An Open Letter to Blake Bortles

Dear Blake -

Hi.  How are you doing?  Pretty big week this week, wasn't it?  It must be hard to wrap your mind around.  On Tuesday, you were the starting quarterback of UCF - the "undeserving" recipient of the last BCS-based American Conference invite to a "big BCS bowl."  On Thursday, you were the Bearkiller.  MVP of the Fiesta Bowl.  Mr Clutch.  Hot NFL draft commodity.  Subject of an ESPN poll about if we knew who you were or not.  Topic of national sports discussion on various outlets (Dan Patrick, ESPN, NFL).  Quite the life-altering week.

You don't know me.  I don't really know you.  I know your mom (unlike the ESPN cameramen).  She was the preschool teacher for both of my sons.  I have a distant memory of a young version of you at some event for the preschool.  But we don't know each other at all.  I have watched you play.  As a fan, I have definitely cheered loudly for you.  Truthfully, there were times I yelled at you for some mistake you make.  But for the most part, I have just been impressed by you.  Your talent, your poise, your leadership, your guts, your fearlessness, your heart.  You are that kind of athlete that it is easy for a fan to cheer for.  You aren't surly or self-absorbed.  You don't have a long rap sheet of off the field mistakes. You say all the right stuff.  And you win.

You are probably too young to really understand what you mean to a UCF fan.  We have lived in the shadows of the "big boys" of college football for decades.  Twenty years ago we started to build a "real" football team.  We wanted to be taken seriously as a university and knew that it would never happen without that feature.  We went through years and years of playing in the bowels of college football.  Then we went through years and years of close calls - big games where we played valiantly and failed.  Nebraska. Georgia. Mississippi State, Ohio State. We came close so many times, but still lost.  Then we watched as other upstart programs gained the respect we so desperately craved.  Boise State went from being a potato farm to a BCS buster.  East Carolina, Appalachian State, Miami (Ohio).  They all took down the big guys.  And then worst of all, that stinking, no good USF started up a football program after us, raced past us, gained national notoriety, beat the crap out of us, and then dismissed us as a pointless frivolity they needn't be bothered with.

For years, we had to listen to USF fans mouth off at us.  They could win all these big time games.  We never could.  (The fact they consistently lost to teams "beneath them" was conveniently left out of the argument.  But I digress...)  Fans of the big dog schools like UF and FSU and UM were cruel.  They were bullies.  They ridiculed us and ignored us.  We were their "cupcake" scheduling.  It got to be disheartening.  And every time we made a little progress, it seemed like we got beaten back again.

We knew we had potential.  But it started to sound like one of those people on American Idol who swear they "can sing."  We sounded delusional.  Every time we went into a big game and tried to convince people (and ourselves) that we could win, well, they called us crazy.  And it was crazy.  Even when we beat a dominant program (like Alabama), it was when they were in a bad year.  It felt like we were forever stuck in the land of irrelevance.  The final straw was when we finally scratched our way into a BCS conference, it was one that was completely in shambles.

But that was all before you, before this year.  This year, everything changed.  This year, all of those pieces that never quite came together suddenly fit.  All of those nagging weaknesses that had crippled us for years seemed to disappear.  We went into Penn State and won a tough game.  We hosted #6 South Carolina on national television and almost won.  No, we should have won.  Even South Carolina fans admit they got away with that game.  See, I live in Columbia, SC now.  Nobody was crowing after that game up here.  They knew they got lucky.  Then we beat Louisville, even though it seemed impossible.  No game was ever over until the gun went off.  People starting calling UCF the Cardiac Knights.  They pulled most games out of their . . . um . . . armor.  See, we normally lost those games.  There were other years when we had success within our grasp and managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.  That Temple game this year?  The USF one?  The SMU Ice Bowl?  Those are games we would have lost in other years.  But not this team. They never gave up.

Well, you never gave up.  You had that same quality about you that Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck and John Elway had.  When things got tough, when your back was against the wall, you refused to buckle.  Even the South Carolina game was that way.  If the game had another minute in it, we would have been 12-0.  No game was truly lost.  It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

Then came the Fiesta Bowl.  For weeks, people asked me how I thought UCF would do.  I said the same thing.  "Of all of the BCS teams, I think we have the best shot against Baylor.  It will be tough.  But I think we have a chance."  Man, did we.  We beat the most explosive offense in the country by 10 points - even though we had back to back to back turnovers.  There is no explanation for that.  That was the kind of momentum shift that used to kill UCF.  It looked like the South Carolina game.  But that collapse never happened.  That Baylor explosion never came.  And when you came out in the second half and scored on four straight possessions, people all over the country finally realized that UCF truly did belong on the big stage.  And you belonged on the big stage, probably the biggest stage.  Blake Bortles - NFL quarterback.

Most of the discussion in the last few days has been about if you are coming back to UCF next year.  I admit, I am curious as well.  I certainly would love for you to return.  But...

I watched Daunte Culpepper from his first game at UCF to his last.  I remember mentally pleading with him to come back in his senior year to give us a chance to go 11-0.  He did come back, but we never did reach the zenith with him.  Then Kevin Smith came along.  We all psychically urged him to return as well, but he didn't.  He went to the NFL.  Staying may have helped his career, but not his knees.  Here we are again with a superstar.  And the UCF fan in me wants to beg again for you to come back, to possibly take us even farther into our destiny.  But that wouldn't be fair.

You have done more for UCF than we could have imagined.  You have put our entire school on your shoulders and carried us all the way to Glendale and back.  You pulled us those last steps that we never seemed to be able to make.  We are now nationally recognized.  We have gained respect.  UCF is not just a directional Florida school.  It is a team to be reckoned with.  What more could we ask of you?  In my wildest dreams, I think that we could run the table and maybe snag one of those four playoff spots next January.  In more realistic thoughts, I imagine that we will end up in another prestigious bowl with another big payday to invest in the future.  You'll be a Heisman candidate.  We'll have a great year.

Or.... You could get hurt.  God forbid, you could get hurt.  Or we could just as easily lose a few of those nailbiters we won this year.  You could see your draft stock drop like Matt Barkley did.  I don't want that to happen.  So, that is why I am not going to beg you to come back.  I want you to do what is best for you.  I want you to go to the NFL if you think that is the best thing for your future.  I want you to come back if you think the extra experience will help.  But don't come back for us.  You've already given us everything we could ask and more.  If you leave, I will root for you every Sunday.  I'll probably get a "Bortles" jersey.  If you can manage to get picked by the Jaguars, I'll be over the moon happy.  I will support you in the pros just like every UCF alum out there.  Actually, that's not true.  I'll support you more.  That's how fans show their gratitude.

So, thank you for your time at UCF.  Thank you for helping us to believe the crazy can happen.  Thank you for never giving up, even when you could have justified doing that.  And thank you for helping us to know what it feels like to "win the big game."  I wish you all the best - be it in Orlando, Jacksonville, Oakland, or Cleveland.  (Well, I wish you better than Cleveland.)  I'll follow you on Saturdays or Sundays, whatever you choose.  Blake and Gold, all the way.

Your Appreciative Fan,

David

UCFan

On Saturday, we went to a Christmas party for Heather's work.  One of the third year residents had recently gotten married to a "guy from UCF" - that was the extent of my knowledge of the young man.  At one point, they were sitting on the couch and I walked up to ask if they were going to Arizona for UCF's Fiesta Bowl appearance.  They ecstatically answered in the affirmative.  I found out he actually works in the sports marketing department at UCF, which is just so cool to me.  Off and on for the next several hours, I chatted with Ryan about UCF's sports programs.  We watched the Heisman trophy presentation and I asked if he would be working on a Heisman campaign for Blake Bortles, UCF QB, if he comes back next year.  He said he would.  Then we talked about how Blake actually has a tough decision because he could legitimately be a top ten pick in this draft.  This all seemed like a perfectly sane conversation.

Yesterday, I got a text from my friend Candy.  She is a UCF alum, as is her husband, Allen - one of my roommates in college.  We have kept up with them and they are some of our best friends.  While we lived in Orlando, we usually spent New Year's Eve with them at our house.  Our move to Columbia seemed to end that tradition.  Not so fast!  They are going to be traveling for the holidays and will be staying with us over New Year's.  In her text, she said, "Aren't you excited we will be there for the Fiesta Bowl?!?"  I hadn't connected that.  I've watched a ton of UCF games this year, all alone.  The thought of having fellow UCF fans here?  On New Year's Day?  To watch UCF in a bowl game?  Heck yes, I'm excited.  Again, a perfectly sane exchange.

Rewind about 20 years.  I had recently shed my lifelong love of the University of Georgia to firmly align with UCF.  If I was going to spend thousands of dollars at a school to get a degree, I was going to get the most I could out of the experience.  Student tickets to football games were free, so I went to most of the home games.  We were small time football.  There was a big battle on the campus between the academics who felt that a school should rely on its academic achievements alone and those who believe that a strong successful sports program enhances the school as a whole.  The new university President, Dr Hitt, was trying to walk the fine line between sides while pushing what he knew was best - sports is a billboard for the school.  UCF was going to transition to Division I and had to spend a couple years in I-AA.  So our schedule was made up of teams like Garner-Webb and Bethune-Cookman.   We envied powerhouse schools like Georgia Southern and Youngstown State.  There would be louder cheers from the crowd when the UF or FSU scores were announced than when UCF scored.

