The Road to South Florida Week 13
Dear Football Fans,
Thanksgiving came early for the top four teams in the country. Last week Alabama, Clemson, Miami and Oklahoma each handily won their games. The Fab Four stayed put this week, although Miami and Clemson switched places.
#1 Alabama annihilated Mercer, 58-0.
#2 University of Miami beat the Cavaliers, 44-28.
#3 Oklahoma handed Kansas their hats, 41-3.
Then there was the #4 Clemson-Citadel game. It was Military Appreciation Day. Clemson did it big - they began as a military school. Jets flew over the stadium, coaches and the adorable Tiger mascot wore camouflage pants, veterans attending Clemson were brought out on the field before the game. A 100 year-old veteran was honored.
The appreciation stopped once the players took to the field. They beat The Citadel 61-3.
I usually convince myself how great it is to watch college football on TV. No hassle, no travel, no need to wear makeup for the game. Nonsense! It is magnificent to watch live college football, to tailgate with people, to experience the game with thousands of like-minded fans.
Dan and Marcie Radakovich invited me to Clemson this weekend for the game. Dan is the Clemson Athletic Director and a member of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.
I am addicted to the live CFP announcements on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. I leave work early so I can warm up the TV and get settled in before the big announcement. If you watch, look for Dan - he’s the big, good-looking guy in the middle when ESPN does the shot of the decision room.
I realized last Friday that although I treasure my friendships and try very hard to be a good friend, I don’t spend enough time with people that are dear to me. Last Friday I spent the day with Marcie - an entire day with nothing on the agenda but hanging out. We spent the morning at the South Carolina Botanical Garden - it is a magical place. If you ever go to Clemson for a game, you need to visit the Garden. Blissful and peaceful.
Marcie is on the Board of the Garden. I swear, she knew the name of every single plant. Lunch, a visit to the Community Art Center - it was a perfect day.
Most of us used to spend time with friends, doing pretty much nothing all day. Work, family and annoying activities get in the way now. But take that time - it is restorative.
At the end of the day, we met Dan at the Allen N. Reeves Football Complex. There are seven wonders of the world - the new state of the art Clemson Football Complex may be the 8th.
The complex is 140,000 square feet of awesomeness. Everything a player or coach could want or need, except classrooms, is in one place. In addition to the usual stuff like meeting rooms, coaches’ offices, gym and locker rooms, there is a barbershop, a nap room and a 30 feet slide for players to use to get from the second floor to the first floor. They can play basketball or miniature golf, shoot hoops or do their laundry.
No detail was forgotten. The oversize furniture is emblazoned with tiger paws - so are the wastebaskets and just about everything else.
I love the sayings painted on the walls:
Those words apply to just about every field of endeavor. I don’t know when I became less cynical and more enamored of being inspired. I will tell you that when I walked out of that place, I felt motivated and ready to take on the world. Being there was a shot of energy.
By the way, lest anyway think this is Disneyworld for these kids and that they play ball, style their hair and take naps, think again. In Dabo Swinney’s era, 59 of 61 football players that he recruited have graduated. The other two, who currently play for the NFL, will go to summer school and get their degree. There is a 91% graduation rate for the 450 Clemson student athletes.
How can any school compete with their recruiting?
A side note - Baker Mayfield, the much vaunted Oklahoma quarterback and Heisman trophy contender should read some of the signs on the Clemson Football Complex walls. This past weekend, in the game against Kansas, he grabbed his crotch and shouted obscenities at the players on the Kansas sidelines. The guy knows he’s in the spotlight, he knows he’s the Heisman frontrunner and he pulls a stunt like this? This is college football - character matters.
#3 Clemson plays #2 Miami at the ACC Championship on December 2. On Tuesday, the CFP Selection Committee switched the placement order of Clemson and University of Miami. Last week Clemson was the second ranked team in the nation and UM was the third ranked team.
It’s interesting that if the semifinals were played today, the two teams would be the matchup, the other being #1 Alabama playing #4 Oklahoma. Unless there are big upsets this weekend, the ACC Championship will look like a semifinal game.
This week #3 Clemson plays #24 South Carolina. Clemson isn’t taking anything for granted, but I’d be surprised if they lose.
