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Some suggested resolutions for 2009 for those in the sports headlines >Norman's next column will post Monday, Jan. 5. Due up: Final bowls' no-nos >Norman's bowl picks through New Year's Eve/Day games, Jan. 4> Click (12/31) New Year’s resolutions are wonderful things. You’re gonna lose weight, stop smoking, find a new job, etc. etc. The best thing is, nobody keeps score whether you did it or not. Here are a few suggestions for our favorite sports figures and teams: -Georgia will never again wear black jerseys. -Tech’s Paul Johnson will lose that navy blue sideline jacket - and smile occasionally. -Falcons’ Mike Smith will throw owner Arthur Blank off the sidelines. -The stoic Falcon quarterback Matt Ryan will tell a joke in public and put a cushion that makes a rude noise in Mike Smith’s chair. -No sports team will ever douse their coach with Gatorade, or any ade, again. -No player will ever point to the sky for any reason other than to warn of a falling plane. -Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski will smile a lot and never speak to a referee again -Roy Williams will learn to slow his Tar Heels down just a little bit, say at the seven-, four- and one-minute mark IF they have the lead. And Roy, don’t be afraid to use your time-outs. -Steve Spurrier will put new Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin on his Christmas card list. -Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno make a pact to play each other when both reach 399 wins and then quit. -Notre Dame will hire Skip Holtz after one more year of Charlie Weis. -Bobby Petrino is fired with three games to go in his next season at Arkansas. -No sports announcer will ever again say "audibilize." There is no such word. -There will be a one-year hiatus from talking about where Will Muschamp will coach next. -An Auburn book will appear titled ‘Truth, Integrity and Honesty in Athletics.’ -Florida’s Urban Meyer won’t mention Notre Dame being his dream job - until next season. And Urban, there’s no crying in football. -Those who cover sports come to the realization that Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen may not be the greatest thing since Krispy Kreme doughnuts -Georgia will hire a men’s basketball coach without a moustache. -Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney insists on being called by his real first name, Bill. -And may all of our favorite teams go undefeated. Happy New Year. Florida certainly no Harvard--and other startling findings unearthed by AJC report (12/30) Now let’s see if I got ‘em all. The Jets, Browns and Lions all fired their head coaches and San Francisco made news by not firing Mike Singletary. As they say, that’s the NFL. Talk about an interesting career path, take a look at Gus Malzahn’s bee line into the coaching ranks. Malzahn went straight from Springdale High in Arkansas to offensive coordinator at Arkansas, then to Tulsa in the same capacity and now will run Auburn’s offense. . . And by the way, if you’re trying to keep up with the college head coaching carousel, there have been an even 20 firings and/or changes. Only New Mexico State has yet to name a replacement for the fired Hal Mumme. Great study done by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on 54 public universities comparing the school’s football SAT scores against the regular student bodies at the schools.The top 10 SAT scores for athletes in the study were: 1. Georgia Tech 1028 out of a possible 1600 2. Oregon State 997 2.(tie) Michigan 4. Virginia 993 5.Purdue 974 6.Indiana 973 7. Hawaii 968 8. California 967 9. Colorado 966 10. Iowa 964 The bottom 10 included three SEC schools: Florida, Arkansas and Mississippi State. Michigan State ranked last with an SAT score of 917. Georgia’s average football SAT was 949, 239 points behind the average for an undergrad and 79 points behind Tech. Tech’s leading 1028 score was still more than 300 points behind its undergrad population. And surprisingly, the biggest gap between football players and students as a whole occurred at Florida, where players scored 346 points lower than the school’s overall student body. That’s larger than the difference in scores, points out the AJC’s Mike Knobler, between typical students at Georgia and Harvard. Interesting but I’m still not sure what it means but I fear it means we’re dumbing down across the country to accommodate athletes. Bowl No-Nos No. 2: Rough season-enders for Tech, UGA? No, no . . . (12/29) This is my Norman’s Bowl No-Nos where I pick the losers in 19 bowls (round III, Jan. 5). Chick-Fil-A Bowl - Georgia Tech vs. LSU - Who would have figured how either of these would finish their seasons? Jackets lead the series 12-6 but the last meeting was in the 2000 Peach Bowl and LSU won, 28-14. More of the same. NO-NO. Tech’s hot, LSU’s not. 35-24. Gator Bowl - Clemson vs. Nebraska - You never heard of ‘Huskers’ QB Joe Ganz yet he passed for 3,300 yards. You never hear of Clemson’s offensive line either because they gave up 25 sacks. Nebraska wins big. NO-NO. Tigers go out on a high note, Nebraska whipped, 28-20. Capital One Bowl - Georgia vs. Michigan State - Do the Bulldogs really want to play this after what is considered a disappointing year? Spartans have Javon Ringer and little else. But maybe enough to take Georgia’s measure. NO-NO. MSU bites the dust big time, 42-14. Rose Bowl - Southern Cal vs. Penn State - I’m not so sure USC shouldn’t be playing Florida. I’m not so sure Penn State should be here, either - best team out of a weak conference. Trojans don’t take them seriously. NO-NO. Serious enough for Nittany Lions to choke, 35-17. Orange Bowl - Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech - Who cares? Cincy will wake up and realize it’s somewhere it shouldn’t be. Hokies carry the banner of the ACC, which is 0-for-a-decade in BCS wins. Bearcats take advantage of their 15 minutes of fame. NO-NO. ‘Cats overpowered, 27-10. Sugar Bowl - Alabama vs. Utah - Tide is fresh from losing its BCS championship semi-final game. Utah is prancing with is 12-0 perfect year. Utes take advantage of ‘Bama’s low morale, win in an upset. NO-NO. What low morale? The Utes are slaughtered, 44-14. Others losers Rutgers to N.C. State Northwestern to Missouri Nevada to Maryland Western Michigan to Rice Oklahoma State to Oregon Houston to Air Force Pitt to Oregon State Vanderbilt to BC Minnesota to Kansas Iowa to South Carolina Ole Miss to Texas Tech Kentucky to East Carolina and Buffalo to U Conn Forget about Bernie Madoff and your 401k; celebrate our big January of football (12/24) This is Norman Arey wishing you a Merry Christmas, and, if you insist, a Happy Holiday. There’s no way to sugar coat the year of 2008. From a financial standpoint, it stunk. Depression has set in on America’s mind and it’s hard to find any bright spots out there. Sports has always been an avenue of escape for the collective masses. Go to a good college football game and you forget all your woes for three and a half hours or so. So, we in Georgia have at least three bright spots out there to take our minds off of our plummeting 401ks and Bernie Madoff. I’m talking about January football. 