My senior year, through a bizarre set of circumstances, we landed Daunte Culpepper.  He should have been at a big name school.  But here we were, sitting in the Citrus Bowl, watching someone who was the best player on the field by leaps and bounds.  We almost beat Nebraska in Lincoln, starting an annoying trend of "almost beating" big teams.  Daunte was invited to the Heisman Trophy award ceremony.  He got drafted 11th by the Vikings.  We never even won a I-AA title, but didn't care because it was a just a transitional stage - starting an annoying trend of looking too far ahead and being mediocre where we were.  We got into trouble with the NCAA, starting an annoying trend of being on the wrong side of the law.  And we watched teams like USF pop up and race past us.  It was frustrating to be a UCF fan.  Big schools like UF and FSU didn't take us seriously.  Lesser schools like USF and Bowling Green didn't take us seriously.  Even doody schools like Miami (Ohio) and Marshall didn't take us seriously.  We were just kind of farting around.

Ten years ago, UCF fired Mike Kruczek as head coach.  There was an uproar among some fans because Kruczek was the one who recruited Daunte.  That fact alone had gotten him the head coaching job and kept him there.  And to some, he could have ridden that score forever.  But there was a simple fact at play: we weren't going anywhere as long as we kept Kruczek.  It was the same fact that ultimately led to the firing of Kirk Speraw as basketball coach.  Both of those guys were good coaches.  They mostly had winning teams.  Every so often, we would pop into the postseason in some way - mostly as cannon fodder or a footnote.  But UCF would be terminally trapped in mediocrity.  The school itself was exploding in size and renown.  There was no justifiable reason why a school ranked in the top five nationally in enrollment in a massive sports state like Florida should be putzing around like UCF was.

Just like when Daunte came to town, UCF got lucky again.  George O'Leary had an impressive resume.  He had been named National Coach of the Year while at Georgia Tech.  They went to big bowl games five years in a row.  And he had been hired as coach of Notre Dame.  But his resume was a little TOO good.  It turned out he had said he had a master's degree and had lettered in football.  It was resume padding - something that many people over the years have done to break into the business.  But he didn't remove the padding once he "made it."  And so he was fired.  He ended up getting hired by the Minnesota Vikings as their defensive coordinator, where he led them from 30th in the NFL in defense to 10th.  UCF saw a huge opportunity.  O'Leary was obviously a great coach.  His errors in judgment didn't affect that.  So they jumped and hired O'Leary as their new head coach.  UCF got tons of coverage for the hiring.  They also got tons of coverage the next year, when they went 0-11.  Hardly a promising start.

The first six years or so of O'Leary's tenure was rough to say the least.  UCF would alternate winning records and losing records for six years.  There were some extremely frustrating experiences.  I called for his firing on multiple occasions, especially after USF beat the tar out of us 62-12 in 2007.  I even went so far as to submit some slightly cruel questions to his radio show like "Does living without a soul make you cold?"  We had a major NCAA investigation thanks to our cheating Athletic Director.  A player died during workouts.  It seemed like things would never get better.

But things were getting better.  UCF's graduation rates were among the highest in the nation.  We were being shown on national television.  We actually started to win some of those games we used to "almost win."  There still were maddening failures.  We still always were on the outside looking in with the major conferences.  When we finally got invited to join one, it was the collapsing Big East.  But progress was being made.  We had another Heisman candidate in Kevin Smith.  Former UCF players like Matt Prater, Brandon Marshall, and Josh Sitton were excelling in the NFL.

It seemed like everything clicked this past year.  UCF's affiliation with the Big East (sorry, American Conference) paid off in the final year of the BCS.  There was an automatic bid with a championship to one of the "big bowls" - Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Rose.  Our homegrown quarterback, Blake Bortles, morphed into a big time college player.  [Side note, Blake's mom was Josiah's and Gabe's preschool teacher.  That certainly makes all of this even more exciting.]  Last year, we almost knocked off Ohio State.  This year, we actually did beat Penn State in their stadium.  We only lost to South Carolina by three and should have won that game.  Living up here, it was interesting to see the nation's opinion of UCF change so rapidly.  The people I encountered up here prior to the game thought it was just another cupcake for Clowney and company to feast upon.  I kept saying they needed to watch out; UCF was better than they thought.  It was a tough game to watch because UCF was the better team.  Time after time they shot themselves in the foot.  USC won, but UCF came storming back and probably would have taken the game if it had gone to overtime.  The thing is, USC fans knew that.  After that, anytime people saw my UCF shirt or license plate, they responded differently.  "Man, you almost got us."  Or, "you guys have a good team this year."  These were SEC people who usually see the rest of the college football landscape as the minor leagues.  They saw UCF as a threat.

That ability to come storming back and never give up became the hallmark of this UCF team.  It felt like we were losing just about every game at some point in the fourth quarter.  No game was ever over until the final gun.  Time and again, UCF came through.  Blake Bortles and the Defense refused to let UCF lose.  We knocked off eighth ranked, undefeated Louisville in their house on a Thursday night on ESPN.  We were on ESPN for four games and ABC for the first time ever.  UCF ended up 11-1, undefeated in conference play, ranked 15th, and in the Fiesta Bowl against Baylor.  Less than twenty years after saying "How could we possibly expect to beat Youngstown State? They are a national power."  Ten years after being ranked dead last in the NCAA Division I.  We were playing in a BCS bowl.  We had a nationally ranked team.  We had another Heisman candidate, with a real shot at starting in the NFL.

An interesting statistic was mentioned during the Blizzard Bowl against SMU last week.  The few seniors UCF have (just seven) finished their college career with 37 wins in their four years - an average of 9 wins a year.  They actually won 11, 5, 10, and 11 games.  How does 37 wins across the last four years stack up?  Let us see.

• Florida - 30 wins
• FSU - 40 wins
• USF - 18 wins
• Miami - 29 wins
• Texas - 30 wins
• South Carolina - 41 wins
• USC - 34 wins

Let's just say it isn't bad.  UCF and George O'Leary has built something in Orlando.  The most impressive thing about this team is that there were only seven seniors.  UCF should be better next year.  Do you mind if I type that again?  It's my blog, so I can do what I want.  UCF should be better next year.  There are a bunch of assumptions to that statement.  Blake Bortles could go pro, which would effectively render that line of thinking moot.  The American Conference isn't going to be much better next year.  Louisville is leaving for greener pastures.  And our non-conference games are even better next year.  Missouri, BYU, and Penn State IN IRELAND!!!  That guarantees several nationally televised games.  We obviously will get a lot of coverage for the Fiesta Bowl.  And if we beat Baylor....

That is the wonderful thing about being a UCF fan right now.  We've been through a lot over the years.  Finally having success feels so good.  But having hope as a fan is even better.  Is it crazy to say we could beat Baylor?  Oh yeah.  But, at this point, crazy isn't so crazy any more.  Who would have thought we could beat Penn State or Louisville this year?  Or what about hanging in there with South Carolina to where we gave the game away, which is entirely different than getting beaten outright?   Who would have thought we would be 11-1 or in a BCS bowl or ranked 15 or anything that happened this year?  It is all crazy.  So, talking about beating Baylor has become a perfectly sane conversation.  

2011 in Review: The Year Sports Imploded

In the coming weeks, you will be inundated with Year in Review posts from every self-obsessed blogger out there, as well as every news, entertainment, and sports site.  So, far be it from me to avoid jumping on the bandwagon.  My seven followers demand no less.  I have always been a sucker for Year in Review stuff.  It was a fun way to go back through and revisit events and remember where I was.  Now that I am older, I often forget what happens on a day to day basis, let alone stuff that went on back in February.  So these recaps are useful for me.  "The Royal Wedding II was THIS year? Man it seems like forever ago."

As I go through these posts, though, I want to do something different than just a recap.  I am not qualified enough to give a thorough rundown of the importance of events.  And I am biased.  Things that don't interest me would not be included - even if the rest of the world think they are important.  Looking at Yahoo!'s top news stories of the year, they had the Casey Anthony trial and the death of Amy Winehouse.  Those may have been notable - but I never would have listed those.  I also don't know how many of these I'll do.  It's like Christmas - surprises around every turn.

I'm going to start with sports.  Again, I don't plan on just recapping who won the different titles.  If it isn't my teams (it's never my teams) then I really could care less once the event is over.  I had to think for a minute to even remember who the title winners were this year.  Instead, I want to look at how sports in general progressed (or regressed . . . mainly regressed) in my view.  This year will be forever remembered (by me) as the year the sports world lost its collective mind.  It also will be the year that, for the first time, my affection for sports was smaller than my disdain for sports.  If I were being polled on if I viewed sports favorably or unfavorably, it is definitely unfavorably.  Here are some of the biggest reasons.

NBA LOCKOUT: Personally, I was more irritated by the NFL labor situation than the NBA one.  But I am putting them in this order so that I can highlight some points.  The NBA lockout was frustrating on many levels.  The biggest is no matter how noble some of the points were, the basic concept of millionaires fighting with billionaires over money still is hard for most Americans to stomach.  But it didn't affect me that much.  I don't usually watch basketball until the All Star break anyway.  I'm too busy with football.  So the NBA starting late didn't bother me.  And the reasons FOR the lockout were somewhat understandable: player salaries are out of control, there needs to be some level of revenue sharing, fans of small teams need some hope.  So I could see that and realize something needed to be done.  What I hate about these labor situations, though, is that the people who get hurt the most aren't the players or owners.  They are the complementary industry people.  Living in Orlando, I was made more aware of stuff like this.  The city paid a LOT of money to open a new arena for the Magic.  There are tons of companies whose existence are completely dependent on the Magic playing.  The city itself was counting on the All Star game.  It was awarded because of the new arena.  And it was constantly threatened.  People lost their income; some lost their jobs.  And for what?  At the end of the day, nothing seemed to change.  Immediately after the new agreement was signed, owners started overpaying players, players in small markets started manipulating the new rules to escape to big cities, and the teams took the opportunity to cut staff.  The Magic had promised they would not cut positions during the lockout.  Immediately after the agreement was reached, the team laid off twenty employees and eliminated twelve seasonal positions that had not been opened yet this year.  Good job, guys.

