Rick Scuteri/US PRESSWIRE

Chris Leak had all the right moves in dismantling BCS favorite Ohio State Monday night.

“The Florida game plan was art, suitable for framing. The execution of the game plan was similarly gorgeous.” — Pat Forde

“The Rambo-like Tebow threw for one TD and powered into the end zone for another.” — MSNBC

“… the Gators triumphed with a superior offensive system and a defense that ate a rather mundane scheme alive.” — the Heisman Pundit

“Call Gainesville, Florida what it is: The capital of college sports in America.” — Richard Deitsch

“Florida’s offense did donuts around the confused, slowish Buckeyes defenders. Meyer used so many formations that Ohio State developed a nervous tic. And about the only Gator who didn’t line up at quarterback was Meyer’s wife, Shelley.” — Gene Wojciechowski

“Ohio State, a team that had won nine games by at least three touchdowns, finished with 82 total yards and eight first downs, totals that Florida surpassed in the first quarter.” — Ivan Maisel

“He was Cool Hand Leak, steady as a rock, unflappable and never afraid of the Big Bad Buckeyes.” — Franz Beard

“At least it was close… oh wait, I forgot, we got CRUSHED.” — Steve Lazuka

“Ohio State and Michigan were the two best teams in a really bad league. Florida was the best team in a really good league.” — Jim Walden

“Florida kicked ass until their toes fell off. It was like watching a small animal get crushed between two glaciers.” — Every Day Should Be Saturday

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Last night I finished reading Bleachers, by John Grisham. (I read it in three or four 50-page bursts; it’s not very long.) It’s a story about the legacy of a dying high school football coach. The main character is the star quarterback who returns home fifteen years after graduation to pay his respects and come to terms with his relationship with his former mentor. I’d give it three out of five stars. I’m not particularly fond of Grisham’s writing style, but this was a very good story. My mom gave me the book for Christmas last year, in ‘05, and I just happened to grab it on my way out the door a few days ago. If you see it sitting on a shelf, it’s worth a few hours of your time.

Apparently the people in charge in Columbus, Ohio are preparing for the worst. There’s a story on ESPN’s site about how they are planning how to handle rioting in the (unlikely) event that Ohio State beats Florida in Monday night’s BCS Championship game. What does it say about your school and your community when everyone running things plans for a riot in case something great happens? When Florida won the national championship in ‘96, there was plenty of celebrating, but certainly no rioting.

Florida fans never storm the field, never tear down goalposts. Whether you love him or hate him, you have to give credit to Spurrier for that. We expect to win. Win or lose, we are still champions. Go Gators!

During last night’s Sugar Bowl one of the announcers referenced Rudy, one of my all-time favorite movies. Notre Dame got trampled by LSU and they didn’t really deserve to be in the game, but everyone loves them anyway. I admit that as much as I wanted the Tigers to win — to cement how strong the SEC is — I was pulling for Charlie’s boys. There’s just something about the Irish. This morning at the gym I couldn’t stop thinking about what a great film Rudy is. And that made my computer-programming brain start trying to organize my favorite sports movies. So I did.

I’ll start with the Honorable Mentions and then count down to Number One.

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I was in football nirvana this weekend. I watched no less than a dozen games — college and pro — since I left the office Friday night. The best by far was last night’s Boise State / Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl, one of the top ten football games I’ve ever seen. While watching Saturday night’s Giants / Redskins contest on the NFLN I kept wondering about all the commercials they kept airing for themselves. “Why in the world,” I asked, “do they keep showing me commercials for something they know I already have?”

The only people who could have possibly seen all the ads for the NFLN were the people that currently have the NFLN. And it wasn’t just the 30-second commercials spots, either. During the game they were constantly bombarding me with teasers and float-overs talking about how wonderful they are. Aside from the fact that it was mildly annoying, it was also pointless!

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You have got to be kidding me. This is just about the coolest thing ever. A few weeks ago I lamented that there was no place where I could go to import the entire NCAA College Football Bowl schedule into my Outlook calendar. Today I received an email from Greg Titamer, the owner of Calendar Updates. Not only does Greg’s site provide a complete college football bowl schedule to download into Outlook, but he sent me a free coupon! I would have gladly paid the $1.99 for this. Sweet!

