Wednesday, September 9, 2009

College football is a flyover country sport, it appears

It's now official that Florida will not have Andre Debose this season, as the ultra hyped freshman will have surgery to fix a torn hamstring tendon. The news has been expected for a couple of weeks, and Debose had clearly not been the player he was supposed to be well before that due to hamstring problems. It's a loss, because WR depth is one of the few things Florida lacks. This may also prompt Meyer not to praise anyone too much on National Signing Day. In 2008 he raved about Omar Hunter, and back problems led to him having to redshirt. This year it was Debose's turn. Hopefully for him, he'll be out there ready to go in week one against Miami of Ohio next season. Speaking of which...

I've mentioned before my belief that no one from the northeast sports media should be allowed to discuss college football unless I have given them a test and personally approved their fitness to do so. The New York Post made the reason for that clear Monday. As Matt Hinton from the Dr. Saturday blog points out, the Post ran an AP story preiewing the Miami at FSU game. Unfortunately, the helmets they featured in the accompanying art would lead viewers to believe that they were about to see Florida take on Miami (Ohio). Identifying Florida's helmet really shouldn't be a stumper for anyone at this point. I'm surprised to find out the NYP even HAS art of a Miami of Ohio helmet, much less that they couldn't tell the difference between that and the U.

With all the football on TV this fall, it's hard to imagine Bonnie Bernstein won't be a part of broadcasting it somewhere. The former CBS and ESPN reporter has joined the Michael Kay show on ESPN Radio's New York station. I've always been a huge Bernstein fan - she's excellent on air, is good to deal with on a personal level, and also happens to be drop dead gorgeous. True story: the first thing I ever remember saying to my wife upon meeting her was how uncanny her resemblance was to Bonnie Bernstein (good thing for me she agrees Bonnie's really attractive!). Bernstein had a serious health issue caused by DVT a few years ago, and avoiding air travel may be part of the explanation behind this. TV's loss here is definitely radio's gain.

The news former Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie has entered rehab for his drinking problem isn't stunning, particularly in light of him recently picking up DUI number three, but I hope it works for him. People around the basketball community swear the guy's an excellent coach, but I didn't see much evidence of that in his two years in Lexington. Maybe the pressure of the UK job combined with his personal issues help explain why Gillispie alienated virtually everyone he came across from players to boosters to his own administration. Acknowledging he has a problem is at least a first step toward getting his act together.

Richmond football is not ordinarily a hot topic on my radar, but I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't encourage you to check out this profile of their coach Mike London from the Washington Post last week. He's won a national title on the FCS level and just beat Duke with that same team. There's a lot more that's interesting about London, though. Not many current coaches can describe what it's like to be a police officer, and I doubt anyone else can tell their players what it feels like to have someone attempt to kill you and fail. London's story is fascinating - I'll be interested in seeing where he goes next.

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