Put yourself in a set of different shoes.  You are 17 years old and receiving the attention of top NCAA college football coaches around the country.  You narrow down your choices, you take your maximum three campus visit and make a verbal decision to attend that school.  Then you get a 1oPM phone call from the assistant coach that recruited you who informs you that the head coach is leaving and we’re all going with him.  Want to come with us?

Kiffin Ditched Vols For USC

That was the real world awakening this past January for those kids recruited to play at Tennessee.  Coach Lane Kiffin chose to head off to take over Southern Cal and his assistant coach Ed Orgeron was now telling the very same kids why they should play for Tennessee  just a few days before why they shouldn’t go there now and why USC was the best choice.

Its a nasty party of the college football game and it is a tragedy that 17 year old kids are being caught up in the middle of it.  As college coaches pressure these kids to commit early, graduate in December before your classmate and get yourself to campus for spring practice, those very same coaches are thinking about their next career stop without regard to the kids and parents to whom  promises were made in their living room.

Tomorrow is signing day for recruits, but for some what was supposed to be a joyous occasion has gone sour.  Since the completion of the regular season, 22 coaches are no longer with their respective teams.   Some coaches were fired for performance, others chose to seek out better positions and a few displayed gross misbehavior towards their athletes that sent them packing.  In their wake are the kids now figuring out what to do.

Let’s take the story of Cleo Robinson, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer.  An outside linebacker from Haddon Township, NJ, Robinson gave an early commitment to play at Louisville.  Robinson choose Louisville partly because it was the first school to offer him a scholarship and they did so before his senior season.  Robinson never visited the campus of the school.

In late November, Louisville fired its head coach Steve Kragthorpe after three rough seasons.  Kragthorpe made an opportunistic decision to jump from his successful position at Tulsa for opportunity to play in the Big East for a BCS bowl bid.  He replaced another opportunity job seeker named Bobby Petrino who jumped for a job in the NFL and then jumped again during the middle of the season to Arkansas.  A whole lot of hopping going round.

Kragthorpe ended up losing a portion of the recruiting class that Petrino had pulled together and was hampered with a group of players brought in to fit a system that was no longer going to be employed.  While Kragthorpe was able to keep the juniors on the team from departing for the NFL, everything sputtered and the Cardinals fell flat.  Some of those kids lost NFL opportunities because of the coaching shakeup.  Kragthorpe was eventually fired and replaced by Florida University assistant Charlie Strong, who’ll likely be looking for new digs back in the SEC if he generates any success with the Cardinals over his first three seasons.

For Cleo Robinson, he was left in the lurch. With the head coach gone and the system to be employed, Robinson did the smart thing and rescinded his scholarship.  He did so with a lot at risk.  Most other schools have filled their recruiting dance cards and are no longer in market.  Unless you are a blue chip recruit, the decision Robinson made is terribly risky.  Robinson recently committed to Stanford after an official visit, where he will play under head coach Jim Harbaugh.  The irony…Harbaugh has been tied to more head coaching jobs than you can shake a stick at.

So where does the student athlete’s welfare come in?  The student gets pressured to live up to his commitment, he goes to the school, hates it and then transfers out losing a year of eligibility. How do we offer the student more flexibility if the situation around him changes before he even enters his dorm room?

The NCAA needs to begin rethinking the arcane structure that surrounds the recruiting process to eliminate the damage being done by coaches that are looking at the kids as their meal ticket.  When coaches begin calling recruits telling them not to attend class so they can play football at their school, you know something has going horribly wrong with the system.

The college bowl schedule kicks off today with two opening games on the schedule as Wyoming meets Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl and Central Florida hooks up with Rutgers in the St. Petersburg Bowl.   College football fans will be treated to 34 games over 20 days culminating with Alabama and Texas deciding this year’s national champions.

This year’s matchups pair what appear to be some with three teams favored by double-digit spreads and twelve team favored by a touchdown or more.  While Vegas is seeing a lot of mismatches, there appears to be some great upsets brewing.   I am projecting right now seven underdogs achieving outright victories and sixteen underdogs covering the spread.

My biggest underdog covers include SMU, Boston College, Northwestern, East Carolina and Boise State.  My biggest underdog outright victories are Texas A&M and Stanford.

Looking at conference performance, here’s how I see it playing out:

The SEC might be the power conference, but they got some unfavorable matchup.  I think the Big 12 and Big East are going to surprise some opponents.  The Mountain West is going to do some damage and really stoke the argument that they deserve an automatic BCS invite.