NFL LOCKOUT: Basically, take the offensiveness of the NBA lockout, remove the legitimate concerns.  There's the NFL lockout.  Where the NBA one at least was somewhat about reconstructing a flawed system, the NFL was purely about money.  It was two sets of extremely wealthy individuals fighting over EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS.  Bill Simmons likened to Scarface, with the giant pile of coke on the table.  Except with this lockout it was a gigantic pile of dollar bills - and there was a gang war over who got the most.  Yes, there were some peripheral issues that were addressed.  But those could have been dealt with during a conference call or small meeting.  The lockout was strictly money.  I don't know about you, but that is extremely hard for me to accept.  The cities are the ones who built the stadiums, who provide the fans, who create the secondary companies.  And they are basically told to shut up and sit on the sidelines while the money is split up.  Lots of people have already forgotten the lockout and moved on.  I'm not like that.  I never really was interested in baseball after their last labor problem.  I can still enjoy a game, but I never have been as invested in.  I have a feeling this lockout (along with #8) will have a similar effect on me.  I rarely check my fantasy lineups.  I only watch games when I'm with my in-laws.  That's pretty bad for a guy whose favorite sport (by far) is football.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCANDALS: It seems like scandals have ben a part of college sports for as long as I can remember.  I very clearly recall SMU getting the "death penalty" in football back in the 1980s.  I remember when Florida won the SEC and couldn't take the title.  But this past year seems like it was one of the worst I can remember - not even including #4.  Ohio State sent Jim Tressel packing due to coverups.  USC can't play in a bowl game from numerous issues.  Miami penalized themselves to try to avoid bigger sanctions.  Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton was surrounded with controversy as he won the national title.  The national title game was jokingly referred to as the battle for which team would earn the right to forfeit the title in five years.  Even my beloved UCF was caught up in recruiting violations all over the place.  Throw in the inappropriate behavior by the Fiesta Bowl officials and the questionable movements by lying head coaches and you have a for a very rotten system.  Of course, that all pales in comparison to the next point.

PENN STATE and SYRACUSE SCANDALS: I wrote about the Penn State Jerry Sandusky scandal when it first surfaced.  And it just seems to get worse.  That is coupled by the accusations that emerged about the Syracuse men's basketball program.  Both schools have many similarities - a small city that is completely wrapped up with the university in question, a long time head coach who seems to transcend other authorities in the area, a long time assistant coach who has almost as much power as the head coach and is shielded by the head coach.  Both are heinous.  Due to the scope and detail of the Penn State case, it is worse.  It seems like just the tip of the iceberg has been discovered, too.  What happened to that D.A. who was investigating and disappeared?  How in the world can Sandusky be so adamant about his innocence?  How many more kids will come forward?  These were two of the "good programs" in college sports.  They didn't deal with the scandals and the negative garbage - or so it seemed.  Instead they were hiding horrific secrets.

NBA PLAYER MOVEMENT:  One of the biggest stories of last year was LeBron James stringing along the people of Cleveland (and New York) before bolting to Miami to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to form a "super team." One of the biggest stories of this year was James choking the Finals as the Heat lost to the Mavericks for the NBA title.  At least, that is the story to average people.  To NBA stars, it showed that James' plan to bolt and partner with his buddies instead of making a career in one city worked.  Remember, this was the FIRST YEAR in Miami.  They didn't even figure out how to make all those egos work until half way through the year.  They will probably run roughshod over the league this year, now that they have had time to work together.  It was like the floodgates opened.  Now, big shot players started to force their owners' hands to allow them to leave for bigger markets.  Carmelo Anthony held Denver hostage until they sent him to New York to partner with Amare Stoudemire.  Deron Williams did the same thing in Utah, ending up in New Jersey.  So, one of the big sticking points in the NBA lockout was finding a way to keep these big name players tied to their teams - even if it was in a small market.  So, what happened?  The agents had figured out a way to circumvent the process before it was even started.  A player could sign for far more money with their current team than any other in free agency.  So, instead of playing out their contract, now these players are forcing trades a year early so they can resign with their dream team.  It is dirty pool.  Chris Paul did it the Hornets.  Then David Stern went completely bananas and voided the trade with NO GOOD CAUSE.  It was perfectly legal.  Stern was just ticked that the players were able to go around the rules so fast.  Now Dwight Howard is about to do it Orlando.  These guys all want to team up and, in effect, create a handful of "super teams."  You'll have superstar jammed teams in Boston, Miami, Chicago, L.A., New York (which includes the Nets now).  Then the other teams will basically be the farm system to the big teams.  It is going to turn into baseball.  The small teams draft and develop talent, get a few years out of those players, and watch them leave to win titles.  As a Magic fan, I detest this.  I know all the fans of big teams love it.  Yet another reason to not care a whit about basketball.

MLB PLAYER MOVEMENT: For years, I have hated how the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, and Phillies poach big name free agents from the smaller teams.  I have learned to really like the Tampa Bay Rays.  They play in a division with the two richest, most loaded teams in the sport.  Yet, they still make the playoffs on a regular basis.  They have a payroll that is a third as big as the Red Sox, but they eliminated Boston from the playoffs last year.  The problem is, they can't keep up.  The Rays had an amazing team a few years back - one that easily could have won a World Series if it had five years to play together.  But they got one shot.  Then they got poached.  The thing is, those players that flee for bigger paychecks seem to be disappointing more often than not.  Take Carl Crawford.   On Tampa he was the big dog - making all the right plays.  He was a legend.  In Boston, he's getting booed.  He's just another overpaid player who isn't reaching the impossible to reach expectations.  It is the perpetual question for these superstar athletes.  If they stay with their original team, they will become legendary.  But they will probably leave money on the table and may only win one title (or they may never win one).  If they leave, they COULD become one of the biggest stars ever.  Chances are they won't, but they will at least be rich. Look at A-Rod.  If he had stayed in Seattle his whole career, he would have been seen as the greatest of all time.  He probably would have one ring at the end.  Now, though, he is seen as the flagship example of the overpaid athlete.  He's widely mocked and ridiculed.  He still could be the greatest of all time, but no one likes him.  And he still has just one ring.  My hope had been that things would be different with Albert Pujols.  He was so synonymous with the Cardinals.  He is such a nice guy and good model.  I hoped he would be willing to buck the trend.  Instead, he listened to his horrible jerk agent (seriously, go read about that guy) and signed with the Angels.  Now he's just another big name on a big team.  Another owner trying to outspend the rest for a title.  Pujols will be richer.  But he'll never be as loved or legendary as if he had stayed.

COLLEGE CONFERENCE INSANITY: Boise State is in the Big East.  That is all you really need to know to understand just how stupid this whole conference realignment process has been.  It was a mad scramble to consolidate power.  No one wanted to be left out of the big money.  And, like with the lockouts, no one wanted to share.  The big teams don't want to see other teams develop and enter their ranks.  They want to keep the other teams down.  If big schools had their way, they would pare down their own conferences and just have a mega conference with only the elite schools.  Instead, we had a massive reshuffling of the deck.  Syracuse and Pitt are in the ACC?  Nebraska is in the Big 10?  Colorado is in the Pac 12?  Rivalries, histories, allegiances.  All of those went out the window.  All that mattered was getting a piece of the pie.  Texas and Texas A&M aren't in the same conference any more.  Neither are Nebraska and Colorado.  Then the Big East, the weakest and most vulnerable of the BCS conferences, had to find some way to survive.  So they pulled in two Texas teams, one California team, probably one Colorado team, and Boise State.  It was all about getting Boise State.  And for the Broncos - the team with the best record in the nation over the last five years - they got tired of watching the big paydays from their dorm rooms.  So they needed a seat.  As a UCF fan, I'm not going to lie and say I'm not excited to be in the Big East.  I will now get to see a real rivalry with USF develop.  I will be able to watch some of the best college basketball teams in my own backyard.  And I'll have the chance to watch the incredible Boise State Broncos play my Knights.  I just hate the machinations that happened to get things there.  And I realize that for those teams left on the outside looking in, their hope to ever play for something significant is basically dead.

FOOTBALL CONCUSSION PROBLEMS: The concussion issue has been bubbling at the surface for a few years now.  The studies have been out there.  The arguments have been starting.  But it seems like in 2011, things accelerated.  The NFL had enacted measures last year to try to avoid concussions and help players who had suffered them.  But this year we watched as players who obviously had experienced a head trauma go back into the game.  We saw multiple retired players die unexpectedly and under suspicious circumstances.  We also saw college and (especially) high school players get seriously hurt - or even die - from head injuries.  Football has become a sport that is on the verge of improving itself to death.  The rules that were enacted decades ago do not take into account how fast and strong modern players have become.  The human body is not built to take that much damage.  And if we see athletes from the 80s dying due to complications from head injuries, how much worse is it going to be with modern players?  (The same thing goes for professional wrestling.  How many wrestlers have to die in their 40s or start to act completely irrationally before we realize there is a serious problem?)  I have not been able to enjoy football anywhere near as much since I started reading about concussions.  And with every story like Dave Duerson's, I get detached a little bit more.

