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Monday, November 17, 2008
Florida is definitely the best team in the country
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Five things we learned over the weekend:
1. Florida is definitely the best team in the country: With all due respect to No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas Tech, nobody in America is playing better right now than the Florida Gators. We’re talking about a team that has won six straight SEC games by an average of almost 40 points. No team until now has ever won six straight SEC games by 28 points or more. Everyone knew the Florida offense would be good. And with head coach Urban Meyer in charge of the special teams, we knew they would be good as well. But now the defense is starting to really play well and giving the ball to that great offense on a short field. Can Alabama beat Florida in the SEC championship game on Dec. 6? Sure they can. Alabama, with their great play up front, is exactly the kind of team that can beat the Gators. But if Florida keeps playing at this level, nobody is going to beat them.
2. Randy Shannon has Miami on the right track: There were a lot of questions raised when Randy Shannon, a lifelong Miami player and assistant coach, was made head coach in 2007. Those questions certainly lingered when the Hurricanes went 5-7 and lost their last four games in 2007, including an embarrassing 48-0 loss to Virginia in the last game ever played in the Orange Bowl Stadium. Shannon simply asked for patience. He was improving the talent base through recruiting that that young talent would eventually get better. Now it has. Since close losses to North Carolina (28-24) and Florida State (41-39), the Hurricanes (7-3) will roll into Bobby Dodd Stadium Thursday night on a five-game winning streak and in control of their own destiny in the ACC Coastal. Last Thursday’s tough 16-14 win over Virginia Tech was a game that Miami would not have won a year ago.
3. This is the toughest SEC championship game ticket ever: During the weekend in Gainesville, Fla., I took an informal survey of people I knew would be getting calls for tickets for the SEC championship game. They all said the same thing. This will be the toughest ticket since the event started in 1992. Never has there been a conference championship game where the winner was guaranteed a spot in the BCS title game. If Alabama beats Auburn and Florida wins its last two against The Citadel and Florida State that is exactly what will happen. Except for the Super Bowl and the opening ceremonies to the 1996 Olympics, this could be the toughest ticket in the history of Atlanta sports.
4. Unless Georgia has an attitude adjustment, it will lose to Georgia Tech: Georgia’s football team looked tired, bored, or both against Auburn. Good thing that Matthew Stafford and A.J. Green were there to bail the Bulldogs out again. I know this. Georgia Tech is going to be really excited about playing the game when the Yellow Jackets arrive in Athens on Nov. 29. New coach Paul Johnson wants to send a signal that he intends to make this a rivalry again. Georgia Tech’s players come into this game feeling they have enough weapons to win. If Georgia tries to ho-hum their way through that game, thinking their talent will eventually carry the day, the Bulldogs are going to get beat.
5. “Blackout” games are probably gone for good: The “blackout” idea has surely run its course. Georgia went to the well one too many times with the black jerseys and got kicked at home by Alabama. Florida State trotted out the all-back uniforms Saturday night in Tallahassee and just got dominated by Boston College 27-17. The Seminoles tried it two years ago, also against Boston College, and got beat in that game, too. One other thing: Florida State looked listless in that game to me. I wonder if the suspensions of those receivers on the eve of the contest took some of the fight out of that team. If so, that was a shame because it might cost the Seminoles a shot at the ACC championship.
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