So what now for FSU?

The devastating news that Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder will miss the rest of the season seems unfortunately like a fitting end to this dismal season for the Seminoles.

Without their top offensive player, it seems all but certain that FSU will be unable to muster the 2 wins it needs in order to become bowl eligible. It’ s hard to imagine that this team can put together an effective enough offensive attack to win on the road at either Wake Forest or Florida.

So now Ponder is gone for the rest of the year. Defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews is leaving after this season. And…..what’s next?

While FSU officials have said they will evaluate the direction of the program after the season, head coach Bobby Bowden has sent signals that he wants one more year at the helm. Bowden has also suggested that he should have a say in who should replace Andrews.

This is just a recipe for another disaster in the coming year.

At some point there has to be some accountability. At some point Bowden – who preaches the need for teamwork – has to realize it’s not about him anymore. It’s about the team, it’s about the program, it’s about the university. He has been duly rewarded with money, with fame, with honors during his masterful coaching career.

But at the end of the day what signal does it send to young players that some people don’t have to worry about their performance? Doesn’t that go against everything that football supposedly teaches? Why I should have to try hard if the coach doesn’t.

There’s no doubt that Bowden is owed tremendous amounts of gratitude by the FSU faithful. But if FSU ends the season without a bowl, without a winning season, then it is time to say thank you and move on. FSU can’t afford yet another season like this one if it wants to remain one of the top college football programs in America.

Tim Tebow vs. Christian Ponder: Who should be a Heisman contender?

While Tim Tebow had a masterful dominating performance on Saturday, let me ask you a question.

What should matter more when it comes to the Heisman Trophy and other honors – the number of wins you rack up, regardless of your performance, or how well you play week in and week out?

That’s because I think an argument can be made that Seminoles quarterback Christian Ponder is having a much better season than Tebow has so far.

But right now Ponder isn’t anywhere on the national radar screen when it comes to various postseason honors. Tebow’s 4 touchdown performance against Georgia helped brush aside the last few weeks of mediocrity and keep him in the hunt for the Heisman trophy. ESPN, for example, has Tebow ranked 3rd on its Heisman watch list. Tebow, along with University of Miami quarterback Jacory Harris, is also a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award.

Yet I think there’s a good argument to be made that the Gators have remained undefeated this season in spite of Tebow, not because of Tebow. The Gators defense has repeatedly clamped down on teams and has kept them in ballgames where the offense has struggled.

Meanwhile, Ponder has racked up 2,453 yards passing, 13 touchdowns and only 3 picks. He’s also rushed for 166 yards and two touchdowns. Ponder is currently ranked 5th in the nation in total passing yards, which is higher than any other Heisman contender except Houston’s Case Keenum. He does closely trail Tebow in overall quarterback rating, but that is a bit of a mystery since Tebow actually has more interceptions than Ponder does. (Tebow has four vs. Ponder’s three.) Ponder also has a much higher completion percentage.

(And to make this QB rating even more mysterious – UM’s Harris score is a .03 points higher yet he has less yards and 8 more picks than Ponder.)

Let’s face it. The fact that FSU is 4-4 is not Ponder’s fault. Now I would agree that the offense had trouble getting revved up in a couple of games this season. But it’s hard for a quarterback to win every week when he’s under pressure to score 40 points because the Seminoles defense is so suspect.

Do I think that Ponder deserves the Heisman Trophy? Probably not. But I think there’s an argument to be made he’s having as stellar a season as his downstate counterpart. Now Ponder’s overall career doesn’t come close to Tebow’s as evidenced by Tebow setting the SEC rushing record against the Bulldogs.

But in this season I think Ponder is getting shorted, while Tebow may be getting more credit than he deserves.

 

 

 

 

BCS remains a scam

Well, now. Bet all the Gators fans are feeling better now.

Despite another blown call in a close game, the Gators have recaptured the No. 1 position in the AP poll and remain atop the Bowl Championship Series rankings.

Too bad the BCS is nothing but a farce.

While some people may bemoan politicians spending time wading into such trivial matters, I think that the time is ripe for some bipartisan intervention into this mess. That’s why I think U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch did the right thing by calling on President Barack Obama to have the Justice Department investigate whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.

I know, I know. Some of you SEC lovers think this is nothing but some sort of whining coming from the schools out West who have been unable to crack into the BCS and appear destined to have the same thing happen again this year.

But there is something almost borderline un-American about the way the BCS operates. Put it this way: There are less than 200 human beings across the country who even have any kind of sway in the weekly BCS rankings. That’s less than the number of people in Congress, probably less than the number of people in your neighborhood or your church, maybe even less than the number of people who show up at your kid’s soccer game.

Right now the BCS standings are determined by 59 football coaches, the 114 panelists of the Harris Interactive College Football Poll and an average of six computer rankings.

