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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Could Florida’s Harvin actually get better?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just thinking out loud:
1. Could Percy Harvin actually get better? The Florida wide receiver had surgery on Monday to correct a chronic heel problem. Does that mean that in his first two seasons he’s been running with a sore heel? Does that mean he could actually get BETTER after he recovers from the surgery? That’s going to keep some defensive coordinators up at night. Somebody wrote on the blog the other day that Harvin was an overrated player who could do only one thing: run fast. You have got to be kidding me. That’s not what the defensive coordinators in this league think. He scares them to death.
2. Don’t read too much into Tennessee’s last scrimmage: The Vols have their spring game a week from Saturday. Last Saturday Tennessee had a scrimmage were the new offense, being installed by new OC Dave Clawson, was simply overwhelmed by the defense. Quarterback Jonathon Crompton, who is supposed to take over for Erik Ainge, had three interceptions. Coach Phillip Fulmer called it a “royal butt-kicking” by the Tennessee defense. This has excited some Tennessee fans who wonder if the defense, which was eighth in almost every major category last season, might actually get better. The word I’m getting out of Knoxville is that the secondary, led by Fairburn’s Eric Berry, will be very, very good. The linebackers are pretty good and so are the defensive ends. But the Vols do not have a dominating SEC-caliber player at defensive tackle unless some of those guys improve over the summer. For the second straight year that will be the glaring weakness in the Tennessee defense unless something changes between now and August.
3. Bad news for Cutcliffe? David Cutcliffe takes the job as head coach at Duke and gets all of these commitments from athletics director Joe Alleva that the school is going to finally get serious about football. Last Friday Alleva took the AD job at LSU. Will Duke’s new athletics director keep all the commitments Alleva made to Cutcliffe? I think the answer is yes because the school now has so much money ($2 million per year) invested in assistant coaches. But we’ll see. It can’t be a comfortable feeling for Cutcliffe.
4. What’s the deal with P.T. Willis? Former Florida State quarterback Peter Tom Willis, the analyst on the Seminoles’ radio broadcasts, was fired by ISP Radio Network, who holds the rights to those games. Willis told the Tallahassee Democrat that he was let go for being “too negative” in his comments, particularly about the Florida State offense, which he once said was “like a high school offense.” The first reaction is outrage that somebody would be fired for doing what he was supposedly hired to do: give analysis. But here is reality: When you sit in that seat, you also have to understand who you are and who signs your paycheck. ISP just acquired the rights to FSU football last season so everyone involved in the broadcasts was being scrutinized. And, according to folks I talked to down there, P.T. knew that coach Bobby Bowden wasn’t particularly pleased with some of Willis’ stronger remarks. This is a business. ISP made a business decision.
5. Good decision on Tez Doolittle: The Auburn nose guard was just granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA. We should be seeing more of this. And here’s why. The NCAA has made it clear that it approves of the practice of red-shirting freshman football players because it gives them a better chance to graduate if they stay in school five years. Doolittle did that but as a fifth-year senior he suffered an Achilles injury that wiped out the entire 2007 season. Without a waiver from the NCAA, Doolittle would not have gotten a chance to play for a fourth season. “The bottom line is that kids should get the opportunity to play for four years,” Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe told me this week. “We should make that commitment to them.” Cincinnati is waiting on word about a sixth year for quarterback Ben Mauk, who played for Grobe before he was injured in the first game and lost the entire 2006 season. Mauk deserves another year.
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