After USC was stunned Thursday night in Corvallis, still an absolutely inexcusable loss, lots of "experts" said that it would open the door for Florida. But, the Gators choked at The Swamp today against an unheralded Ole Miss team.
There is an eerie similarity between the Beaver upset USC and the Runnin' Rebels stunner at Florida. The Trojans had struggled it's last 2 times at Corvallis losing 33-31 in 2006 and squeezing by OSU 28-20 in 2004. Still, Trojan players did not take the Beavers seriously. Ole Miss had won 2 of its last 3 against the Gators coming in to today's game, and they have now lost 2 in a row to the Rebels in Gainesville.
Is this the beginning of another stretch of unfathomable upsets in college football. My gut says yes.
Ireland and I met Florida's Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Tim Tebow at the ESPY Awards this summer, and you can hear our quickie interview at this link. He is a great kid. I don't really have any basis for saying that except this one meeting, but sometimes you can just tell that someone is a good person. I got this vibe from Tebow.
That's why I feel bad about Tim Tebow's post-game comments:
"I'm sorry. I'm extremely sorry," he said. "We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida's never done here. But I promise you one thing: a lot of good will come out of this.
"You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season and you'll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season, and you'll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season."
Ireland asked me who more than anyone else was to blame for USC's loss Thursday, and, although I have a definite opinion, and I have said so off the air, I just don't think it's right to hammer a college kid. And, I'm guessing that Tebow, judging from his quotes, is taking this harder than he should.
My opinion of Florida coach Urban Meyer has changed since we talked with him on the red carpet at the ESPYs. He elected to kick a 29-yard field goal with 25 seconds left in a 26-3 win over Miami on September 6. That is crap. I don't care how much he explains why it was a good reason and why it was important. It was wrong, and maybe the football gods were shooting him down today against Ole Miss.
It's Saturday afternoon as I'm writing this. Is there another big upset looming tonight? Keep your eyes on Norman, where #2 Oklahoma plays host to #24 TCU, Athens, Georgia, where the #8 Crimson Tide challenge #3 Georgia and Happy Valley, as Joe Paterno's high-flyin' #12 Nittany Lions get a test from #22 Illinois.
I say that if USC runs the table....and that's a big "if" judging how they played Thursday....they will still be in Miami for the BCS title game at the Orange Bowl.
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