Passes and Picks

2003-12-02T14:01:00.000-05:00

QBs looking for new jobs

How well has Freshman Chris Leak done as the starting QB for the Gators?

Well enough to chase his backups to new endeavors.

Second string Ingle Martin, a redshirt sophomore, is looking to transfer to a Div. I-AA school next year. Martin was 2-2 as a starter for the Gators at the beginning of the season, before being replaced by Leak.

Third string QB Gavin Dickey will be trying out for the Gator Baseball team for the coming season. Dickey is also considering moving to another position on the football team for the upcoming season.

Patrick Dosh, who transferred to East Carolina, was chased out of town by the deep talent at the beginning of the season.

Leak has risen to the demands of starting for one of the highest profile teams in the nation and has looked more like a fifth-year Senior than a Frosh.

Leak is 6-2 since being named the starter before the Kentucky Game, beating top-ten teams LSU and Georgia, and looking as good as he could in the stolen FSU game.

He's completed over 60 percent of his passes and scored 14 TDs in the air and two on the ground.

And he'll be back next year and probably the year after that. It's way to early to say this, but Chris Leak could end up bringing Florida its second national championship and its third Heisman Trophy.

I may have been wrong about Zook. He may turn out not to be the worst coach Florida has seen after all.

But I was definitely right about Leak. He's the QB of the present and the future and he could lead us to the Promised Land.

2003-12-01T19:14:00.000-05:00

Florida 34, Florida State 38. Gators win.

I've been thinking about the headline since halftime. I was hoping the headline would be "Gators beat Seminoles, Refs in blowout."

But it isn't. The Gators overcame the Seminoles but just couldn't beat the refs. Now I hate blaming the referees for a loss. They have a tough job to do and sometimes they make bad calls. But this game was ridiculous.

Just ask the Gainesville Sun's Pat Dooley or the Alligator's Jeremy Fowler or ESPN's reporter.

It was disgusting. Every story on the game gives a different number, but there was a very large sum of misappropriate or questionable calls. I counted at least four that could have been called better from the Saturn blimp circling the stadium.

First, on the opening kickoff the officials called FSU returner Antonio Cromartie down before he let go of the ball, when it was clear to anyone actually watching the game that he had fumbled and the Gators had recovered deep in Seminole territory.

Then what was clearly a catch and a fumble, recovered once again by the Gators, was ruled incomplete. Apparently to complete a pass the receiver must catch the ball, turn and take three steps and sign a sworn affidavit attesting to the fact that he caught the ball. The receiver missed only the last step of the process.

Either of those calls could have turned the tide of the game, but the next two definitely did. With the Seminoles driving inside the five-yard line, Greg Jones fumbled the ball, which was recovered yet again by the Gators. He was ruled down before the gave up the ball. The 'Noles turned that gimmee into a touchdown, a 7 point swing of the game.

Finally, the zebras called one the opposite way and said a player was not down when he coughed up the ball when nearly every part of his body was touching the ground. Unfortunately, that player was a Gator and the "fumble" was picked up and taken to the endzone by a 'Nole. That makes 14 points on the scoreboard for the 'Noles that they didn't actually score.

Then there was another FSU fumble, returned for a score by the Gators that was taken back. An FSU fumble on kickoff return, recovered by the Gators, but the Gators were thrown a late flag for offsides. Then there was the blatant holding by FSU on the game winning TD pass in the fourth quarter. Then there was...

There are always questionable calls by officials. Some games even have blatantly horrible calls. Never have I seen a game with such horrible calls all against the same team.

The score may not reflect it, but the Gators played a far superior game than the 'Noles, and every fan cheering for the team as they went to the locker room knew it.

A record 90,407 saw the Gators outplay the 'Noles on Saturday. I just wish the seven who count the most had actually seen the game.

2003-11-25T13:06:00.000-05:00

Still waiting on the BCS

After this weekend's games, we may finally have some BCS answers in the SEC as well as the rest of Div. I-A.

The Gators, currently ranked 11th in the BCS, have an outside shot of making the SEC championship game. To do that, the Gators need to jump Tennessee in the BCS standings, currently ranked eighth.

While that looks like it would take a Tennessee loss, it could happen without that occurrence. Florida first needs to beat Florida State on Saturday.

That would move Florida up at least one spot in the polls (as Florida State would drop) and could propel them ahead of Miami as well. This poll shift, combined with an increase in the Gators' strength of schedule and a decrease in the Volunteers', could just edge out Tennessee in the BCS.

Then, since Florida owns the win over Georgia and would most certainly be within five BCS spots, the Gators would get a bid to Atlanta. Or maybe Kentucky could just play the game of the season and beat Tennessee to make this simpler.

LSU is certainly rooting for that to happen. LSU, currently the third-ranked BCS team is looking for a spot in the national title game. If Georgia lands in the SEC championship game, beating them would most-likely drop them from the top ten and thus take away their quality win points.

Confused yet? Such is the way with the BCS.

This year could also be a very big cry for a playoff system in Div. I-A Michigan is one of the hottest teams in the nation and would arguably make for the best game against Oklahoma, but unfortunately has two early losses keeping them ranked behind LSU and USC.

Those two teams could also both end up with only one loss and yet only one would be able play for all the marbles. These two situations should at least have some effect on the BCS supporters.

2003-11-24T02:13:00.000-05:00

Florida-Florida State rivalry is one of the nation's best

In the spirit of "Rivalry Week" last week, ESPN.com's Page 2 asked its readers to vote on the "best traditional rivalry in college football."

