Sports Then and Now

Will Tim Tebow be heading to Buffalo?

The Buffalo Bills blogosphere is on fire. Every armchair GM in Buffalo is frothing with angst.

What’s wrong with Buddy Nix? Why hasn’t he signed any big name free agents? Why hasn’t he leveraged his inside knowledge of the Chargers to pluck some of their best pieces to complete the Buffalo puzzle?

And, oh my God, no! Tim Tebow! What does Jim Kelly think he’s doing, recommending and romancing this guy who obviously can’t be retooled for the NFL? Good thing Kelly doesn’t have any personnel authority at One Bills Drive.

OK, all of you! Breathe!

Is anyone familiar with the expression, “Crazy like a fox?” I’m going to suggest a new expression that is the Bills translation of same. “Genius like a Nix.”

I was one of the biggest advocates for getting big names like Bill Cowher on board. I wrote an article here at ST&N and was interviewed on Buffalo radio about it.

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While John Calipari may be on the verge of his third Final Four, according to NCAA records, his teams have never been there.

As the amount of time superstar athletes spend in college has dwindled over the last couple decades, the NCAA and high profile member schools have recognized that it is coaches and not the players that will ensure long-term success and continued billion dollar television payouts.

What that has created is a culture where often the most powerful person on campus is not the President or even the Athletic Director, but instead the marquee football or basketball coach.

The salaries for top-level head coaches have grown to the point where many of them are paid more money than it takes to run some entire departments at the colleges they represent.

These mega-salaries have come with a price. The pressure on coaches to win now is so great that it appears the days of coaches staying 20 or 30 years at the same institution is going the way of the two-handed bounce pass.

While there still are a few coaches enjoying success that have been at the same school for more than two decades like  Joe Paterno and Frank Beamer in college football and Jim Boeheim and Mike Krzyzewski in basketball, they are becoming the exception, rather than the rule.

Instead, the hot coaches are those like Lane Kiffin, Nick Saban and John Calipari who are little more than mercenaries hopping from job to job and pillaging all the riches during their stop.

The tale of Calipari, who is poised to reach the final four with a young Kentucky team that features a number of freshmen seemingly destined to spend just one year in college basketball, is a perfect example of how while schools certainly want to run a clean program, the most important thing is winning on the court. Read the rest of this entry →

Colt McCoy and the Texas Longhorns held on to defeat the Oklahoma Sooners and remain undefeated.

None of the top three teams in college football looked all that dominating this week, but they all took home the “W”, which is really all that matters.

With the first official BCS rankings coming out this week, we will get a sense of where everyone stands, but the reality is that Florida, Texas and Alabama all have their destiny in their own hands. The rankings will merely give us a better idea of which teams will step forward if any of the frontrunners stumble.

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The Florida Gators are favored by 73 points over Charleston Southern this weekend. Who makes these schedules a blind chimp?  Hear no evil, Speak no evil, and definitely SEE NO EVIL!

The Gators are going to get Medieval on Charleston Sothern’s ass (Classic line from Pulp Fiction)! Charleston Southern is 0-16 against Bowl Subdivision opponents. They got waxed by the “U” (Miami) 52-7 last year.  The Hurricanes limped to a mediocre 7-6 record in 2008.

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All conversations about the SEC have to start with the Florida Gators and senior quarterback Tim Tebow.

Overview: The SEC has claimed the last three BCS Championships and there is a good chance the Florida Gators could make it four in a row. As usual, the SEC is loaded with talent, which makes going through the entire season undefeated a tough task (and something none of those three champions has been able to accomplish). In addition to top ranked Florida, Alabama (#5) and Mississippi (#8) are ranked in the AP Top 10. With LSU (#11) and Georgia (#13) also ranked high, the SEC has more teams in the top 15 than any other conference.

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Despite winning two National Championships and a Heisman Trophy, many still question whether Tim Tebow is an NFL caliber quarterback.

Regardless of whether you are a fan of the Florida Gators, it is hard not to like and appreciate the drive and talent of their star quarterback, Tim Tebow.  Yet, even as he enters his final season guiding the preseason national championship favorites, Tebow continues to have detractors that question whether he can be successful at the next level.

While there may be better college football players, Tebow epitomizes all that is positive about college athletics.

A solid student, he is the son of missionaries and has spent time participating in mission trips to the Philippines.

On the field, he plays the game with the type of passion and determination that hearkens back to days gone by.

In his three collegiate seasons, Florida’s number 15 has risen to a level where he is rightfully being compared to the all-time greats in college football history.

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