Loathing the Loved in More Ways than One

With a lawsuit for wrongful termination still pending in district court, your trusty correspondent has returned to his blogging birthplace -- Off the Record.

Oh, what a feeling it is to be back, pounding away in this sophisticated HTML format and again seeing the barely discernible graphic and title in the header. You may be asking yourself what sparked the merger of OTR and 2 Guys, 1 Blog -- and if you're not, you probably should -- and it was quite simple: Eight readers is a lot more appealing than four!

Although the run of 2 Guys, 1 Blog was valiant -- it existed for two months without the contributions from second guy on the one blog, Jordan Backs -- every blogger of import must advance his career.

So advance we must.

As did the Florida Gators -- to the BCS National Championship Game.

Can't say your noteworthy scribe is shocked -- it was written in a similar space about five weeks ago that the Gators would be co-participants in the sport's grandest game -- and there certainly cannot be any qualms about their position in the final BCS standings released Sunday.

Saturday's SEC championship game against Alabama lived up to its billing, and although the 11-point margin of victory was one more than originally predicted here, it was close throughout.

Love him or loathe him, Gators quarterback Tim Tebow probably won himself another Heisman Trophy, and rightfully so. Since that now-famous apology after the shocking loss to Ole Miss on Sept. 27 -- and hey, Houston Nutt's bunch didn't turn out to be so bad this season, huh? -- Tebow has been sensational.

The dude makes very few mistakes -- he's thrown only two interceptions this season -- and with speedster Percy Harvin held out because of an ankle injury, Tebow reverted to his 2007 Heisman-winning form, when the entire offense ran through him.

Because OTR Sports was not officially founded until late August, we did not qualify to submit a Heisman vote this season. So this year's decision-makers will have wrestle with this question: Does Tim Tebow deserve to become the second player in college football history to win back-to-back Heisman Trophies?

If you listened to the talkingheads before and after the Gators' win on Saturday, they were elevating Tebow to elite status, calling him one of the best college football players of all-time. And you can make all the jokes you want about his affinity for circumcisions and social work, but there's no denying he's been great for the game -- a genuine kid who plays with so much emotion that he's bumping into the kickoff unit and chomping, clapping and flailing the entire fourth quarter.

The belief here is that he will win the Heisman on Saturday, joining Archie Griffin as the only players to win back-to-back trophies in sports' most prestigious club. And he will do so not only because of his incredible statistics -- and the Gators' nine-game win streak and second BCS title-game appearance in three years helps -- but because of the intangibles and his leadership ability. No player is more important to his team's success than Tebow.

This prediction is subject to change, but right now, with Harvin expected to be at full speed in exactly one month: Florida 38, Oklahoma 34.


Impulsive Thoughts on the BCS

-- There's no complaining here about the BCS title game matchup. We know the Blatantly Corrupt System is unfair, and the Longhorns and seething coach Mack Brown are this year's victims. We know Texas defeated eventual Big 12 champ Oklahoma 45-35 on a neutral field a month and a half ago. But we also know that, unfortunately, this is the system we have, and that this is the tiebreaking mechanism the Big 12 has (although it immediately began revising the process). Looking for justice in this system? Not happening, especially with ESPN's recent contract to televise BCS games dashing hopes for a playoff until at least the 2014 season.

-- Alabama did expose a weakness that Oklahoma and stud running back DeMarco Murray could exploit: Florida appeared somewhat soft against a power run game. Glen Coffee ran between the tackles and through the Gators' defense with great success Saturday, but when the Tide was forced into a downfield passing game, quarterback John Parker Wilson was -- predictably -- unable to move the ball. Wilson was also pummeled by a strong Gators pass rush, something Georgia couldn't provide when the otherwise unspectacular senior torched the secondary during the since-forgotten -- haha, yeah right! -- beating Between the Hedges.

