Days of Alabama, Georgia dominating SEC and college football are over | Commentary

Written by Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Syndicated User on January 5, 2025. Posted in Columnists, Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Rates, Latest Headlines, Miami Hurricanes, Opinion, Sports.

It’s over, Georgia. It’s over, Alabama. Your dominant, dynastic days of ruling the SEC and reigning over college football are a relic of days gone by. No longer can you stockpile talent with the confidence that your second- and third-string five-stars will wait patiently for their turn. The transfer portal has enabled “lesser” programs to shatter your glass ceiling, and NIL payments have further redistributed the wealth. Sure, you’ll still be good — great, even. But your era of absolute dominance, where you stood unchallenged atop your league and your sport, is a thing of the past. The playing...

Scott Frost is back at UCF, but can he recapture the Christmas magic he once had? | Commentary

Written by Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Syndicated User on December 9, 2024. Posted in Columnists, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Rates, Latest Headlines, Opinion, Sports, UCF Knights.

It’s Christmastime. It’s that time of year when we have warmth in our hearts, a spirit of togetherness and the urge to reconnect with loved ones. A time to express gratitude for the people who made us what we are. A time to rediscover the magic of coming together once again. The perfect time for Frosty the Showman — aka Scott Frost — to load up his pyrotechnic offense and dashing sideline demeanor to make his triumphant return to Orlando. Everybody sing along: “Frosty the Showman, made UCF dreams come true, With a playbook bold, of Black and Gold, He’s back to start anew! There must have been...

Another loss to Georgia, DJ Lagway’s injured and Billy Napier’s luck goes from bad to worse | Commentary

Written by Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Syndicated User on November 3, 2024. Posted in Columnists, Florida Gators, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Rates, Latest Headlines, Opinion, Sports.

How do you not feel bad for embattled Florida Gators coach Billy Napier? For some reason, a song from Hee Haw – the old cornpone country variety show – popped into my head as I looked down on the field Saturday and saw the grim-faced Napier as his injured quarterback DJ Lagway was carted away with an inspired Gator team leading mighty Georgia. “Gloom, despair, and agony on me,Deep, dark depression, excessive misery.If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all,Gloom, despair, and agony on me.” That song pretty much sums up what could be Napier’s fateful final season at Florida. If it weren’t...

Private equity firms would run college football much better than school presidents and ADs | Commentary

Written by Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Syndicated User on October 13, 2024. Posted in Columnists, Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Rates, Latest Headlines, Miami Hurricanes, Opinion, Sports, UCF Knights.

As a college football fan, the initial inclination is to recoil at the very idea of our beloved sport getting into bed with a private equity firm and selling its soul for a massive influx of new cash to help fund the expensive impending revenue sharing with athletes. The No. 1 objection you always hear is this: “If a private equity firm gets involved by loaning billions of dollars to college athletic programs across the country, then those firms will have the power to tell college athletic directors and presidents how that money would best be spent.” Question: Is that really such a bad thing? If...

Coach Prime runs Gus Bus off the road, wrecks UCF’s big day | Commentary

Written by Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Syndicated User on September 29, 2024. Posted in Columnists, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Rates, Latest Headlines, Opinion, Sports, UCF Knights.

Pump the brakes. Slow down. Not so fast. Not yet, UCF Knights. Not even close. Sorry to say, but you are just not ready for Primetime. Literally, figuratively, athletically. Deion Sanders — the man who was once known as “Primetime” but now prefers to be called “Coach Prime” — brought his Colorado team to his home state of Florida on Saturday, dominated the Knights and left a big pile of Buffalo chips all over UCF’s coming-out party. This was supposed to be UCF’s big day – a chance for the Knights to show the nation what they are all about; a chance to run the ball right down Coach Prime’s throat...

After ‘Canes thrash Gators, Billy Napier’s hot seat is now flaming chair of condemnation | Commentary

Written by Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Syndicated User on September 1, 2024. Posted in Columnists, Florida Gators, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Rates, Latest Headlines, Miami Hurricanes, Opinion, Sports.

The Florida Gators haven’t lost a season-opening game at home since 1989 when, coincidentally, the coach back then – Galen Hall – was fired four games later. This is not to say Billy Napier will be fired as UF’s coach anytime soon, but Saturday’s humiliating 41-17 season-opening blowout loss to the 19th-ranked Miami Hurricanes at the Swamp certainly didn’t instill much confidence that Napier’s team will be any better this year than it’s been in his first two losing seasons at UF. “Miami outplayed us and they outcoached us,” a disappointed Napier said afterward. “It’s embarrassing to be quite...

Dan Hurley rejecting Lakers evokes memories of Billy Donovan embarrassing Magic | Commentary

Written by Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Syndicated User on June 12, 2024. Posted in Columnists, Florida Gators, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Rates, Latest Headlines, NBA, Opinion, Orlando Magic, Sports.

Hey, at least Dan Hurley didn’t accept the Los Angeles Lakers job, waver, waffle, change his mind and back out a couple of days later. That’s what Billy Donovan did to the Orlando Magic 17 years ago when, just like Hurley, he was coming off back-to-back NCAA championships and was the most coveted coach in all of basketball. Billy D. took the Magic’s blockbuster contract offer, was introduced at a press conference and Central Florida was overtaken by Donovan delirium. “It’s exciting to get the hottest coach in America to coach our team,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, sitting front and center...

College football is idiot-proof and will thrive despite having to pay players | Commentary

Written by Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Syndicated User on May 26, 2024. Posted in Columnists, Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Rates, Latest Headlines, Miami Hurricanes, Opinion, Sports, UCF Knights.

Will you please halt all of the hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing? Cease and desist with all of the castigation and consternation. And, for the sake of the late and great Beano Cook, stop with these ridiculous doomsday scenarios that college football is circling the drain now that the NCAA and the power conferences have agreed to allow schools to directly pay players for the first time in the 155-year history of the sport. Believe me, college football will not only continue to survive, it will thrive just as it always has for one very simple reason: It’s idiot-proof. Completely and totally idiot-proof. The...

Did Georgia’s Kirby Smart convince Jaden Rashada to sue UF’s Billy Napier? | Commentary

Written by Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Syndicated User on May 24, 2024. Posted in Columnists, Florida Gators, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Rates, Latest Headlines, Opinion, Sports.

Running off at the typewriter. … There are some of my Gator conspiracy theorist buddies who are actually convinced that Jaden Rashada suing University of Florida football coach Billy Napier and UF’s heavyweight sugar daddy booster Hugh Hathcock for NIL fraud is all being orchestrated by Georgia coach Kirby Smart as a way to get Napier fired. Really, guys? Seriously? Personally, I think it’s just a massive coincidence that Rashada, the much-traveled California quarterback, filed the lawsuit just three weeks after transferring from Arizona State to Georgia. First and foremost, it takes more than...

DJ Lagway is exciting, but UF’s future is in Graham Mertz’s hands | Commentary

Written by Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Syndicated User on April 14, 2024. Posted in Columnists, Florida Gators, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage, Fort Lauderdale Mortgage Rates, Latest Headlines, Opinion, Sports.

GAINESVILLE — This timeless phenomenon is as old as college football itself: Fans, almost without fail, will embrace the potential and promise of the future more than the steadiness and stability of the present. They want to play with their new Buzz Lightyear action figure while casting old reliable Woody, the pull-string cowboy doll, into the deepest recesses of the toy box. Who cares if Florida Gators senior quarterback Graham Mertz led the SEC with a 72.9% completion rate and had a 20-to-3 touchdown-to-interception comparison last year? Who cares if he has 43 college starts on his resume? Who...

Category: Columnists