The Florida-Georgia Game made it to the quarterfinals before being blown away by the Iron Bowl (Alabama-Auburn) nearly three to one. It's hard for me to see that, especially with Florida wrecking Georgia's national title hopes for two years running.

What I really don't understand, however, is how Florida-Florida State (PDF) was not a contender. Although Page 2 only allowed a school to be in one rivalry in the bracket, I believe the Gators-Noles game is much more of a rivalry than the Gators-Dawgs.

Since 1972, the series is dead even at 16-16-1 and the Seminoles hold the edge in the last nine meetings 5-4. The Gators own the series lead at 27-18-2.

Florida beat Florida State 52-20 in the 1997 Sugar Bowl after losing by to them by a point in the regular season, to win their only national championship. The Seminoles edged the third-ranked Gators 30-23 en route to their 1999 title.

Former Florida coach Steve Spurrier helped make the rivalry what it is today, saying FSU stood for "Free Shoes University" after a 1993 scandal involving a $6,000 shopping spree at Footlocker by Seminoles players.

FSU coach Bobby Bowden and Spurrier liven up the rivalry nearly every year with at least a week's worth of smack talk being traded in the media.

The rivalry spills off of the field as the basketball programs face off in the host town the night before the game.

While past generations of Gator fans may have been taught to say "to hell with Georgia," the Florida fans of today hate nothing more than the tomahawk chop and the obnoxious cop-out cheer, the war-chant.

Florida-Georgia may have once been a bigger rivalry than Florida-Florida State, but when you win 13 out of the last 14, it is difficult to call it a rivalry any more. It may be more of a tradition rivalry, but if you want to know how to make a Gator fan's blood boil, just mention the "Choke at Doak" game of 1994 when Florida blew a 28 point fourth quarter lead to tie 31-31.

The "Cocktail Party" isn't what it used to be, but luckily the Florida-Florida State match up has come to replace it as one of the game's best rivalries. We just don't have a corny name or random-item trophy to prove it.

2003-11-18T09:56:00.000-05:00

The blunder-ful BCS system

The Bowl Champion Series, a way of ranking teams to ultimately decide a national championship game, is one of the stupidest ideas in sports. It's right up there with the XFL and ties in the All-star game. Simply stated, the BCS sucks.

The BCS came about in 1998 as a way of solving the problem of voting for a national champion. While having sports writers vote for the top 25 through out the season may be alright, having them choose a national champion at the end of the year felt phony and led to several problems.

The title was split 19 times between 1950 and 1997, including three times in the 90s and twice between three different teams. There were controversies every year on location biases, strengths of schedules and such. How do you pick a champion from a bunch of teams that have probably not played each other. The obvious solution was to have a national championship game.

Enter the BCS. Using several computer rankings that figure in practically every factor in some strange way, the BCS ranks the teams and at the end of the year puts the #1 team against the #2 team in a bowl game that is rotated every year. Sound good?

Well its not. Picking the best two teams in the nation is even harder than picking the one best. While there may only be one undefeated team, there could be several one-loss teams from which the BCS has to pick a second place team, which looks to be the case this year.

Ohio State is currently ranked second over USC and LSU, when the Buckeyes look like the weakest one-loss team of the three. In 2000, Florida State played in the national championship over Miami, though they each had one loss and Miami had beaten Florida State.

The BCS is tweaked each year to try to solve for problems like that. Here's the real solution: playoffs.

Division III has them. Division II has them. Division IAA has them. So why not division IA?

A playoff field of eight teams would ensure that all teams with a legitimate shot at the national title would get to play for it. It would only extend the season by two games, and only for two teams. Bowls could still be used, but they would be "playoff bowls."

The playoff system would ensure an "undisputed" national champion, rather than a controversial one, as college football has had practically every year of the BCS system and before.

2003-11-16T14:02:00.000-05:00

Waiting Game

The Gators finished their SEC schedule Saturday with a 24-22 win over South Carolina. Now they just have to wait and hope.

Wait to see how Tennessee finishes its SEC schedule, and hope that it isn't with two wins. Tennessee routed Mississippi State 59-21 on Saturday and still have Kentucky and Vandy to play.

It would take a Volunteers loss or a fairly large miracle for the Gators to make the SEC championsip game, even though Florida will at worst finish in a tie for first place in the SEC East.

It doesn't look good for the Gators, as Kentucky and Vandy are the last two teams in the SEC East. Vandy hadn't won an SEC game in three years until Saturday when they beat Kentucky. And Kentucky lost to a team that hadn't beaten an SEC foe since 2000.

So the Gator Nation will wait and hope for Tennessee to lose. Florida fans will cheer for Kentucky and Vandy and the players will get ready for FSU. There's nothing left to do but wait.

2003-11-12T02:13:00.000-05:00

Holtz going the way of JoPa?

Joe Paterno, the 76-year old legendary Penn State coach, has been on the hot seat recently because his teams the last few years have been ailing.

But I worry about another aging coaching legend, South Carolina coach Lou Holtz. The 66-year-old who led Notre Dame to national championship in 1988 seems to be losing his edge.

After last week's 28-6 loss to Arkansas, the coach was asked if he saw a light at the end of the tunnel for his team that is 2-5 in the SEC this year. Holtz answered with a simple, "I sure do."

What?

Lou, what's happening? Are you feeling all right? Where is the coach we all know and love?

Holtz is famous for making ridiculous quotes when talking about his team, and its chances against upcoming opponents.