The big game this weekend is The Iron Bowl, #1 Alabama play #6 Auburn. This game is HUGE. The winner of this game will play #7 Georgia in the SEC Championship on December 2. There are national championship implications - the winner of The Iron Bowl has played in the National Championship seven out of the past eight years. Alabama is 45-35-1 going into The Iron Bowl. The first Iron Bowl was played in 1893 - Auburn was victorious. College football wasn’t always big money and the game was suspended in 1907 because of financial and violence reasons, according to Wikipedia. The game resumed in 1948.
It’s really not that interesting a weekend of football, at least looking at the schedule at face value. Lots of rivalries though. At this point in the season, historical rivalries are about the only thing that make some of these games view-worthy.
#8 Notre Dame plays #21 Stanford.
#17 Washington takes on #13 Washington State.
Mississippi plays #14 Mississippi State.
#25 Virginia Tech meets Virginia.
The big rivalry game is Ohio State-Michigan. Coach Urban Meyers’ Buckeyes play against Jim Harbaugh’s Wolverines. At this point in the season, it’s only of interest for that conference or if you’re a big fan. Michigan lost last weekend to #5 Wisconsin, 24-10. They must feel pissy. Ohio State beat Illinois last week 52-14, but at this point, it doesn’t really matter much.
We have our eyes on the BIG PRIZES, the New Year’s Six.
This weekend I will be attending the University of Florida - Florida State game in Gainesville. Back to the days of my youth, my old stomping grounds. It’s a good thing that I don’t have too many football memories - I was the hostess at The Beef and Bottle Restaurant and didn’t see a game until I was in graduate school. I might be disappointed if I had beheld years of Gator victories.
Alas, the Gators have some sort of reptilian malaise, so it’s not clear how they will do this weekend against the Bowl-motivated Seminoles.
If you want a history of the rivalry, which is intense, I direct you to Wikipedia. Too much history for this email. Florida leads the series 34-25-2.
Who cares? It will be great to be back in The Swamp, where I watched every game when I was a law student. Better late than never.
Several years ago I went to the University of Florida-Miami game with my dear friend Phillis Oeters. It was an Orange Bowl event. There were fabulous parties all day, but I didn’t drink a drop of liquor. I was saving myself for The Swamp.
I was shocked when I got there and was told that there is no liquor, not even beer, sold in the stadium. When had that rule put in place I wondered? I was told it had always been a dry stadium. Not for me and my fellow law students it hadn’t - so much so that I wasn’t even aware that such a prohibition existed. Most of my pals brought flasks. I must have thought it was for economic reasons rather than because there was a rule. Now we are all fine-upstanding citizens. Imagine that.
Lots of intrigue about who will be the new University of Florida head coach. Chip Kelly, the former University of Oregon coach supposedly said yes to the Gators on Sunday, but now he’s flirting with UCLA. UCLA fired their head coach this weekend (I don’t really understand why a coach would be fired this late in the season unless there was extreme misbehavior, but what do I know?) and the Bruins are courting Kelly, who was 46-7 in his four seasons at Oregon. UCLA and Florida are two very different programs, two different fan bases and two extremely different places to live.
Who would have thought that two Florida football powerhouse schools, Florida and FSU could have such dismal seasons? For some reason, I never talk about the two Florida schools that are strong.
#15 University of Central Florida plays South Florida this weekend. South Florida has been ranked in the Top 25 at various points throughout this season.
WAHL TRIVIA QUESTION: I reject the notion that beggars can’t be choosers. I rejected Larry’s first trivia question last week - it’s better suited to this week. He said he had writer’s block. “No excuse” I told him - come up with a relatively easy question. His question involved long-standing college rivalries. The answer was Lafayette-Lehigh. My beloved assistant Noris, who shoves this email out the door every week, answered within seconds. I decided we are like Price-Waterhouse and she couldn’t compete.
The winner is Hattie Ernst, who lives in New Port Richey, Florida. Hattie, I have no idea how you got on the email list, but I’m thrilled to hear from you and your Orange Bowl goodies will be sent soon.
When was the last time Florida and Florida State both finished the season with losing records? It might not happen this year because Florida can still end the season with a 6-6 record, but there were four other seasons when both teams were less than stellar.
Here’s something to chew on before the games, the CFP and AP rankings.
Dear sports fans and friends, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. “Thanksgiving” is a word of action.
TAKE ACTION, BE ACTIVE!
Enjoy Game Day.
Lee
