Bowl Preview: Allstate Sugar Bowl

Allstate Sugar Bowl
SuperDome, New Orleans
Cincinnati vs. Florida
Date: Jan. 1
Time: 8:30 p.m.
TV: FOX
Line: Florida -13

About Cincinnati (12-0): The Bearcats escaped close games all year by outscoring everyone. Brian Kelly thanked them and promptly took the Notre Dame job. So, Tony Pike can throw the ball and Mardy Gilyard can catch it. Defense? nah. Running game? Occasionally.


Intangibles:
Oscar Robertson: +3
Art Long punching a horse (never gets old): -3
Cincinnati Reds: -4
Skyline Chili: +3

About Florida (12-1): Is there really anything I can say about Florida that everyone doesn't freaking know? Urban Meyer is on a pseudo early retirement play/leave of absence. Tebow, Brandon Spikes, Gonzalez. blah, blah, blah.

Intangibles:
Mohammed: +1
Buddha: +2
Jesus: +3
Tebow: +5

Impact player: Cincinnati QB Tony Pike, or more likely, his offensive line. UC can get guys open on the Gators, but Pike needs to be standing upright.

Bowl slogan: "Have a hurricane, Cincy fans. Have two, have three. It will ease the pain."

Little known fact: Call this one the "coaching clusterf*ck". Urban Meyer is on a leave of absence. Brian Kelly took the Notre Dame job. Jeff Quinn is coaching Cincy, but is actually the Buffalo coach. And Butch Jones, the new Cincy coach, is just watching. uh. okay.

Watchability (1-5): 4

The pick: Florida 41, Cincinnati 24

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.

Podcast: Episode 47

How dedicated are we? Both Phil and Tom are down and out with the flu, but we didn't want to postpone an episode of An 'Eye and an 'Eer.

So naturally we had to talk about Brandon Spikes' eye-gouging moment against Georgia, but more importantly the inconsistent discipline being handed out for such incidents (hey folks, Urban Meyer is not he choir boy he plays on TV).

How damaging was Michigan's loss to Illinois for Rich Rodriguez' future in Ann Arbor? His life expectancy may have been shortened from four years to three because of it. RichRod better hope for that sixth win soon and a bowl bid.

How about Oregon's shredding of USC last weekend? Does this mean Boise State could screw up the whole BCS thing? Probably not. But it does mean we could have four or five undefeated teams at the end trying to stake a claim. A couple other tidbits from the show: Phil doesn't see how Ohio State can win at Penn State, while Tom thinks this is the year a player from a non-BCS school could win the Heisman Trophy.

Dirty play by Brandon Spikes

The Florida Gators dominant performance against Georgia was not shocking. The dirty play of Brandon Spikes wasn't that surprising either. However, Urban Meyer or the SEC needs to discipline him for his eye-gouging technique.

First Amendment be damned

We all know that college and professional coaches have never been able to make comments about officials, referees, etc. without paying the price (e.g., a hefty fine by the institution or league).

Now it appears Florida's Urban Meyer doesn't believe the First Amendment applies to his players.

Gators linebacker Brandon Spikes is a big Barack Obama supporter and has not shied away from letting everyone know his fondness for the Democratic Presidential nominee. He's even been seen wearing Obama shirts in the locker room and around the Gainesville campus.

According to The Miami Herald, on Tuesday evening after the Gators' practice, reporters asked Spikes why he supports the Illinois senator. For someone who has been so outspoken, Spikes was awkwardly silent. It seems the UF has muzzled him.

He told reporters, "I can't really comment on that." He also acknowledged that it was the University that has ordered him to remain silent on the topic.

Doesn't seem to be too collegial. What happened to universities being a place of intellectual discovery and free exchange of ideas? I guess Spikes should just keep his mouth shut, while the University uses players like him (and many others) to draw thousands of redneck fans into The Swamp and make millions each fall.

So what good reason does the administration have for stifling his right to free speech? I'd bet if this was Tim Tebow running around campus and flashing his pretty boy smile on national TV endorsing John McCain this would be a different story.