He once said the only chance South Carolina had of beating the Gators was if they started putting the Gators' points on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

He may have been right though. Under Holtz the Gamecocks have lost all four of the matchups with the Gators by a combined score of 143-48.

Those blowout have left little to talk about in the week preceding the South Carolina game in recent years, other than Holtz's comments.

Last year he said the game would be much closer "if they hadn't invented the forward pass."

In this week's press conference, when asked about this week's game with the Gators, Holtz simply said, "Mentally, I don't know how we will be. Young people bounce back and you have no other choice. We have never beaten Florida. They defeated Georgia, LSU and Arkansas this year and have won four in a row and five of their last six."

What kind of a quote is that?

Even earlier this year, Holtz was up to true form. Before the game with Tennessee he said, "It may be a better game if the (NFL's) Titans played them. Play for the championship of Tennessee. That'd be interesting."

Granted the week is still young and the 'ol coach has plenty of time to give me some fodder for my blog, but I hope he isn't slipping.

I'd hate for the bulletin board in the Gator locker room to be missing a good Holtz quote so the Gators could have something to keep them occupied this week. After all, Holtz never even promised to win. "The only thing I promise is we're not going to forfeit."

2003-11-11T14:30:00.000-05:00

The weekend that was

The Gators beat Vandy 35-17 on Saturday to make it four SEC wins in a row and now sit alone atop the SEC East. That's the good news.

The bad news is it probably won't be enough. Thanks to a new tie breaker, unanimously voted on by the SEC Athletic Directors, the team representing the SEC East in the championship game will likely be decided by the BCS standings.

That's no good for Florida. The BCS currently has Tennessee at #7, Georgia at #9 and Florida way back in #14.

The tie breaker puts the team with the highest ranking in the championship game, unless the second team is behind by five positions or less. In that case the winner of the head-to-head match goes on. That would currently leave Georgia as the SEC East champion since they beat Tennessee.

So how could Florida make it to the big game? A Tennessee loss seems to be the only thing. Tennessee only has SEC games left, meaning a loss would leave only Florida and Georgia tied, and Florida owns the head-to-head.

If Georgia loses another game, Tennessee will probably be the SEC champion as they beat Florida.

Confused yet? In a nutshell, the Gators are almost certainly relying on a Tennessee loss to Mississippi State, Vandy or Kentucky to be named SEC champs. Those three teams have a combined SEC record of 2-14, only having beaten one another.

So the view isn't so great from the top. Florida has played brilliantly the last four games, but it may not be enough. It just goes to prove in college football, every week counts. Florida may be playing better football better than any other team in the nation (save Oklahoma), but those early losses hurt. And they may hurt all the way back to the Outback Bowl.

2003-11-04T14:28:00.000-05:00

Coming home for homecoming

This is a true homecoming. The Gator football team hasn't played a home game since its disappointing loss to Ole Miss on September 4.

A month on the road can do a lot to a team, but it did a lot for this team. They've turned a disgusting 3-3 season around to a 6-3 season with a shot at the SEC championship.

So is this homecoming going to be good for the road warriors? After all the Gators are 2-2 at home and 4-1 away from the Swamp, with the only loss coming against Miami.

The answer is a definitive YES.

The fans are drooling with anticipation to see their renewed team back in Ben Hill Griffin. The players have got to be tired and ready to stay home for the weekend.

Now that the media has laid off Zook, he should even feel comfortable again at home. This should be one of the best homecomings ever, since never before have Gator fans welcomed home a team that beat three straight ranked opponents on the road.

Now the only thing to do this weekend is avoid a huge upset against Vandy. That shouldn't be too hard, but just look at the problems Virginia Tech and Georgia had against West Virginia and UAB respectively. The Hokies were whooped by the unranked Mountaineers and the 'Dawgs barely squeaked by against a horrid Dragon team.

The Gators should be gearing up for the final regular season game against third-ranked FSU on Thanksgiving weekend. They can't look past an easy opponent on the way to the big game like Virginia Tech and Georgia did.

Barring anything crazy, I'm ready for the homecoming to end all homecomings. Welcome home, boys. You've done us proud.

2003-11-03T01:25:00.000-05:00

A weekend in Jacksonville

I was one of the lucky few students who actually won the Georgia student ticket lottery. I was also one of the even fewer students who actually used the ticket rather than selling it for three times its price.

So I packed my bags, sleeping and otherwise, and headed north from G-ville, through the nation's worst speeding trap and on to J-ville.

I hit up the Landing for the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party on both Friday and Saturday nights. The party was more packed on Friday, but more fun on Saturday, because then we were celebrating a 16-13 Gator victory over the 'Dawgs that night.

It took a 66-yard drive capped by a 33-yard field goal, with 33 seconds left to do it, but Florida managed to beat Georgia for the 13th time in the last 14 games.

There are dozens of great story lines in this win: true freshman Chris Leak's game-winning drive, Florida's sweep of three top-15 SEC teams away from the Swamp to salvage the season and a possible three-way tie for first in the SEC East which seems almost inevitable now.

My favorite story in this victory is 13 out of 14. No matter how good Georgia is, and no matter how bad the Gators are, Florida seems to pull out the win.

Last year the 'Dawgs were making a nice bid for a national championship until they lost their only game of the season to the struggling Gators.

Georgia was once again in the hunt for a national championship this year until they hit the familiar road block. I don't know how it happens, but we always seem to beat Georgia.

Florida defensive end put it best when he said after the game, "We own Georgia." The fans chanted the same on the way out of Altell Stadium.

