Here we go again

OK, lets forget about baseball for now and focus on the number one sport in America (well, aside from NFL).
Have been watching waaay too much baseball for my own good. These marathon games still keeps me in front of the TV somehow, but now finally the college football season are just a couple of weeks away.
The Lovegren brothers will as last year focus on the main stories as well as the fringe ones. We really don't care about the middle of the road teams and how they are doing (yes, Boise is among them). Unless there are some cool brawl or something, or they find a way to upset a big program causing havoc in the BCS.
Florida, Alabama, (Ch)Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio State and the likes are what keeps this sport going (OK, Notre Dame as well).
So, gear up for another great season, and let's hope the loss of stars like TT, Sam and Colt will not be as bad as it felt at the end of the season (for me anyway).

Go Gators /Magnus

Spring football

Florida has a new defensive coordinator. Mack Brown’s mother dies. Georgia QB charged with underage drinking (not even the number one QB).

Well, maybe you can understand why “the lovgren brothers” are “away” from the blog at this time.

Most exciting thing coming up is all teams are preparing for spring football. Interesting to see if Gilbert will get the starting job at QB for the longhorns. Will we “fear the stach” (NOT) this year as well and will Ryan Mallet’s foot cause any problems with the darkhorse Arkansas in SEC west in the fall.

All eyes (even college football fans) will be towards Gainesville March 15 for Tebows release of his new software 2.0 (quicker release). Interesting if anyone will “buy that”.

Go Gators /Magnus

Draft

Everything now is focused on the NFL draft. Even if we are a pure college fotball blog we are going to comment on the draft this year since it so much feelings for both me and Markus in this years draft having Tebow and Bradford in it.
Senior bowl has just been played in Mobile Alabama (remember Markus when we where there and our NO-TRIP to USS Alabama). Tebow was there, but it did not help his stock at all. He still has the problem with the typical NFL-QB qualities you are percieved to must have.
- Long delivery
- Questionable footwork
- Slow in the running game
- Accuracy issues
With all these bad things it must be a miracle that he has been the best QB in college fotball ever???
I still think he will get drafted as a QB, but the team getting him will have to change a whole lot of their offense to suit him. Must be a really weak offensive team to start with like Oakland or Buffalo or something like that.

The most fun part to follow is to me where Jimmy Clausen will go (the former Notre Dame QB). I do see the good qualities he has but he lacks the most fundamental quality and that is clear leadership potential. He just seam to immature to become a leader, also he has made some strange pointing to opposing coaches and showing of players that shows the immaturity.
ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper Jr still has him in the top 10 draft picks which is a mistery to me. Todd McShay has him in the 2nd round, but that is also to early to me. He needs to grow up first and maybe in 2-3 years time be a starting QB. If he goes in the first 2 rounds he needs to start.

Sam Bradford is naturally in the top 10 picks, and he is a safe bet with his outstanding pocket presence and expert accuracy. I bet he will be the rookie of the year next year.

Go Gators /Magnus

Lane Kiffin keeps it clean...

Well. My last post was't old when Lane Kiffin declared that he is going to be the next head coach at USC. Obviously a crazy choise by USC, hiring a coach with literary no success at all as and Head Coach at any level.

Reports told that Kiffin might have been as low as the third or fourth option for USC. But being denied from several USC turned to Rocky Top and got Coach Carroll's former assistant.

Kiffin had an press conferens at SC last night where he told media that his focus was to get USC to become a clean program and following the rules for a change. With that said it did not take long until LATimes published a story about Ed Orgeron, a guy in Kiffin's staff, already calling High School players who already was commited to Tennessee, getting enrolled this week to discuss the situation: "I did call recruits to clear up any questions they had"

A possible, almost probable, violation of the NCAA rule that an institution cannot contact a student-athlete enrolled at another institution without permission from the current school.

So USC might be violating NCAA-rules the same week as Lane Kiffin is talking about being clean... Classy!

//Markus

Pete Carroll is jumping ship

What to say about Pete Carroll jumping ship at USC...


It is sad to see that one of the greatest coaches in the game is abandoning the team when NCAA is soon to enforce some regulations on the Trojans. Coach Carroll has really turned things around at USC the team might arguably be the best team in the 00's.