There were some great sports moments.  But it seemed like this year had more than its share of negative ones:  Dan Whedon dying in a wreck and the Oklahoma State coaches dying in a plane crash, the idiotic riots in Vancouver when they lost the Stanley Cup, the attack by Dodger fans on the Giants fan.  It used to be that sports was an escape from the ugliness of the news.  Instead, it has become just another source of disappointment and stuff I don't want my kids to hear or see.  And I am less and less interested in it.  I think there is a larger divide between sports and the common person.  I can't relate.  I don't understand why it is necessary to squeeze every dollar out of a contract.  Isn't $220 million enough?  Why does it have to be $250 million?  I don't see how it benefits colleges to screw over other colleges.  I can't understand how you can turn a blind eye to children being abused or players knowingly getting seriously hurt or your own employees suffering.  There are certain qualities I find important in my own life.  And I find that those are less and less represented in the world of sports.  I know there are people out there who will cry, "You are so old fashioned!  You can't impose your values on other people!  Wouldn't you take a higher paying job if you could?!?"  I am old fashioned.  I miss being able to cheer for a player and know they will spend their career with one team.  I believe in loyalty.  I have taken less money (or no money) to work at a place I believed in.  More than anything, I guess my love affair with sports has ended because we just grew apart - like Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries did.  Sports and I don't want the same things.  We have irreconcilable differences.  It has been this way for a while.  I suppose this year was the one where I couldn't take it any more.  Sports just went too far.  It wasn't one moment; it was a lot of moments.  That's what I'll remember about 2011 when I think of sports.  It was the year it went nuts.

Florida's Bowling Gutter Ball

What in the world has happened to college football in the state of Florida?  Once upon a time, there were three college football programs in the state that routinely challenged for the national title.  Then there was a boom of secondary programs that made waves and ended up in bowls at the end of the year.  But this year, well, this year is pathetic.
You have just three state schools in a bowl - UF, FSU, and FIU.  But that doesn't fairly represent the situation.  UF ended up 6-6, barely finishing bowl eligible.  They got a New Year's Day bowl bid.  But it was Jacksonville's Gator Bowl - and the possibility of filling the stadium with swarms of local fans combined with the tasty Ohio State matchup (Urban Meyer's former and future teams) was too much to pass up.  FSU is the Champs Bowl in Orlando against Notre Dame (another matchup that looks better due to history than to this year's performance).  And FIU...  Let's be honest no one cares about FIU.  They had the best record of any team in the state.  But I don't know anyone who gives a rip about them.

How did things fall so badly?  How did we get from national championships to barely .500?  This year was even more insulting because hopes started out so high.  FSU was nationally ranked.  UCF was predicted by some to run the table and challenge for a "real bowl" bid.  UF is UF, so they were expected to do well.  There were some promising players that showed flashes of brilliance last year.  You would think they would develop this year into something more special.  BJ Daniels, Jeffrey Godfrey, EJ Manuel.  All three of them seemingly regressed, rather than advanced in their development.  (Godfrey got benched by the end of the year and is now considering transferring, unhappy that he has to compete for the starting job again.)  What went wrong?

Florida is blessed with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to high school and college football.  I would argue that Florida has the best high school football in the country.  At the very least it is on par with the other big states (Texas, California).  In addition, the colleges here have the reputation to also pull from other states like Georgia and Illinois and Alabama.  There is a consistent pipeline of talent to keep the big colleges full.  However, with the emergence of other schools, that pipeline is now diverted into other rosters.

It used to be that the best players would go to UF, FSU, and UM - with a few of the stars getting pilfered by Michigan State or Ohio State or Georgia.  These were the four and five star high school athletes.  After that class, you had the two and three star guys.  Now, they would also sign with UF, FSU, and UM to be backups.  There was always a chance that there would be an injury to a starter or academic problems.  Or these kids would bulk up and get better with better training and coaching.  So, by their junior and senior year, they would be in line for a starting spot - or at least good playing time.  The general mindset was that it was better to be second or third string at UF than starting at UCF.

As these secondary schools (UCF, USF, FIU, FAU) grew their programs that mindset started to change.  For a kid looking at schools, it wasn't so cut and dry any more.  You didn't have to be a Gator or a Nole to get national exposure.  UCF plays on some ESPN station four times a year.  Thanks to the Conference USA's willingness to play on Thursdays and Fridays, their colleges are on national television for half the season.  As a UCF fan, I was able to watch every one of their games on tv this year.  Four of those games were on Brighthouse Television (since they are the sponsor of the UCF stadium).  But the rest were on ESPN and CBS Sports.  The same goes for USF and FIU and FAU.  They get national exposure.  In addition, USF has crashed the national polls several times in the last few years.  They knocked off some big name teams (FSU, Notre Dame).  They got lots of airplay.  And, all four of those schools have received bowl bids.  (USF was in seven bowls straight before this year.)  The playing field wasn't so different now.

Some of those two and three star athletes started to think differently about that old belief.  It may NOT be better to be a backup at a BCS school.  You started to see guys like Godfrey and Daniels sign at other places than you might have expected.  Daniels was from Tallahassee.  His lifelong goal was to play for FSU.  But there he was as a freshman, knocking FSU off while wearing the Green and Gold of USF.  Daniels was a lock for UM.  They payed some good hookers to make sure of that.  Instead, he went to UCF and started as a freshman.  For those guys, the opportunities were better at a slightly smaller program.  They still would get national exposure, get bowl game experience, have an outside shot at the pros.  And they wouldn't have to wait until their junior year to get it.

So here's where you see the first issue - the dilution of talent.  UF, FSU, and UM don't have a stranglehold on recruiting any more.  The massive talent pool is being spread out to seven schools instead of three.  That obviously is going to affect things.  Sure, the big guys are still getting amazing recruiting classes.  They still are pulling in tons of big name kids.  The problem is that they aren't getting the high quality backups.  My friend Eddie, who is a major Gator fan and understand sports way better than me, once explained the different between UF and UCF baseball to me.  He said that in college baseball, pitching is the key.  UCF's first and second pitchers can match up with the 1/2 guys anywhere in the country.  The problem is that UF's 3-5 guys are also as good as UCF's 1/2 guys.  UCF's 3-5 guys are where the problem comes.  So UCF can win those regular season games against UM and UF because they are 1 vs 1 or 1 vs 5 with pitchers.  But in the playoffs, when the depth matters, UCF always gets drummed out.  (It has proven true every year.)

That same thing can be applied to football.  UCF and the others can always make a go at it when it is starters vs. starters.  You add in the fact that to a team like UCF, playing a BCS team is the biggest game of the season - and to that BCS team, UCF is just a speed bump to the "real" games.  So UCF will be amped up and prepared and the other team won't be.  So in the first half, UCF will stay tight and play hard and may even lead at halftime.  But as the emotional high wears down, and the depth begins to be the more important element, the big name school pulls away.  This happened so many times over the years that I could almost plot out the moments when each step would happen.  I watched UCF "play tough" against Nebraska, Georgia, FSU, Auburn, Virginia Tech, South Carolina and then ultimately lose.  Sure, they would sneak a win out against a big team when they were horrible (like Alabama in 1999).  But those big teams' depth would win out.

Lately, that hasn't happened.  USF doesn't wilt in the second half.  UCF doesn't always let the win slip away.  They beat the big teams more often.  In fact, they have problems winning the games they should win.  USF has no problem knocking off a top 25 team.  It is Rutgers and Cincinnati they can't beat.  UCF loses stupid games to Southern Miss and FIU - after they destroy Boston College.  You also see where UF, FSU, and UM doesn't have the depth they used to have any more.  They still have fabulous NFL-ready starters.  But when an injury happens, the cupboard is bare down the depth chart.  This was UF's big issue this year.  I think they started a ball boy at quarterback one game.  The talent is more distributed.

But there are two other major issues, as I see it.  The first of those kind of mimics what was going on in the NBA a few years ago.  They had so many players jumping straight to the pros from high school that the league was suffering.  These kids have the talent to play in the NBA, but they don't have the strength, the discipline, the full body of skills.  If they would have gone to college, some coach would have developed that stuff.  Or they would have flamed out like so many playground legends before them.  The college level either enhanced what was there or exposed it.  When you took a player like Kwame Brown and threw him right into the pros, he flamed out.  Why?  Well, he probably shouldn't have been there.  If he had gone to college, he would have either gotten more coaching and training and entered the league as a better player.  Or he would have never been drafted because people would have realized he sucked.  (I voted for the second.)  Instead, he got into the league too early, had too many expectations on him, and bombed.  Yes, you are going to have some freaks like LeBron and Dwight Howard and Kobe who can make the jump and immediately be an All-Star at 18.  But you also have a lot of guys like Tyson Chandler and Sebastian Telfair who could have used more development.  And a lot of those players never were the same without that.

I think the same thing is happening with some of these guys like Godfrey and Daniels.  In the old days, they would have gone to FSU and UM and sat the bench for two years.  They would have learned, bulked up, gotten coached.  And then when they got their chance, they would have been ready for it.  Or they never would have because they were actually head cases and the coach realized that.  Instead, they went to a school where they could start right away.  Their insane talent made them successes.  When they made stupid mistakes, it was written off to "they are a true freshman and still learning."  But, in their second year, they still made a lot of stupid mistakes.  Opposing defenses were more prepared for them.  And the weight of expectations made them buckle.  I think with both players they never should have been starting. They weren't ready.  They still thought like a high schooler - improvising, relying on talent and dumb luck.  They never learned it is sometimes better to take a sack or throw it away than try to force something.  So they throw killer interceptions, fumble at the worst time, and get frustrated easily.