My favorite taunt after the game was to tell Georgia fans, "Thanks for coming, beat you again next year." And we probably will.

2003-10-28T14:26:00.000-05:00

How to keep fans away from the games

The University Athletic Association, UAA (warning:music), at UF apparently decided in recent months that they no longer wanted student fans at football and basketball games, starting with the Georgia game.

Instead of allowing students with season tickets to call into the G.A.T.O.R.S. phone system to request tickets to the Georgia game, this year they allowed all students to simply register online at my.ufl.edu (which I pronounce "my yoo-flee-do") for a drawing for the tickets. This system would allow all students an equal chance at getting a ticket to the game, which would be much fairer, the UAA said.

That simply is not the case. Many students entered their names in the drawing that otherwise would not have tried to get tickets. Many of those who won tickets did not actually want to attend the game and then sold the tickets at inflated prices.

As if this were not bad enough, the UAA announced that they would use this same system for student season tickets next year, barring any problems with the Georgia game. I'm almost glad I won't be a student next football season so I won't have to buy tickets off of scalping students who have no interest in football.

The UAA is also using their "my yoo-flee-do" system for Gator basketball games. In a complicated process outlined by the UAA, students will have to register in advance, eliminating the chance to decide to go to a basketball game on the fly. Students will also not be allowed to camp out for seats in the Rowdy Reptiles section in a tent city known as Billyberg, after head coach Billy Donovan.

Camping out in Billyberg is a tradition many students have known for the past four or five years. I know I have made many friends while sleeping on a lawn chair under a tarp outside of the O-Dome the last three seasons in a camp rivaled only by Duke's Cameron Crazies.

In a letter to the editor of the Independent Florida Alligator, Donovan said students will no longer have to "worry about standing in line for hours in hopes of getting a seat."

I've been in that line for hours and even days on many occasions, and never heard any complaining.

There aren't enough student tickets to go around for football or basketball games, this I understand. What the UAA doesn't seem to understand is that they should reward those willing to camp out, or stay on a phone for hours calling with tickets. Randomly giving tickets will only create a large scalper's market, and randomly allowing students into the O-Dome will only put the rowdiest of reptiles back in the cheap seats.

The student ticket system had its flaws, but it worked: if a student wanted tickets badly enough, he could get them before. It doesn't look like that will be the case any more, unless that student has more than $100 for a Georgia ticket.

2003-10-21T14:08:00.000-04:00

Waiting for the Dawgs

Two weeks ago, the Gators were looking at a tough three-game road stint against LSU, Arkansas and Georgia. The three ranked SEC teams looked so ominous on the schedule, glaring down from their spots in the top 15.

So Florida marched into Death Valley and tamed the Tigers.

One week later they flew all the way to Northern Arkansas to wrestle down some Hogs.

And now they get to make the short drive to Jacksonville to take on the Dawgs. Next week, that is.

Yup, the Gators have a bye this week and get to hang out in Gainesville for the weekend.

I love Gainesville this time of year. The temperature has dropped to a comfortable level for the first time in months. There's a slight lull in classes that comes right after midterms. Billy D is getting the basketball team ready for the second sport's season in Gainesville. Its a great time to be here.

But this is not where Chris Leak, Keiwan Ratliff and Ben Troupe need to be right now. They need to be rolling off these wins and headed into the next game.

Bye weeks are great for injured teams, and teams needing to turn their seasons around, but that isn't where the Gators are right now.

Sure, this week will give Ran Carthon and DeShawn Winn a chance to get back to 100 percent, but Ciatrick Fason showed us that we can do fin on the ground without them. And a week off will give Chris Leak more time to watch game film of the Georgia defense, but that isn't where he's lacking.

The Gators have momentum after stringing together back-to-back wins for the first time since last November. They need to take that momentum into Alltel Stadium against the 5th ranked Bulldogs.

Unfortunately we have to wait. Players, coaches and fans alike will sit idle this weekend just waiting for the Cocktail Party.

Hopefully the Gators can get fired up next week and remember the two wins that got them back into the polls. Hopefully they regain that momentum and go into Jacksonville ready to win.

Rest is not what the Gators need right now, but it is what they'll get. Let's hope they can repeat what they did after last year's week off and upset the Dawgs, this year with a shot at the SEC East title.

2003-10-20T00:36:00.000-04:00

What a familiar feeling

While the Gator's win over the Razorbacks on Saturday may have come as a surprise for many, the victory feels very familiar in so many ways.

The win over a highly-ranked SEC West team on the road in a must-win situation sounds difficult, but the Gators have done it two weeks in a row now, after defeating then No. 6 LSU just a week ago.

The strong performance of the defense (at least for 56 minutes) mimicked the performances against LSU and the first three quarters of the Miami game.

A close game on the road in which the Gators just barely eked out a victory? We did that once already against Kentucky.

And we already have a check next to "massive late-game collapse" from week two in the Orange Bowl.

The gators are once again ranked in the top 25 in both polls, something to which all Gator fans are accustomed, after Florida spent every week of Spurrier's tenure ranked.

Zook has managed to coach the team to a mediocre 5-3 record including impressive wins over ranked opponents and disappointing losses at home. I could have written that at this point last year and it would have been true then too.

So what have we learned from all these familiar situations? The answer is a whole lot.

