I may need to rethink my reluctance to begin Tweeting

On the list of things most people will be thinking about leading into South Carolina's game with Florida this week, Dorian Munroe getting injured again won't be one of them. Munroe looked ready to be a significant contributor for the Gators before tearing his ACL in 2008. To have the same knee get hurt three times in two years is just brutal, and I feel sorry for the kid. Munroe played a role in the 06 SEC Championship Game victory over Arkansas, so he'll always have that memory and some rings, but no one deserves to have their career end this way. Meanwhile, South Carolina had a tight end who dropped a pass in the end zone and missed multiple blocks due to a clear lack of effort against Arkansas proclaim he doesnt get the ball enough because Steve Spurrier Jr favors the receivers he coaches. Spurrier Jr was also coaching the receivers when this kid got twelve catches the first two weeks, but it seems no one is willing to pass up a conspiracy theory these days regardless of little details like that.

Firing season has officially begun in college football. The first name to go was Memphis head man Tommy West, and naturally Charlie Strong's name is being thrown around as one of the possible candidates. The word is that Memphis will likely try to land a "big name" first. Considering the basketball search earlier this year was so inept that it made people question whether you would trust these folks to successfully make a ham sandwich, I'm guessing they won't end up with one. West raised some excellent points as to why at his semi-farewell press conference. Like a lot of schools, Memphis wants to be big time but doesn't want to spend the money to do so. Their stadium's a dump, their practice facilities are well behind teams they compete with and the fan support has been spotty at best. Charlie wants a head coaching job badly but unless the school is willing to commit resources to solving those issues, he'd be the one at the podium saying goodbye in four years if he took the Memphis gig. I don't think that will be where he ends up.

Michael Vick's return to the NFL ranks as one of the most overhyped stories of recent years. None of the buildup to it was right - the protests were almost nonexistent, and Vick has made little difference for Philadelphia. The people who bought Vick Eagles jerseys have got to feel pretty silly, because he's been a virtual non entity. Now Vick's spoken out, making it clear he doesn't consider himself a Wildcat guy after not getting to do much this year. This bears repeating: Vick was a mediocre at best QB before his legal troubles. His raw athleticism has certainly peaked, meaning he'll have to rely on his weaker skills more and more. Anyone who expects him to become a successful NFL starter again is deluding themselves, Vick included.

I mentioned before that MLB held very little appeal for me this year. Between all the scandals and only around a dozen teams at most being relevant, it's just hard to find much reason to care unless you have a team you've been passionate about since you were a kid. If Mark Cuban was to buy the L.A. Dodgers, that would change. Cuban knows how to market himself and his team, and his inconoclastic ways would be a much needed shakeup for the sport. It's way too early to tell if the ongoing and extremely nasty divorce of the McCourts will lead to the Dodgers being sold, but I hope it does. Cuban's not perfect, but he'd be the perfect remedy for a league that's grown stale.

So this is what it's come to in the search for new ideas for material in Hollywood: the first sitcom based on a Twitter feed. The oneliners on "Shit My Dad Says" are generally pretty funny, but that's hardly enough material for a TV show. You can practically see Jerry Stiller's Seinfeld and King Of Queens characters saying the lines. I suppose I should just be glad someone didn't do an ALF Twitter feed and have them decide to remake the show based on that. If any entertainment folks are reading this blog, film rights are surprisingly still available.

Lionel Richie's Commodores would have had a better chance of scoring

I saw two full games of Vanderbilt football in person this season, and I still have not seen them score an offensive touchdown. Knowing firsthand how bad they were going in, I thought Florida might really put a pounding on them. While that didn't happen, when a team so clearly has zero chance of scoring I do think it dulls the other side's energy level at times. UF has got to figure out what they're trying to accomplish in the passing game, because the Commodores should not be sacking Tim Tebow four times and forcing him to struggle for a yard or two on several other plays. Something is getting lost between the playcall and the execution.

You have to feel for FSU quarterback Christian Ponder, who may well be out for the regular season due to injury. He was the only really bright light they've had in Tallahassee this season. Highly touted redshirt freshman E.J. Manuel has to try and fill Ponder's shoes. He's talented, but there's no way he's ready for what's ahead. The Seminoles are officially in serious danger of missing a bowl game this season.

A few other college football items, rapid fire style...

The people voting in the polls aren't even trying to make sense anymore. That's the only explanation for how a USC team with the exact same 7-2 record as Oregon who lost to the Ducks last week by 27 is ranked three spots ahead of them in the AP, and SIX in the coaches poll.

As that last item should have made clear yet again, the coaches shouldn't be voting. If they are allowed to vote, they have to be held accountable for their choices. The coaches don't like being stripped of their ability to pursue their own objectives without anyone knowing, but will continue releasing their final votes after the BCS made clear they'd be dropped from the ratings if they went through with the plan to go back to a secret poll next season.

