Two things about "The Back Nine." One, I will also miss Verne Lundquist. I always liked his work. Gary Danielson? Phhhttt…
Two, two of the Heisman Trophy candidates could have gone to Florida. Thanks again, Will Muschamp.
Forget Alabama. We need to start winning recruiting battles against Clemson again.
Oliver Barry, CRS, GRI
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From: gatornews@googlegroups.com [mailto:gatornews@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Shane Ford
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2016 8:35 AM
To: GatorNews
Subject: [gatornews] [SUN]: Dooley: Will miss our Uncle Verne
Dooley: Will miss our Uncle Verne
By Pat Dooley
Gainesville Sun sports columnist
Published: Monday, December 12, 2016 at 5:42 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, December 12, 2016 at 5:42 p.m.
The Back Nine comes at you after a few days off to catch my breath after a crazy football season. And yet, we're only days away from another one, aren't we?
10. The Back Nine thought it was great that the regular season ended with such a dramatic game. I think a lot of us were pulling for Army to break the streak, although my wife always pulls for Army because her dad went to West Point. What really made it great was that the last game for Verne Lundquist was a doozy. I am going to miss his dulcet tones. In a lot of ways, Uncle Verne was the soundtrack for Tim Tebow's Florida career. And who will ever forget, "Ladies and gentlemen, Joakim Noah. Ladies and gentlemen, Joakim Noah," while the Florida star was doing the stickety dance as the band played the fight song at the SEC Tournament? But mostly, what I will miss is his humility. He was a star who never acted like one. Hopefully, we will continue our friendship and the good thing is he will still be doing some golf and hoops. But those 3:30 CBS games when you heard Verne just gave you chills.
11. I did not watch the Heisman Trophy show, which is really boring unless you have a dog in the fight. But I did turn it over in time to watch the presentation. Was it my imagination or did ESPN run late on purpose knowing that a lot of people would switch over at 8:58 p.m.? Anyway, I loved Lamar Jackson's speech and I can reveal my ballot now. I had Jackson, Deshaun Watson and Dede Westbrook in that order, although I'd like my ballot back in light of the Westbrook domestic violence story. The last couple of days, there were a lot of people who thought Watson could win, but they were using College Football Playoff committee logic that what you do in September doesn't count. It wasn't really close, except the race for fourth place. I was a little surprised that only 77 people voted for Alabama's Jonathan Allen and only 46 for FSU's Dalvin Cook. Then again, I didn't. The one thing that kept grabbing me as they were doing interviews during the day is that the players who finished 1-2 in the Heisman both could have ended up signing with Florida and the Gators haven't had a serviceable quarterback since Tebow.
12. And then I watched the "Catholics vs. Convicts" 30 for 30 which broke a long streak of those programs being really good. It turned out to be more about a guy making T-shirts than anything else. At least that was my take on it. Of course, I turned it off after 45 minutes.
13. The Florida basketball team continued the World's Longest Road Trip with another close loss to a really good team Sunday in Tallahassee. It feels a lot like last year when the Gators kept piling up good losses but only had one resume-building win and were left out of the tournament. There is no doubt this is a better team than last year's but what is a big concern is the defense, especially in the second half. And the Gators haven't shown the ability to slow down hot scorers. In 10 games, Florida has allowed nine players to score more than 20 points. It wasn't until the 18th game last year that happened and that wasn't a good defensive team either. Florida doesn't have that one lockdown defender it can put on a guy. All this said, it will be nice for this team to finally play a home game next week. Forget the aesthetics of the new O-Dome, just having people screaming for you will be a welcome change. Who knows, you might even get a favorable whistle once in awhile? Naw.
14. Speaking (go way back to the first item) of people who won't be a part of the great game of college football next year, the SEC says goodbye to Mike McGinnis of Ocala. McGinnis, one of the best guys in the world, decided 18 months ago that this would be his last season in the SEC instant replay booth. He went to Atlanta for the title game and was honored by the league for his service, but Steve Shaw — the SEC supervisor of officials — called last week with a surprise for McGinnis — a swan song. He'll be the instant replay review man for the Foster Farms Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif., Dec. 28. McGinnis served as an SEC official on the field from 1989-2003, but as a UF graduate (and a member of the Gator basketball team in the late 1960s), he couldn't do Florida games except a brief stint as the instant replay communicator. The SEC is losing a great one, but I know Mike and his wife Pat will enjoy Saturdays a lot more.
15. If the ticket sales at each school are any indication, Florida has a slight edge over Iowa in interest in the Outback Bowl. Which is surprising because at 4 p.m. Monday, the temperature in Iowa City was 18 degrees and it was 79 degrees here. Iowa has sold about 6,600 of its allotment of 8,500 while UF's ticket office has sold about 7,000. Two things — you don't know how many Gator fans in the Tampa area bought directly from the bowl game and the SEC covers any shortage if there is one for UF. That started in 2014 when the league not only decided to cover unsold tickets with insurance but also convinced the bowls to reduce the number of guaranteed ticket sales.
16. Is it just me or do the last three weeks of the NFL look like they will be intriguing? The ratings may be down and with good reason (like going away from the tied Miami-Arizona game with 1:39 to go because of "contractual obligations" Sunday), but the possibilities for the playoffs are still up in the air which is always good for the league. Of course, if you are a fan of the Jags, Browns or 49ers, you're already looking at free agency and will watch the bowl games thinking about the draft.
17. The Tweet of the Week came from a lot of different people, but the one that caught my attention came from former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer, who is obviously angry his Sooners didn't make the College Football Playoff -- "What is the adage? 'What goes around comes around'! This one took 10 years!" And below it was a picture of Urban Meyer with his 2006 quote, "If you don't win your conference championship, you shouldn't be playing for the national championship." Then, he was lobbying for Florida to be in over Michigan. Hey, if we can't expect the CFP committee and our politicians to be consistent, why should we expect our coaches to be?
18. Having a couple of days off gave me no excuses not to get back into the gym so I needed a new playlist:
• "Sweet Disaster" by DREAMERS.
• "Peace Trail" by Neil Young.
• "Just Your Fool" by the Rolling Stones.
• "For Boston" by Hold Steady.
• And for an oldie, "Gimme Some Money" by the Thamesmen. And if you can name the drummer of that group, we are kindred spirits.
Contact Pat Dooley at 352-374-5053 or at pat.dooley@gvillesun.com. And follow at Twitter.com/Pat_Dooley.
Sent From Shane's iPhone
Go Gators! & Skål Vikes!
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1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions |
Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007)
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