The Gators are going to a bowl game. There is no way they are losing to both Vandy and South Carolina so the record will be 6-6 at worst, but probably 7-5 or better.
Florida still needs to work on its fourth quarter defense. After an impressive complete-game performance against LSU, the Gators once again collapsed late and nearly blew a 26-point lead.
Ron Zook is around for at least one more year. AD Jeremy Foley has repeatedly said he needs at least three years to judge Zook's ability and Zook has turned the season around at least to the point that Foley can justify giving him another season. Sorry, FireRonZook.com, he's got at least one more go 'round.
I should never fall asleep with six minutes left in a football game, even if your team has a huge lead. (you'd think I'd have learned that from the Bucs two weeks ago).

There were a bunch or good points to come out of Saturday's win, and a whole mess of bad ones too.

Leak is looking better, but is still making freshman mistakes. The defense is showing moments of brilliance, but still hasn't quite figured out how to hold on to a lead. Ciatrick Fason looked amazing, but the receiving corps is still unimpressive (with the exception of TE Ben Troupe).

The Gators still can pull out a 10-win season, can win the SEC and can play in a bowl game later than 11 a.m. on New Year's Day. They could also lose to Georgia for the first time since 1997, lose at home to Florida State and end the season with a worse record than their 8-5 mark last year.

The Arkansas and LSU wins were great, but hold judgment on the Gators at least until after the cocktail party.

2003-10-13T14:43:00.000-04:00

Dazed and confused

The Gators are really confusing me this year. Just when I started to count them out for the season, the team that just lost to Ole Miss at home, destroyed then No. 6 LSU in Baton Rouge on Saturday. Let's look at some of the insane things that happened this week:

The Gator defense held LSU to zero points on offense and only allowed LSU past the 50 yard line once. They forced eight punts, two interceptions, a fumble and stopped a fourth down conversion on the Tigers' 12 possessions. LSU came into the game leading the SEC in offense, by the way.
Chris Leak was sacked six times yet still managed to pass for 229 yards and two touchdowns
Ciatrick Fason, the third-string tailback, rushed seven times for 92 yards after DeShawn Wynn and Ran Carthon were injured early on.

Where was this team against Ole Miss? Where was this defense in the second halves of the Tennessee and Miami games? How are the Gators only one game back in the SEC East standings?

This stuff makes my head hurt.

Pat Dooley scores this win to linebacker Channing Crowder's amazing return from knee surgery 11 days earlier.

Baton Rouge Advocate writer Carl Dubois claims it was Nick Saban's focus on the wrong things that did in the Tigers.

Nick Saban blamed himself for the loss and Ron Zook credited the play of his young players.

So how did the Gators upset the Tigers? Play calling.

Zaunbrecher didn't follow up a run up the middle with a run up the middle and then a run up the middle, like he did several ties against Ole Miss. He didn't ask Chris Leak to throw the same pass three times in a row like he did at the end of the Miami game, the third of which resulted in an easy interception.

Vernell Brown didn't have any passing attempts, Gavin Dickey didn't come into the game late and the quarterback wasn't switched out every time the offense got into a rhythym.

The players have been here all season, it's the coaching that was the missing link. Everyone acknowleges that Zook recruited a great class of freshman this year, and several seniors from the 10-2 campaign of 2001 remain.

The question now is whether the Gators can roll off this win and take the same "A" game into Arkansas next week. Can Zook and Zaunbrecher resist changing the formula that actually worked Saturday.

I certainly hope they will, but to be honest, I'm not holding my breath.

2003-10-08T16:52:00.000-04:00

Desperately seeking a Zook supporter

Did you know I started this blog to write all about the Florida Gator Football team? I thought I'd give you links to stories praising the team, and maybe some links to criticisms. I thought I'd write about the long bombs, the first downs, the close games, the blowouts, the rivalries and the ritualistic annual beating of some teams (Vandy, Kentucky, Georgia). I really didn't intend to just funnel traffic to fireronzook.com. I didn't think every post would be another rant. Well, I didn't think the team would be this bad either.

But I've been trying to change. I've been searching this week for someone who disagrees with me. I started with the Internet. Surely there a columnist online who is still rooting for Zook. I'm probably just over reacting because of my love for the Gators and its probably just growing pains. So I looked. And looked. Searched and searched. Google, Yahoo!, Lycos. Nothing. St Pete Times, Gainesville Sun, Tallahassee Democrat. Nothing. ESPN, CBS Sports, Jefferson Pilot. Nothing. No one has anything positive to say.

So I started asking around. Are there any students on the UF campus who are still Zook fans? Out of the five guys spelling out ZOOK! on their chests in his debut Gator game, a whopping zero are still fans of his. Everyone I have talked to in class, at the Reitz Student Union, on the bus and at the bars has the same message. Get Zook out of here. Even my mom doesn't like him, and she likes everyone.

While I might have not found any Zook fans, here is what I did find:

How do you spell Downfall? Z-O-O-K - A column by St. Petersburg Times sports columnist Gary Shelton calling for Zook's firing. I couldn't have said it better myself.
Pressure on Zook heats up as losing continues - A CBS Sportsline story on the sad state of Gator football. My favorite excerpt: "The Gators still have games at No. 6 LSU, at No. 7 Arkansas, against No. 8 Georgia in Jacksonville and at home against No. 5 Florida State. Barring wins in any of those games, the highlight of the 2003 calendar year will remain Feb. 5, national signing day."
Gator nation left to wonder - Pat Dooley's sobering look at the Zook situation. This one almost made me cry. "It's not going to get better. Zook can talk all he wants about how young this team is, but he is also the one who said this team was better than last year's. It's not. And it doesn't look like it will be better next season."