It’s been well established that many football coaches fill out their ballots without giving much more thought then looking at the scoreboard. The Harris poll is composed of  “former coaches, players, administrators and current and former media.” This includes people such as former Noles QB Danny Kanell and former Dallas Cowboys executive Gil Brandt and a whole bunch of other people that I would guess that even the most rabid football fan would have trouble recognizing.

The fact that the standings are determined by this cabal is far from the only problem with the BCS but it’s one of the most egregious. Then there’s the whole selection process that guarantees the highest spots to the champions of six conferences but then limits the number that can come from other conferences. Plus of course Notre Dame gets an automatic bowl bid if it finishes within the top eight in the BCS standings. How’s that for protectionism?

America is supposed to be the land of opportunity. If you play by the rules and work hard, you get your shot.

That’s not the way the BCS works now. It’s a scam aimed at protecting a select few. What’s wrong with competition? What’s wrong with deciding things on the field?

It’s time that college fans across the country to call on university presidents and boards to dismantle this system. And if they won’t do it then it’s time for state lawmakers and Congress to jump in.

Gators shouldn’t let No. 1 ranking fool them

I’m probably not going to say anything Urban Meyer doesn’t say constantly.

But that No. 1 ranking bestowed on the Florida Gators in the BCS standings means next to nothing right now.

And I will go one step further: The Gators don’t really deserve it.

But for a couple of questionable calls - one of which the SEC now says should never have been called - the Gators would have already lost a game this season. And let’s not forget that Riley Cooper could have easily been flagged on that touchdown grab against LSU.

It could be Tim Tebow’s concussion, it could be Meyer’s decision to rein in the playbook following the injury to his star quarterback, or it could be defenses are finally catching up, but whatever it is the Gators do not look as dominant as they were last season.

The reason the Gators are winning right now has more to do with that stifling defense that has clamped down on explosive teams such as Arkansas. But the Gators don’t look like the best team in the country. It’s as simple as that. And that’s why the AP poll dropped them this week.

The Gators are probably still one of the better teams in the nation – and other than maybe Bama – it’s hard to envision who is going to beat them. (South Carolina may have the best shot, but it’s hard to imagine how the Gamecocks weak offense will be able to muster more than a touchdown.)

Still there a couple of underdogs left on the schedule that could give the Gators a big surprise if they aren’t careful.

Bad start for Jags and Bucs is so predictable

In the wake of yet another debilitating loss, the rah-rahs for new coach Raheem Morris and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have just about faded away completely.

Instead we now have columnists wondering if Morris is up to the job as head coach.

Psst. It’s a bit too late to ask this question.

This train wreck of a season was set in motion months ago and back in April I warned that both the Jaguars and Bucs were heading in the wrong direction.

The decision to rebuild the Bucs and jettison everyone associated with past success made no sense earlier this year. And it’s being shown out on the football field on Sunday.

Let’s just face facts here.

1. Morris was rushed into this job with no proof that he was ready. It doesn’t mean he can’t be a good coach, but there was no evidence that he deserved it.

2. In the NFL there is one position that matters the most. It’s called quarterback. If you don’t have a half-way decent quarterback, you will lose most weeks. Only if you have a ferocious defense can you afford to have a mediocre player. Just look at the Tennessee Titans. If their defense isn’t playing the way they did last year, Kerry Collins isn’t good enough to bail them out. The Bucs had opportunities to go after and bring in a good quarterback and they didn’t do it. They went through the preseason insisting that they had two guys who could handle the job. Of course neither of them is playing now.

3. If you can’t evaluate personnel and talent, you are also doomed. Why bring in a new kicker, or hire a new offensive coordinator if just a few months later you are forced to discard both of them? That’s yet another sign that no one knows how to run an organization.

By contrast, we know that the Jaguars have a good coach in the past with Jack Del Rio.

But the continued off-field problems – such as the need to suspend leading receiver Mike Sims-Walker - reprise questions from last season about whether Del Rio has control of the team anymore. The Seahawks 41-o drubbing on Sunday has to go down as one of the most embarrassing losses in team history.

And there’s still the problem that the team lacks the offensive firepower to win consistently. When a team shuts down running back Maurice Jones-Drew, then there’s got to be someone else who can help. It shouldn’t take the suspension of one player to derail the entire aerial attack of a team.

So two more predictions: Del Rio and Morris will find their coaching careers in the NFL come to a crashing end in the next few weeks unless something miraculous occurs between now and then.

Let’s see whether I am wrong about this one.

Will FSU fans show their displeasure on Saturday night?

So it would appear from media accounts that Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden may get a reprieve and may in fact get to decide when he will step down despite the disappointment over this year’s 2-3 season.