The same thing happened at the big schools.  They didn't have as deep of a roster to pull from so they were forced to start players too early.  And their quarterbacks, receivers, defensive backs weren't really ready either.  Ten years ago, they wouldn't be playing at all as freshmen.  They would have been red shirted.  They would have rode the bench for two more years.  And then they would have busted out of the gate their junior year with all the frustration that comes from sitting for three years.  Instead, they were forced to play as freshmen and sophomores and weren't quite ready.

The other big issue comes from the turmoil this states has undergone lately.  Look at the coaching situations for the Florida schools in just the past three years:

• UF - Urban Meyer quits, comes back, quits again.  His top assistants all leave to coach other schools.  Will Muschamp is a rookie coach.  Meyer gets hired by Ohio State.  UF also gets a lot of press for player arrests.
• FSU - Bobby Bowden is forced out.  Jimbo Fisher comes in with a completely different attitude.  Instead of laid back, FSU, it is a clone of Nick Saban's corporate, prickly, jerkwad programs.  FSU, as usual, is in the news for players being arrested.
• UM - Randy Shannon is fired.  Al Golden is hired.  (I had to look that up.)  In addition, the schools is wracked with scandal and kept themselves out of a bowl game.
• UCF - Coaching is somewhat stable.  But the Athletic Director and WR coach are fired for illegal recruiting.  The school is going to face NCAA sanctions as a second time offender (already in trouble for problems just two years ago).  They lose a multi-million dollar case for basically running a player to death.  And the team fluctuates between winning and sucking every year.
• USF - Founding coach Jim Leavitt is fired for physically assaulting a player.  Plus they are in the Big East, which is as stable as a fault line.
• FIU - no one cares.
• FAU - The team never had much traction.  But now, founding coach Howard Schnellenberger retired after the season.

NCAA sanctions, new coaches, conference upheaval.  Sounds like a great place to go to school, right?  Kids aren't stupid.  They will overlook those problems if the future looks bright.  But, for most of these schools, do you think they are the verge of righting the ship?  I have a feeling for all of these (except FIU) that things may get worse before they get better.  UCF is going to get slammed by the NCAA.  If they have another bad season, O'Leary is gone.  UM still hasn't heard the last of hooker-gate.  The Meyer Ohio State hiring may hurt UF with transfers and recruiting leaning up north.  FSU seems like they just can't get it together.  USF is the only school that never had a suitor in the Big East exodus earlier.  In addition, the schools surrounding the state of Florida keep getting stronger.  LSU and Alabama are in the national title game this year.  Georgia seems to be back on track.  Georgia Tech made a run at the conference title this year.  Auburn won the title last year.  If I was coming out of high school and had to pick between a school that may not be allowed to play in a bowl, one with coaching turmoil, or a stable program with national title hopes a few miles north - I would seriously have to consider those other places.  I think this is going to be a tough stretch for Florida college football.  How long that lasts remains to be seen.  For now, though, Florida sports fans will have to get used to being in an unfamiliar place - looking up at the pack.

No Defense

I have wanted to write about the Penn State scandal for several days now.  In truth, it has dominated my thoughts since this past weekend.  I heard mention of it on the news when the story first broke, so I read some of the coverage on it.  And, I wish I could un-read it.  It horrified me so much that I had trouble sleeping that night.  The next day, I sat my older kids down and explained what they needed to do if anyone approaches them in an inappropriate manner.  I told them, "Scream as loud as you can, punch them as hard as you can in their special place, run as fast as you can, and then tell me as soon as you can."  I didn't know what else to do.  What I wanted to do was to drive up to Happy Valley (ironic name, this week), find Coach Sandusky, and murder him.  That is precisely why I didn't write about this whole issue.  I didn't see any way that I could convey my thoughts without cursing, offending someone, or making me look like a violent rage-a-holic.  From the coverage I have been hearing and reading, my thoughts are not isolated.  It is amazing the number of sportswriters and sports talking heads who have expressed those exact same sentiments.

The fallout from the scandal is still being measured.  So far, the University President, Athletic Director, and a VP have exited - along with the firing of Joe Paterno.  Somehow, though, the original accuser still is coaching on the team - despite the fact that his reporting of the 2002 incident was so poor that several people hid behind the claim they "didn't fully understand the gravity of the accusation."  Personally, I think that the Board of Trustees needs to just get rid of the entire coaching staff and shutter the program for the rest of the year until the school can truly assess what in Hades is going on.

Now, apparently that last comment would get me a riot outside of my house.  There are so many horrifying and inexplicable things that have happened in the course of this scandal.  But one of the most mind scrambling is the fact that Penn State students rioted last night when news of Paterno's firing hit the airwaves.  Dannah Gresh, who is an amazing writer of purity resources, lives up near State College.  She has been tweeting about what was happening up there.  One of the things she posted (I think it was from someone else originally) was, "Too bad the rioting wasn't because a child was molested."  That's the crazy part.  AT LEAST eight boys were molested by this guy.  I say at least because the police are fielding tons of calls about other cases not related to the Grand Jury indictment.  [By the way, I refuse to say "allegedly" in all of this.  If it was one accuser, I may have some doubts.  Eight?  A three year Grand Jury investigation?  Reports that this guy was "walked in on" on FOUR separate occasions?  You don't get an "allegedly" for that.  This isn't some tv cop show where they drag five different people in and threaten to arrest them.  This was a freaking THREE YEAR Grand Jury investigation.]  The rioters were not up in arms that this kind of horror could happen right under the noses of the university.  They weren't furious that state and school resources went to this man - even after he had been accused and ADMITTED to making mistakes with young boys.  The angry hordes weren't buying pitchforks and torches because the school allowed this guy's nonprofit (which was supposed to help children) to operate on its campus running football camps.  They were mad because the people who made stupid, irresponsible, reckless decisions that led to the continued destruction of children's lives were fired for those decisions.

This is one of the things I absolutely hate about sports.  Sports fans are so passionate about their teams and players that they turn a blind eye whenever something that could tarnish that entity arises.  I can understand being shocked and not wanting to believe an accusation.  But to stubbornly defend a team, a school, an athlete in the face of mounting evidence is just asinine.  It isn't like there isn't a track record of sports personalities and groups making self-serving and immoral choices.  How many times do we need to see this play out before we start to believe that these players and teams are not deserving of that level of defense.  I remember when trouble first started to swirl around Tiger Woods.  People made all kind of statements and accusations about Tiger's wife.  Nearly twenty women later, those supporters know the truth.  But it was their first inclination to defend, defend, defend.

Two other things happened yesterday that highlighted this.  While Penn State was watching their world unravel, UCF was watching their athletic department for entirely different reasons.  UCF President John Hitt fired Athletic Director Keith Tribble and the Wide Receivers Coach.  Head Men's Basketball Coach, Donnie Jones, was suspended without pay for three games.  Several basketball players have been suspended, including Michael Jordan's sons Marcus and Jeff.  In the case of UCF, an NCAA investigation has shown that the athletic department had been getting into an improper relationship with a professional "runner" - who is a guy who guides players to specific teams and is paid for it (illegally).  Back in April, the reports began to surface.  UCF was dirty - that's how they were getting a shocking number of high quality players from Chicago.  UCF fans refused to believe it.  I myself, being a devout UCF fan and alum, wanted to doubt it.  But, there was something that didn't add up.  Partly, it was a sports entity being accused - which, in my opinion, always ends up being true.  Keith Tribble went so far in April as to say he had never met this guy, couldn't identify him.  Turns out Tribble was a big fat liar.  Now, UCF is big trouble.  They are trying to self discipline.  But it isn't going to work.  What has been the response of most UCF fans I've seen?  Shame - followed by questioning if this is going to keep us out of the Big East.

It should.  I think that the Big East should contact President Hitt and say, "I'm sorry, but that is not the kind of institution we want in our conference.  You have no control over your players or staff or coaches. Stay in the Conference USA, if they'll have you."  They SHOULD say that, but they won't.  This is the same conference that houses UConn basketball and Louisville basketball and Cincinnati sports and West Virginia (until last month).  The Big East is probably rushing even faster to get UCF now - since they proved they can cheat with the big boys.  Cheating is a prerequisite for admission.  [Truly pathetic part?  Eight of the teams in the Big East for basketball are Catholic universities - the kind of schools that shouldn't stomach cheating on any level.  And they are thinking of inviting BYU, the team who suspended their top players last year for having premarital relations with their girlfriends.  Run, BYU, run.]  Once again, the temptation for UCF fans was to defend their teams.  The temptation for the Big East is to defend their schools.

In the NFL, Ryan Clark - a safety for the Steelers - was fined $45,000 for a helmet to helmet hit on Sunday.  His response was touching and sensitive.  "If I'm going to get fined that much, I'm going to make sure I get my money's worth."  Amazing.  The NFL is trying (pathetically, but trying nonetheless) to cut down on concussions now that it is evident that brain damage from football are costing players years of their lives.  So they have ramped up the penalties for head hits.  Then you have Clark responding like that.  And, once again, Steelers fans will rush to the defense of their player.  They will complain about how the NFL singles out Pittsburgh players.  They will say the NFL is getting soft.  They will laugh at Clark's comment.  And they will get giddy the next time a Steelers player tries to paralyze someone.

