Making lemonade

Florida's win over South Carolina Saturday had an electrifying finish, but it showed something that I suspect will be a major issue during the next two months in the SEC. UF came out with little energy early, literally walking through the opening intros. The fact they had a 9 PM tipoff Thursday at Arkansas likely had something to do with that. The Razorbacks appeared to be affected as well, not even showing up against UK. The conference should never have put UF playing late in the farthest place possible prior to a Saturday game. The SEC also did the Gators the favor of scheduling three of these Thursday-Saturday combos, more than anyone else in their division. It's a ridiculous setup.

Brett Favre throwing a pick in the NFC Championship Game on his final pass of the season is nothing new. It's how he finished up with the Packers, and will probably be how he does with the Vikings. I assume he'll "retire" again, before making noise about returning for several months and probably doing so in October with a team that needs a QB bad. As much amusement as I got from Favre yet again blowing a big playoff game, he had help. I didn't understand the Vikings choice to seemingly make no effort to do much better than a potential 51 yard field goal to win the game. That made them vulnerable when the 12 men in the huddle penalty occurred. Brad Childress isn't a very good game manager. Nice call giving him a needless contract extension midway through a fluke year with a 40 year old QB, Zygi Wilf.

The mayor of Tallahassee wants to rename Stadium Drive after Bobby Bowden. Apparently naming the field after Bowden, building a statue of him, and creating a ridiculous looking giant stained glass window tribute weren't enough. Why stop at a road, when you could name the whole city after Bowden? Heck, the county's named after some guy Leon. Why not change that to Bobby?

Conan O'Brien said so long for now Friday night, handling things absolutely perfectly. He made fun of his situation with NBC, but went out with class. If you have the time, I encourage you to read the commencement speech O'Brien delivered at Harvard in 2000. Whether his show's your kind of humor or not, this is a good guy. Meanwhile, Jay Leno goes on Oprah tomorrow to try and repair his lame image after the 10 PM debacle and Conan force out. Everyone else in late night TV tries to succeed by being funny, while Leno campaigns like he's running for mayor. Schmoozing NBC affiliates is how he got the Tonight Show job over Letterman in the first place. Hopefully his comeback is a colossal flop, regardless of whether O'Brien goes to another network and competes with him or not.