The point is, I'm not the only one. Everyone's got the same point of view. Zook has got to go. And he will soon. Foley can only give him so much space, and he is about out. If there isn't a miraculous turn around in the next few weeks, Zook will not be around to try again next season.

2003-10-07T14:42:00.000-04:00

The long road ahead

Lets just say the road ahead doesn't look pretty. And that's putting it nicely. And nicely is such an understatement it could almost be considered a lie.

The truth is the next two games look as ugly as Tammy Faye Baker without any makeup. Its gruesome really.

Next up is LSU. LSU is 5-0, 2-0 in the SEC with one of those wins coming against then No. 7 Georgia. And they are ranked sixth in both polls. It's looking really ugly. Plus we have to play them on the road, but apparently that is no worse than at home since we are at .500 for both.

After LSU comes No. 8 Arkansas. Arkansas has already knocked off Alabama and then No. 5 Texas in Austin on the way to a 4-0 record. That game is on the road too.

Then we get a break. A team that isn't undefeated. Georgia is still ranked No. 4 since their loss came in a tight game to the aforementioned LSU Tigers. Luckily we've got this game in Jacksonville at a neutral site, and we've got history on our side. The Bulldogs haven't beaten the Gators in more than a decade. I think they just might do it this year.

After Georgia we've got Vandy at home and South Carolina at home. Neither team is ranked and both are very winnable games. But they are both very losable too with this year's team (and coaching).

Finally the Gators finish up with FSU at home. FSU is ranked fourth right now and are looking good. In recent history the home team has won this game which bodes well for the Gators since we're playing in the swamp. But recent history would also have dictated that we beat Ole Miss at home, and that didn't happen.

And that's where it ends, because they don't let teams with losing records in bowl games. And that's what I am predicting for the Gators. I think we'll win two more games, and end up with a 5-7 record. They can't keep Zook around after that, can they?

2003-10-04T23:05:00.000-04:00

A letter to Foley

Dear Jeremy Foley,

Please fire Ron Zook and Ed Zaunbrecher immediately. They have disgraced Florida Football for long enough. The Z boys have managed to limp to a 3-3 record this year (2-3 if you only count Div I-A teams) and 1-2 in the SEC after losing to Ole Miss 20-17 in The Swamp. Florida has now lost two years in a row to Ole Miss, a team that is exactly 8-8 against non-Gator teams in the last two years. We've now lost two games in a row at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for the first time since the 1988-89 seasons. I'm a senior at UF and I was seven when this last happened. We only managed to pass for 234 yards against a team that going into the game had the worst past defense in the nation. Texas Tech managed to pass for 661 yards against them last week, and all Zook could say about it was, "Just because their stats aren't very good against the pass doesn't mean they're not going to practice and get better." It's almost as if Zook didn't think it was so bad that we lost to a bad Ole Miss team at home.

Fortunately the players do. Defensive end Bobby McCray said Saturday, "This is embarrassing." Running back Ran Carthon echoed his feelings of embarrassment and called a players-only meeting for Monday. Jeremy, this is not good news. It sounds like the players are fed up with Zook and may be looking to mutiny.

And the road doesn't look too much brighter for the Gators. They've still got to go play LSU, Arkansas and Georiga on the road and FSU at home. These teams are a combined 18-1, and the only loss was Georgia losing to LSU. The easy games are Vandy at home and South Carolina away, but even the easy games aren't easy this year, as we saw with Kentucky (and Ole Miss). The way this season is shaping up we might not even get to a bowl game.

Jeremy, you have done an excellent job at Florida. You hired Billy Donavon, and then re-signed him to a long term deal. You've improved most of the sports programs during your tenure and simply need to correct this one mistake. As you once said, "what should be done eventually, must be done immediately." Please do this immediately, because God knows it is going to happen eventually.

Sincerely,
Matt Moody

PS- You can read more letters to you on this topic if you would like at FireRonZook.com

Update: Oct 7, 2003: Links to Foley and Donavon sites added. Sites were not working properly at time of first post.

2003-09-30T01:12:00.000-04:00

Breaking the cardinal rule of college football

Never look ahead in the schedule. Never look past next week. Looking past a weak opponent to a big game will only let that weak team score an upset. The Gators get to come home to a pretty bad Ole Miss team Saturday but have formidable No. 6 LSU on the road in less than two weeks. The Gators better not look past Ole Miss, but luckily I don't actually play (no matter how much I refer to the Gators as "we") so I can look ahead.

In a nutshell, LSU is awesome. They are 5-0 for the first time in 30 years and are the highest ranked SEC team right now. They've scored an average of more than 41 points per game and knocked off then No. 7 Georgia, who was many analysts' pick to win the SEC this year. Junior QB Matt Mauck is looking better than ever after recovering from a season ending injury last year. All that, and the Tigers have a bye this week to recover from some minor injuries to be healthy and waiting for the Gators in Tiger Stadium.

Oh and speaking of Tiger Stadium, LSU has only lost one game there since midway through the 2001 season. And the Tigers threw down a complete whooping of the Gators last year in the Swamp. The Gators better bring their "A" game into Baton Rouge or they'll leave with yet another loss.

But Gators, don't look past Ole Miss. No games are gimmes this year. I just choose to look past it because if we lose at home to a team led by the second-best Manning brother, I might just kill someone.

