Florida: The Bully Of The Block

All college football fans are getting anxious to get the season started, but none more than those in Florida.  Ah yes, the land of oranges, beaches, and the bully of college football.

Who would be mentioned as the "Bully of College Football" by more magazines, television reporters, ESPN, FOX Sports, etc, than any other team in the nation?  If you chose Florida, you would be right. 

RIVALS, a respected college football organization, recently ran an article describing what they thought of the Gators.  RIVALS: "Seriously, Florida vs THE CITADEL?  Florida is like the guy in the office, who makes the same salary, but goofs off and doesn't do as much work."  Any questions about how RIVALS feels?

Then I did some checking and what I found should be an embarrassment to coach Urban Meyer and the Florida Athletic Department.

Florida's scheduling of THE CITADEL was just outrageous.  I would have thought that pride alone would prevent such a gross mismatch from happening.  I thought wrong.

THE CITADEL is in the FCS (formally DII).  THE CITADEL has schools in their conference I have never heard of.  THE CITADEL's conference:  Appalachian State, Wofford, Elon, Furman, Georgia Southern, Samford, Western Carolina and Chattanooga.  THE CITADEL went 2-6 in their conference.

Are you kidding me?  Seriously, I actually thought Furman was an all female college.  I would have guessed that Elon was a plastic, mythical planet, or an alien. I would have thought that Samford was a mispronunciation of Stanford.  I thought Chattanooga was a railroad. 

Even though THE CITADEL had all of the aforementioned competition, they were able to squeeze in Florida.  Go Gators! 

I didn't want to be judging Florida too hard, or too quickly, for that matter, so I dug a little deeper.  The smell only got worse.  This year, Urban Meyer padded his schedule with Charleston Southern.  The Gator pride just never stops.

Charleston Southern's (CS) conference:  Wofford, South Florida, North Greenville, Savannah State, Gardner - Webb, Liberty, Virginia Military, Presbyterian, Stony Brook and Coastal Carolina.  Note:  Wofford was listed as a team CS played, possibly not in their conference.  Now some of these names must be phony.  I was born at night, but not last night.

Gardner - Webb?  What, it took more than two people to pay for the buildings?  Wofford is pantyhose.  Stony Brook?  I think I fished that creek.  I can't go on with this.  I'm laughing so hard I'm going to hurt myself.

Some in the SEC say that their schools need a break from their tough conference competition.  From whom?  From a five - loss LSU team?  Arkansas?  Vandy?  Maybe some in the SEC (or not) will point out Alabama. 

Alabama football was humbled by a thrashing by Utah.  Utah took Alabama's pride, jerseys, most of their equipment, ownership of the State Capitol and any thought of Alabama being anything more than overrated.  

I wasn't about to give up.  I was going to find something of quality about the Florida football program.  I looked through the magazines and listened to the news, but I only gathered more negative information.

The latest SPORTING NEWS Magazine had their list of their college football Preseason 120.  They ranked Florida at Number One.  This included a comment from former Florida QB, Shane Mathews.  Mathews stated, "If you look at the schedule, which is the easiest in my 20 - some years as a Gator, they can be the greatest team in Florida history."

I thought that I had heard some of the most outrageous, phony, deceptive, lying, and worthless statements a human could make.  However, Mr. Shane Mathews has added to my life experience.

When I was on the LAPD, I investigated Fraud, embezzlement, homicides and narcotics.  I know the difference between Shinola and a cow pie.  When did playing "the easiest schedule in 20 years" equal the greatest team in history?  Common sense demands that it doesn't.

Today, ESPN's Colin Cowherd stated, "The BCS isn't perfect.  There have been many college football experts come through here and tell me that USC would have run Florida and Oklahoma off the field last year."  Another time he stated, "A former Gator, now a NFL scout, told me that USC had the most talent of any college team he had ever seen."   He was speaking of last season's team.

I always hear from the SEC how bad Washington State and Washington are in football.  Both have won National Championships. 

Last year, the University of Washington's OOC schedule was BYU, Oklahoma and Notre Dame.  This season, they will play LSU, Idaho and Notre Dame. 

In 2008, the University of Washington State's OOC schedule was Hawaii, SMU and Notre Dame.  This season they will play Hawaii, SMU and Notre Dame.

Why can't the SEC show some dignity and stop padding their schedules with FCS teams?  The SEC should know the old say, "you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but never all of the people all of the time."

I believe that more and more of the people are realizing that the SEC is playing with smoke and mirrors.  I say they're playing with THE CITADEL, Stony Brook, and Gardner - Webb. 

When LSU plays Appalachian State, they are also playing Elon, Chattanooga and Wofford.  Likewise, Florida is playing Liberty, North Greenville and Presbyterian.  If the SEC wants to play those schools, maybe they can merge. 

Florida and the SEC should take note of what finally happened to Alabama.  After Bear Bryant's' teams had won two straight National Titles, the nation looked at who they were playing.  Alabama was playing all White southern schools and the nation caught on.

Alabama wasn't given a third straight Title because they weren't playing national competition.  Bear Bryant then went to Coach John McKay and asked if he would bring his USC Trojans into Alabama for a game. 

The following year, USC played Alabama.  The Bama fans were shocked at how easy it was for USC to stomp their beloved team.  The rest is history.  Alabama and southern football were shown that their racial segregation had to end.

Currently, the south needs to "segregate" their OOC schedule with teams of the FBS.   I hope someone will wake-up in the SEC and understand that there is no competition in a Florida vs THE CITADEL game.

Would someone please contact Shane Mathews and tell him that "the easiest schedule in 20 years" does not equate to "the greatest team in history?"