What's the difference between the SEC and Big 12 this year? You won't be seeing any stories like this one in the Florida or Alabama papers. Texas fans have decided to poke fate right in the eye and dare it to do anything to them.

Mike Leach made a cameo appearance on Friday Night Lights. He's much better at portraying himself than most people I've seen try to do that.

Not doing as well on TV as Leach is whoever on the production side of the telecast of Richmond's loss to Villanova didn't realize his mic was on air. Apparently the production guy was in a hurry to get off work - I'm guessing he'll have a lot more down time in the very near future (language on that video is not for family/work consumption).

Remember Jeremy Tyler? He's the highly touted center from San Diego who had been planning on playing for Rick Pitino at Louisville for the 2010-11 season and then was expected to be the first pick in the NBA Draft. Then someone got the bright idea that he should blow off his senior year of high school as well as the year of college and go pro overseas now. He'd be making money and getting ready for the NBA, which is clearly much more important than experiencing your senior year of high school. Pete Thamel of the New York Times went to Israel to see how Tyler's doing. So far, he's miserable and the whole project is a disaster. Gee, who could have guessed that would happen? Hopefully other talented high schoolers will learn from this and do things the right way rather than go for a cash grab as a foreign pro, but history says that's not real likely to happen.

Maybe someone can mix in a plaid uniform soon

Vanderbilt heads to Florida for what should be a fairly unremarkable football game Saturday night. The Commodores haven't got anyone capable of making big plays other than freshman running back Warren Norman, and they haven't broken ten points in SEC play all year. UF would almost have to throw the game for this thing to be competitive late. I'll be there to see my second Vandy game in three weeks, but I can safely say that if not for my writing duties for fightingators.com this would be a game I'd take a pass on. Here's the rest of your possibilities for a pretty blah overall weekend from Awful Announcing.

Somehow the SEC's entire season has been hijacked by nonsense. Think about what we've spent time on this past month alone: ridiculous celebration penalties, blown calls, ref suspensions, SEC pro UF-Bama conspiracy theories (egged on by a spoiled child posing as a football coach in Knoxville), and "eye gouging". Is there any chance at some point we'll just be able to talk about football? LSU at Alabama this weekend has the potential to reshape the conference race as well as the BCS. It's got Nick Saban going against his successor. Both teams have outstanding athletes capable of big plays at any time. So why has it been completely below the radar in favor of more anti-Spikes bloviating all week? Four SEC teams play garbage games with 1-AA teams, including Georgia against Tennessee Tech. By the way, Georgia tight end Aron White thinks they had UF right where they wanted them, it's just those pesky four turnovers that screwed things up...

"I don't feel that they're unbeatable by any means. I feel like if we'd have come and had a little more focus, we could have come out with a W."

Uh, yeah. The reason the 4-4 team with the atrocious defense didn't beat the one on the eighteen game win streak is because they needed a little more focus. You betcha.

For whatever reason, the recent trend of colleges imitating Oregon by breaking out new uniforms seems to be picking up steam. FSU announced yesterday that they'll wear this thing for the Maryland game in two weeks. It looks like a Georgia jersey with spiderwebs on the shoulders and a shiny black helmet. Meanwhile Ohio State will wear pseudo throwback jerseys and a white helmet against Michigan. There's a rumor UF may do something similar against FSU. This stuff needs to stop. How's it a good idea to put your guys in uniforms that feel different from what they've been accustomed to all year for the last game? Have a good weekend and I'll see you back here Monday.

What a tedious week of discussion this has been

Brandon Spikes sitting out the second half of the Vandy game is the right call for a lot of reasons, although it would have been a better choice if it had been announced that way from the start. Spikes has been bothered by a groin issue anyway, so what would the point have been of putting him out there in the second half of a game UF should be controlling? Vanderbilt is going to start a redshirt freshman at left tackle due to an injury, the first time Ryan Seymour will have started in his career. His thoughts on the matchup...

"Dunlap and Cunningham are big guys like me. They're not going to be the fastest guys I've seen all year. "

I thought you had to be smart to go to Vanderbilt, but apparently they make exceptions for athletes.