1) The incredible story of the Atlanta Falcons just continues to grow and grow. Who are those guys in the red jerseys and black helmets? Could this possibly be the same core of players who saw their quarterback go to jail before their season even started and their head coach creep out of town in the middle of the night with three games left to play? Is this the same team that won only four games last year and was the laughing stock of the National Football League? The 2008 Falcons have a new general manager, a new coach and a new quarterback, and has already claimed a spot in the NFL playoffs. Quarterback Matt Ryan is the brightest spot in the league and you might even say the Falcons are still building for the future. So we have years to look forward to good professional football. 2) Georgia may be a disappointment but only because of unrealistic expectations. The Bulldogs won’t be playing in the mythical college title game as many thought before the season began but they did win nine games and have a chance for a 10th come New Year’s Day. It may be that quarterback Matthew Stafford and runner-supreme Knowshon Moreno will seek greener pastures via the NFL draft but overall it’s been a good season. Come on, nine wins ain’t bad. 3) Georgia Tech may be playing into January if it goes a couple of overtimes against LSU in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. The kickoff is set for 7:30 on New Year’s Eve but that’s close enough to January to count. No one predicted the Yellow Jackets would be a 9-3 team and playing last year’s national champion in a bowl when the season started. Paul Johnson was still painting the wall and finishing the roof on the new wishbone house he was building for Georgia Tech when the season began. Amazingly, the house is still not completed, so the Techsters have a lot to look forward to when Johnson brings in a special corps of engineers to finish it via signees. So forget about your falling home value, your iffy employment status and how you’re going to pay for Christmas. Just for a little while, think about January Football. Happy Holidays. Is Wake Forest's run in the ACC over? Coach-in-waiting: Not my idea, Bowden says
(12/23) I have been a stalwart booster of Wake Forest football almost since Jim Grobe took over the program. But after watching the Demon Deacons scrape by Navy in the Eagle Bank Bowl, I think Wake’s remarkable run in the ACC is about over. Grobe hit the scene at exactly the right time -- when the rest of the league was down. A truly good team wouldn’t lose one to Navy and barely win another. A good team would have blown out the Midshipmen over eight quarters of football. I think North Carolina, Georgia Tech and N.C. State will go ahead of Wake this season. Here’s a chilling statistic. Of the 19 college football coaches hired in 1999, only three from that class remain at the schools that hired them -- Kirk Ferentz at Iowa, Bob Stoops at Oklahoma and Randy Edsall at UConn. And another thing, Florida State’s Bobby Bowden told The Orlando Sentinel that it wasn’t his idea to have a coach-in-waiting as offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher is. Bowden said it was the brainchild of the FSU president and the athletics director. Oh yeah, what if he wasn’t president-elect? Abe Pollin, the owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, has extended an open invitation to Barack Obama to sit in on team practices, attend Wizards games in the owner’s box and play pickup ball at the Verizon Center with anyone Obama chooses, including Wizard players. Brown-noser. Here’a another amazing stat. In the so-called four major team sports, only Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox, Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan and Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher have been with the same team since 1994 or before. I’ve been thinking about this since it happened, and I think Army did ousted head football coach Stan Brock dirty. Brock, hand-picked by former Army coach Bobby Ross, had just finished his second year at West Point and had a 6-18 record (hey, that’s better than former Iowa State coach Gene Chizik’s 5-19). You got to give the guy a chance. I mean you ain’t Oklahoma or something. And finally, Tim Tebow had had enough of hearing that he wouldn’t make a good NFL quarterback and challenged NFL draft guru Mel Kiper on a radio show. If nothing else, I liked Tebow’s fire. Gators' next QB now playing at Miami? Auburn pays back Iowa State for coach theft (12/22) Duke looks to be back in its old form. The No. 6-ranked Blue Devils took on No. 7 Xavier in what was billed as a showdown but it turned into a showcase for Duke. The Devils led 22-3 at one point in the first half and won easily, 82-64. UConn coach Jim Calhoun and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim moved into eighth and ninth place, respectively, on the all-time men’s basketball win list over the weekend. Calhoun has 784 win and Boeheim 782 for their careers. In fact, the Big East is the only conference that has four coaches with 500 or more wins. Bob Huggins at West Virginia has 624 and Rick Pitino at Louisville has 528. County singer Mindy McCready attempted suicide last week but is leaving the hospital today. McCready, whose long affair with pitcher Roger Clemens was revealed last spring, slit her