We keep seeing this happen.  Football fans defend their sport and try to minimize those brain damage studies.  They defend their teams and players.  They defend behavior that is violent and uncalled for and irresponsible.  It is sad.  It is like a person loses their usual moral and ethical compass when it comes to winning a championship.  I guess that makes me a lousy sports fan.  I ditched the Dallas Cowboys around 2000 because I hated the way they did business.  I did the same thing with the Bucs a few years later.  And I did the same thing with the Yankees when the Mitchell Report hit and it showed everyone on the Yankees had a needle perpetually sticking out of their arm.  I won't ditch UCF because I went there and my tie there is different.  But I will have hard supporting the current coaching staffs until this gets fixed.

Sports isn't the only place this happens, obviously.  We see Republicans doing the same thing right now with Herman Cain.  These are the same people who wanted to crucify Bill Clinton and fire Rep Weiner over their misbehavior.  But their first response with Cain is to say it is a conspiracy.  Fans of Apple Computers refused to acknowledge anything negative they heard about Steve Jobs - even going so far as saying that what made him so great was his tendency to be a rude, abrasive, intolerant, short tempered tyrant.  We all have the desire to defend things we care about.  Unfortunately, more often than not lately, the things we want to defend don't deserve our defense.  They haven't earned such passion and loyalty.  So we are put in a position where we have to compromise our own morals and ethics to defend their lack of control.  "All programs cheat.  We just got caught.  We just are worse at hiding it."  Why should anyone who claims to have a moral guide and compass DEFEND unethical behavior?  You shouldn't.  Wrongdoing is wrong - no matter what.  Breaking the rules is wrong.  I don't care if you like the color of the jersey or the helmet logo the person is wearing.  It is wrong.  There is no circumstance that makes it okay to cheat ... or to sexual harass someone.  And there is absolutely nothing that makes it okay to sexually assault a child.

Which leads us back to Penn State.  Some people have asked what Paterno's crime was.  They say he legally had done everything he was supposed to, but he had not morally done everything.  The fact is that he ran that campus.  He ran that athletic department.  And he allowed Sandusky to remain there.  I don't even know how he could.  I doubt that I would be able and willing to have someone that I knew had hurt children around my workplace.  At the very least, Sandusky admitted to making a mistake in 1999.  Paterno then was told about another disturbing incident in 2002.  That's two.  At that point, even if he didn't understand everything, Paterno should have banished Sandusky.  He should have made trouble for his nonprofit and refused to let them operate on campus.  He should have ended the friendship.  The fact that he not only didn't do that, but allowed him on campus "all the time" and allowed him to use the athletic facilities.  He saw him in the company of young boys "from the nonprofit group" on trips.  That never triggered a question?  I believe that is is the job of all adults to defend and protect the innocent - the ones who can't defend themselves.  That includes kids.  You may think kids are annoying and hate their noise.  But you still should protect them.  That is ingrained in people.  We are built to care about others and to take care of small people.  To sacrifice children for the sake of a friendship is deplorable.  To ignore harm coming to children for the sake of a bowl bid is reprehensible.  And to be more upset about the decimation of a football team instead of the decimation of innocent lives is completely indefensible.

What's a Title Worth?

What's your favorite team? Get that team in your head - the one that you are really passionate about. Now, let's assume that, as a fan, you were presented the following scenario. "If your team can guarantee it will win the title next year. BUT, to do so, they will have to suck for AT LEAST the next ten years." Would you do it? Is the joy of the title worth the decade of frustration that will be following? I know Bill Simmons has kind of examined this before on his ESPN site. He argues that if your team wins a title, you are not allowed to complain about anything they do for the next five years. Normally, I think that Simmons is pretty on target with his take on sports. But I disagree with this proposition.

The Florida Marlins have two World Series titles. They were won ten years apart. And in both cases, the team did the same thing. They built a good team through drafts, farm system, trades. Then, the loaded up the team for one year. They snuck into the playoffs as the Wild Card and then raced through the playoffs - winning the World Series. Then, they dismantled the team and were absolutely horrible for several years. Then, due to that, they were able to cheaply restock during that time and repeat the process. It is actually pretty good business for the team. They pay through the nose for salaries for a couple years, get the most they can out of young talent, and then dump everybody before they have to re-sign anyone to more than a rookie deal.

So, as a Marlins fan (are there any of those?) would you be okay with this? Every ten years, you will win a title. But for seven of those other nine years, you will have a losing record. In today's sports economic system, it is pretty obvious that it is impossible to compete every single year and keep a roster intact. The superstars want big pay days, which means that you can't keep the other surrounding players - the unrecognized, but vital, parts of the team. To keep the quarterback, running back, top receiver, a couple defensive stars the team has to sacrifice offensive linemen and tight ends and safety. Next thing you know, the team is going 10-6 and losing in the first round every year. (Eagles, I'm looking in your direction.) Eventually something has to change - so the team gets blown up. As a fan, would you rather be like the Eagles of the NFL - competitive just about every year, going to the playoffs, never winning the big game? Or would you rather be like the Marlins - rarely competitive, winning record three years out of ten, title every ten years, no continuity?

I thought about all of this when I thought about the Tampa Bay Bucs. When I lived in Tampa and really started cheering for the Bucs, the team had a personality. It took after its coach, Tony Dungy. The players seemed nice. They had fun together. They worked hard, played tough, and were always competitive. They turned a loser franchise around and made it a contender. And the fans responded. At one point, they had 40,000 people on a waiting list for season tickets.  But, they were not quite getting over that hump. It was frustrating to the fans - and apparently extremely frustrating to ownership. So they made the decision that has changed that franchise forever. They fired Rich McKay and Tony Dungy and brought in Bruce Allen and Jon Gruden. The very next year the Bucs won the Super Bowl. It looked like they made the right choice. Except....

In retrospect, we can see what we should have known at the time. Gruden won with Dungy's team, except with a couple of tweaks. He was this legendary quarterbacks coach, but ended up getting minimal help from Brad Johnson. They rode Monte Kiffin and the defense to the title. And they probably would have at least gotten to the Super Bowl with Dungy. The team wasn't that much better under Gruden. It went 12-4. If you broke the season into quarters, they were 3-1 in each one. They just hit it right. And the biggest advantage Gruden brought to the team was the fact the Bucs played the Radiers in the Super Bowl. He was able to completely undermine the Raiders since he built their team. That was where the move proved its worth - if they had played another AFC team, Gruden would have been irrelevant to the season.

Dungy went to the Colts and did the same thing as with the Bucs. Very consistent, very competitive, never winning the big one. But, eventually, he did win. And he would have won eventually with the Bucs. They may have even won more than one title - once the first one was in the basket. Instead, the Bucs now had a new approach to football. And Allen/Gruden couldn't stand the constant accusations being levied at them that they had just won with Dungy's team. So they began a systematic rebuilding of the team in their images. How'd that work out?

• 2002 - Record 12-4 - won Super Bowl
• 2003 - Record 7-9 - no playoffs
• 2004 - Record 5-11 - no playoffs
• 2005 - Record 11-5 - lost in wild card game
• 2006 - Record 4-12 - no playoffs
• 2007 - Record 9-7 - lost in wild card game (Gruden/Allen re-signed through 2011)
• 2008 - Record 9-7 - no playoffs after Bucs lost last four games
• Gruden/Allen fired

Their record was 57-55. If you remove the carryover year from Dungy, they went 45-51. The team won three division titles in the shaky NFC South. The first was the Super Bowl year. The other two, the team quickly exited the playoffs. So, would you say the experiment was a success? The team won a Super Bowl, so you could argue that it was. But, now the team is a complete wreck. Last year, they were terrible under their new head coach, Raheem Morris - who was still in high school when Brett Favre started in the NFL. And this year doesn't look any better. Neither does next year. The team itself has completely lost its mojo. That huge waiting list is gone.  Now the Bucs are one of the dozen teams that will be forced into home blackouts by the NFL due to poor ticket sales.  They really don't have anyone on the roster that even inspires a level of excitement for the future. They don't have a franchise quarterback. Their receiving corps looks to be the worst in the NFL. Their two premiere players are Cadillac Williams - who appears to be named after the 1980s Caddys that broke down a lot - and Ronde Barber. While Ronde has been a rock for this team, he is winding down his career. And he's older than the head coach.

[Side Note on Barber. Did you know that there are less than 20 players who have recorded over 500 tackles and 20 sacks for their career? I was kind of surprised to hear that. Barber reached that level in 2005. At that point there were only nine players. I found one other one who reached that last year. Some of the others include Seth Joyner, Ray Lewis, Wilbur Marshall, Brian Dawkins, Rodney Harrison, and LeRoy Butler. Most of them are linebackers. A few are safeties. Barber is the only cornerback. So far, he has 1156 tackles and 25 sacks. But he also has 37 interceptions. There are only about a dozen players with 20 sacks and 20 interceptions in their career. I'm not sure what all that means, but Barber has been one heck of a player.]

So, back to the original question... Is one title worth years of ineptitude? I don't know. It is hard for me to answer that because I'm not a great sports fan. I haven't been loyal to one team for my whole life. And the teams I rooted for in my early years (Cowboys, Georgia Bulldogs, Yankees) all won titles. So I don't know what it feels like for a tortured sports fan like a Browns fan or Eagles fan or Lions fan. Would it be worth it for them? I know that the Red Sox 86 year title drought has been nauseatingly documented. And the fans there have all said that the 2006 title was worth it. Even those fans, though, once they got a taste of victory got greedy. They aren't satisfied with losing any more. I can't imagine that Boston fans would tolerate ten years of ineptitude without complaining.

