thesportsfag | my gay sports blog

Nick Saban came out aggressive…. normally after winning the coin toss he elects to defer until the second half but sent out his offense instead.

Bama 3-0 – Tide opened up in the spread and moved quickly down field but only got a FG.

Bama 9-0 – stopped Florida on with a 3 and out on the Gators first drive which in cluded a big drop by Demps who was wide open for a big play. Bama moved down the field quickly for a TD but missed the extra point. McElroy looks sharp.

Bama 9-3 – Tebow comes up with a big 3rd and 3 conversion Gators get a Sturgis FG.

First Quarter thoughts – lots of Florida mistakes, costly penalties. Bama is playing aggressive on both sides of the ball and playing confidently.

Second Quarter

Gators stop Bama to start the 2nd quarter, Bama’s first punt of the game.

Gator holding penaltly wipes out a 14-yard run from Demps. 3rd Florida penalty for 31 yards. On 3rd down Tebow has nowhere to go and leaves one short that could of been picked off. Bama holds.

Bama 12-3 – Tiffin FG. Bama continues to move the ball well but needs to get TDs not FGs. McElroy is playing out of his mind. I wonder how long Bama will be able to keep Florida bottled up offensively.

Bama 12 – 10 – Tebow with two big runs and one big pass TD pass to David Nelson. Gators with a quick answer to Bama’s last drive.

Bama 19 – 10 – McElroy hits Ingram on a screen pass for 69 yards. Ingram runs it in for a 4 yard TD. Bama answers Florida’s quick score. Nice call on the screen pass against a Florida blitz.

Bama 19 – 13 – Sturgis 32-yard FG. Big play was Tebow’s connection to hottie Riley Cooper for a big play to get the Gators into FG range. Hernandez dropped a catchable pass from Tebow at the goal line during the drive.

Halftime: Bama 19 -13 Alabama gained ~ 270 yards in the first half and continues to play aggressively on offense but the Gators are heating up. Looks like it’s going to be a great 2nd half. Florida made a lot of mistakes early with penalties and dropped passes and Alabama took advantage. Every time you thought Florida would take over Alabama would answer.

3rd Quarter
Gators come up one yard short on the first series of the 2nd half. Punt to Bama….Tide ball at their own 25.

Bama 26 – 13 – McElroy hits Maze for big play, Florida commits a personal foul — roughing the passer on a busted play — and then McElroy hits his tight end Peek in the endzone. Great over the shoulder catch.

Alabama shuts down the Gators again and gets the ball back at their own 12-yard line. On the drive Gators had stopped Alabama on 3rd and 7 but an offsides penalty — Gators 5th penalty for 51 yards — gave Bama 3rd and 2 and Ingram converted for a Bama first down.

Facing another 3rd and 7 and under pressure McElroy hits Jones for a first down at the Florida 37. Several big runs from Mark Ingram to keep drives alive and Alabama takes 7:30 minutes off the clock. Going to the fourth.

End of 3rd Quarter thoughts – this is the best Bama has looked all year. McElroy, Ingram and the offiense line are winning the battle against the Gator defense. Tebow isn’t a factor. Boy was I wrong about this one.

Fourth Quarter

Bama 32 – 13 17-play drive. That’s huge. Two point conversion failed.

Florida drives down the field quickly but Tebow is intercepted in the end zone by Javier Arenas. That’s gotta be the ball game. Now it’s just how many yards will Ingram end up with.

Bama goes conservative and doesn’t get a first down. Florida takes over after punt at their own 32 yard line.

Florida drives the ball down deep again but Tebow’s pass is behind his receiver on 4th down. Bama will milk the clock.

With 6 minutes left the game is over and the keys to Alabama’s win was aggressiveness on offense, the play making of Greg McElroy and Bama’s offensive line. It’s on to Pasadena and as an Auburn fan I gotta say that I hate it but they were so much better than Florida today. Saban had the Tide ready to play.