wrists but says she plans on going to Florida to be with her family over Christmas. If you’re not clear on this, Jimbo Fisher is supposed to take over the Florida State head coaching duties in 2011 from Bobby Bowden as his coach-in-waiting. If Fisher isn’t the head coach by then, he gets a $5 million consolation prize. Yes, that does add to the pressure for Bowden to step down. It’s Southern Cal’s high-octane offense that gets all the attention but consider that the Trojan defense held eight of its 12 opponents this year to season-low yardage. It doesn’t take much to make Duke happy on the football field. The Blue Devil brass awarded head coach David Cutcliffe for a 4-8 season with a two-year contract extension which runs through 2015. The successor to Tim Tebow at quarterback at Florida may be playing at Miami right now. Hurricane quarterback Robert Marve has been suspended for his team’s bowl game and says he’s pondering whether to transfer. The two schools he’s considering are LSU and the Gators. Turn-about’s fair play. After Auburn lured Iowa State head coach Gene Chizik to the Plains, Iowa State hired the Tigers’ defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads as its new head coach. Bowl No-Nos No. I: With gritted teeth, Norman's Hawaii-Notre Dame pick is ... (Dec. 19) This is the first of three installments of Norman’s No-Nos for college bowls. Part 2 will be Dec. 29. For the year, I’m 159-63, 72 percent. EagleBank Bowl - Wake Forest vs. Navy - A rematch of a Sept. 27 game when the Middies upset the Deacons, 24-17. It was the first of five losses for Wake, so we can expect more of the same, NO-NO. Wake figured out the Navy offense, Midshipmen torpedoed, 28-21. Las Vegas Bowl - Arizona vs. BYU - Mike Stoops saved his job as the Wildcats are 7-5 with impressive wins over Cal and Arizona State. BYU was to be the best of the mid-conference teams, but finished 10-2. Wildcats top Cougars. NO-NO. ‘Zona zoned out, 38-22. Hawaii Bowl - Hawaii vs. Notre Dame - Surely the Fighting Irish can win this low-tier match up with the Warriors. Hawaii, 7-6, is a mere shadow of its former self. Ditto for Notre Dame with a 6-6 season. Hawaii prevails. NO-NO. I hate it but Warriors pummeled, 35-13. Meineke Car Car Bowl - North Carolina vs. West Virginia - Tar Heels win if they contain QB Pat White and runner Noel Devine. Mounties win if they don’t. This one may come down to coaching. I choose WVU’s Bill Stewart. NO-NO, just kidding. Mounties flattened, 24-17. Champs Sports Bowl - Florida State vs. Wisconsin - The question is whether the Badgers can run against the Seminoles. If not, they’re doomed. FSU quarterback Christian Ponder must play well or watch from the bench. UW overpowers ‘em. NO-NO. Badgers can’t run, lose 27-18. Emerald Bowl - Cal vs. Miami - The Hurricane defense was slaughtered in its last two games, giving up a total of 911 yards. Bears’ running back Jahvid Best ran wild in his last two games, gaining 512 yards. Miami’s ‘D’ stands up. NO-NO. ‘Canes are blown away, 34-26. Poinsettia Bowl - TCU vs. Boise State - One of the top match ups. Horned Frogs have nation’s No. 2 defense. Broncos aren’t bad there either, giving up 12 points per outing. TCU may blitz Boise’s freshman quarterback Kellen Moore. Bookies like TCU. NO-NO. Frogs croak 24-21. Other losers: Louisiana Tech to N. Illinois Florida Atlantic to Central Michigan Southern Miss to Troy Memphis to South Florida Colorado State to Fresno State Who needs to win their bowl game the most: Sooners' Stoops or UGA' s Richt? (12/17) Hey, stop the presses. Somebody in sports finally did the right thing. Penn State has given the iconic Joe Paterno a three-year contract extension, thereby ending a year-long speculation that this would be his last go-round. Paterno is the winningest (there’s no such word but whatever) coach in college football with 382.. JoePa will be 82 next week. Michigan defensive coordinator Scott Shafer has resigned after the 3-9 Wolverines ended the year giving up an average of 29 points per game. Rich Rodriguez began the year with Shafer’s 4-3 defense but changed to the head coach’s familiar 3-3-5 for the last few games of the season. Oklahoma quarterback and Heisman winner Sam Bradford headed up the AP All-America team at quarterback while Alabama led the way with three players on the first team. The Tide representatives were offensive tackle Andre Smith, center Antoine Caldwell and nose guard Terrence Cody. It must be the economy. Scalper prices for the BCS title game between Oklahoma and Florida have become down-right affordable. In the past, some BCS tickets have sold for $1,000 or more. Tickets for the Gators-Sooners match-up are going for $200-$250. So now we have it, from no less an authority than LSU head football coach Les Miles. Georgia Tech, the Tigers' Chick-Fil-A Bowl opponent, were once a member of the SEC and is now an ACC team. When Miles was asked how he thinks the Jackets might do in the SEC, he said he felt they might match up very well. Of course, he wasn’t going to say otherwise, was he? I had to laugh when I read about Florida coach Urban Meyer back-pedaling on his earlier statement that Notre Dame was his dream job. He blamed it on his northern upbringing. My God, Urban, you don’t admit you were brought up in the north when you’re coaching in the South. And finally, Sporting News Today.com asks this question on the front page of the publication: Who Need To Win Their Bowl Game More, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops or Georgia’s Mark Richt. Good question since "Big Game Bob" has been anything but in his team’s BCS appearances and Richt started the year at No. 1 in the nation and now isn’t even No.1 in the state Chizik fallout erupts on both ends; NASCAR team workers feeling budget crunch (12/17) The flak keep falling on The Plains. New Auburn football coach Gene Chizik burned bridges to the ground at Iowa State when he left abruptly late Friday. The Cyclones’ administration said Chizik assured them Thursday night and again Friday morning that he wouldn’t be leaving but they were unable to get him to return their calls Friday afternoon. . . Former Auburn and NBA basketball star Charles Barkley ripped his alma mater, saying their choice of Chizik over Buffalo coach Turner Gill was