I don't let my life get too wrapped up in sports. I love sports. But I find it hard to root for a corporation. Honestly, I root harder for Apple than I do for any of my professional teams. I have changed allegiances over the years. The teams I used to root for I slowly drifted away from. I didn't like they way they ran their franchise, honestly. I rooted for the Cowboys for years, until I couldn't take Jerry Jones any more. I was tired of them before they ended their string of Super Bowls in the 90s. The Yankees got tossed aside a few years back after the Mitchell Report linked 26 players to steroid use. I figured that was just a culture of cheating at that point. I aligned with the Bucs for a while, when I was living in Tampa and for a few years after that. But eventually the Glazer/Gruden/Allen combo pushed me away. So I am not the best person to ask. I respond to a team's personality and not just their players or the team itself.

Now I root for the Jaguars because I get to go to their games once in a while - and my in-laws live in Jacksonville. It is easy to follow that team, and they seem like a good organization. I started rooting for the Tampa Bay Rays - partly because they are an underdog, partly because of the team personality, partly because them winning sticks it to the Yankees AND Red Sox. The Magic got my allegiance due to location (I've lived in or near Orlando since 1992 - for the most part) and the way the team is run - I like the owner and the personnel. And the Nashville Predators fit into those same molds. Plus I love rooting for underdogs and teams with good personalities. You would have sworn I was a Saints fan last year with how much I cheered for them during the season.

I guess the closest I come to being a rabid sports fan is with my college team - UCF. They are the team I follow the closest and feel strong emotional attachment to. That is because I went to that school. My wife went to that school. We lived near that school for years. I had lots to do with students, faculty, alumni of that school. So it isn't just rooting for a random jersey and logo at that point. So, would a title for UCF be worth it? That is a tough question. Their team has been so frustrating to follow for so many years. They never live up to their talent. Sure, they have won conference titles. They have been to bowl games. But they never really seem to get it all together. They are always too impressed with their opponents. They have an abysmal record against schools from the "power conferences." This has cost them numerous games they should have won. And I've also had to watch as cross-state rival USF started a football program, grew that program, beat ranked teams, got ranked as high as #2 in the BCS poll, and beat our butts four years in a row.

In college, once you win that title - it never goes away. (Well, unless you are USC or play for John Calipari or Bob Huggins.) The constant turnover of players due to graduation means that teams are used to the ebb and flow of success. Even the biggest teams have gone through dry spells when they had bad recruiting or a coaching change. So going through a stretch of suckitude after a title wouldn't be that horrible, I guess. And think about the joy that would come from being able to rub that title as a non-BCS team into all the big guys' faces. I can't imagine the way the first non-BCS team will feel when it finally breaks up the monopoly. (Boise State, TCU - this is your year. Let's find out!) And if you were the team that lost to that non-BCS team? Man, they would be owned forever. "Way to go Ohio State. I understand losing to Florida. But TCU? Seriously?!?" I mean, look at the crap Michigan has taken for getting offed by Appalachian State a couple of years ago.

I guess it would be worth it - being able to gloat over FSU and Miami and UF. Especially UF. Plus, imagine what one title would be worth to a school. That would give them legitimacy when it came to conference affiliation, television money, merchandise, recruiting, scheduling. Plus, even if a college stinks for a decade after a title, they still have some sway. Look at Washington, Georgia Tech, Auburn, and BYU. They still have extra status due to those titles - even though several of those schools have never come close to that level of success again.

Whether or not buying a title would be worth it obviously depends on who you ask.  The owners and players would probably argue that, yes, it was worth it.  A franchise is more valuable with hardware - they can get more allowances from their home city, higher merchandise sales, more lucrative seat licenses.  So the title is worth it to an owner.  To players, their careers are often defined by their ability or inability to win the big game.  Think about guys like Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Dan Marino, or Dale Murphy.  Their careers cannot be mentioned without the deadly "but they never won a title" attached.  And then there are players whose careers are inflated in importance due to titles (Joe Namath, looking in your general direction).  Plus, you can sucker some dumb team into giving you tons of money if you were a part of a championship team (Larry Brown).  Plus, there isn't a lot of loyalty in sports.  You get your money while you can - on both sides of the labor argument.  Championships equal money.

To the fan, the question is harder.  A rabid, die hard, lunatic fan who lives and dies by the team's success would argue that the title is worth it.  A long suffering fan of a team that is perennially sorry (Browns, Cubs, Lions, Nationals, Clippers) would probably say it is worth it - to get the monkey off their back.  But I would wager they would regret that later.  The title would feel great.  But then to go BACK to the putrid levels of yesteryear - that would be horrible.  Think about Rams fans.  They were the worst team in the NFL - voted worst of the decade.  They had watched the move from L.A. to St Louis.  There was only on Super Bowl appearance where they had backed into the playoffs at 9-7, knocked off the Cowboys, beat the Bucs in the worst NFC Championship game ever, and lost to the juggernaut Steelers in their own backyard (the LA Coliseum).  Then - a miracle.  Kurt Warner, Dick Vermeil, Marshall Faulk, Ike Bruce and the Greatest Show on Turf arrives.  They win a Super Bowl, lose in another.  They are a powerhouse offense for a few years.  Then it all collapses and they are back to the first pick in the draft and yearly ineptitude.  How do those fans feel?  Do they say, "At least we have 2000 and 2002?"  Or do they know how bad it can be, know how good it can be, and realize just how bad it stinks to go back?  Does the winning make the losing worse?  (This could also be applied in an even better way to the Tampa Bay Lightning - league doormats, random title, back to league doormats.  But they don't have any fans.  And no one watches hockey.  So no one cares.)

As a person who has followed the Bucs, I can't stand to see how far they have fallen.  I know that it is possible for Tampa to handle a top tier team.  The city weathered some of the worst teams the NFL ever threw out there.  They love their team - and the responded well to it.  They built it a new gorgeous stadium.  They bought new merchandise when the team changed its look.  And now they are expected to continue to support the team when it has no direction, no prospects, and no apparent drive to do anything about it.  When I went to the U2 concert last October at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, I looked up at the giant banners of their players hanging from the concourses.  In years past, they were adorned by Ronde Barber, Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, Mike Alstott, Warrick Dunn.  You felt pride in seeing those players on a fifty foot poster.  "That's MY team.  Look at that!"  But this time there were banners with Byron Leftwich and Kellen Winslow II and Aqib Talib.  That is just sad.  And in that moment, I can confidently say it was NOT worth it.

Drinking Haterade

The other day a brilliant and insightful person posted a statement on Twitter.  "You aren't a real sports fan until you hate someone."  While Bill Simmons has addressed this before, he was not the one who wrote that.  Yeah, okay, I wrote it.  But it was pretty good, right?  Think about it, can you really root for a team without also rooting AGAINST other teams.  And it helps to have a villain as a foil for your hero.  Joker makes Batman a better character.

Sports is one arena where this is so clearly demonstrated.  Players and teams are measured against other players and teams.  Greatness is assigned when one entity is demonstrably better than another.  When there are two teams/players so much better than every other, their greatness is even more amplified.  Larry Bird is considered one of the all-time greats because he excelled against other epic players - Magic, Dr. J, Dominique.  For him to still be so good with such powerful opponents showed how good he really was.  I think that is one reason a player like Allen Iverson is so undervalued - he didn't have any dominent competition.

Also, in sports, there are divisions and conferences that lend themselves to this villains/heroes mindset.  Teams play teams in their division multiple times a year.  They have to beat each other to get to the playoffs.  In baseball, division teams play each other like 21 times each year.  In the NFL, you play your division rival twice - and may only play out of conference teams every few years.  So you learn to hate the other teams in your grouping.  It's one of the few cases where hatred is acceptable - actually encouraged.

I have heard people try to tell me that they like multiple teams within a conference or something like that.  How?!?  I have a friend from college who says she likes the Detroit Red Wings AND Nashville Predators. They are in the same division!  The Red Wings are the reason the Preds had to play the Blackhawks in the playoffs.  How can you like both?  It's not possible. (Sorry Carol)  It is like being a fan of the Eagles AND Giants.  Or the Red Sox AND Yankees.  That is NOT possible.  It's like Jesus said, "Fresh water and salt water cannot come out of the same spring."  [What?!?  He said that.  I'm sure in modern times it would have been, "You can not wear orange and blue AND garnet and gold."]

I bring all of this up because I have documented my recent transition to hockey fan.  I feel that I have done an admirable job adopting the sport.  I actually watch the games several times a week on Versus Channel.  (A channel I had never once watched before.)  I watched part of five of the six Nashville playoff games.  I was severely bummed out over the Preds choking away TWO games in that series - and subsequently the series itself.  They only converted on one power play the whole series, for Molsen's sake!  I feel like I'm doing well.  But this weekend I found myself jumping to a different level of fandom - something that truly gave me credibility.  I turned on Game One of the Chicago/Vancouver series TO ROOT AGAINST THE BLACKHAWKS.  Yes, I have crossed the line from casual observer - who would have found on something different to watch - to fan.  I intentionally watched a game to throw mental barbs at a team I hated.  And I laughed when they got whipped.  I also took great pleasure in watching Detroit lose both games to San Jose.

Don't get me wrong - I have no affection for either Vancouver or San Jose.  I am purely ambivalent to those teams.  But when they drop the puck against Chicago or Detroit - well then I might as well have the Canucks or Sharks as my Twitter wallpaper.  That's the way sports go.  My enemy's enemy is my friend.  It is pretty sad, I guess, but I was actually proud of myself that I have so quickly grown to detest those teams.  It shows true loyalty, as well as some pain from losing.

