Where’s Tebow?

Cam Newton may have matched Tim Tebow’s on-the-field season record of 20 passing and 20 rushing touchdowns, but he hasn’t matched the star power of the GPOOE™, at least as far as SEC fans go.

… And Auburn blowing out South Carolina drew a 6.3 overnight rating, translating to 6.3% of the 56 urban markets measured for overnights. That’s down 47% from Florida-Alabama in last year’s SEC title game and down 39% from those teams playing in the 2008 title game.

By the way, don’t miss Jimmy Johnson’s quote about Cam in the linked article.

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Monday morning buffet

Starting off what should be a fun week with a few things to nibble on:

• Dan Mullen rubs salt in the wound:  “The game shouldn’t have been as close as it was. We had some opportunities to put that game away early, and we had some opportunities to put that game away late.”
• My first thought on reading this was “why wasn’t that the rule in the first place?”.  My second thought was “I wonder what the SEC rule is?”.
• Mike Hamilton is a funny guy:  “But this is far, far, far from a program that doesn’t have institutional control or is not trying to live by the letter of the law.”
• Eloquence like this deserves to be noted.
• Measuring the Tebow effect:  “CBS’ SEC ratings had been on a roll. But Saturday’s Arkansas-Auburn game drew a 2.7 overnight, translating into 2.7% of the 56 urban markets measured for overnights — down 44% from comparable coverage of an Arkansas-Florida game last year.”
• Les Miles has a better winning percentage at LSU than Nick Saban did.
• Heh.
• There’s only one freshman quarterback in the top 35 nationally in passer rating – Aaron Murray at #19.
• Tim Brewster is the first coaching casualty of the season, and Minnesota’s AD has words of encouragement for whoever turns out to be his successor:  “You’re not following Vince Lombardi here.”

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UPDATE: Speaking of SEC officiating gaffes, the Wiz catches a good one from the UF-MSU game (watch the ref on the left).

Vernecrush Watch

What’s the over/under on the number of times Uncle Verne mentions The Departed One on during today’s broadcast?

A tale of two Florida quarterbacks…

In what may be as pure an act of pandering as I can imagine, ESPN proves it has no sense of shame whatsoever.

Just shoot me. Now.

God, please make this stop.

The next Tebow?

The similarities are remarkable.

At 6 feet 3 and 225 pounds, Florida freshman quarterback Trey Burton is built like Tim Tebow.

Like Tebow, Burton went to a Florida high school. Burton graduated from Venice. Tebow went to Nease in Ponte Vedra.

Like Tebow, Burton entered Florida early, arriving on campus in January.

Like Tebow, his running skills are his strength. Burton rushed for 123 yards and two TDs on 10 carries in the Gators’ spring game.

Like Tebow, he’s spending his freshman year as a backup.

And like Tebow, Burton has a strong Christian faith.

“I just want to do whatever I possibly can to get this team to [the SEC Championship game],” Burton told the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune. “I don’t care if it is washing people’s shoes or carrying water bottles. I am not really trying to prove anything to anyone. I am just going to go out there and try to make plays.”

What, no Filipino circumcision experiences to compare?  Maybe next summer…

Wednesday morning buffet

Feel free to indulge yourselves:

• At least 26 schools are adding football programs between 2009 and 2013.  Why?
• Georgia is 24th in ESPN’s preseason power rankings.  Just thought you’d like to know.
• Speaking of preseason power rankings, did you ever expect to see Tennessee listed at eleventh in the SEC?
• CBS Sports executive vice president of programming anticipates that TV viewership of SEC football may decline in the wake of the GPOOE’s™ departure.  Sad tears.
• Tommy Tuberville closes Texas Tech practices to the public, citing the “element of surprise”.
• Think the Gator media identifies with the program too much?  Check out this quote from Pat Dooley:  “… if Meyer had been hired from Bowling Green in 2002 and gone 9-3 Gator fans would have been all over him. So don’t talk about Zook’s tenure as a failure, but as a needed block in the foundation of the building we have today.” Who’s this “we” you’re referring to, Pat? (h/t ChicagoDawg)
• Doc Saturday takes a look at my favorite fourth quarter college QB, Ricky Stanzi.
• Pat Forde is pretty impressed with the SEC.
• Heisman Pundit is kinda, sorta impressed with the SEC.  At least for the moment.  But check back with him.  Because something might change.
• A sensible editorial about North Campus… which means it’ll be totally ignored by you-know-who.