short-sighted at best and racially motivated at worst. Talk about a shaky career path. Stay away from NBA coaching. The Sacramento Kings’ Reggie Theus became the sixth NBA head coach in the first seven weeks of the season to be fired. BCS Notes and Other Stuff: Cincinnati is the 43rd different school to play in a BCS contest... Southern California has played in a record seven-consecutive BCS games . . . Oklahoma has set a modern record (and counting) with 702 points in 13 games this season... Southern California has won or tied a record seven consecutive Pacific-10 Conference football crowns. . . Texas Tech's Graham Harrell joined head coach Mike Leach in a private White House tour last Saturday and then met with President Bush. I guess the penalty for not winning the Heisman is having to meet Bush. . . Georgia Tech defensive tackle Darryl Richard earned the ACC’s 2008 Jim Tatum Award as top senior student-athlete in football. Beall’s Outlet Stores, which has retail outlets in 29 Georgia cities, apologized for displaying Michael Vick jerseys for sale. The store management, based in Florida, said the display of Vick jerseys was a mistake and they’ve removed them. It looks as if Bobby Florida State’s Bobby Bowden will be back for at least one more year. Bowden said he would talk contract with the Seminole brass after his team’s Dec. 27 bowl game. And finally, how badly is the recession affecting the sports scene? The Charlotte Observer reports that an employment task force is being set up by the North Carolina Motorsports Association for displaced NASCAR team workers who are having credit and mortgage problems.
(12/16) Not making any early predictions but may I point out that six of the last eight Heisman winners have played in the BCS title game but only Southern Cal’s Matt Leinart won the game. Since 1950, only five players have won a Heisman and a national title in the same season. USA Today interviewed former NFL general manager Charley Casserly on how the three top Heisman finalists might fare in the NFL draft. In Casserly’s opinion, Sam Bradford, the Heisman winner, could become the draft’s No. 1 pick, Texas’ Colt McCoy would be a late first round pick and Florida’s Tim Tebow wouldn’t go in the first two rounds. I’m not an NFL expert but evidently Tebow as a very slow release of the ball which drops his stock. More hot news from CU (Confused University) a.k.a. Auburn University. New football coach Gene Chizik, fresh from Iowa State, informed the Auburn staff left behind by the fired/retired Tommy Tuberville that they needed to look for new jobs. Brilliant. I assume that Chizik will bring the accomplished assistants who helped the Cyclones win five games in two years. Atlanta Falcons’ president Rich McKay looks to have the inside track for the General Manager’s job for the Detroit Lions. And speaking of the Falcons, I can see Thomas Dimitroff as GM of the year, Mike Smith as coach-of-the-year and Matt Ryan as MVP. Tiny Davidson College isn’t running away and hiding after its ultra-successful year last season when the Wildcats came within a whisker of making it into the Final Four. The Stephen Curry-led school, a member of the Southern Conference, is playing, or has played Oklahoma, West Virginia, N.C. State, Purdue and Duke. Pro sports leagues are not recession-proof as the NHL has a hiring freeze, the NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR and the NBA have been laying off employees and the Arena Football League announced it has canceled the 2009 season. The Sporting News has named Alabama’s Nick Saban as SEC Coach of the Year. I don’t have a problem with that as long as the Crimson Tide folks don’t mind running around with two fingers in the air yelling "We’re Number Two." Strange but true sports headlines: Bradford over Tebow; Chizik replaces Tuberville (Dec. 15) The Heisman Award going to Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford wasn’t exactly shocking but I was surprised. The fact that Texas’ Colt McCoy was second also was surprising, leaving Florida’s Tim Tebow third. Strange. Here’s the clincher. A total of 904 voters cast ballots for college football’s No. 1 individual award and Tebow was completely left off of 154 ballots. That’s almost impossible unless you’ve just got stupid and/or terribly biased voters. In this case, the best man didn’t win. I’m not sure I’ve got this right but I think so. Auburn gets rid of Tommy Tuberville, who’s averaged nine wins per season, won ‘em all four years ago and beat Alabama six of the past seven years. Then they hire Gene Chizik as head coach. Chizak’s won five games, period. And that was over a period of two years. At Iowa State for goodness sakes. Folks, that’s insane. The latest betting line on the BCS Championship game is Florida giving three points to Oklahoma and the over-under on the game is set at 72. For those of us who aren’t gamblers, that means the betting is that it’ll be a really, really high-scoring game. Gator coach Urban Meyer said during a radio interview in Florida that Notre Dame is his dream job. He even went so far as to say when his children are through school, he might end up there. Hey Urban. I don’t think you’re supposed to be saying things like that when your team is less than four weeks away from playing for a national championship. And the Gators thought that Steve Spurrier was outspoken. I wonder what Florida athletics director Jeremy Foley thinks about that? While Georgia Tech is in the midst of renegotiating head football coach Paul Johnson’s contract, it came out that Johnson turned down significantly more money at both SMU and Duke to take the Yellow Jacket job. There are several stories on various sports blogs that Atlanta Falcon quarterback Matt Ryan won’t simply be chosen rookie of the year. Many think he may win the MVP award in the entire NFL. Holtz skips Syracuse opening in hopes of a possible shot at Notre Dame next year? (Dec. 12) Thank goodness for rain. Looks like a good move that Mississippi State hired Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen to replace former head football coach Sylvester Croom. Mullen’s spread offense averaged 46 points per game and 450 yards. The decision by the Heisman Trophy folks to invite quarterbacks Tim Tebow of Florida, Colt McCoy of Texas and Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford to the award presentation in New York wasn’t unexpected but leaving out Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell certainly was. Said Red Raiders’ coach Mike Leach: "If Graham is not invited to the Heisman, they ought to quit giving out the award. It is a shameless example of politics ruling over performance. The other guys are deserving but he has earned a place alongside them." Besides his impressive on-the-field accomplishments, Harrell is on the first-team All-Academic squad. Stewart Mandel of SI.com picked Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson as doing the best job in college football this season. My favorite golfer, John Daly, smashed a fan’s camera into a tree during play at the Australian Open. Daly said the photo hound took a flash picture within inches of his face. I don’t usually write much about the NBA but the Denver Nugget’ Carmelo Anthony scored 33 points in one quarter - that’s 33 points in 12 minutes in the Nuggets’ win over Minnesota. The 33 tied a record set decades ago by George Gervin. Another notable on SI.Com was a list of the top 50 guy movies of the 1990s. On top was Fight Club, followed by The Matrix, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Usual Suspects, Heat, Terminator 2, Saving Private Ryan. Hardboiled and Braveheart. Rumor out of North Carolina is that East Carolina football coach Skip Holtz may pass up the head job at Syracuse in anticipation of having a shot at the Notre Dame job when Charlie Weis is fired, surely after next season. And finally, I’d like some feedback on my picks for Athletes I Love To Hate. My personal choices are (1) Michael Vick, (2) Latrell Sprewell, (3) Anybody at Notre Dame, (4) Anybody at Georgetown, and (5) Michael Vick (again). Give me your five choices. (Contact Norman) Are college presidents listening or will they defy the president of the United States? (Dec. 11) Georgia Tech has sold its entire allotment of 17,500 tickets for its upcoming date with LSU in the Chick-fil-A Bowl and is trying to purchase an additional 2,000. College coaching rumors are out of control as they usually are this time of year. The ones I like the most have former Auburn coach Terry Bowden going to New Mexico State and East Carolina’s Skip Holtz taking over at Syracuse. The most uninspired is Tulsa’s Todd Graham being interviewed by Auburn to replace Tommy Tuberville. Another interesting rumor is that Louisiana Tech coach Derek Dooley was interviewed. He says he wasn’t; those close to the search say he was. What’s going on down there? Brandon Davis, a Central Florida running back who played at Peachtree Ridge High School, collapsed during a weight-training session and was taken to the hospital with kidney failure. The UCF football department has been under close scrutiny after a player died during a conditioning drill last season. Former Georgia Tech coach George O’Leary is the head coach. CBS Sports conducted a poll of 32 Heisman Trophy voters and Florida’s Tim Tebow finished atop the voting while Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford was second and Texas’ Colt McCoy took third. New Mexico has hired Illinois’ offensive coordinator Mike Locksley as it head football coach. Locksley became only the fourth black head coach in Division I. It’s a big enough honor to be named the recipient of the Dick Butkus Award as the top college linebacker in the nation but to have Dick Butkus himself present it makes it even better. Butkus made a surprise visit to Winston-Salem to hand the award personally to Wake Forest’s Aaron Curry. With the incoming president of the United States calling for a college football playoff system, you would think the college presidents might pay attention. The presidents have taken an indefensible position of denying a playoff in football while every other sports in the country has a way to determine a true champion. It’s time to get rid of the Beyond Common Sense (BCS) and pay attention to the real president. The ACC has 10 teams in the bowls this year, the most ever by any conference (Dec. 10) A positive football statistic for the beleaguered Atlanta Coast Conference, and believe me, there aren’t many.. The league has 10 teams in the post-season and that’s the most, ever, for one conference. None are spectacular but several are solid. The sorry state of the overall bowl situation is that nine 6-6 teams are playing in the 34 bowls. The Big XII, the Pac-10 and the SEC each left two bowl slots unfilled. The SEC couldn’t fill its Independence and Papajohns.Com slots. Florida’s Charlie Strong is one of five finalist for the Frank Broyles Award given to the top assistant coach in college football. For those of you who believe Tommy Tuberville resigned at Auburn, let me sell you a bridge up in Brooklyn. Olive Tuberville, the coach’s mother, said her son was fired. I believe her. Tuberville received $5.1 million. That’s the amount it would have required to terminate his contract through a firing. Auburn said it paid him because "it was the right thing to do." Ha! If you haven’t seen Davidson College basketball phenom Stephen Curry play, tune in the next time the Wildcats are on TV. Curry is the closest thing to Pete Maravich but without the bells and whistles. He’s a better pure shooter. He’s averaging 31.3 points per game even after scoring zero in a game against Loyola, Md, where he was double and triple-teamed the entire game. The Boston Globe is reporting that the Kansas City Royals and the Atlanta Braves have had serious discussions about a trade that would send outfielder Jeff Francoeur to the Royals for pitcher Zack Greinke. Rivals.Com judges the worst bowl in the 34-game lineup is the Independence Bowl which matches Louisiana Tech against Northern Illinois. The Orange Bowl game between Virginia Tech and Cincinnati is judged only the 15th best bowl behind the Chick-Fil-A (Peach) Bowl at No. 13. The top five include the BCS title game at No. 1 followed by the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta, the Poinsettia and the Holiday bowls. (Bowl schedule) What does Latrell Sprewell feed his family? At Va., blood isn't thicker than water (12/9) I was chilled to read that Michael Vick had purchased six Paso Fino horses worth $450,000. What might he have had in mind for the horses? Maybe lead them into a fenced area to take on his trained-to-kill pit bulls? Quote of the Day: Dennis Leary on self-important athletes. "You get athletes like Latrell Sprewell saying, ‘I can’t feed my family on $9.5 million a year.’ Really? What are they eating, Mercedes sedans?" Plaxico Burress isn’t the only New York Giant packing heat. Records uncovered by the New York Post indicated that five other Giant players have gun permits. Kind of gives a new meaning to The Mean Streets of New York. Even though O.J. Simpson will serve a minimum of nine years in prison, he will still be paid more than $20,000 a month from his NFL pension. Kind of an enforced savings plan, you might say. With Virginia head coach Al Groh given at least a one-year reprieve from the unemployed ranks, the Cavaliers’ coach fired three members of his staff, including his son, Mike, as offensive coordinator. I guess we should discuss the bowl lineups announced over the weekend. The one that distresses me the most is the Hawaii Bowl where the Rainbow Warriors will take on the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Why would anyone, even this lowest-of-low level bowls, invite the failed Irish? They deserve no reward. I don’t know what the magic of Dec. 20 is but there are four bowl games scheduled for that day, one, the EaglesBank Bowl in Washington, D.C. That one matches Navy and Wake Forest and it begins at 11 in the morning. And finally, I’m relieved and looking forward to the mythical College Championship game. For once, the BCS got it right. Florida vs. Oklahoma may be the best match up the bowl folks have come up with in the history of the BCS. Tim Tebow vs. Sam Bradford. Florida’s defense against Oklahoma’s high-octane offense. You couldn’t ask for more. Tim Tebow for Heisman for the second straight year. If not, then who? Seriously. (12/8) I was a Heisman Trophy voter for more than 20 years. Since leaving the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I no longer have a vote for the prestigious trophy at college football season’s end. But, if I had, there’s never been a more deserving recipient than Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. Amen, brother. Since that day, Sept. 27, the 6-foot-4, 240-pound athlete has kept his word. In nine game, he’s run or passed for 32 touchdowns. Thirty-two! For the year, he’s passed for 28 scores with only two interceptions. Two! He accounted for at least three touchdowns in all but one of those nine outings and had five scores in two of the contests. And folks, he wasn’t doing this against the Disney-like defenses of the Big XII where racking up his kind of numbers is an every day occurrence. He did it against the defensive demons of the Southeastern Conference where defense is a way of life. -Against LSU, 232 total yards and three scores. -Against Georgia, he threw only 13 passes but accounted for 193 yards and five touchdowns. -Against South Carolina, 212 yards, three scores. -Against Florida State, 265 yards and four scores. -And Saturday in the SEC title game against Alabama, 273 yards and three touchdowns. Come on and tell the truth, even the most staunch Crimson Tide fans out there. Was there every any doubt, even when Alabama led in the second half, that Tebow wouldn’t prevail? The defending Heisman Trophy champ absolutely willed his team to victory. He refused to lose. He exhorted the defensive team as it huddled on the sidelines. He was everywhere, slapping hands and backs and hindparts and encouraging Florida to succeed. He made coach Urban Meyer superfluous and redundant. Who needs Percy Harvin, who stood by helplessly on the sidelines with an ankle sprain? I personally have never seen a player of Tebow’s ability. I doubt if the 1,000-plus Heisman electorate will see this my way but if Tebow doesn’t win, I’ll never see it their way, never.
Final regular-season No-Nos: Gators do in outmanned Tide; Sooners rout Missouri (12/5) Here are my Norman’s No-Nos, where I pick the losers in college games. Last week I was 11-4, 149-61 for the season (74.5 percent). ARMY vs. NAVY - If you don’t like this one, something’s wrong with you. The two have met 108 times and Navy leads, 52-49-7. The Black Knights held the upper hand in the ‘90s but the Middies have won nine of the past 11. Army breaks that string. NO-NO. Cadets falter, 35-14. PITT at UCONN - Pitt has the No. 8 rusher in the country in LeSean McCoy with 119 yards per outing. UConn has the nation’s best in Donald Brown at 149 yards. Panthers are 8-3, Huskies 7-4. Winner likely visits the Sun Bowl. Pitt in a mild upset. NO-NO. The Fighting Connecticuts take a bite out of the Panthers, 24-21. SOUTH FLORIDA vs. WEST VIRGINIA - This was supposed to be for the Big East title in pre-season but both have four losses. It’ll be Bulls’ quarterback Matt Grothe vs. the Mounties’ incomparable Pat White. White has more help with running back-supreme Noel Devine and wins it. NO-NO. I think Grothe delivers a surprise as the Mountaineers slip, 31-28. CUSA Title Game - EAST CAROLINA at TULSA - The Pirates kicked off the season with wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia before losing to N.C. State and Virginia. Tulsa is a perennial player in the title game, and was ranked much of the year.. Tulsa wins. NO-NO. Upset special. Skip Holtz and quarterback Patrick Pinkney blow past the Hurricanes, 30-20. ACC Title Game - BOSTON COLLEGE vs. VIRGINIA TECH - A ho-hummer in Tampa. Yeah, all those Floridians really care. It’s hard to think of anything to give this game sizzle. BC’s Jeff Jagozinski has more hair than Tech’s Frank Beamer and makes it hairy for the Hokies. (I know, that’s weak). Eagles fly high. NO-NO. Beamer-ball prevails as Tyrod Taylor leads as BC falters, 27-24. SEC Title Game - ALABAMA vs. FLORIDA - The winner makes up half of the mythical college championship game. It’s Alabama’s 1970s-style slobber-knocking, power offense against Florida’s glitz and glamour rendering. It comes down to turnovers and The Tide wins. NO-NO. It comes down to quarterback play, and Tim Tebow is an overmatch for John Parker Wilson. Elephants trampled, 34-17. BIG XII Title Game - OKLAHOMA vs. MISSOURI - A mismatch on paper but, of course, it’s not played