As a parent, I am still trying to get my kids into watching sports with me.  They are kind of resistent to it.  They would prefer reading books and using their imagination and other bologna.  How are they supposed to become a couch potato if they won't watch sports?  My best hope is Gabe, I think.  But he like soccer - which will be useful this summer with the World Cup.  I keep trying to get them to understand that we are a UCF family.  They kind of have that down.  And they know we all cheer for the Jaguars.  But, it is just as important to teach who they should DISlike.  Like they say, hatred is learned.   If you don't teach your kids which teams and players to root against, they may get distracted by stuff like stats and looks and logos and helmet design.  Next thing you know, they will be cheering for the Colts because "that Manning guy is funny."  If no one teaches them, how will they know?

There are some very natural and well-known love/hate team pairings.  They are the ones I mentioned earlier.  But it is hard to find a team to loathe when you are a fan of one of those mid-level teams like I am.  How do you come up with a villain when your team is the equivalent of superheroes like Namor or
Booster Gold?  I mean, you cheer for Michigan, your body just automatically turns against Ohio State like it was a virus.  But when you root for the Kansas City Royals, it isn't so easy to decide who to hate.  You know, besides the universe, for making you a Royals fan.

To help with this process, allow me to spell out some of my personal affiliations and defiliations (I made that up).  I have mentioned some of this in previous posts, but for the sake of condensing the hatred, here we go.  I think that all sports fans have four emotions when dealing with sports teams.  There is LOVE - that is for their favorite team (or teams, if you believe in sports bigamy).  Next is SYMPATHY.  These are teams you may have flirted with over the years.  Or it could have a good story, players worth rooting for, geographical advantages.  But SYMPATHY teams are never cheered for over LOVE teams.  Then there is AMBIVALENCE.  This the biggest category, comprised of most of a league.  You don't really care what they do - as long as they do two things.  They need to lose to your LOVE/SYMPATHY teams and beat the HATRED teams.  And then there is the HATRED teams.  You never cheer for these teams.  They are loathed.  Fans of these teams have some sort of mental illness, obviously.  If two teams in this category play each other, you root for the team that will cause the most widespread damage to the other HATRED teams by winning.  Or you root for a chasm to open up under the stadium and devour the teams.  The final rule is that you root for all games not involving your LOVE team so that the outcome helps your LOVE team.  If you have a SYMPATHY team playing a HATRED team, but a victory by the HATRED team will put your LOVE into the playoffs and a loss will send them home?  You cheer for that HATRED team with everything you have - and then go cleanse yourself.  That all being said, here's my lineups.

NFL
LOVE:  Jacksonville Jaguars (AFC South)
SYMPATHY: Tampa Bay Bucs, New Orleans Saints
AMBIVALENCE:  Bills, Browns, Bengals, Steelers, Texans, Titans, Chargers, Chiefs, Cowboys, Eagles, Bears, Lions, Vikings, Packers, Falcons, Panthers, Seahawks, Rams, Cardinals.  And the Colts, Jets, and Patriots are awfully close to dropping down a level.
HATRED: Miami Dolphins, SF 49ers, Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders, Washington Redskins, NY Giants, Baltimore Ravens

NBA
LOVE: Orlando Magic (Southeast Division)
SYMPATHY: Atlanta Hawks (precarious)
AMBIVALENCE: Raptors, Sixers, Nets, Bucks, Bulls, Pacers, Bobcats, Wizards, Nuggets, Jazz, Blazers, Thunder, T'Wolves, Suns, Clippers, Warriors, Kings, Mavs, Spurs, Rockets, Grizzlies, Hornets.  With the Cavs sliding down in the bottom soon, probably.
HATRED:  Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat

COLLEGE
LOVE: UCF Knights (Conference USA)
SYMPATHY: Georgia Bulldogs, FSU Seminoles (begrudgingly due to Heather), USF Bulls (drifting down fast). underdogs and cinderellas
AMBIVALENCE: Everyone else
HATRED: Florida Gators, Miami Hurricanes, Notre Dame Irish (The unholy trinity).  Then USC Trojans, Ohio State Buckeyes, Texas Longhorns, Duke Blue Devils

NHL
LOVE: Nashville Predators (Central Division)
SYMPATHY: Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadians
AMBIVALENCE: Flyers, Senators, Bruins, Maple Leafs, Capitals, Thrashers, Hurricanes, Lightning, Panthers, Blues, Blue Jackets, Canucks, Avalanche, Flames, Wild, Oilers, Sharks, Coyotes, Kings, Ducks, Stars.  With the Rangers, Islanders, and Devils on the edge of hatred - just due to their location)
HATRED: Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks

MLB
LOVE: No one
SYMPATHY: Tampa Bay Rays, NY Yankees, St Louis Cardinals (due to Pujols)
AMBIVALENCE: Blue Jays, Orioles, White Sox, Royals, Tigers, Twins, Indians, Rangers, A's, Mariners, Phillies, Nationals, Pirates, Cubs, Reds, Brewers, Astros, Giants, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Padres
HATRED: Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, LA Dodgers, LA Angels, NY Mets, Florida Marlins

So, there is a handy guide based on my opinions.  I hope it helps you to develop the hatred and loathing that is so necessary to become a true sports fan.  Finding someone to hate will make your sports viewing such a richer experience.  You need your Darth Vader, your Joker, your Red Sox.  Spread the hate.

State of Florida Sports: Why UCF Is Irrelevant

The third part of my examination of the Florida Sports Scene is an honest look at my favorite college team, UCF.

I love UCF.  There may be some pulling of my heart in other sports between teams.  But there is nothing of the sort with college sports.  It is UCF all the time, all the way.  The day I set foot on that campus, every other school fell away.  I still align with UGA when it comes to big things, but there is a clear number one - and no number two.  I have told my kids they are free to cheer for other teams in other sports.  But they have to root for UCF if they root at all.  Being the fan of a mid-level school is hard.  As badly as you want them to be important, it rarely happens - rarer still for them to be important in multiple sports.  As bad as I could wish that I could shut my UF supporting buddies up, I know that won't happen.  UCF is not in their league.  And honestly, it probably never will be.  Here are some things that I see, as a very ardent supporter of UCF, that keep UCF from playing any role in college sports.

1. INFERIORITY COMPLEX - I once had a buddy who worked at a very large church.  When I asked him about the place, he told me, "It is a big church that thinks it still is a small church becoming a big church."  It was always trying to prove it belonged, trying to look big.  It never realized that it WAS big and should just be itself.  UCF is the same way.  They are like the 5th largest school in the country - the largest east of the Mississippi.  They have a gorgeous campus, a new on-campus stadium, rabid fans, a supportive community, a brilliant President, and amazing academic programs.  They are a part of a mid-major conference, have been to two bowls, the NCAA Basketball Tourney, and the College Baseball Regionals.  They have produced major league baseball players, NFL players, Olympians.  Why are they still trying to prove they deserved their invite to the party?  Get over it and just BE yourself.  

2. CELEBRATING MEDIOCRITY - As a friend reminded me today, UF fired their football coach for going 7-5.  UCF gave their football coach a 10 year extension and a raise for GOING to (and losing) a bowl game.  The basketball coach is constantly rewarded for getting to the NCAA Tourney and getting destroyed in the first round.  Every year, the football team plays between one and three "real teams."  In their history, they have won exactly ONE of the games.  They always play the games close.  But they never win them.  However, there is still that "way to go guys, you did great against them.  No one expected you to win."  Why not?  Appalachian State can beat Michigan and UCF can't knock off a pathetic Miami?  Now that UCF is in Conference USA instead of the uh, Atlantic Sun, or MAC, it is now okay to not make the postseason in basketball and baseball.  Since Memphis in roundball is there, and Rice in baseball, we are excused.  That's just ridiculous.  Start demanding more.  Which ties into point three.

3. UCF HANGS ON TO COACHES TOO LONG - UCF didn't want to fire Gene McDowell because of his contributions to the football program.  They finally did, and then kept Mike Kruczek too long because he got Daunte Culpepper to go to UCF.  Then they brought in O'Leary.  In his five years at UCF, O'Leary has led UCF to 0-11, 8-5, 4-8, 10-4, and now 4-8.  In addition, a player died during the offseason at workouts.  The entire event was characterized by coverups, lies, and threats by UCF.  O'Leary on several occasions lied about what happened - this from a man with a history of lying.  Yet he is still not in hot water?  Loyalty is an admirable quality.  Refusing to pull a trigger is another.

4. LACK OF VISION - When UCF opened their stadium, they actually had a real home field advantage for the first time ever.  The stadium itself would bounce and sway when fans got excited.  They jumped on the bleachers and made the whole place shake.  It was known as The Trampoline.  Other teams actually FEARED FOR THEIR LIVES.  You could hear audible fear in announcers' voices.  ESPN guys called the stadium the loudest stadium they had been in.  So, what did UCF do?  They banned the song.  They forbade the jumping.  They solidified the stadium.  So, instead of being a place where opponents feared to play, it became a source of discontent for the home crowd.  BRILLIANT!  Kirk Speraw, UCF basketball coach, has made his entire career of recruiting JuCo players, only getting two years of play before they graduate.  There is no continuity, no long-term plan.  They reload every two years.  Fans can't get used to the players.  They just transfer in for a year or so and then leave.  BRILLIANT!  The fact that UCF took 20 something years to decide that they should play Division I football shows this best of all.

Until UCF is willing to fully commit to its sports program, and address the problems, it is going to remain a distant competitor - watching its bigger neighbors play for all the marbles.