Interesting choice of words

In reflecting on Chris Rainey’s good-riddance-to-last-year’s-bad-attitude-Gators comment, Chris Low writes this:

… OK, maybe it is a cliché. But in the Gators’ case, they genuinely believe it.

They also believe that last year’s team, as good as it was and as talented as it was, might have had a God complex about it.

God complex, hunh… wonder where he might have gotten that impression from.

Thursday morning buffet

For a dead period, there’s sure a lot of stuff going on in the college football world.

• Here’s a rundown of the starting quarterback situation in the SEC.  It’s kinda laughable to call Tennessee’s QB situation settled (not that I’m complaining), but overall it’s not a bad summary.
• And here’s a look at Georgia’s quarterback derby.
• While we’re on the subject of quarterbacks:  Virginia Tech fans, you’ve had the Vick brothers as starters, yet you’re directing your venom at Sean Glennon?  Nice.
• Despite the loss of Tim Tebow, Aaron Hernandez and Riley Cooper, the Florida offense is destined for greater things this season.  Right.  Who’s gonna pick up those tough third-and-two conversions this year?
• Speaking of the GPOOE™, guess which Super Bowl ad garnered the fewest viewers?
• Turner Gill’s going to get a Christmas card from SDSU’s administration.  They can afford the postage now that Chuck Long is gone.
• If you haven’t been paying attention, the G-Day game has been scheduled for April 10th.
• Marc Weiszer makes a good point about Georgia and Alabama being likely to throw a few more elbows at each other now on the recruiting trail.  (Don’t forget about Al Groh now, too.)
• “Long story short, 17 players caught balls for UGA last season. Fifteen of them are returning in 2010.” Good stuff.

Also, a housekeeping note – I’ve moved the post with the playoff poll to a permanent page (“Playoff Pulse”) because I think it’s useful to have a spot for people to comment on what they’d like to see in a football postseason and because it’s useful, even in a decidedly non-scientific format, for us to have an idea of what fan sentiment on the subject looks like.

Sunday morning buffet

Cold day, warm menu:

• Burger King brings new meaning to “have it your way”.  I’m hoping it starts a trend.
• “In the span of three years, Alabama spent more on football recruiting alone than it had previously spent pursuing athletes in all sports combined.”
• Hey, at least Junior has finally spoken to David Reaves.
• Please, just go ahead and shoot me.  Now.
• Vince Dooley won’t attend the Georgia-Tennessee game this year.  (And whose martini is that in the photo?)
• I hope you’re reading Doug Gillett’s 50 Most Loathsome People series, even though he’s got John Feinstein ranked waaaaay too low.
• GMC coach Bert Williams has plenty of good things to say about Jakar Hamilton.

Tebow and that ad: it’s the medium, not the message.

Let’s get the easy part out of the way first.  I’m not a conservative Christian, but as a confirmed libertarian, I respect Tim Tebow’s beliefs, support his right to air them publicly and think that the women’s rights groups that are lobbying to have the ad pulled are taking a mistaken approach to the matter.  Further, simply as a fellow human being, I admire Tebow for having the courage of his convictions.

That being said, I’m afraid I’m not buying this latest quote.

“I definitely didn’t think it would have this much hype — this much buzz — but, you know, it’s something I believe in and I’ll stand up for it,” Tebow said.

Dude, come off it.  You’ve been fawned over by the national media during your entire college career (actually, that started during recruiting, if you want to get technical about it).  You’ve been the embodiment of buzz.  To try to pretend that aligning yourself with an overtly political organization on one of the hottest button issues out there wasn’t likely to generate much attention is at best naïve and more likely disingenuous on your part.

And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

Well, except for two things.  I was kind of hoping that Tebowmania would start to wane once his college days ended, but I guess that was naïve on my part.  And second, again as a confirmed libertarian, CBS deserves a helluva lot more grief than it’s getting for its decision to air the ad in light of its past practices.