Post Football Season Wrap-up

The game is over, and Florida is apparently the national champion. Even though I was born and bred in SEC country in Tennessee, it makes me sad that Florida won another championship. It brought back bad memories of Steve Spurrier.

An era at Tennessee ended, and I am still a bit sad about it. Phil Fulmer, a truly fine individual, was unceremoniously run out of town. I'm honestly trying to give his replacement the benefit of the doubt, but I am dubious about NFL coaches trying to make a go of the college game. His press conference sounded too much like a Bill Callahan @Nebraska press conference with all the Raiders lingo that means absolutely nothing. I still don't know why he hired that goofy guy that Ole Miss fired after a few seasons and are paying him several hundred thousand dollars when he is not even one of the major coordinators. I think this new regime with either do well or will completely tank.

As I stipulated earlier, I think Utah and USC have legitimate gripes. (Texas has used up its quota of gripes for the year, as they complain about everything.)

I was somewhat amazed at how much the game last night turned into a defense slugfest. Talking heads were poo-pooing the Big XII's defenses all year, and I think Oklahoma, even though they lost, gave Tebow and company all they could handle.

Not that I am a big fan of the Pac-10, but since I'm on the subject of ballyhooing talking heads who in fact don't know what they're talking about, congrats to the Pac-10 for having the best conference record in bowl season. They quietly put the naysayers to rest.

I also never thought I would defend the Big Ten (and what do you know, I was right), but despite their horrible bowl season, there are a few bright spots. Ohio State almost shocked Texas, and their defense looked very good. Iowa also won, preventing the Golden Goose Egg on Bowl Wins. Northwestern played hard until the end as well. Penn State also made some strong adjustments at half time after a dreadful first half and at least made something of a game of the Rose Bowl. Of course, Wisconsin and Michigan State looked atrocious. I think the tide is waning for the Big Ten which actually did better this year in bowls than last year, despite the near Goose Egg.

I know Tim Tebow is apparently a fine human being off the field, what with doing missions work and all that. I don't want to take away from that. I wish more young men did fine things like that off the field. He's still a punk on the field though, and I wonder how many other people felt that he was somewhat hypocritical in his completely unsportsmanlike conduct he was engaging in on the field, especially that trash talking and Gator chomping personal foul late in the game.

I still do not like the national championship game played well over a month after the final games of the regular season. I mean, January 8th? Honestly, the 1st half wasn't pretty because both sides were rusty. There is only so much you can do in practice to simulate real game experience.

If I saw the creepy Alltel commercial with the puppets or the Unborn movie commercial with the deformed baby that looked like a perverted Muppet one more time, I was going to scream. And while I'm on the subject of commercials, what's with the plethora of Valentine's Day horror flicks? My Bloody Valentine: 3D? This is a parody, right? Right?!?

Finally, I will tip my hat and congratulate Florida. Though I really don't care for that team, they did play 11 bowl eligible teams this year and beat 10 of them. That's what I call a grueling schedule. After the Ole Miss meltdown early on, Florida played incredibily well.

BCS, let's try to have some more interesting bowl games next year. That's all I have to say about that.

Oh, and for the Stinker of the Year award for most overhyped team in the preseason. This was a tough one, as there were some powerful contenders. Clemson gets Miss Congeniality status, as they also were rumored to be National Championship caliber but ended up running their coach off mid-season. They rebounded nicely under the new head coach and almost beat Nebraska in a New Year's Day bowl, which I thought took them out of the running for the award. Kudos also to Missouri, another trendy preseason No. 1 pick that went bust, losing several games and a heisman trophy run thanks to a certain QB who complained too much about dirty play at press conferences with no proof whatsoever.

This year's Stinker of the Year award goes to the Georgia Dawgs. Though not a totally wasted season, they were rumored to be in contention for National Championship this year, starting in the Top 3 and ended up not even being state champs, losing to Georgia Tech.

Better luck next year, Uga!

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