-- After a quick perusal of this year's bowl games, here are five that your trusty observer is interested in watching:

1. BCS National Championship, Florida/Oklahoma: Duh.
2. BCS Fiesta Bowl, Ohio State/Texas: The feeling here is that Ohio State will upset the Longhorns, who will still be filing complaints into the Big 12 commissioner's office about their conference championship-game snub. Look for Buckeyes quarterback Terrelle Pryer to put on a Youngian performance in one of the postseason's most intriguing matchups. Or they could epically flop, like they did the past two seasons.
3. Cotton Bowl, Ole Miss/Texas Tech: TT coach Mike Leach already has one foot out the door, and that could only further the legend of first-year Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt, whose reclamation project is surely one of this season's feel-good stories.
4. Chick-fil-A Bowl, Georgia Tech/LSU: Georgia Tech will drive only two miles to put on a unmatched rushing display that will garner nationwide attention. Seriously: Tech will rush for 500 yards against LSU's beleaguered defense.
5. Capital One Bowl, Georgia/Michigan State: To avoid a public backlash, we put this on the list. The game will feature two of the best running backs in the nation, Georgia's Knowshon Moreno and Michigan State's Javon Ringer, although we wholeheartedly disagree with the Red and Black's assertion last Friday that Moreno is the best back in the nation. (Iowa's Shonn Greene is.)


More Weekend Grumblings

-- Rehabbing pitcher John Smoltz reportedly threw off the mound for the first time Friday and impressed both manager Bobby Cox and pitching coach Roger McDowell. That, of course, is a good sign for Braves fans who predicted that Smoltz's shoulder surgery in June was career-ending. He is apparently about a month ahead of schedule, and should be ready when the Braves start Spring Training. After watching the fallout from October's Atlanta Magazine article in which Smoltz was quoted as saying he will pitch elsewhere if the Braves don't offer him a contract -- duh! -- general manager Frank Wren will likely offer the veteran hurler a one-year, incentives-laden deal sometime in the next two months. Whether he will start or pitch out of the bullpen is unclear.

-- There was great satisfaction Friday night in watching Buffalo terminate Ball State's perfect season, and thereby ending quarterback Nate Davis' slim chances of winning the Heisman. An unnamed source told OTR Sports that Buffalo coach Turner Gill is a finalist to fill the head-coaching vacancy at Syracuse -- is that really an upgrade? -- along with East Carolina's Skip Holtthhss. Gill will reportedly meet with Auburn officials early this week to discuss that opening as well.

His revival of once-downtrodden Buffalo has been remarkable, though, and a similar transformation at either Auburn or Syracuse will happen -- in three or four years.


-- Team Buckiiiiits began its earnest march toward a championship Sunday with a 65-15 beatdown of Ain't Got a Clue, which truly did not. The game was called with 11 minutes remaining because of the 50-point margin of victory. (See photo right for visual representation.)

Besides obvious contributions from yours truly -- five points and immeasurable statistics, such as team-morale boosting and mistake-free ball-handling (a miracle) -- OTR Sports chairman Adam Rosenberg scored a team-high 18 points, and Jordan Backs added 15 points and 11 assists.

The game was, however, marred by some very disturbing and unsportsmanlike behavior.

Disturbing: Big Guy, the recipient of a beautiful outlet pass by a certain blogger, airmailed a layup attempt and went tumbling into the sparse crowd. Luckily Kiel was there to clean up the mess, but the world's least intimidating player -- at 6-foot-3, Big Guy is taller than everyone else in the league -- finished with two points, a few steals and even more boneheaded plays. (Notice awkward landing and the ball's position, on the other side of the basket.)

Unsportsmanlike behavior: Team captain Mayonnaise, obviously thinking we were playing in a high school game where blowouts draw headlines on p. 5 of the Athens Banner-Herald, decided a full-court press was necessary when Buckiiiits was up by 44 with 15 minutes to play in the second half. For those who weren't in attendance -- and that's not many of you -- this team had obvious difficulties handling, passing and, most critical to the game of basketball, shooting the ball.

But was that any reason to exacerbate their miscues, further humiliate a team that was already down by more than 40 and show blatant disrespect in a league that is supposed to be about having fun with your friends? No. It's understood that points allowed makes a difference in playoff seeding, but let the darn kids shoot the ball on their side of the floor, at the very least. If they miss -- and by god they did! -- so be it. To be honest, it was disheartening to be on a team that exhibited such poor sportsmanship. Here's to hoping Buuckkiiits can play with a little more class in four weeks.

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