20 years ago The University of Alabama was undefeated, ranked #2 in the country and seemingly on their way to another national championship heading into it’s annual showdown with Auburn known as the Iron Bowl.

In 1989 the Tigers walked away with a 10-point victory on what all Auburn fans agree was the most important game in Auburn football history. The 1989 Iron Bowl was the first ever played at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare stadium.

Prior to ‘89 the bitter rivals played in Birmingham’s aging Legion Field in one of those 50-50 split games like Texas and Oklahoma or Florida and Georgia, only in Birmingham there was always an advantage to the Crimson Tide because 5,000 or so Legion Field personnel received tickets and Birmingham is decidely an Alabama town.

There are many parallels between the 1989 game and the one that will be played on Friday however, no single game will ever impact both Alabama and Auburn as the one in 1989 did.

The national media is assuming Alabama and Florida, who takes on Florida State Saturday, are gonna roll into the SEC Championship game as #1 and #2 but I say they both have a lot of work to do this weekend.

Florida coach Urban Meyer announced this week he has suspended linebacker Brandon Spikes for the first half of Saturday’s upcoming game against Vanderbilt after Spikes attempted to gouge the eyes of Georgia running back Washaun Ealey in last weekend’s 41-17 victory over the Bulldogs.

You can see the incident here.

Spikes made no excuses for his actions and issued an apology. We all deserve a second chance, so apology accepted but the penalty should be more than one half of football against Vandy. What’s even more troubling to me were the comments about the attempted blinding from Tim Tebow.

On ESPN Tebow states:

“I don’t think that we did anything in that game that they didn’t do,” Tebow said Monday. “If you go back and look at it and study it, you can see it in the film, too. It was an intense game, both teams were very passionate about it.”

Wow, I know he’s an extremely religious guy and all, but haven’t we gotten past the days of an eye for eye? I’m a huge Tebow admirer — as evidenced by our lengthy Tebow profile full of shirtless photos — but geez dude, he tried to blind someone. Whatever happended to turn the other cheek or do unto other as you would have them do unto you?

Talk about losing your religion.

Lane Kiffin did what he needed to do in the off season. He had to sell the Tennessee faithful and recruits that he was the right hire in Knoxville. But, as Lou Holtz is famous for saying

Promises are like snowballs. They are easy to make but hard to keep.

And Kiffin will be making snowballs in hell this weekend. During the off season, Kiffin bragged about being able to get a commitment from Nu’Keese Richardson, a wide receiver from Florida, despite what he felt were recruiting violations committed by Florida coach Urban Meyer. Those claims were proved false. Kiffin also claimed he couldn’t wait to sign ‘Rocky Top’, the Tennessee fight song, all night long after the Vols beat Florida this year. Get the snow ready.

Kiffin’s not a likeable guy for sure and as he gears his Volunteers up for the ass kickin of the century it puts me in the unenviable position of pulling for Urban Meyer to do something unlikeable.

Urban Meyer isn’t the kind of guy that easily forgets. Meyer, who all but banned Gator legend Shane Matthews from the university for speaking critically of the Gator program during his radio talk show, is not known for letting things slide. Ask Georgia head coach Mark Richt who last year had to spend some extra time on the sideline watching the Gators celebrate their victory over Georgia because Meyer called some unnecessary timeouts. The timeouts were payback for the Bulldogs over-celebration of a first quarter touchdown the year before against the Gators.

The SECs love affair with all things Alabama is widely rumored to have led to several phone calls between Meyer and his former school Utah as they prepared to battle the Crimson Tide in last year’s Sugar Bowl. Not only does this coach not forget he usually extracts some measure of revenge.

I don’t expect Urban Meyer to leave Tebow in after Tebow gets his Heisman numbers but he certainly will not take his foot off the brakes when the backups play.

I believe pre season polls unfairly disadvantage certain teams from getting a chance to play in the BCS title game. Yet, the credibility of the AP Poll is light years ahead of the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll. In the AP Poll, credentialed members of the media vote as opposed to the coaches assistants and university athletic officials who vote in the ESPN/USA Today poll. You could argue there’s a bias amongst sportwriters as well but I trust writers a hell of a lot more than football coaches.

Florida is deservedly the most lopsided #1 in AP Poll history, receiving 96.7% of first place votes.

USC, at #4, is the runaway favorite to capture the Pac10 and I predict a Florida vs. USC matchup in the BCS title game.

AP TOP 25 (Rank, Team, First place votes and total points)
1. Florida (58) 1498
2. Texas (2) 1424
3. Oklahoma 1370
4. USC 1313
5. Alabama 1156
6. Ohio State 1113
7. Virginia Tech 1054
8. Mississippi 1047
9. Oklahoma St. 989
10. Penn State 989
11. LSU 914
12. California 746
13. Georgia 714
14. Boise State 659
15. Georgia Tech 593
16. Oregon 587
17. TCU 521
18. Florida State 307
19. Utah 289
20. BYU 267
21. North Carolina 261
22. Iowa 229
23. Notre Dame 225
24. Nebraska 207
25. Kansas 134

Others receiving votes: Oregon St. 122, Illinois 105, Pittsburgh 103, Michigan St. 100, Rutgers 83, Texas Tech 76, West Virginia 57, Cincinnati 44, Clemson 42, Miami 40, East Carolina 30, Tennessee 15, Arizona 13, N.C. State 10, Boston College 9, Auburn 7, Central Michigan 7, UCLA 7, Northwestern 5, Missouri 3, South Florida 3, Southern Miss 3, Vanderbilt 3, South Carolina 2, Arkansas 1, Houston 1, Nevada 1, Troy 1, Tulsa 1.

Why will USC overtake Texas and Oklahoma? Although these Big12 powers appear poised for a run a title run, expect them, along with OKlahoma State, to knock each other out of the race. WR Dez Bryant of OSU is the most exciting player in college football. Remember how a similarly athletically gifted athlete named Michael Crabtree ruined the Longhorn’s chances of playing for the National Championship last year? I think Colt McCoy is a better overall QB than sam Bradford, and he’s definitely cuter, so I will pick Texas to win the Big12 but not play in the BCS title game.

Biggest surprise is Alabama at #5. The last time the Crimson Tide was ranked in the pre season Top 10 Mike Dubose was fired at the end of a 3-8 season. With a tough SEC schedule and a first year starting QB I don’t see Alabama finishing much higher than #15.

LSU is my surprise pick to win the SEC West. Ole Miss may have a better QB than LSU but Les Miles has recruited well for years, and thus, has more quality players than the Rebels. LSU added former Tennessee Defensive Coordinator John Chavis to shore up their defense. Simply put, there’s more talent in Baton Rouge than Knoxville right now. And the Tiger’s problems on defense last year resulted from faulty schemes not from a lack of talent.

Just three teams from the Big10 are ranked and for good reason. The Big10 has not fared well against other major conference of late and they will continue to struggle this year.

TCU and Utah being ranked 17th and 19th respectively is a crime, again. Clearly these two programs don’t have the respect of college football writers yet they continue to win big.

Overrated BYU and Georgia Tech. The Cougars will be crushed by the Sooners at the new Cowboys stadium on September 5th.

Other early games of note include Virginia Tech upsetting Alabama and Oklahoma State beating Georgia to get their season rolling.

Under Butch Davis, North Carolina will continue to build upon its successful 2008 season and Florida State is my surprise team to finish in the Top 10.

Notre Dame’s schedule is a joke, only one team, USC, ranks in the top 37 of the pre season rankings. With the entire 11 on offense returning the only loss the Irish will suffer will be at the hands of the Trojans. And although they may end the season ranked in the Top 10 they certainly will not be one of the ten best teams in college football.