I was listening to Colin Cowherd’s “The Herd” on my local ESPNRadio affiliate while I drove to work this morning. Colin was talking about the fact that the vast majority of cable companies are not carrying the NFLNetwork. Apparently the Rutgers bowl game is going to be on the NFLN and that means that most of New York and New Jersey viewers will not get the game. He said that he thinks ESPN (the television network) should be worried about the NFLNetwork penetrating basic cable because it represents more competition for viewers. I completely disagree.

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! This is when everyone starts asking me, “So what do you want for Christmas?” Every year my answer is the same. “I don’t really want anything. I need cash. If you have a burning desire to buy me a gift, check out my Amazon wishlist.” To make it easier on you, I’ve embedded the little Amazon widget right here.

Here’s something you probably can’t get me, but I’d really like. Someone somewhere should give me a link I can click to automatically add all the college bowl games to my Outlook calendar. That would be oh-so handy. Why hasn’t anyone done that yet? Is it even possible to have a single object that imports multiple calendar items? Why isn’t ESPN working on this?

And so another childhood belief is disproved. I had always liked the oft-told tale of the surviving members of the ‘72 Dolphins sending a case of champagne to the team that beats the last unbeaten NFL team each season. Apparently it’s simply another urban legend. I followed a link from Pop Culture Junk Mail to Snopes, where there’s a long and detailed debunkment of this myth. It looks like I didn’t even have the myth correct, either. Snopes says that the story is supposed to be about the surviving members drinking champagne together (or simultaneously). Oh well …

I have hundreds of photos of other people golfing, but I’m always the one with the camera. That means I don’t usually get too many shots of myself. My dad took this one and I think it’s pretty good. If you view the full size version by clicking the photo you can just make out the ball going straight as an arrow down the fairway. Trust me: This is a rare event when I’m at the tee. This shot’s from the Stadium Course at the TPC in Scottsdale, AZ.

A few weeks ago I was browsing the latest Gator news at Topix and I stumbled upon Orange and Blue Hue. What a great site! I am seriously impressed by the quality of the writing at this blog. There are several different contributors and each has a unique style. It seems like every day — often multiple times each day — there is a new editorial or post about the current state of GatorNation.

The design of the site is also quite superb and they’re doing some really cool stuff with the font titles. If you’re a Gator fan, you should check ‘em out.

The college football homepage at ESPN reads “Saturday Bloody Saturday”. Then it says, “Auburn beat Florida. The SEC body count is complete. On every given Saturday, someone loses in the Bloody South.” It goes on to state, “In the end, that merciless SEC claimed another victim as Florida became the fourth team ranked No. 2 in the AP Top 25 to lose this season, joining Texas, Notre Dame and Auburn.”

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Gainesville is abuzz these days as the 5-0 Florida Gators embark on a huge October. The fifth-ranked Gators will be tested with showdowns throughout the month. Now the slate has gotten even more challenging. Today coach Urban Meyer announced that Florida has added an October 21 matchup with the Chicago Bears to the schedule.

Los Angeles’ TimeWarner cable — previously known as Adelphia — is rotten. It is quite possibly the worst cable company in America. Two years ago they dropped the ESPN Gameplan, so there was no way for me to watch the Gators unless I hauled my butt over to Westwood to catch them at the UGA bar on the UCLA campus or drove way, way the hell down to Tony P’s in Marina Del Rey. The cable at my home was spotty — when it was alive at all — for almost all of August, and the internet connection was down more often than it was up. When they decided to drop the NFL Network at the start of football season this year, it was the straw that broke this camel’s back. I switched to satellite. DirecTV, baby. It rocks. If you are a football fan, you must switch. I’m telling you. I don’t say this lightly. I am getting every single NFL game every weekend. I can watch every college game I want. I’m getting all the premium stations — HBO, CineMAX, Showtime, etc. — plus about three times more channels than I ever got with cable. I didn’t even have to pay for the dish or the receivers or the installation! And I’m saving $80/mo! Don’t be a slave to crappy cable! Switch now!

