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The Gator Bandwagon, Random Notes and the Picks
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I have never been able to stand people that get on bandwagons. The whole idea of rooting for a team just because they happen to be winning at the moment is as foreign to me as dark matter. I simply do not understand it. I have an acquaintance that was a Dallas Cowboy fan when I met him in 2001. After the Patriots won the 2001 Super Bowl, he decided that since he had lived in Massachusetts as a child, that he was entitled to switch teams. I saw him last week after the Broncos had taken the Pats down and he had on a Knowshon Moreno jersey and wanted to high five with me. All that I could do was laugh.
With that in mind, I’d like to relate a few of the things that I noticed on a recent trip.
I just came back from Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville is a place that I lived in the 1980’s and that I thought that I might eventually return to. I have been completely disabused of that notion.
Jacksonville used to be a town that was divided into three separate college football fan bases. There was a Florida faction, a Georgia faction and a Florida State faction. Now, Jacksonville is a Gator town and nothing but a Gator town.
Being amongst the folks down there, I was forced to wonder what had happened. Where in the name of the beast did all of these idiots in blue and orange come from??? Did all the other fans move away??? Or did everyone jump on the Gator bandwagon???
The answer is that is when the Gators started to win big, their fan base increased exponentially. This happened all over the US, not just in Jacksonville. The weird thing was that even though I had seen an inordinate amount of Gator wear in airports all over the country, it took me going to a city that I was familiar with, but hadn’t been to for a while to see exactly how big this bandwagon had gotten.
The funny thing was that most of the people that I talked to had absolutely no affiliation to the University. They had simply decided that the Gators were their team. It was then that I finally understood the term "Sidewalk Alumni" (a term which Colin Cowherd came up with). Most of these Gator fans found the label to be insulting. I couldn't have cared less.
I do not think that I have ever seen a phenomenon like it before. It is like a mass exodus of rats from a sinking ship. I wondered how many of these folks were Tomahawk Chopping in the nineties or how many of them were asking each other "How about them Dawgs???" in the eighties.
When I lived in Jacksonville, you couldn't get a person to admit that they were a Gator fan, unless they had actually attended the school. Now you can’t swing a cat without hitting a guy with a mullet that is dressed in blue and orange.
After I came home, I began haunting the ESPN message boards, where Gator Sidewalk Alumni are legion. After reading several of the posts, the only conclusion that I can come to is that a good number of these people are seriously twisted. Their logic is skewed and their insight is negligible. They simply refuse to believe that the Gators are not invincible, despite the evidence that the Gators, along with everyone else this year, are a seriously flawed team.
A solid portion of these Sidewalk Alumni are more than happy to tell you why the Gators should be ranked number one, no matter what happens to them. Apparently Tim Tebow has risen from the rank of college quarterback to minor deity and since he is the chosen one and this is his last year in college football, he deserves to play in this year’s National Championship Game.
They'll also tell you that because the Gator’s have no one left on their schedule that can beat them, that they will have a straight shot to the National Championship Game.
I kid you not; the next six games that UF has to play are foregone conclusions in the minds of these people. If you ask the legion, neither South Carolina, (a team that happens to be coached by the most obnoxious Gator of all time), FSU nor Georgia has the slightest chance in the world of beating them, despite the fact that UF has a very limited vertical passing game this year. (OK, I’ll give them the FSU game, because no matter how you slice it, the ‘Noles suck this year)
If a rematch of last year’s SEC championship game with Alabama should come to pass, then the Gators would also win that. The idea that Alabama has a vastly superior defense and a running game that just can’t be slowed down doesn’t even enter into their minds.
Hence, the Gators should be given an automatic berth into the National Championship Game. They believe this the way that Tom Cruise believes in Scientology.
I honestly hope that over the next two or three years that things even out in the Sunshine State. I hope that Florida State gets their head out of their collective rear end and learns to utilize the talent that resides in Tallahassee. I also hope that Miami keeps rolling along on the track back to national prominence and that USF figures out how to win games after the first week in October. I hope for these things not only as a Seminole fan, but as a true fan of college football who wants to see parity and a playoff system.
I also want to see how many people jump off of the Gator’s bandwagon and shift their allegiance to another team.
Now, if only Steve Spurrier, Mark Richt and Bobby Bowden can come up with a way to slap the Gators down and end this reign of superiority over the rest of the college football world, then I will know that God is in his heaven and all is right with the world.
Outside of that, the idea of the Gators in the Capitol One bowl against Ohio State, (another school that has been a thorn in my craw because the preferential treatment that they receive), so that neither team has a chance to be anywhere near the NCG is so aesthetically pleasing to me that a warm glow comes over me whenever I think about it.
Random Notes
No one has mentioned this, but if you look at the Tennessee Titans record over their last thirteen games, (including the 2008 season), they are 3-10. The demise started last year. This season is just a continuation.
Why haven’t the Bears thought about using Devin Hester in the Wildcat when they get into the red zone??? It seems to me that Jay Cutler can only get the job done on Sundays when he is having an outstanding game. Other than that, the Bears, like the Broncos when they had Cutler are struggling to get across the goal line. Just a thought.
If CC Sabathia can put the beat down on anyone the way that he did the Angels with only three days rest, Joe Girardi might want to look at pitching the guy every fourth day, instead of having him on the normal five day rotation.
Do you think that Isiah Thomas might have been running Wall St., as well as the Knicks??? If he was, it would really go a long way to explain how the country got into this financial mess.
Ahman Green is back in Green Bay….How far off can a tearful Brett Favre reunion be???
I am so a believer. After the Broncos handled San Diego Monday night, I swore that I would never doubt the homunculus that Pat Bolens hired to coach my team again. I am officially giving up all rights when it comes to criticizing Josh McDaniels. He is now my hero.
The latest attack on your personal freedoms is that colleges and pro teams across America are trying their best to outlaw tail gating. That’s right, tail gating. Here is a link to an article that describes the assault in detail.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4577871&sportCat=nfl
Of course, this might be why they are trying to outlaw tailgating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lKuAT1chmI&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_stronger_r2-HM
Last random note: If ya'all enjoy the crap that I come out with, please forward it to your buddies. I get paid by the hit and a brother has to get paid, ya know.
The Picks
That’s right, I am publishing them again this week. Why not??? I can’t embarrass myself more than I already have.
Tennessee +15 over Alabama
Idaho + 15.5 over Nevada
Arkansas +5.5 over Mississippi
Iowa -1 over Michigan State
Boise St. -25 over Hawaii
FSU +1.5 over UNC
Georgia Tech -7 over UVA
Central Michigan -9 over Bowling Green
Northern Illinois – 11 over Miami , Ohio
Miami, Fl – 6 over Clemson
Oregon St. +21 over USC
Pitt -6.5 over USF
Oregon -10.5 over Washington
As usual, thanks for stopping by and reading this tripe.
Peace
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