Monday, November 2, 2009

Teams need to leave their uniforms alone

Florida continued their dominance of Georgia as anticipated Saturday. The Bulldog coaching staff has got some serious questions to answer longterm, because when gimmicky crap like black helmets that make you look like Grambling is the best new idea you've got coming out of a bye week you don't have much. As for UF, it was good to see Tebow back to looking like he was having fun, but it would be a mistake to draw giant conclusions about the offense from that game. UGA does not have enough pass rush to judge whether the Gators have figured things out or not. Speaking of figuring things out, if you can make sense of this incoherent column by Dennis Dodd of CBSsports.com you're better than me. The guy watched that game and his conclusion was there's no way Tebow can survive the season? Huh? Then again, this is the same guy who said Eric Crouch should win the Heisman over Rex Grossman because he came to Nebraska's media day every week, so this is par for the course.

Whoever's in charge of crisis PR for the SEC must be the worst at their job in America. Two weeks ago they let the whole "ref conspiracy to help Florida" crap drag on half the week before they suspended the crew who blew the call and announced they were doing so. Last week, when it was clear Lane Kiffin's comments should have gotten him hammered by the conference, they did nothing more than a reprimand. UT assistant Ed Orgeron made the same claim of refs favoring certain schools two days later. Still nothing. Friday afternoon, the league finally said we'll punish someone next time they do something like that. Way to go, guys. You really handled that situation.

After all that crowing Lane Kiffin did about landing NuKeese Richardson, it appears there is trouble brewing in that relationship. Apparently Richardson pulled a noshow at practice yesterday, and word is he may be looking to leave. I hope things out well for the young man one way or the other, but it would be pretty hilarious for Kiffin to be left with virtually nothing to show for his big signing day coup.

Baseball's done nothing for me this year, and the fact the World Series is about to be won by a team put together almost entirely through "no price too high" free agent spending certainly isn't going to change that. I guess A-Rod's a real Yankee hero now, huh? Maybe that means people won't care that he supposedly has paintings of himself as a centaur hanging over his bed. He's a creepy dude who's a steroid cheat, but if you can win no one in NYC cares. If you can't, then you're Stephon Marbury and will be ridiculed for your bizarre and self destructive behavior.

Mike Locksley, who worked under Ron Zook at UF for two years before following him to Illinois, has had nothing but trouble since he took the New Mexico head coaching spot. He was suspended for a game over an incident involving him getting physical with assistant coach J.B. Gerald. Now Gerald's told his story to ESPN, and they also dug up two other supposed coach on coach violence incidents from Locksley's past. I feel bad for Cheston Blackshear and Mike Degory, two guys I covered who are on that staff now, because this has got to be a brutal year for them. The funny thing in that article is Gerald's insistence that his coaching career "at New Mexico" is over. No, his career in college coaching is over. Going public with stories like this, particularly against a guy who by all accounts had been a big supporter of Gerald prior to the altercation, means he's going to be radioactive to anybody putting together a staff for years to come.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do you think about Spikes nearly gouging that guy's eyes out....half a game vs. Vandy seems a little light for a guy that could have blinded somebody.

Anonymous said...

That Dennis Dodd article was one of the most absurd and perhaps irresponsible articles I've seen by anyone. Did he watch the same game as everyone else? Certainly anyone could be injured at anytime but his comments were out of line.