on paper. Missouri’s key is to have it's defense force a couple of turnovers. Mizzou quarterback Chase Daniel is dangerous enough but particularly with a short field. Sooners’ Sam Bradford may win the Heisman. Tigers tough it out for a close win. NO-NO. Okies will see Gators in the title game, Mizzou declawed, 45-35. Others losers: -Washington to Cal -UCLA to USC -Arizona State to Arizona -Hawaii to Cincy -and Arkansas State to Troy. Just say no: Georgia Tech's record at the Chick-fil-A Bowl anything but peachy (12/4) I’ll admit I don’t know what the rules are for schools accepting or turning down bowl bids with all the conference tie-ins and bowl alliances but if there is a loop hole, Georgia Tech should find it quickly. The Yellow Jackets will be picked by the Chick-fil-A (Peach) Bowl as one of its contestants for its New Year’s Eve game. The Jackets need to find a way to say no. Never has Georgia Tech had a positive experience when it accepted a Peach Bowl bid. In 1971, Ole Miss beat ‘em. In 1978, Purdue put it to them. In 2000, LSU doubled the score on them. The three game points total reads 110-53. Both The Rebels and The Boilermakers scored 41 against the Jacket defense. But on the positive side, 16 of Tech’s 22 starters this year were either freshmen or sophomores. Yet another team has joined the Head-Coach-In-Waiting ranks. Oregon has named assistant coach Chip Kelly as CIW for Ducks’ coach Mike Bellotti. That follows Texas, Florida State, Purdue, Kentucky and the Seattle Seahawks doing likewise. It’s got to be discouraging for assistant coaches out there who might want to be considered down the road. No less an authority than two-time Ohio State Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin says Florida quarterback Tim Tebow is definitely still in the running for the coveted award. I would hope so. It’s certainly not fair to compare Tebow’s accomplishments this year against those of any of the Big XII quarterbacks who have never seen an SEC defense. In fact, they see little or no defense. In reading everything I can find on the Internet about the upcoming SEC championship game between Florida and Alabama, I find almost no one picking the Crimson Tide. Yet Alabama does hold the No. 1 ranking in the country Most of the reasons have to do with speed and the Gators’ style of play versus the perception that The Tide is slow and runs a throwback offense. Yes, I’m picking the Gators, too, but don’t think Alabama has no speed. I do think Florida can score quickly and often while Alabama has to work harder at it. This may catch up with Nick Saban’s bunch by the fourth quarter - that and chasing those Gator receivers. Norman’s No-Nos will be right here first thing Friday.
Paul Johnson has just begun; would Willie Martinez be your defensive coordinator? (12/3) When Southern Cal meets UCLA Saturday, it’ll be a spectacle of color. The Trojans are planning on wearing their home red jersey while the Bruins will wear their home blue jerseys. The decision is supposed to cost USC one timeout per half but Trojan coach Pete Carroll says he doesn’t care. Some 2008 happenings you might want to know: Texas passed Notre Dame on the all-time major college football wins list and trails only Michigan in total wins. . . Penn State took its 800th win and Wake Forest recorded its 400th all time. . . Texas coach Mack Brown gained his 200th career win. . . Rice’s nine wins are the most since 1949. . . Boston College has scored a non-offensive touchdown in seven straight games. A sports marketing firm has reported that the Green Bay Packers top the list of sports brand names. Others in the top five include the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts. Other ACC football coaches would have been chilled to hear Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson in an interview Tuesday. Johnson said he hadn’t even bothered to install large parts of the running attack because Jacket players couldn’t do it very well and that he hadn’t even touched the run-and-shoot part of the package. Georgia coach Mark Richt said he didn’t anticipate any coaching changes on his staff yet why not make a change or two? If, for instance, defensive coordinator Willie Martinez took his resume to other schools of the same reputation as the Bulldogs, I doubt he would be hired. So why keep a guy if you wouldn’t hire him if he presented himself to you and wasn’t on your staff? Understanding that former Atlanta Braves’ pitcher Mike Hampton has some off-the-field personal issues, I still feel he did the Braves dirty. They were loyal and paid him something like $90 million not to pitch for the better part of his injured three years and then he gets well and stiffs them to go to Houston for less money. And finally, in my opinion, this SEC title game between Alabama and Florida is the biggest in the history of the championship game. Chick-fil-A Bowl idea: Georgia-Tech rematch? Another option: Tech vs. LSU
Of course, everyone has an opinion but Sporting News Today predicts Georgia will meet Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl and Georgia Tech will take on LSU in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. Quote of the week: "To me he ought to win every football game next year. How’s that for pressure on the new guy?" Phillip Fulmer on his replacement at Tennessee. Steve Spurrier wasted no time changing assistant coaches. He fired offensive line coach John Hunt and saw quarterbacks coach David Reaves leave to take the same job at Tennessee. Hunt had been with Spurrier since his Florida days, for his two years with the Washington Redskins and the whole time at South Carolina. Could be bad news for Florida in the SEC championship game with Alabama. Star receiver/running back Percy Harvin suffered an ankle sprain against Florida State and is questionable for the Atlanta game. Is it parity or just bad football? The ACC has 10 bowl eligible teams but only nine conference tie-ins to bowls. Maybe jumping the gun a little? A headline in the AJC stated, "Tech-Georgia rivalry reborn." Maybe a little premature since no matter how you look cut it, Tech is 1-7 in the past eight years. Maybe the hiring of Lane Kiffen will be a wonderful move for Tennessee but Kiffen has had no college head coaching experience and was