2003-09-28T19:27:00.000-04:00

Gators top Wildcats 24-21 in late comeback

1986. Do you remember what you were doing in 1986? Personally, I was attending kindergarten at Cyprus Woods Elementary. Ronald Regan was the president. The Wildcats beat the Gators 10-3. That was the last time it happened.

Three coaches and 17 years later, Chris Leak led a late fourth quarter comeback to escape with victory. That means Zook is two for two in giving us scares against Kentucky. Now we did win, and as they say in football the W is the most import thing, but we barely won. We were down by 18 points to the Kentucky Wildcats. Under Steve Spurrier we used to win by scores of 73-7 and 65-0, not the seven and three point victories Zook has posted in his two years at the helm.

But enough griping, let's get to the good stuff. The Gators won! They overcame the largest deficit to win a game in their 90+ years. Chris Leak is 1-0 as a starter and the Gators put up 21 points in the fourth quarter, a complete turnaround from the late game debacle against Miami the second week of the season.

The Gators also moved to 1-1 in the SEC, are ranked 24th in both the Coaches Poll and the AP Poll, and get to go home Saturday to face an unranked, 2-2 Ole Miss team that barely beat Vandy.

Zook pulled out the win, so i guess I can stay off his back and not mention my favorite Web site. Well, not by name at least. But in closing I will point you to a column in the Lexington Herald-Leader that waxes nostalgic for the days of Steve Spurrier. That's a Kentucky columnist complaining about Zook, just for the record. At least Florida fans aren't the only ones that miss the Ol' Ball Coach.

2003-09-23T11:10:00.000-04:00

Chris Leak to start against Kentucky

Quarterback Chris Leak will get his first career start against Kentucky on Saturday. And its about time.

The revolving door theory to quarterbacks was not working in the swamp. As soon as Martin or Leak got some momentum behind them, Zook would promptly put the other guy in.

So why is starting the younger, less experienced back a good decision? He's a better quarterback.

Even without any sort of rhythm against the Vols, Leak managed not to consistently underthrow receivers who couldn't be more open if they were playing a Pop Warner team. Martin did.

Leak's interception wasn't his fault. Martin's was.

Leak doesn't make me cringe when he takes the field. Martin does.

Leak is obviously the QB of the future, so he might as well rack up some starting time now, since we don't really have a talented, experienced signal caller. Finally Zook is making an intelligent decision, which makes me wonder how he'll screw this one up.

Maybe when he said Leak would start, he meant at wide receiver and he'll put Vernell Brown in at QB. Vernell does have the experience in the Zook system.

Or maybe when Ronny Zook said, "We're going to give Chris a shot to start" he was talking about Chris Rock or Kris Kristofferson. I'm sure he'll find a way to mess this one up.

And while I'm on the subject, I'll point you to a Pat Dooley column about Zook's ineptitude. He ends, and I will too, with these chilling statistics: Zook is 6-7 in games that matter (not our two patsy teams we play each season) and is 1-4 in the last five games against division I-A schools with the lone win coming at home against San Jose State. Sends shivers down your spine, doesn't it?

2003-09-23T10:20:00.000-04:00

What's pass interference?

Let me give you the textbook definition of defensive pass interference according to NCAA rules (PDF): contact beyond the neutral zone by a Team B player whose intent to impede an eligible opponent is obvious and it could prevent the opponent the opportunity of receiving a catchable forward pass.

Now I would argue that pushing a receiver to the ground would be pass interference, but apparently not to the officials working Saturday's Florida-Tennessee game.

Chris Leak's pass was picked off by Jason Allen with 7:15 left on the clock and the Gators driving and there was absolutely no call when Allen shoved the receiver to the ground. What were the Zebras watching at that point, Days of Our Lives? It certainly wasn't the game.

Now I'm not one of those people that like to blame a loss on the officials unless it was clearly their fault. This loss belongs to Zook and Zaunbrecher, as I told you before. But that was not the only missed pass interference call they made. In the fourth quarter I counted 4 times interference should have been called on Tennessee defensive backs, twice ending Gator drives. With Florida only down by two scores, a touchdown on either of those drives would have pulled us back in the game.

So the loss isn't the fault of the officials, but they sure didn't make it any easier. Its hard enough to combat eleven men on defense without having to fight the refs too.

2003-09-22T23:56:00.000-04:00

In the wake of a loss, Alligator writer gets it right

In case you don't know, the Gators lost to Tennessee 24-10 at home on Saturday.

Alligator writer Jeremy Fowler wrote one of the best columns I have ever read in the sports section of the Alligator. Unfortunately the column doesn't appear in the online version of the newspaper, so I'll have to recap it for you. Basically he said Ron Zook and offensive coordinator Ed Zaunbrecher called a game that didn't allow the Gators to win the game because they never went downfield.

"It makes you wonder what UF's offensive playbook actually looks like," he wrote. "Here's how you throw 89 different passes without gaining more than five yards."

He continued with a quote that made me laugh out loud: "Wonder what it's like between players and coaches in the huddle: 'OK, Ingle, Carlos Perez and Kelvin Kight are not going to move from their receiver spot, so just wait until the cornerbacks smother them and then zip the ball on over there.' "

I couldn't have said it better myself. The "Z" boys hardly called any passes that would have opened up the offense and kept the Tennessee defense honest. I think it might even be time for the boys of FireRonZook.com to buy a new domain name: FireEdZaunbrecher.com. Or maybe they can just add a page to their site.

