having the fortitude to pull off something I only dream of doing when I am four or five sheets to the wind. The other part of me wants to show here where she can shove that U. Either way, I definitely applaud Tebow for not going all Gary Brown on her and instead just brushing it off.
There is something to the majesty of the one-year contract extension which is effective many, many years in the future. It’s an interesting animal in which we tend to question why. A thank you from the school for your hard work and success, but a reward that’s not realized until much later. Nebraska’s Bo Pelini is the latest to receive the one-year extension many coaches never see (he gets a bump in base pay to go along with it). His contract now keeps him as the Cornhuskers’ head coach into 2015. Nebraska has shown some promise and could be a program on the rise so keeping Pelini around is probably a good idea, but in today’s coaching world it’s hard to say with any certainty if he’ll still be in Lincoln. But alas it still important (read: doesn’t really mean a whole lot) for the school to pledge its support by offering up that extra year. And as a bonus, Pelini gets $500,000 if he’s still the head coach on January 15, 2015. Of course if he’s still around then, one can assume he’s done a pretty good job and restructured his contract at least once anyway.