a disaster as head man with the Oakland Raiders. He’s a Left Coast guy and surely doesn’t know the back roads in the South that lead to talent. The way the BCS is set up, it removes reason from the formula. Texas beat Oklahoma when they played each other, so what better way to break a tie than head-to-head action? Outrageous. Just a thought but why doesn’t the Chick-fil-a Bowl pit Georgia against Georgia Tech again on Dec. 31? I’d pay to see it. So Clemson keeps Dabo Swinney, Charlie Weis stays at Notre Dame and Tommy Tuberville retains his job at Auburn? I don’t agree with the first two but I like Auburn’s decision. Tuberville has won 50 games over the past five seasons. There's no mystery in rivalry week; Tech's future is brighter than Georgia's (12/1) Folks like to say that on rivalry week in college football, you never know what’s going to happen. That’s just bull. Let’s look at five of the top rivalry games in the country. -Alabama vs. Auburn. The Tigers were just as inept as we all thought and the Tide won by 36. -Texas vs. Texas A&M. Are you kidding me? ‘Horns hooked ‘em by 40. -Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State. This one was a sham in what passes for defense in the Big XII as the Sooners won by only 20. -Florida vs. Florida State. Tim Tebow had mercy as the Gators took a 30-pointer. -Notre Dame vs. Southern Cal. Irish are lucky to have lost by only 35. See, there’s no mystery, no strange happenings, just business as usual. The fact that Georgia Tech finally, finally beat Georgia is of some relief for the Yellow Jackets, I suppose, but what it showed me is that neither can brag too loudly. When you run up more than 900 yards of total offense, when one can run and not pass, and the other can pass but not run, I’m not sure what you proved. In retrospect, I think the Bulldogs fell in love with their No. 1 ranking in the pre-season and the Yellow Jackets were never as bad as their shabby pre-season expectations. Both finished 9-3 but I believe Tech’s 9-3 is more attractive than Georgia’s. Overall, I would say the Jackets have a brighter future than the Bulldogs. Imagine what Tech’s Paul Johnson will do when he gets all the parts to run his glorified Wishbone and not just accept what was leftover when he took over. >When the college football year started, there were six black coaches at the 119 major college football programs. Now there are three. Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State, Ty Willingham at Washington and Ron Prince at Kansas State are fired or have resigned. Miami’s Randy Shannon, Buffalo’s Turner Gill and Houston’s Kevin Sumlin remain. There’s no master subplot here. The common thread wasn’t their color but the fact that they simply didn’t win enough, period. >The poor ACC could not have come up with a more unattractive pairing for its conference championship game than Virginia Tech vs. Boston College. It’s the second straight year the two will meet for the crown. Remember all the empty seats last year? It’ll be the same this year although the empty seats will be in Tampa instead of Jacksonville. Does anybody outside of Texas and Oklahoma rally care who plays in the Big XII championship game? Guarantee you the Alabama-Florida SEC title game matchup has more national appeal. And a final question: What are the BCS folks gonna do with 12-0 Utah and 12-0 Boise State? Could two non-BCS conference teams make the playoffs with the big boys? Will UGA make it eight straight over Tech? Can FSU chop it to the Gators? No-No (Nov. 28) This is Norman’s No-Nos, where I pick the losers in 15 games. Last week, I was 10-5, 138-57 for the season (70.7 percent) and this is the final full weekend of games. Auburn at Alabama - Could be Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville’s last hurrah for the Tigers. Come on. The guy has won six of these in a row. John Parker Wilson has too many names. Auburn pulls off upset. NO-NO. Not even close. JPW undoes War Eagles, 35-14. Virginia at Virginia Tech - Never have the Cavaliers had so many Georgia Tech fans. A Wahoo win and the Yellow Jackets go to the ACC title game. Tech wins! NO-NO, not that Tech. Hokies put it to in-state rivals, UVA goes down with a thud, 31-10. North Carolina at Duke - These two shades of blue really hate each other. Tar Heels haven’t been able to enjoy prosperity, up one week, down the next. Duke actually played well the first half of the year. Devils in an upset. NO-NO. Carolina is due an up week. Duke downed, 28-19. Oklahoma at Oklahoma State - This one looked like a dynamite game until the Sooners absolutely annihilated No. 2 Texas Tech last week. Cowboys are no pushover and pull a surprise. NO-NO. OSU is the one who’ll be surprised - by the final score, lose 49-20. Florida at FSU - Seminoles have been licking their tomahawk chops waiting to get the Gators at home. Florida’s Tim Tebow can play anywhere, anytime, any place. FSU defense is stalwart. NO-NO. Gators are the best team anywhere, FSU takes licks, falls 49-21. South Carolina at Clemson - Steve Spurrier isn’t going to lose three straight to these guys. The 6-5 Tigers need it to go to a bowl. Dabo Swinney going against the Evil Genius? It’s his chance to remove "interim" from his title. NO-NO. Dabo can’t beat Steve, Tigers drop it, 28-14. Georgia Tech at Georgia - Is it, can it be, will it be the year, finally, for the Yellow Jackets to win one? Is Matt Stafford playing his last game in Athens? Can the struggling Dawg defense stop the wishbone? NO-NO. Too many questions Here’s an answer. Bulldogs upended, 24-21. Others losers: -Notre Dame to Southern Cal -Kansas to Missouri -Syracuse to Cincinnati -Oregon to Oregon State -Kentucky to Tennessee -Maryland to Boston College -Vanderbilt to Wake Forest -N.C. State to Miami.
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When the Gators lost to Ole Miss by a 31-30 score, Tebow was only 24 for 38 for 319 yards and one touchdown and rushed for two other scores. At the post-game press conference, he was almost on the verge of tears. He said, "I want to say this to the Gator Nation. I’m sorry. You will never see a player play as hard as I will the rest of the season. You will never see a player push a team as hard as I will and you will never see a team try harder than we will."