FanHouse runs its spread offense with a regular feature of aggregated links and interesting news items.Tim Tebow as George Gipp -- Florida, taking a page from Notre Dame, is deeply interested in building its own myth machine. So interested, in fact, they've dedicated a plaque immortalizing senior-to-be quarterback Tim Tebow's speech after losing to Ole Miss last year. It is titled, simply, "The Promise." You may remember it for the line, "you will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. God bless."
Get a grip guys, he's not dead yet. He's not even out of college. Nor can we enlist this generation's Ronald Reagan, whoever that might be, to play him although at this point we have to assume Florida's scouring the independent film festivals looking for him.
No Good Deed Goes Unnoticed -- You may have seen that cringe-worthy video of Congresswoman Corrine Brown celebrating the Florida Gators' national championship filled with classics like "gradulate," "go Gator," "the athletic school," "corch Urban Meyers," and "Percy Harvey."
The internet being what it is, its now set to a dance remix. Well played. Go Gator.
It's Basically Sex on Paper -- Those are the words of Colorado cornerback Ben Burney. Having endured five surgeries just to get back on the field, he already is living an interesting story, one that could easily be profiled on GameDay. What is unlikely to be profiled is an upcoming 500-page book he's penned that will be released online March 28.
"Really, it was like venting for me, a way to get everything off my chest.RUH ROH. This has the potential to be the Ball Four of its generation, or maybe the culture's become immune to locker room tell-alls once the Jose Cansecos of the world put pen to paper. We'll find out soon enough.
You know, critique my life and other people's lives and how we live, and what kind of factory we're in in NCAA football. It's all controversial. It's rated R. It's basically sex on paper. Hopefully people see beyond all the graphic nature and the sex and the cussing and all the stuff we do to see the true meaning underneath because there is definitely something that is there"
Welcome Back, Mike Leach -- Texas Tech coach Mike Leach has been relatively out of the spotlight since his 11th-hour contract extension was worked out. But now he's back and in a big way, firing shots at the NFL in defense of quarterback Graham Harrell.
As seen at elsewhere on this site, Leach blasted NFL criticism of Harrell as a "system" passer, calling the critiques the "most pitiful NFL cop-out of all time." He's right and he's wrong while landing on one of my major frustrations with the NFL.
The NFL chatter isn't wrong that Harrell is unlikely to succeed. But that has to do with the differences between college and pro ball. For various reasons chief among them smaller rosters, fewer teams and the best athletes available all playing on the same size field, the NFL is much more difficult to succeed in than college ball.
So, elite college players like Harrell regularly get chewed up and spit out for not fitting an increasingly narrow profile. They're not wrong to be skeptical of him in that regard.
But Leach nails the NFL over its own arrogance and failing to make more of players with skills of their own that simply don't fit the league's rigid profile of suitable skills, saying, "How could you possibly look yourself in the mirror and consider yourself an NFL coach and not be able to teach a guy to run back three steps, five steps and seven steps? I can teach a child that! Any coach in the NFL who can't do that ought to be fired!"
The NFL is very set in its ways, while college football remains innovative and much more focused on offensive football and playing a more wide-open game. We've seen a movement towards that in the NHL and in the NBA where fans grew frustrated with deliberate, plodding play and started to leave their games. There simply hasn't been that kind of backlash yet in the NFL. Thus, coaches are in no hurry to stop doing what they've been doing and a ton of great college players fall by the wayside in the process, from a system guy like Harrell to once-in-a-generation athletes like Reggie Bush and Vince Young.
TMI -- SportsByBrooks discovers USC radio man Pete Arbogast hosting a sex-themed radio talk show and sharing way more we really care to know about the man.
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Florida State President T.K. Wetherell has apologized for his remarks at a press conference announcing FSU's decision to challenge NCAA sanction. Meanwhile, coach Bobby Bowden says the penalties were "too stiff" ... South Carolina has told defensive lineman Ladi Ajiboye he is suspended indefinitely ... Duke has moved longtime quarterback Zack Asack to safety in an effort to get him on the field his senior year ... Iowa defensive end Adrian Clayborn has been booked and charged on allegations he punched a cab driver ... Hawaii cornerback JoPierre Davis has been hit with a litany of charges from sexual assault to burglary ...
