Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Jimbo's brain was apparently in limbo

Jimbo Fisher can try the rest of his career and it's going to be hard to top something he said this week for sheer stupidity. FSU's new coach actually suggested it would be a good idea for the yearly game with the Gators to move out of the state of Florida. He suggests making it the season opener as a neutral game at the Georgia Dome for two years. Words can not begin to do justice to how idiotic this idea is. It would deprive both the Gainesville and Tallahassee communities of a huge day of economic impact in favor of giving that money to Georgia. It would rob each school of one of their (and maybe their absolute) best days to host recruiting visits. The benefits of such a move would be what exactly? Might be a good idea for Jimbo to actually win a game or two before he starts suggesting screwing with traditions.

Florida basketball continues on its recruiting tear, picking up its third commitment in three days. Cody Larson, a forward from South Dakota, is the latest to jump in as part of this year's signing class. He was getting interest from Ohio State and Kansas in the last couple of weeks after being released from Iowa. Unlike previous "late" Billy Donovan acquisitions llike Mohammad Abukar and Christian Drejer, there's a familiarity here. This kid has come to UF's camps and both sides should know what they're getting. That could make this a lot more effective than those similar signings proved to be. There's no question now that some people currently on the roster won't be back, with Alex Tyus's potential European future, Adam Allen's injuries and Nimrod Tishman's total lack of presence all having people looking their way for where the spots will open up.

Tampa Bay's trade of Byron Leftwich to Pittsburgh is the rare deal that makes perfect sense for both sides. Leftwich had no future in Tampa, so it lets them get something small of value for acknowledging that. Pittsburgh gets a guy who knows their system and isn't a trouble maker to have as an option in case Roethlisberger's situation turns out to be worse than anticipated. It was poor decision making by the NFL to wait until after the schedules were released to announce Ben's punishment. Whether any consideration was given to what his status was or not in the making of Pittsburgh's schedule, the perception will be that it was. If he gets four weeks, the timing of their bye for week five in particular (allowing him two weeks to get ramped up for the rest of the season) is going to look sketchy.

As for those NFL schedules, while I don't understand the hoopla that has developed about their unveiling it is always interesting to see which teams appear to have a good deal or a particularly tough one. Tampa Bay's going to be bad, but the league gave them a soft opener at home against Cleveland to try and give the fans a little hope. The bye after three weeks is ridiculous though, especially when you have just two home games between October 25 and December 19. Miami asked for 4 PM home games and was given none by the league. Having the first two games on the road isn't ideal, but overall they got a pretty good setup. My main concern would be the late season games at the Jets and New England with the possibility of major weather issues. I don't like Jacksonville's schedule at all - 4 of your first 6 games are at home and yet they're mostly against tough opponents. Not any obvious late cold weather games, but without a hot start the Jags will be toast. They could easily fail to get off to that quick start considering their opponents.

I'm starting to really feel bad for Tiger Woods. In just a few months he's gone from being a guy who was respected by everyone and admired by millions to a guy who's viewed as a cheater and a louse. None of that really bothered me all that much, though. Now Tiger's image has acquired another stain, and this one may not come out. Woods spent time backstage at a Nickelback concert in Orlando rocking out this week. If you know people already have doubts about you, why would you ever reveal you're a Nickelback fan? It's not like he can say he was just there trolling for groupies.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with Nickelback? I own two Nickelback CDs...