People who complain there are too many bowl games make no sense to me. If you don't want to buy tickets or watch them, no one's going to force you to. It's still a chance for the kids to play one more game and go have a good time somewhere new for a few days. Especially for smaller schools, a trip to something like the GMAC Bowl in Mobile can be a huge deal. MAC or C-USA schools with good records would get shoved aside in a heartbeat for .500 BCS conference teams under a new proposal from the Big 12 though. As things stand, .500 teams can already go to a bowl as long as a league tie in needs to be contractually filled. Once in a great while, like what happened to South Carolina in 2007, a team goes 6-6 and finds that its conference has more eligible bowl teams than bowl slots assigned to their league. As a .500 team SC couldn't get a bowl bid over any available teams with a winning record, and there were enough of them to fill all the open slots. If this rule was in effect, could the Gamecocks have gotten a spot in the International Bowl over Ball State that year? Of course, had the school pledged to buy tickets in big enough numbers. Would their players have appreciated the experience as much or deserved it more than Ball State? Not a chance. This Big 12 proposal is a terrible idea.

It amazes me sometimes just how spoiled fans have gotten across the country. It honestly seems no one can deal with the idea that someone has to lose games, and occasionally it'll be the team they root for. This column from a North Carolina paper notes that Jim Grobe may look to leave Wake Forest because the fans there don't feel his program is living up to their expectations. They just lost to Miami by a point. Think about that - WAKE FREAKING FOREST fans think it's unacceptable to lose to MIAMI. Grobe has been to bowls the last three years, including taking Wake Forest to the Orange Bowl as ACC Champs. The last coach with a career record over .500 at the school left in 1950 - Grobe could lose every game next year and still finish at .500. He's a terrific football coach and has been loyal to Wake Forest despite having plenty of chances to leave. God only knows who the idiots complaining about Grobe think wants to be the coach at the school with the smallest enrollment of any BCS team. I hope Grobe leaves - they deserve what they'll get if he does. Maybe they could get Al Groh back.

The "ooh, it's Michael Jordan's son!" factor better be off the chart when it comes to UCF basketball attendance this season. That's because Marcus Jordan wearing Air Jordans in the Knights first exhibition game just cost the school its deal with Adidas. That's roughly three million dollars gone, as well as the free apparel, shoes and equipment for every UCF athletic program through 2015. Since they don't seem to move much merchandise, I have no idea why Adidas thought UCF was worth a deal like that. Unless MJ pulls some strings no one else is going to feel they are, especially in this economy. UCF coaches wanted to keep their promise to Marcus Jordan, but that shouldn't have come at this high a cost.

What does Ealey know about this anyway? Off with his head!

We now have our answer to the question I asked yesterday amongst the hyperventilating by the media about Brandon Spikes's supposed "eye gouging" of Washuan Ealey: if this was such a heinous crime, why didn't Ealey react in some way? Why didn't Richt know about it a day later when he was asked on his teleconference? The answer, it turns out, is that Ealey didn't feel Spikes was gouging his eyes, nor does he think he should be suspended. Keep in mind, Ealey plays for UF's archrival and will never see Brandon Spikes again on a college field. He has zero incentive to cut him a break here. I'm sure all the commentators who spent the last two days raving about how Spikes "could've blinded Ealey for life" and should be punished worse than LeGarrette Blount are now acknowledging they may have overreacted just a bit. I must not be tuning in at the right time to catch them saying it.

Can anyone explain to me how it's a good idea to tell the media you've stripped your quarterback of his ability to audible out of run plays? That's what Jack Del Rio has done, with the thought being that this will help ensure more runs for Maurice Jones-Drew. MJD is their best offensive weapon without question, but announcing this is begging for people to go ahead and stack the line against him. Even if the play's a suicide mission, opposing defenses now know Garrard will be forced to go through with it. Taking away your QB's audibling is debatable, but disclosing you did it is flat out stupid.

I've documented my belief that drafting cornerback Aqib Talib last year in round one was a very bad decision by Tampa Bay numerous times, so I'll spare you the rehash. That doesn't mean I'm any less irritated about his latest episode. Talib blew off curfew in London, which led to him being confronted about it in the hotel lobby by coach Raheem Morris. Now Morris is saying that, while Talib did swear at him in response, that's cool because he didn't find it disrespectful. After all, swearing's just football talk. I've seen this movie before, and I know how it ends. Eventually Talib will screw up enough that they outright cut him or trade him for a handful of magic beans. The organization's front office and coaches will talk about his unfulfilled potential as if that wasn't an entirely predictable development from the start. How could they have possibly known a guy dumb enough to test positive for drugs multiple times in college would turn out to be a turd once he got big NFL dollars?

Further proof that blind faith in recruiting rankings will lead to lots of disappointment comes for Colorado, where Darrell Scott has announced he'll transfer, more than likely to UCLA. Every school in the country was after Scott, who allegedly was the best RB coming out of high school that year. Scott never made any meaningful impact despite being on a bad Buffaloes squad dying for playmakers. He showed up out of shape last year and apparently expected the Big 12 to fall at his feet to worship his greatness. Things never really got better from that point. When the Ron Zooks of the world claim football is all about the "Jesses and Joes" rather than Xs and Os, this is the kind of kid they're believing is the answer to their problems. I'll take my chances with guys who know how to coach really well that can recruit at a reasonable level for their competition over "great" recruiting that brings in lots of Darrell Scotts.

