Friday, July 11, 2003

Preach on Brother.... 7-11-2003

Since fireronzook.com has been taken down I thought it would be appropriate to post as much material from that site here as possible. The posts are dated by original publication date.

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Dread...that is the only way to describe this off-season.

How is the University of Florida football team ranked behind TCU? How is that possible? If I could put up a poll on this site, I would list the following Texas cities: Austin, Houston, Fort Worth, Dallas, and San Antonio and see who even knows where TCU is. But man this is bad...Both Athlon's and The Sporting News ranked Florida 26th. Maybe we at Fireronzook.com should take out an add in all the Florida newspapers thanking Zook for that.

26th

...Not 2nd...

...Not 6th...

26th!!!

Look at that number and tell me it doesn't hurt. The sick thing is I would be pleasantly surprised if we wound up 26th. I don't think it will happen but I guess that is our goal. Look at our weight room, our dorms, at our location, our conference, our revenues and at the SWAMP and say the team that plays there should be right behind TCU in the rankings. I have nightmares of being at Thanksgiving dinner and being made fun of by a TCU grad. That's why Jeremy Foley has to wake up and hire a real coach. If he wants me to do it I will. Send me an email and I will start the search, I don't need the UF jet or ESPN coverage. I just need a budget and some phone numbers. I mean how hard is it to recognize good coaches?

It also appears some of Zook's guys are now getting into trouble. Which is GREAT for the university. Jucos bring trouble unless you are incredibly strict and careful and freshman have to know that there are implications for their actions. I sincerely hope Zook doesn't become a scumbag like Bowden or Jimmy Johnson and have a bunch of criminals running around UF. I will give Zook this: I think he would rather lose than bring in the type of guys Tom Osborne brought in to win a national title.

I hope at least to see some type of offense this year. I understand that Graham, Grossman and Jacobs are gone...but I'm talking about our play calling. It simply has to improve. Charlie Strong was a good hire and I am sure he'll pull the defense together even after all those guys bailed on Zook. But I can't handle another year of throwing to receivers on the sideline who are standing still. Or on every 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1 running the SAME DAMN PLAY. I mean, in the Georgia game was anyone fooled? Anyone?! No, of course not! I screamed what the play would be and exactly where it would go and the fact that the Georgia players would be there waiting. Zaubranner is awful, I know people hate the guy at Texas but I would trade assistant for assistant any day of the week.

I remember what it was like to have a guy with the knack to call plays, surprised and electrified by the calls. Nothing was better than being amazed by our offense on a Saturday afternoon. Now I think 'what is this buffoon going to call next', 'what receiver is going to get tackled in the backfield' or 'will he fumble when he gets sacked'? Or even worse, I hope they don't screw up so the defense can win this. But I will never feel worse then that Michigan play and their fans just laughing at me as I scream, "What the hell was that?".

What bowl will we fly a banner over this year? We should have a poll or a contest for that. But I don't want to think about that. I just can't wait for football. I do love it so. I am hoping for divine intervention. I mean we have to admit it to ourselves that a national title is not going to happen this year. What about an SEC championship? Is that possible? Look at the schedule and the magazines before answering. I mean I want to say yes, I really do but there are 4 teams (Auburn, Tennessee, LSU and Georgia) ranked ahead of us. Then we have Alabama. I mean if you go read the teams strength and weaknesses and look at this team and say 'okay, what are the sure things', you get frightened at what could happen. Can we surprise some team with our talent? Of course. With our coaching? I doubt it. You get a feeling of dread, I mean you might want to unlist your phone number so you can't get pranked by your friends who went to some other school. That's my advice.

If you go by the rankings alone (not that I do)...we have 5 losses already...5!

FSU, Miami, Tennessee (although we own Tennessee), LSU and Georgia (although we know that can't happen)

Man, I mean I really dread what COULD happen...

Mike NYC!