Thursday, August 6, 2009

Camp's open, so I'm back

I've enjoyed a few days away, but now it's back to work. It was interesting to see the national reaction to the Urban Meyer contract extension. Doesn't it seem pretty basic that if someone's going to make the "priorities" argument, they should familiarize themself with where the money's coming from? Meyer's salary has as much to do with a professor's as the level of water in your bathtub does to the ocean. Some people still won't accept the idea Meyer's not just waiting to go to Notre Dame, but if they read Pat Dooley's piece discussing the extension with him even they might start to have some doubts. There's simply no reason for Meyer to go anywhere - he's not a guy who enjoys the NFL like Spurrier was, and there's nowhere else that makes sense to leave for. If Jeremy Foley or Bernie Machen left and were replaced by a meddler, that could change his situation enough to make a difference. Otherwise, Meyer's where he's going to be.

The trend of kids bailing out on their senior year of high school to race off to college or the pros doesn't seem like a good one to me, but it looks like UF will be benefitting from it this season. Stephen Alli's apparent early admission will likely help the scout team, and he should be more ready to contribute next year as a result. I can't imagine he cracks the lineup this year unless he's just an otherworldly talent. On the other hand, Nimrod Tishman has a terrific chance to be a big factor for Gator basketball this year. Should he make it in, and it appears like he will, this guy will be fascinating to watch. Walker can play, so all UF needs from Tishman is 10-15 competent minutes a night. If he turns out to be special, this could be a really fun team to watch.

When Jarvis Moss was drafted by Denver, I thought he'd have a pretty good NFL career. Not sure how things have gone so wrong, but it became clear they had after reports in April said he was offered around for a seventh round pick and no one took the Broncos up on it. Moss is back in camp after a weird retirement threat earlier in the week. I still believe Jarvis has the ability to help a team, but stunts like that only further ensure Moss will have to try and make it somewhere else.

No comments: