Here we go again.  Yet another chance for another story of East Coast bias.  This time, it’s an award ceremony at New York City’s Downtown Athletic Club for the best college football player on the land, and while there is only 1 out of the 5 nominees playing on the East Coast, a lot of the time its West Coast” hating.  Case in point:  Stanford running back Toby Gerhart, the most deserving of all the nominees, may very well get overlooked.

Some may point to the fact that Gerhart is heavily rumored to pursue a career in baseball, one in which he may be more talented than football, which is scary.  That may preclude people from voting for him, just like when Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward won in 93.  Ward went on to an average career in the NBA.

But the award shouldn’t be predicated on “what the athlete might do”.  It’s for the best player in college football, and if you look at who each payer has played, you will see what I mean.  Gerhart’s main competition at running back is Alabama’s Mark Ingram.  Gerhart racked up more rushing yards, touch downs, and yards per game than Ingram.

Gerhart          Ingram
Yards                        1736              1542
Yards per game        144.67          118.62
Touch downs             26                 15

More importantly, Ingram played in one more game, facing a division I-AA school in Chattanooga. Gerhart played a tougher schedule, as evidenced by his average rush defense faced of 59th, when compared to Ingram facing the 67th, and no doubt would have been lower if not for the fact that you can’t even factor in Chattanooga because they are not a D-1 school. Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, the other main threat, faced a pass defense that ranked on the average 77th in the nation. And everyone’s favorite Christian Warrior, Florida Quarterback Tim Tebow, already ha the award once.  Losing to Alabama in the SEC championship sealed his fate for a chance at a second award.

Certainly, the winner of this award by no means goes on to greatness at the professional level.  In the last 20 years, there have been numerous busts, while setting records in college.  This includes Andre Ware (89), Ty Detmer (90), Gino Toretta (92), Charlie Ward (93), Danny Wuerffel (96), Chris Weinke (2000), Eric Crouch (2001), Jason White (2003), Matt Leinart (2004), Troy Smith (2006).  Four of the above player never started an NFL game.

The running backs were no guarantee either, and besides Eddie George, who was always “good” but never “great”, ’94 winner Rashaan Salaam and ’99 winner Ron “No Gain” Dayne were complete busts. 1998 winner Ricky Williams snagged one NFL rushing title, but his career has been significantly damaged due to multiple retirements, drug use and depression.  2006 winner Reggie Bush is little more than a 3rd down back.

Though it seems the Heisman is more of a curse than a blessing, there can be no denying Gerhart is more deserving of the award.  So lets here it for Toby.  The ward isn’t about who might be the higher NFL draft pick, but who has exhibited the most excellence on college football this year.  And tough Stanford is vastly improved, the fact remains that the PAC-10 is far better than anyone gives it credit for, and has higher rush defense ratings than other conferences thought to be better.

We’ll see if the West Coast Hate continues December 10th.

Damage control? Too late.

Coach Urban Meyer and quarterback Tim Tebow have something in store for Lane Kiffin and the Vols

Lane Kiffin obviously hasn’t read the book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.  A son of a highly respected and long tenured defensive coach Monte Kiffin, Lane is largely thought of as being handed the greatest coaching gigs at a young age without ever having to prove himself, just because he is Monte’s son.  He became the USC offensive coordinator after Norm Chow was unceremoniously run out of town.  With Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart and other great weapons, and with Kiffin merely inheriting Chow’s genius architecture of offense, he was able to parlay that 1 year tenure in that cush position into an NFL head coaching job with the Oakland Raiders, even over more qualified candidates.  With this track record of getting things handed to him, it’s no wonder he opened up his yap in the worst way possible, inviting a beating that would make the Gooch’s beating of Arnold Jackson look tame.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Certainly, no one can Blame Kiffin for trying to create a buzz about the program.  Once a national power, Tennessee’s 5-7 atrocity last season resulted in the removal of coaching legend Phil Fulmer and the hiring of Kiffin.  So it was interesting how when the program is in the worst shape it’s been in well, maybe, ever, he decides to go after the King of the mountain.  What better way to generate some attention than to pick on the biggest kid on the block?  The problem is, when you do that, you better be able to handle yourself, because the biggest kid on the block is likely to pile drive your dome in the dirt, then spit on you when he’s done.  This would indicate why Tennessee is a 30 point underdog this weekend as they head to the Swamp, in what may be the best definition of “Lambs to the slaughter” we’ve seen in years.

It’s probably going to get ugly, and perhaps the best indication of that is the eerie quiet that is coming out of Gainesville.  All the “no comment” and “we’ve moved on” verbiage from Florida certainly seems like the quiet before the storm, likely to be a category 5 hurricane unleashed on the Vols.  And with perhaps the best player in college football history taking the attack on his coach personally, Tim Tebow said in a statement Monday, “”I don’t like anyone talking about coach (Urban) Meyer”.  As happy as Gator fans are that the current regime has not behaved with the same arrogance that the Steve Spurrier regime did ( running up the score and then not winning the big game), you can certainly expect to see a blast from the past this weekend.  Look for a 40-50 point margin of victory here, just like the Old Ball Coach would do.

UPDATE:
It’s on! Even after a much closer game than most people expected and maybe even wanted, the war of words seems only to be heating up, led by the coaches. When asked why exactly the Gators didn’t blow out Tennessee by at least 30 points, as Vegas oddsmakers predicted, Florida coach Urban Meyer said his objective was just to win. According to Meyer, a conservative play calling scheme by Tennessee impressed upon Meyer that the Vols didn’t want to win, and would just try to keep it close, and thus allowed for Meyer to keep a leash on his dogs instead of turning them loose. “When I saw them start handing the ball off, you didn’t feel like they were going after the win,” said Meyer to reporters the day after the game. “They wanted to shorten the game. I remember looking out there and there’s 10 minutes left in the game and there’s no no-huddle, they are down, I think it was 23-6, and (there’s no) urgency.”
He also went on to say that 3 of his own players were battling flu-like symptoms during the week leading up to the game.

It didn’t take long for Kiffin to fire back. When told of Meyer’s comments about his teams possible illness, and asked if Tennessee players had the same affliction, Kiffin quipped, “I don’t know. I guess we’ll wait and after we’re not excited about a performance, we’ll tell you everybody was sick.”

Its on…Do we really have to wait till next year?