Fingers of destiny

Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes (shown here discussing which finger can cause the most retinal damage) graciously, with all the negative attention "weighing heavily on his heart" asked, ASKED to have his one-half eye-gouge suspension increased to an entire game eye-gouge suspension.

Sniff, I can't believe the hell they've put you through, Brandon. Thank goodness you've stepped up to take the pressure off your teammates by sitting out an entire football game.

Hero or linebacker? I'm not sure.

Today's notes: Talk about a dangerous precedent

A few thoughts from the blogosphere:

- Geez, Chip Kelly, just cause you got crushed and one of your players cold-cocked a Boise State player, don't give the money back. I'm still waiting on my money from Ohio State for the 1999 Outback Bowl.

- Lane and Urban, sitting in a tree. B-I-T-C-H-I-N-G.
Okay, boys, break it up. This thing's over. Urban, stop talking about the flu. Lane, quit acting like you won. This is football. Grown ups football, boys.

- Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen has lost his favorite jump ball target, Michael Floyd, for the rest of the year. Charlie Weis hints that Big Ten refs were probably to blame.

Game Day - thoughts so far

- What in holy hell is Oregon wearing now?

- If I thought Tennessee could move the ball at all in this game, I might have been tempted to pick them...to cover. Now that I say that, the Vols are moving down the field...

- Ohio State recovered fairly well with a 38-0 shutout of Toledo, but man, the Rockets defense is horrific. HORRIFIC. I don't know exactly what that says about Colorado.

Pryor ran, threw, etc. but there are still a lot of problems with this offense. Namely the lack of a steady running game. Really like freshman RB Jordan Hall, who looked the most natural RB the Bucks have. The defense was outstanding again. Frustrating to watch Tressel discover the QB sneak - a week too late. Still, a good win heading into Big Ten play.

- nice effort by Minnesota against Cal, but not quite enough. Gophers hurt themselves with some dumb penalties and missed opportunities. Loving the new stadium.

- Michigan struggled to stop the run against Eastern Mich in the first half, but made some adjustments and have now equaled their win total from last season.

I'm not settling in for the afternoon.

College presidents are so cute

University of Florida president J. Bernard Machen (that J. better stand for JimBob) thinks he can cut down the drinking that goes on at an event nicknamed "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party."

If I were a cynic, Bernie, I would suggest you concern yourself more with the binge drinking that goes on four nights a week on your campus then worrying about the once-a-year event that provides much more bad publicity.

Besides, not serving shots at a few bars or cutting down the number of places fans can get beer will have almost zero effect on the amount of alcohol consumed before and at the game. To do that, you might want to shut down every place in Florida and Georgia that sells alcohol. Good luck.

For the love of God, Urban, let it go...

Urban Meyer just coached the Florida Gators to their second national title during his tenure. He has the most praised player/QB/Messiah in the history of college football and...

he's mad cause some former players questioned some playcalling.

of course, once all this became ESPN-level news, Meyer and UF brought out the spin machine to downplay the whole thing, much like this homerrific piece from the Gainesville Sun.

Lovely story about how, gosh, the media and blogs are just making something out of nothing.
Really? If it was nothing, then why did Urban Meyer feel the need to contact Shane Matthews? If Shane Matthew felt it was "all overblown." then why in the hell is Shane Matthews bothering to GO ON ESPN to talk about how overblown it is.

A lot of times, in my life, when something's overblown, I ignore the living shit out of it and then pretend it didn't happen because, well, it was not meaningful in any way.

Lighten up, Francis. Errrggh, uh, Urban.

Preview: BCS National Championship Game

BCS National Championship Game
Dolphin Stadium, Miami Gardens, Fla.
Florida vs. Oklahoma
Date: Jan. 8
Time: 8 p.m.
TV: FOX
Line: Florida -3

About Florida: After watching Gary Danielson do the SEC title game, here's what I know about the Gators: Tim Tebow, Tim Tebow, Tebow, Tim, Tim Tebow, some other guys, Tim Tebow, Holy Crap Tebow, Can you believe that, Tebow? Tebow. I assume there are other guys, but I can't make any guarantees.

Intangibles:
Gainesville: -2
Florida co-eds: +4
Steve Spurrier: -1
Galen Hall: -2
Ron Zook: -4

About Oklahoma: The Sooners average 147 points a game this year and Sam Bradford won the Heisman Trophy thanks to playing against the Big 12. On defense, the Sooners line up 11 guys and do their best to get in the way.

Intangibles:
Stoops' stupid visor: -4
Last four BCS games: -3
Billy Sims: +3
Billy Sims at Heisman ceremony: -3

Impact Player: Florida returner Brandon James is the fastest midget alive. Except for LSU's Trindon Holiday. Makes him hard to see on kick returns.

Bowl slogan: "This is for the national title. We've got a trophy and everything. That makes it real."

Little known fact: Football games usually take between two and a half and three hours. This one will take nearly four.

The Pick: Florida 38, Oklahoma 28

Snoozefest

For most of the afternoon, the early games have been beyond boring.

- Penn State is not playing particularly well, but Purdue has made a boatload of mistakes and it looks PSU will win this one barring a miracle.

- Michigan State - Iowa has finally gotten interesting after it looked like MSU would pound the Hawkeyes into submission. Iowa has rebounded with a solid second half.

- Florida is up 14-0 at half against Arkansas, but has given up some yardage. The Hogs muffed a punt that turned into a TD.

- Oklahoma rolling.

- Duke-Georgia Tech is downright boring. GTech is up 24-0 which might as well 150-0 in this game.

That's about it. I'll be gone for the rest of the day. So, have fun with the rest of the games. Oh, and the Eer will be having fun at his wife's class reunion, I'm sure

God Love It

Of course, I mean college football.

First, let's make it clear, there is no team that is either in or out of the national championship race. There just isn't. Well, except maybe Louisville. (Seriously, you're up 1 with 2:30 left and you're throwing the ball?)

Today has been one of those days that makes college football great, infuriating and completely unpredictable:

- Ole Miss beats #4 Florida AT The Swamp. Blocked extra point. Stopping the unstoppable force, Tim Tebow, on a fourth and one.

- Navy, NAVY, beats Wake Forest.

- Auburn wins despite never having the ball on the Tennessee side of the 50 in the second half.

- A Michigan team that looked completely incompetent in the first half and trailed Wisconsin 19-0, scores 27 unanswered points and holds on to win their Big Ten opener.

- It's still the first half, but Bama is completely dismantling Georgia, 31-0.

OUR Top 25

Who says the media or coaches (we all know it's the SIDs who vote) know any more about ranking the best teams in college football than us. Phil and Tom watched way too many games this past week (but I love watching the games in HD). Starting with South Carolina-NC State and finishing late into the OT evening with UCLA-Tennessee, we now give you our first rankings of 2008.

An 'Eye and an 'Eer rankings

1. USC (2)
2. Ohio State
3. Florida
4. Oklahoma
5. Georgia
6. Missouri
7. LSU
8. West Virginia
9. Alabama
10. Wisconsin
11. Auburn
12. Texas
13. BYU
14. Oregon
15. South Florida
16. Wake Forest
17. Arizona State
18. Texas Tech
19. Penn State
20. Kansas
21. California
22. Utah
23. Fresno State
24. South Carolina
25. East Carolina

Others receiving votes: UCLA, Florida State, Kentucky

(We hope to get a few of our podcasting and blogging friends to join us in the future to bolster our rankings)