2003-09-16T02:40:00.000-04:00

Florida lays the groundwork in prepping for SEC play

The Gators scored seven rushing touchdowns (and two more in the air) in their 63-3 trouncing of Florida A&M and as a team ran for 309 yards. Why does that matter when we were playing such a weak team? Simply because we now know we can run the ball. Keeping the ball on the ground more often will open up the receivers for our young quarterbacks on passing plays. It will also lessen the pass rush to give Ingle and Chris more time to make decisions in the pocket, a process that will speed up with experience. We aren't going to have another 300 yard rushing game against Tennessee's defense this Saturday, but maybe this game served as an indicator that the pass-happy Gators may becoming a little more balanced.

And while I'm commenting on last Saturday's game, I've got to say I thoroughly enjoyed the Rattlers' halftime show. The Marching 100 lived up to the hype while playing songs from everyone from the O-Jays to 50 Cent and dancing in time. And as an indication that mainstream sport reporters are old, all of the stories I read about the game recognized the first group and failed to mention the rendition of 50 Cent's "Magic Stick," which garnered the largest cheers of the show. The only real disappointment of the show was that the band played to the alumni side of the field, although the students clearly cared more, and their own section of fans were on the student side as well. But all that aside, I still came for the game not the band.

2003-09-12T02:47:00.000-04:00

FAMU's Marching 100 comes to town...

...oh yeah, and they're bringing their football team too. Florida A&M University's famous Marching band, the Marching 100, is coming to perform in the swamp for the first time and Gator fans sure are excited. I haven't seen anything in print about this, but people are trying extremely hard to score some tickets to Saturday's game, and we're playing a 1-1 Division I-AA team with whom we have no history. All I have heard people talking about in Gainesville is the wonderful band and how much better they are than the "Pride of the Sunshine State." Well, they are better (and so is their Web site), but who cares? Sure it will be fun to see the band perform while sweating up in row 74 of the student section, but I go to games to see football. I can think of many more comfortable and appropriate venues to see a concert. I remember way back in the day when tickets were hard to get because the Gators were winning, not because of the visitors' sideshow attraction. I'm sure the Gators are going to pound the Rattlers and it shouldn't be much of a contest. But we have many kinks to work out before heading into tough SEC play, and I for one will be in attendance to see if we can get a step closer to being a contender. I think we should go to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium prepared to see some gridiron action, not brass and woodwinds.

2003-09-07T18:28:00.000-04:00

Zook blogs up 23 pt lead in loss to 'Canes

In the trailer to Chuck Olsen's Blogumentary, Chuck walks around Time Square asking "the man on the street" if he knows what a blog is. Chuck gets a lot of responses like, "one of those words that you're not supposed to say" and "what i left in the toilet this morning." Three weeks ago, I probably would have given a similar answer. Since my enlightenment, I've started this blog to report on what is sure to be a roller coaster ride of a second season of Florida Gator Football under head coach Ron Zook. As you'll soon find out, I am a huge Gators fan, so you'll have to pardon me when I say "we" referring to the Gators and "they" refering to whomever they happen to be playing. So now, in the spirit of Chuck's man on the street interviews, I am compelled to report the Zook really blogged up the first true test of the season. The boys in orange and blue worked hard to pull to a 33-10 early third quarter lead just for Zook to blow it with some antics he calls coaching. Good ole Zook blogged up the game, and I'll blog you all about it. This is how it went down.

First things first, I am not one who believed the Gators had no chance to pull off a victory in the Orange Bowl, for a couple of reasons: we we're as bad as people were saying, and they weren't as good as people were saying. Now its easy for me to say that after the game came down to the line, but you'll just have to believe that I was saying that a week ago. We finally found some consistent kicking and punting to solve the nagging special teams issues of last year, we had two talented if untested quarterbacks at our disposal, and our defense seemed to be pretty strong in the whooping we laid down on San Jose State. The 'Canes didn't have Willis McGahee to rush for 204 yards on us, Brock Berlin didn't have the offensive line that made awful quarterback Ken Dorsey look good for the past few years, and the game in 2002 was really a lot closer than the score made it appear (but that's another story for another day). All that being said, I was really excited to watch my Gators go down south to take on the heavily favored Hurricanes. I was also really excited when The dominate effort of the Gator defense and some key plays by quarterbacks Ingle Martin and Chris Leak lead Florida to a 33-10 lead with 6:10 left in the third quarter. Then the Gator D fell apart letting the 'Canes score three quick touchdowns to pull to 33-32 with 11:08 left, while the stuttering offense could hardly get a first down. So what does our genius head coach decide to do to spark our offense? Put in the third string quarterback, of course. Gavin Dickey, the redshirt freshman who a few weeks ago admitted he did not play at the level of Martin and Leak, was thrown into the game. And to end the misery of the story quickly, Dickey managed to get off a few good passes, was then stopped, 'Canes got the ball back and scored a TD, and the Gators lost 38-33 in the worst choke since the infamous 1994 "Choke at Doak" (known as the "Rally in Tally" to FSU fans).

I don't now, and won't ever understand why Zook would put in a third string quarterback with the game on the line. I won't ever understand why he put the game into the hands of freshman receiver and trusted him to throw a touchdown pass in the Outback Bowl last year (Vernell Brown's pass was intercepted to pretty much end the game). But I do understand that if Zook doesn't stop blogging up the big games when the come down to the wire with foolish, ill-advised plays he's going to be quickly looking for a new job. I've already gone from writing the coach's name on my chest in support of his first game with the Gators (I'm the "K"), to a strong supporter of fireronzook.com, and Ron better be careful or Florida AD, Jeremy Foley will make that same kind of switch soon too.