There’s no doubt that Bowden – who met with FSU President T.K. Wetherell on Tuesday – has gotten his back  up about it. Just witness this exchange from Monday night where a clearly perturbed Bowden responds to a question from a female reporter about his future by saying he has no comment about his future and then while smiling says that her question “is like a woman.” He then goes on to say he had no idea that his wife, Ann Bowden, had criticized FSU Trustee Jim Smith for saying it was time for Bowden to step down.

But the question is whether FSU fans will begin to more forcefully show their feelings about the situation. One group on Facebook called BLACK OUT DOAK for CHANGE has already drawn nearly 5,000 members online. It is urging that FSU fans wear black to their home games – starting with this weekend’s clash with Georgia Tech – to tell the administration that “the fans want something drastic done.” Nearly 2,000 FB members have already “confirmed” they plan to show up at this weekend’s game in black.

There is at least pro Bowden group that has formed on Facebook called “Stop Trashing Bobby Bowden” and it has more than 100 members right now, although in their defense their group hasn’t got the same amount of publicity as the first one. Others defending Bowden include Deion Sanders who told the Tallahassee Democrat “at least have a proper funeral for him.”

It is becoming crystal clear that FSU has a full-blown crisis on its hands and that one way or the other the university is going to be forced to step forward and explain what’s going to happen to Bowden, what’s going to happen with head coach in waiting Jimbo Fisher, and who is going to control the team.

And oh yeah, there’s still a bunch of games left to play. It might be good to do something soon to end the distractions.

FSU president must decide if it’s time for Bowden era to end

On the same weekend that the University of Miami upset Oklahoma and completed an impressive four-game stretch, it is clear that the end of an era is coming for Florida State.

When head coach Bobby Bowden is forced to defend himself as vigorously as he did in the moments following the loss to Boston College, you can tell that even he knows that the pressure is mounting against him. Bowden told reporters “What would I gain by stepping down now? What would you do? Fire everybody and bring in a new coaching staff?”

When veteran FSU beat writer Steve Ellis – who has covered the program for years and even wrote a book with Bowden – is now saying it’s time for him to go - then you know that Bowden is running out of allies. The Sentinel chimed in with the same theme.

Plus, it’s apparent right now that Bowden will never catch Joe Paterno.  He’s fallen three games behind the Penn State legend and right now it appears highly unlikely that the NCAA will reverse itself on the decision to strip Bowden of 14 victories due to the cheating scandal that caught up the entire athletics department.

One big problem, of course, is the fluid situation at FSU. Hate to diverge into politics, but the fact that President T.K. Wetherell has already announced his resignation could also play a role in how this plays out. Wetherell himself could force Bowden out since he’s got little to lose by the decision. Or on the very least, he could persuade Bowden that it would be in his best interest to step down before a new president is selected. In other words, T.K. could give Bowden a way to exit somewhat gracefully and have him avoid a confrontation with the next administration.

That way Wetherell would at least have tried to resolve the situation as he heads out the door instead of handing his successor a mess to figure out.

But then again will a new president go along with handing the job over to Jimbo Fisher with no questions asked? Or will a new president be willing to pay $5 million in order to have complete control moving into the future. Wetherell probably has no way of knowing that, but he does have to decide what he wants the next president to deal with.

It is such an unfortunate way for Bowden to exit the stage. Without him there would be no FSU program to speak of. No nice stadium, no national championships. Many boosters would likely say Bowden earned the right to go when he wanted.

But now it’s clear that’s not going to happen. The only remaining question is when and where Bowden will make it official and say he’s walking away.

Anger boiling over as some FSU fans say it’s time for Bowden to leave

The Seminoles stunning 17-7 loss this past weekend  to the University of South Florida is reverberating through FSU fandom.

One columnist has already called on head coach Bobby Bowden to pack it in. Meanwhile the Tallahassee airwaves were sizzling as Tallahassee radio host Jeff Cameron has gone on a tear the last two days, attacking many aspects of the program. Cameron defended offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher – who on Monday said FSU needed to “grow up” and stop accepting mediocrity- and has instead painted a picture of a program in dissarray or “dysfunction” as he calls it. A big source of the dysfunction appears to be the unusual arrangement that FSU has with Fisher, who is the head coach in waiting and will earn $5 million in 2011 if the university does not let him take over the team by then.

But Cameron said that the problem is that Fisher has little power over many aspects of the team. He called defensive coach Chuck Amato “useless” and said the game had passed by Defensive Coordinator Mickey Andrews. He said that Bowden was in “la-la land” and that FSU had catered to his whims for too long.  Cameron then had Ira Schoffelfrom the Osceola on his program where Schoffel said things were going to come to a head in the offseason because he expects Andrews to retire – setting off a potential power struggle over whether Bowden or Fisher gets to appoint the successor.

