Looking Ahead to Saturday

This Saturday is probably the biggest of the year thus far for the three major programs in the state of Florida. The Gators control their own destiny in the SEC East and face arch rival Georgia. The Hurricanes while having what seems like their worst season in a generation technically controls its own destiny in the ACC Coastal Division. Florida State benefits greatly from Clemson blowout loss in Blacksburg last night and is right back in the ACC Atlantic Divsion race, despite being currently in last place.

I believe the Gators will be focused and will win, despite the my hunch that Georgia who has taken a month off from playing serious Football will be playing inspired and may play lights out. My thinking is that if UGA gets blown out in this game, losses to Auburn and losses to Ga Tech, Marc Richt, despite winning two SEC titles maybe on the hot seat. (though nobody could seriously believe Richt would get canned after he moved the Dawgs squarely past the pathetic eras of Ray Goff and Jim Donnan). Georgia's fans are among the most demanding and least tolerant in the nation. What has Georgia exactly won except when the great Herschel Walker was on the team? Very little, if anything. Nonetheless, the UGA fans expect championships and don't enjoy losing to the Gators every single year.

Richt will try to get his team to play a ball control style, and while Florida's front seven is very good, so are Dawgs o-lineman. Georgia cannot throw the football against respectable opposition, so while the Dawgs will run the ball effectively early, I expect the Gators to score enough points to beat Georgia. Let's call it 34-21, with a big offensive bounce back game for Chris Leak and some big plays for Andre Caldwell and Jemelle Cornelius.

I watched almost the entire game from 1994 between Arizona State and Miami last night. The Sun Devils were led by Jake Plummer, and the game was played at Miami's personal house of horrors Sun Devil Stadium. Rich Olson was the offensive coordinator for the Canes on a team that featured Frank Costa at QB, and the likes of Chris T. Jones, Jammi German and AC Tellison at WR. Watching this game demonstrated to me that Rich Olson was savvy in his utilization of minimal talent and put guys in positions to where they could succeed. Costa, who the vast majority of UM fans would incorrectly judge as a worse QB than Kyle Wright moved the team at will and showed an ability to look off his receivers and identify the hot route runner. The above named former Miami receivers are considered jokes by many Canes fans, yet on this tape and a tape of the FSU game from the same year, all three showed me the ability to make plays and attack the defense. While Chris T. Jones wasn't Lamar Thomas or Michael Irvin he wasn't Ryan Moore or Darnell Jenkins either. Miami won that game 47-10 and Costa threw for 300+ yards, while the WRs all made some nice plays. Rich Olson didn't become a bad coach in the 12 years between then and now, where he coached in the NFL. Miami's talent has regressed beyond anyone's wildest understanding. That is squarely the fault of Larry Coker.

Miami could beat Georgia Tech tomorrow if they effectively smash the football down the throats of Jackets D-line. Javarris James has looked like a true freshman the last two outings, and even though a lynching line will be out for me over on the Canes fan websites, I strongly believe Tyrone Moss must carry the ball 15 times in this game and run it right up the gut. (The dellusional Canes fans have all determined in their small minds that Derron Thomas a back who has never proven anything against Div IA opposition is better than Tyrone Moss.) If Miami doesn't pound the ball and control the clock they will not win. Period.

Florida State really needs to right the ship. All of the critics of Bobby Bowden need to let the season play out and see if he can recover with this group of young kids before throwing him and his son (whose play calling incidently has improved the last few weeks, but it's tough to win shootouts when your defense can't stop anyone) under the bus. When I was first following College Football 25 years ago, Bobby Bowden was considered somewhat a rebel and an outcast. He took his team anywhere on the road to play anytime of year and usually won. He threw the ball constantly and ran trick plays in a sport marked by the wishbone, caution and conservatism. While clearly Bowden lost his edge years ago, he doesn't deserve to be ripped by newer Noles fans who don't realize that FSU, without any sort of tradition and legacy had to do things that other programs never dreamed of doing to reach the top. Florida State and Bobby Bowden changed College Football for the better, and as horrible as the last six seasons of mediocre play has been for younger more spoiled FSU fans to endure, Bobby Bowden is now and will always be one of the defining figures of our age.

Does FSU win this week? Probably not, because Sam Hollenbach is throwing the ball well for Maryland and the Noles need a week of less media scrutiny and some home cooking to get well.