And now for some random Sunday afternoon NFL thoughts:

• Okay. the new ref uniforms look lame. I don’t hate them, but … they just don’t seem right.
• One word about the Vikings’ cheerleaders: Whoa.
• Kudos to FOX for using the Jane’s Addiction classic “Jane Says” during a commercial comeback.
• Chicago @ Minnesota = Rex Grossman @ Brad Johnson = UF @ FSU. Awesome.
• Has FOX always had the down and distance arrows in the color of the team with possession? Very cool.
• Peter from the Family Guy just rules.
• Peyton Manning is apparently in every single commercial on television. The thing is, I can’t complain. He’s funny.
• I dig the Steve Young Samsung commercial. “Watch the safety blitz!” heh.
• I also dig the Circuit City commercial with the wife saying, “I promise to only watch football on Sunday. And Saturday. And Monday. And sometimes Thursday.”
• What is up with the crazy robots on FOX? They’ve been doing it for years, and I just don’t get it.
• NFL player jerseys must be made of some sort of 22nd century kevlar carbon titanium NASA fabric. If someone grabbed one of my shirts like that it would rip instantaneously. Those things stretch like nobody’s business. I watched seven college games yesterday (not including highlights) and saw at least five jerseys and one pair of pants shredded to pieces. Does the NCAA disallow the use of space-age garment technology?
• THE TOSS SWEEP NEVER WORKS! Why do coaches insist on calling this ridiculous play on short yardage downs? You’re throwing the ball backwards!
• There are 8 minutes left in the Cardinals / Rams game, I can’t stand Kurt Warner, the Cardinals are down by nine, and I’m rooting for them.
  Update: Bulger just fumbled the handoff at the two-minute warning. Ha!
  Update 2: And now Warner fumbled. Pathetic.
• “Football Night in America” is a tragically poor name for a highlight show. And just who is Bob Costas blackmailing to continually get on television? The guy seriously takes everything with too large a pinch of melodrama. One of the reasons we love Madden so much is because he knows — just like we do — that football is really a silly game. Sure, it’s life and death and the players are gods amongst men and it’s a multi-billion dollar industry and America’s passion … but you have to just love the absurdity of it all, like John does. Chill out, Bob. (Note: At least he’s got Collinswoth and Bettis as some sort of comic relief.)
• When Bobbo was interviewing Carson Palmer, the subtitle under the Bengals QB read “Pittsburgh”. The subtitle underneath Costas was “30 Rock”. Is this some sort of attempt to make NBC’s NY studios cool? It doesn’t work.
• I cannot wait to see the Saints and the Falcons tomorrow night.
• WTF? Bucs’ QB Chris Simms just had his spleen removed?! What the hell happened? How was this not mentioned until a half hour into the late game?!
• With about three minutes left in the game, Al said that next week’s contest at Cincy would be a real “litmus test” for the Patriots. Apparently getting crushed on your own field by a team that’s had your number five out of the last six times you’ve played isn’t a test.
• James Brown noted that Carson Palmer had a “plethora” of weapons at his disposal. Go, JB.

Akron beat the Wolfpack. Tennessee almost drops one to Air Force. FSU has to rally to beat Troy. Spurrier is held scoreless. Texas’ offense plays like a wounded quail. I don’t even know where to begin. One thing is certain: The best team in the country didn’t take the field this weekend. I know Ohio State. I’ve watched Ohio State. Ohio State is no USC. And FSU does not deserve to be in the top ten right now. Come on. Troy?

Here’s how I’d have ‘em ranked after just watching UT fold like a cheap suit. The Week 2 AP and USA/Today rankings are noted.

1. USC [AP 3, USA 3]
2. Auburn [4, 4]
3. Florida [7, 7]
4. Ohio State [1, 1]
5. LSU [8, 8]
6. Notre Dame [4, 5]
7. West Virginia [6, 5]
8. Georgia [12, 11]
9. Michigan [10, 13]
10. Texas [2, 2]