Schoffel said it has become clear that the decision to make Fisher the head coach in waiting – calling it the “least of all evils” — hasn’t worked out.

“It was a noble idea,” said Schoffel, but he swiftly added that “when you see the inconsistent play really two, three years into this kind of new regime, at this point I think it’s safe to say this isn’t going to work.”

Schoffel said having Fisher as head coach in waiting would have meant something if he had been given complete control over the team with Bowden having veto power over his decisions.

“You have this situation where Jimbo Fisher is still kind of treading water, trying to put band aids on different things,” said Schoffel.

Schoffel made it clear he doesn’t know if Fisher “is the answer” but he said “I do know that he can’t do what he feels is in the best interest of the program.”

Well, you can see where this is heading. There are many scenarios that could play out - including whether Bowden is forced to retire – but it’s clear that if the Seminoles continue to lose that the chorus of discontent will keep building and building.

Gator bashing heats up in wake of Tebow injury

Well, that didn’t take long.

The news that Tim Tebow got knocked out of Saturday night’s game with the University of Kentucky Wildcats quickly morphed into a raging debate into whether Coach Urban Meyer should have had him in the game. By Sunday morning the talking heads on ESPN were taking sides on whether Meyer was trying to get Tebow some padded stats to help in a potential quest for the Heisman Trophy.

I’m not sure that’s a reasonable argument and actually Mitch Albom had the best counter argument that few coaches would be willing to sit down their starting quarterback in the 3rd quarter. Most coaches want to make darn sure that the game is completely in hand before they let up. The one thing a football head coach does not want to hear is that they let another team time to get back into the game. Bob Ryan countered that since Tebow was already ill Meyer should have taken him out at the first opportunity.

But this debate is only getting revved up and you can expect wall to wall coverage of  Tebow in the next few days. Other websites are already buzzing about whether or not Meyer made a mistake – and speculating that Tebow will not make it back in time for the Gators clash with LSU on Oct. 10. So far I’m surprised that Deadspin has covered it very straight forward so far.

All of this, however, is a reminder of the one undeniable downside to Meyer’s offense: It leaves the quarterback vulnerable to getting hit. Most of the time fans have marveled at Tebow’s ability to take a pounding and keep going. But it’s no secret that Tebow has been repeatedly gotten banged up in the process, although this is his first known concussion.

For the record, my speculation that the Gators would lose in the next few weeks was not based on some premonition that Tebow would get knocked out. But it was based on the premise that defenses are beginning to key on the Heisman Trophy winner more and more in an effort to slow down the spread offense. Despite losing to the Gators, Tennessee showed that mixing up blitzes and changing defensive schemes could at least slow down the Gators attack.

The saving grace for the Gators, however, remains that no one they have played so far has been able to move the ball against them. And regardless of whether Tebow can return, that will be the key to whether or not the Gators beat LSU.

A No. 1 ranking means next to nothing right now

If there was anything to be learned from South Carolina’s dominating win over No. 4 ranked Ole Miss on Thursday night, it’s that once again poll rankings in the month of September mean next to nothing.

Oh, I know that the Gators fans will soon be frothing at the mouth. That doesn’t mean that UF doesn’t deserve any respect as the defending national champion. Any team that returns all defensive starters and its star quarterback should automatically be seen as the frontrunner at the start of the season. (Although I still think UF could lose in the next two weeks.)

But the Rebels loss is just another reminder that current poll rankings are based on nothing more than smoke and mirrors and that any fan – or alumnus  - should not get their hopes up based on what some silly poll says.

For as great as FSU’s win over Brigham Young was, the fact that BYU was a No. 7 team was meaningless. Let’s see where the Cougars are in December before declaring this a victory over a substantial foe. Likewise, I’m not sure Miami’s win over Georgia Tech  is as big a deal as some might think it is. (What made it a good win for UM is that Tech rolled over them a year previously and Jacory Harris looked spectacular ripping apart the Yellow Jackets secondary.)

The plain fact is that just like the BCS is a fraud, so are these polls. They are based on the votes of people, coaches and sportswriters, who look at a box score, see a 15-second highlight, and spend maybe a nanosecond thinking about their pick. Maybe that explains why FSU – after obliterating the Cougars – is still ranked five spots BEHIND BYU in the latest coaches poll.

If polls remain a necessary evil – and as long as the Bowl Championship Series continues to legitimize them – they should not be done until at least the first four games of the season are done and over. It was a travesty that Tommy Bowden got run out of Clemson last year based on some erroneous pollster decision that the Tigers were suddenly a Top 5 team.

It is of course great to see all 3 Florida teams ranked in the Top 25 – but it won’t mean a thing if FSU loses to USF, UF loses to Kentucky and Miami loses to Virginia Tech. It will mean that this week’s poll rankings were nothing but an illusion and a tease to the fans of all three schools.