I may sponsor the St Pete Bowl once Beef O'Brady's stops

What's a coach's job in any sport? My position is that they're responsible for having the players properly prepared physically and mentally to compete. They need to be able to adjust strategy to account for the circumstances of the game. On the other hand, they can't do the players jobs for them. I had some South Carolina fans wanting Steve Spurrier fired yesterday for a loss to Kentucky seven days after the biggest win in school history. Spurrier fumbled when the Gamecocks were in field goal range Saturday night, and also failed to field a punt deep in his own territory which led to a UK field goal. His busted coverage on 4th and 7 allowed Randall Cobb to easily score the game winning touchdown for the Wildcats. Sounds ridiculous, right? In the end, players have to do their jobs once coaches put them in position to do that. Coaches will be held accountable for their team's record, but people have got to ease up on trying to blame everything up to and including their case of gout on the coach of their favorite team. That seeming race folks are in to be as negative as possible leads to things like Randall Cobb lashing out at his own team's "fans" after their biggest win in a few years. It's not good for anybody.

The BCS numbers are completely meaningless right now, with half a season left to play, but they were released on Sunday. By the end of the year there may be the usual controversy or things may have worked out to the point only two teams remaining have popular support for the title game. What can not be disputed, regardless of the final outcome, it how ridiculous the formula is. It uses half a dozen computer ratings designed by people with little to no qualifications. It has no check and balance to make sure the ratings turned in have been done correctly. As an example, back in 1998 Jeff Sagarin accidentally had included Kansas State as having beaten Indiana soundly in a game as part of his calculations. They'd actually beaten Indiana STATE, a 1-AA team. He caught the mistake later, but if K State hadn't blown the Big 12 title game to Texas A&M that could have accidentally put the wrong team in the national title game. You'd think that would have been a warning, but a dozen years later there's still no safety net for that kind of mistake or for someone intentionally skewing the data. I've asked this question for years: why can't the BCS have one computer rating designed which can be understandably explained to coaches and fans while also being verified by outside sources? How can they possibly claim the way it's done now makes sense?

There hasn't been a Poulan Weedeater Bowl for years, but when people are looking for a ridiculous bowl name to mention that still tends to be the one that springs to mind. There's now a new contender, with the Mobile Alabama game turning into the Go Daddy bowl. Can't wait to see the jackets those bowl scouts will be wearing in the press box. Wonder what new "shocking" content they'll come up with to try and drive people to their web site during the game. Can't keep trying to convince people Danica Patrick's doing a stripper routine on your site forever, guys.

The Miami Herald is holding a LeBron James poetry contest. One of those whose six line or less masterpieces about LeBron coming to the Heat are chosen will get tickets to a game and read their poetry on air. Here's my entry...

LeBron is a king

who has no ring

His show "The Decision"

displayed with precision

why he'll face derision

because he's a tactless jerk who can't handle playoff pressure and wants an easy way to win

All of you are competing for second place.