Monday, November 26, 2007

Fasten your seatbelts folks...

Saint Ron the Martyr

Well, it looks like barring any unforeseen events that the Gators will be matched up against Illinois in the Capital One Bowl. We will be tracking the media hype here since it's bound to be thick as molasses. You know, the big bad Gators that fired their coach. There will be comparisons between Urban Meyer and Zook. The inevitable credit to Zook for Florida's BCS crown last year.

They won't tell you what Urban Meyer mentioned in his post-game presser Saturday, namely that Andre Caldwell will graduate in December. According to Meyer "Three years ago when we first met him he looked at me when I talked to him about graduation like I had six heads."

They won't tell you about how Jarvis Moss was the forgotten man during Zook's tenure. Moss, the Gators defensive end, began to lose weight and stamina and didn't know what was causing it. When Meyer got to a Florida, a tearful Moss explained his situation and Meyer promised that the Florida medical staff would figure it out. Turns out Moss had a pelvic infection, the result of a cortisone shot he got in High School.

They won't tell you about how the Gators only have 5 Senior starters because almost that entire Zook recruiting class washed out academically, on the field or off of it.

All that said, there is a chance (remote though it may be) that Illinois wins that bowl game. Rashard Mendenhall scares me. But I expect total preparation from the Gators, something Illini fans can't expect from any Zook coached team.

9 comments:

dukeofdensity said...

If Ohio State manages to back into the BCS championship game and the Vols lose to LSU Illinois could move up to 12 and be available to BCS bowls. Quite likely the Rose Bowl might want Illinois for Pasadena leaving Michigan, I guess for the CapitolOne bowl and Florida. Of course who knows in this cockeyed year.

Henry Louis Gomez said...

Why would the rose bowl take Illinois (Big 10, #3) over Michigan (Big 10, #2)?

Doesn't make sense to me.

dukeofdensity said...

I think the idea turns on the Rose Bowl wanting some Big Ten team versus not having a Big Ten team. If Michigan isn't at least 14th in BCS standings they aren't eligible to go. Or am I still hungover from the weekend?

Phil said...

Michigan isn't close to being ranked high enough in the BCS rankings to go to the Rose Bowl. It used to be top 14, they just changed it to top 18 but I'm not sure if that starts next season or this season.

They can't go from unranked to 18 without playing.

Henry Louis Gomez said...

That's just more ammunition against the stupidity of the BCS then. Michigan beat Illinois straight up with a gimpy QB and without their star RB. By the way the Rose Bowl doesn't have to take a Big 10 team though that's probably their preference.

Anonymous said...

I think the Rose would take an energized Illinois (fresh off a win over the team in the NC game) instead of a Michigan team with a lame duck coach and depressed fan base.

I would like to see Illinois-UF play for the people's championship. If there was a 16 team playoff, those two might make it all the way through (Illinois lost a squeaker to Mizzou to open the season when they had a lot more issues than they seem to now).

I was always in the camp that Zook was an incompetent who took a pretty full cupboard at UF (his 2002 team was loaded with NFL players) and messed it up with his coaching. Like 1980's Bowden, however, he seems to have locked on to some good assistants and he's staying out of the way, focusing on talent acquisition. He has players at Illinois by hook or by crook; you can't argue that. I'd love to see the match up with UF.

Anonymous said...

Why would the Rose Bowl take a 4 loss Michigan team over a higher ranked 3 loss Illinois team? Michigan just suffered a disastrous season and had their head coach pushed out . . . errrr . . . retire. Plus the truth is that Michigan doesn't really travel well even when their fan base actually cares about the season. No BCS bowl is going to take a 4 loss team. They'd take Wisconsin over Michigan.

Henry Louis Gomez said...

You are correct KG. I overlooked Michigan's loss to Wisky. I thought they were at 3 losses.

Anonymous said...

JJ Gator here -

All this "Florida-Illinois bowl matchup" shit in the media is beyond tiresome right now, as well as all the drivel from these sportswriters about how Florida was the bad guy in firing Zook. Zook is still being made out to be a "martyr" in their eyes, and I bet they'd love to see him get revenge on the Gators.

Personally if we get stuck with a Big Ten team again this year, I'd rather see us get Wisky or better yet Michigan. I'd still like to see us try and get a shot at the BCS should Mizzou and LSU lose (which I'm hoping happens), but with the way the polls have been going this season nothing's really etched in stone at this point.