Dan Sileo remains suspended from his radio show in Tampa and Orlando as a result of his erroneous "scoop" about the Glazers Bernie Madoff dealings. It should be a permanent vacation as far as I'm concerned, but I find this column about it from the St Petersburg Times amusing. I just love when writers who have never worked a day in sports radio condescendingly explain how talk show hosts do their jobs. Tom Jones, the author of the piece, doesn't bother to note that his paper played up the Sileo report initially rather than immediately labeling it as the horse crap it clearly was. Not every media outlet did that, just as not every sports radio host is a meathead who goes on air with stories he either made up or heard secondhand from some guy at the gym and presents them as fact. The idea that all sports radio hosts need to think about Sileo before "saying something controversial" is as insulting as saying all reporters should think about Jayson Blair before writing a feature story. Professionals will act as such in either field, and the others will eventually be exposed for what they are.

Not sure the new Weezer album does much for me - they've been in a slump for a while now, although they do get bonus points for having a dog that looks exactly like mine on the cover of Raditude. I've got to give them credit though, of all the possible product tie-ins for a band, the Weezer Snuggie definitely wouldn't have been one that sprung to my mind.

Amazing what the internet can do sometimes

The Brandon Spikes "eye gouging" hysteria yesterday puzzled me quite a bit. Was what Spikes did wrong? Yes, and a full game suspension rather than only half of the Vandy game probably would have been a better choice. On the other hand, it was hardly the crisis some hysterical commentators portrayed it as. It was poor sportsmanship in a game that had already featured multiple incidents of such, including two directed at Spikes. The fact neither Mark Richt or Urban Meyer were even aware of the play when asked about it on their teleconferences Sunday should have told people it wasn't something that stood out that much at the time. If you're Washaun Ealey and someone "gouged your eyes", wouldn't you have made a bit of a stink about it to the refs or your coaches right away? None of us in the press box at the game had even seen it happen. This entire thing was driven by the video clip getting circulated on the web, and then it was off to the races to see who could overreact more. I heard pundits proclaim Spikes should be banned from football for the rest of the season, and that this was vastly worse than LaGarrette Blount punching a player in the face and then trying to go after fans. I suspect very few of those people actually watched the game. I assume the SEC based their acceptance of the half game suspension on their previous precedents for fighting and treated this as the same thing as throwing a punch. While I think a full game would have been better, I can understand their thinking.

I can't imagine anyone's going to argue Urban Meyer felt he needed Brandon Spikes available in the second half for Florida to be able to handle Vandy at home this week, but now the Commodores should be even meeker offensively thanks to the loss of starting QB Larry Smith for the rest of the season. Mackenzi Adams, his replacement, is a senior who hasn't started since Vandy's game with UF last season. The Commodores simply don't have anyone capable of making plays in the pass game right now - this weekend's game could get very ugly if UF is even close to efficient offensively.

All indications are that Mickey Andrews will officially acknowledge his intent to retire as FSU defensive coordinator after the season today. This can't possibly surprise anyone at this point, and given how awful the defense has been this year I suspect Andrews wishes he'd stuck with his original desire to quit last year. Regardless, what happens next should be fascinating. Even if Jimbo Fisher has won the battle to keep Bobby from promoting Chuck Amato, will he be allowed to hire only a coordinator or an entire defensive staff as its believed he wants to? If not, what quality coordinator will want to come in and try to install his system with a staff full of short timers who don't want him there? Will FSU even discuss this issue during the season, or let it just sit out there as the elephant in the room?

As awful as Tampa Bay is this year, at least I can console myself with the thought that I'm not a Cleveland fan. The Browns fired their GM yesterday after half a season on the job. It's been rumored Eric Mangini may go after the season, and this is the second person with close personal ties to Mangini dismissed from the organization in the last week. Bernie Kosar's been brought in as a consultant - is he next to serve as ringmaster for this circus? Between the Redskins, Raiders and Browns the NFL has more genuinely embarassing organizations top to bottom at the moment than I can remember in a long time.

Looking for that special Christmas show to really bolster your holiday spirit this year? Forget about the Rockettes, and ditch the Nutcracker or Mannheim Steamroller. What you need to do is get on a plane for Vegas to enjoy the magic that is Twisted Sister's A Twisted Christmas live. Just to get warmed up, feel free to crank up their version of Oh Come All Ye Faithful at work - don't worry, everyone will enjoy it!

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.