One can easily see why Carroll decides to move on to the NFL and the Seahawks, but from my point of view it would have been classier of Carroll to stay and ride out the troubles at downtown LA.

Troubles that are forced upon Sothern Cal. because of players given benefits they weren’t allowed to get. Benefits that might have taken the team to the glories the school had during the last couple of years.

So i think Coach Carroll, while seeming to be a great guy, is acting cowardly. Leaving behind fans and more importantly players enrolled at the university behind. It is going to be really interesting to see the reaction on the high school players verbally committed to USC. There might be more people jumping ship!

/Markus

BCS to SEC

Managed to watch the second half this night and it was well worth it. Had some problems with who I was routing for. On one hand I wanted  Alabama and Nick Satan to go down after Gators loss, but that would on the other hand made Florida look worse. One highlight was McElroys pick right in front of the TV audience…Priceless.

Also, I found it strange that Colt McCoy went down so easy. Makes you wonder if he faked it, because he knew he would only make his draft-stock go down playing an SEC superior defense.

You have to give credit though to Freshman QB Garrett Gilbert of Texas. What a way to show your talents on this big stage. Texas need not to worry next year with this QB. They need som RB however.

Also I must say Jordan Shipley was spectacular. He surely will be a force in NFL, despite his size.

OK, next stop Baseball season. 7 months to kickoff.

More to come on the blog during spring.

Go Gators /Magnus

2010 Roadtrip

Markus, how about singin "...Hey Gators, we just beat the hell out of you, rammer jammer..." at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa 2nd of October 2010. They will surely beat Gators with all their stars coming back (except Rolando).

The 2010 Gator Football Schedule

9/4 Miami-Ohio
9/11 South Florida
9/18 at Tennessee
9/25 Kentucky
10/2 at Alabama
10/9 LSU
10/16 Mississippi State (Homecoming)
10/30 Georgia (Jax)
11/6 at Vanderbilt
11/13 South Carolina
11/20 Appalachian State (Div. 1 AA) (Senior Day)
11/27 at Florida State
12/4 SEC Championship Game (Atlanta GA)

Go Gators /Magnus

Draft + 2010 season + Heisman

Never to early to start thinking about the upcoming draft. Clausen says he's coming out and is said to become first QB taken in the draft. My god, what short memory people have. He completely stunk in last two years, and reporters actually highlighted last years bowl win over Hawaii (!!!) as a positive thing.
Personally I would take Bradford over Clausen any day. Sensational pocket presence and accuracy downfield. He will get back from this injury and if teams are thinking a little more long-term it would be a way smarter pick. Don't get me started on jake Locker and how bad he is.

Otherwise I agree with Markus about the booring bowl-season coming up. I think however Florida will struggle against Cincy, just because this is not where we wanted to be. I would not be suprised if TT sits out this one and gets John Brantley a head start on next season.

I actually also think they should give the Heisman to McCoy. Ingram will anyway win it easily next year.

Next season will be lacking a lot of star players. I can only see Ingram beeing the only real star and he will dominate SEC and college fotball as long as he stays healthy and do not enter draft. Maybe Zack Collaros could also become a Heisman candidate next year.

For the Gators it will be a middle year to break in Brantley and change a lot in the system without the tripple-option available.

Go Gators /Magnus

How sweet it is!

Well, how poorly Oklahoma has been this year the fall of USC makes me feel much better… They are now bound for Emerald Bowl! Does Emerald Bowl even exist?

And they are going to play Boston College, nr 4 in the ACC… What a disaster, and I love it.

I also love how good old Charlie Weis thinks he has been handled tougher by the media by saying: “You could bet that if I were living with a grad student here in South Bend, it would be national news. He's [coach Caroll] doing it in Malibu and it's not national news. What's the difference? I don't understand."

The Bowl season is rather dull this year. I can’t see how:

Texas is going to get crushed by Alabama

TCU will definitly win over Boise State, how can it even be allowed to play football in the state of Idaho?

Florida is going to kill Cinci. Tebow is going to have one of this best games ever an win by at least 3 TDs

Georgia Tech – Idaho? What?

//Markus 

Complete darkness

"Mistakes are made, and regrets are our luggage;
we will drag them with us to slow us down.
The victories are flashes of light, sudden and unlasting, which allow us
to glimpse the road ahead before darkness descends."
/by Christinia

Go Gators /Magnus