As for the National Championship game, I am seeing a major blowout.  Given Texas’ performance against ranked opponents and closing out its season on some very poor play, this just seems like a mismatch of grand proportion.  TCU and Cincinnati were much more deserving of a spot in the Championship Game and Alabama is going to apply a major smackdown that will likely drop Colt McCoy’s NFL stock drop tremendously when he loses the game single-handedly.

Overall, this bowl season looks to be exciting.  We have a lot of underdogs with solid shots at upsets which should make the next 20 days enjoyable for all to watch.

The College football bowl season kicks off Saturday with Fresno  St. taking on Wyoming in the New Mexico Bowl and Rutgers taking on Central Florida in the St Petersburg Bowl and ends with the BCS National Championship game  between Texas and Alabama January 7. In between there are some intriguing match ups of teams and last games of individuals.

Can Mark Ingram end the bowl seson with a title?

While I am in favor of a College playoff system, I do appreciate the Bowl season because of how much I love college football. The teams always give their best effort, and there has been so many memorable  games because of this.

One of the most intriguing match up of teams is in the Fiesta Bowl January 4 as it pits two unbeaten teams in Boise St. and TCU. I am glad the bowl committee went this way as it has two teams that are not among the elite facing each other and one stays unbeaten. These two teams could of easily been playing Alabama for the National Championship if they had a playoff.  I think TCU would  give Bama all they could handle in particular.

The greatest college football player ever will be playing his last game. Tim Tebow and his Florida Gators will be taking on Cincinnati January 1st in the Sugar Bowl. This  your last chance to see the Great Gator quarterback ,and I am sure he will go out with a show to remember. Don’t miss it. How will Cincinnati play with the adversity of their head coach Brian Kelly deserting them and their unbeaten season is a great underlining story.

Bobby Bowden will be coaching his last college game for Florida St. on January 1st in the Gator Bowl against West Virginia. Can he go out a winner? It will be weird not to se him on the sidelines for the Seminoles.

As you can see, the Bowl season has a lot of  interesting and intriguing match ups that will keep you tuned in from start to finish. It cumulates with the great match up for the title between Texas and Alabama.  Let the Bowl Season Begin!

Bobby Bowden must be really hard on his players in practice.  Given this video replay, there must have been some major drilling on holding your stance in case of an offsides by the defense.  Apparently, Zebrie Sanders didn’t get the memo that you can move after it is hiked.

Sanders, a sophomore at Florida State, stood like a statue on one play during Saturday’s game against Florida. While it appears the center snapped the ball early, Sanders never budges as the action buzzes around him and his quarterback runs for dear life.

Needless to say, the end of the Bobby Bowden era couldn’t come sooner with coaching like this.

]]> http://www.benchwarmersunited.com/wordpress/2009/12/03/no-illegal-motion-here-fsu-lineman-takes-a-down-off/feed/ 0 http://www.benchwarmersunited.com/wordpress/2009/11/29/bowden-wants-to-return-in-2010/ http://www.benchwarmersunited.com/wordpress/2009/11/29/bowden-wants-to-return-in-2010/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:12:53 +0000 Tim Daly http://www.benchwarmersunited.com/wordpress/?p=127

Bobby Bowden Says He Wants To Return in 2010

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach is reporting that Bobby Bowden has shared his desire to return as head coach in 2010.   After declining comment about his future after the 37-10 rout to rival Florida on Saturday, Bowden expressed his desire to meet with FSU officials to extend his contract for another year.

After completing his third six loss season in four years, the pressure has been on Bowden to step down and retire with dignity from alumni.  According to ESPN’s report, Bowden said he would only return to the sideline next season if he was FSU’s head coach, eliminating the possibility of him returning in an advisory role next season.  With Bowden’s statement, the gauntlet has be laid down for a difficult December in Tallahassee as Bowden attempts to wield his legacy for one more year to continue to build on his 388 career wins.

Sitting in the middle of the impending fiasco is Head Coach in Waiting, Jimbo Fisher.  Hired in 2007, Fisher signed a contract with Florida State University that provided for a balloon payment of $5 million if not placed into the head coach position by 2011.

Perhaps there is any easy resolution to this quandry around Bowden’s coaching future.  Based on USA Today’s database of college football coaching salaries, Bowden earned slightly over $2.3 million for his 2009 campaign.  This rates him as the 16th highest paid college football coach and the highest paid Florida state employee.  If Bowden’s desire is to leave on his terms and complete unfinished business, then accepting a $1 salary for 2010 seems to make sense. Not only will this cement his legacy as one of the most dedicated coach, he can provide significant help towards Florida’s state budget deficit crisis.

What do you say Bobby?  Is it about winning or is it money?  We’ll soon find out.