Blogging from Columbia - it was good to be home

Saturday was a pretty full day for me. Over the course of the afternoon I hosted shows for both my Gainesville and Columbia radio stations, did updates and got a postgame guest for ESPN Radio, provided a recap piece and some sound bites for AP Radio, and wrote my usual postgame column for fightingators.com. All of that was chronicling a simple fact - UF football is miles ahead of South Carolina right now. The fourth quarter of that game - when UF's mostly freshmen backups scored fourteen more points against starters while shutting SC out - should scare the hell out of everyone in the SEC. When the LA Times is writing articles like this, a message has been sent. Now the Gators get a bye week (sorry Citadel, you don't count) to rest anyone who's banged up and then go deal with the fiasco in Tallahassee.

In perhaps the most inevitable news of the year, Syracuse fired coach Greg Robinson yesterday. Winning eight games in four years tends to lead to that. What kills me is this poll of supposed candidates from the Syracuse Post-Standard. Dave Clawson, Tennessee's offensive coordinator, is listed as a possible contender. What were the other options for that spot in the poll, "select coach via reality show" or "award job to ninth caller"?

I got to watch Florida against Bradley yesterday and a few things stand out. This team is going to be in huge trouble on days the threes aren't falling. Alex Tyus looked awful yesterday, and I refuse to believe that's the way he will play all season. Of the youngsters, Ray Shipman looked particularly impressive but I saw good things from Erving Walker and Allen Chaney as well. One thing UF didn't do this weekend: lose to VMI. Billy Gillispie is off to another rip roaring start in Lexington - wonder how much longer it's still going to be all Tubby's fault?

The Tampa Bay Lightning officially hit disaster mode Friday with the firing of Barry Melrose after sixteen games. Now the leaks are coming from everywhere about what a wreck the franchise is. Canning the GM and coach who won the Stanley Cup four years ago to hire an amiable TV personality was a bad idea - gee, who could have guessed?

Over the weekend if you happened to be listening to Fox Sports Radio, you may have heard them playing tributes to Andrew Ashwood and not had any idea who he was. Ashwood was the executive in charge of FSR, with a successful track record in multiple cities before that. He died late last week as a result of a heart attack. I had not spoken with Ashwood in several years, but did get to know him a little bit at a yearly sports radio conference. When I was going through a very frustrating time career wise four years ago, Ashwood provided me some helpful advice and encouragement. The guy was a big timer, and had absolutely zero reason to pay attention to me at all. Ashwood did so because he was a good person and because he was passionate about sports radio. The world is a poorer place without him in it.