The Sunday Blog is a lot late because I chose to spend some time with my family in Atlanta and I highly recommend Murphy’s for brunch. And, no, I don’t know where the last three Sunday Blogs went.
* It seems like a real shame that the Georgia Dome is coming down. It’s really a nice venue and probably my favorite press box location, low and not in an end zone like so many new stadiums. The chance to make more money is what it’s all about these days so they will destroy a perfectly good stadium. But they can’t erase my memories.
* For those of you wondering who were not there. I’d say the crowd was about 65-35 in favor of Alabama. The Gator fans who made the trip were plenty loud, especially when Florida scored that first touchdown. But with about six minutes left in the game, most of them were already settling in for dinner at an Atlanta restaurant. Unfortunately for the Gators, the ratio of great players on the field was about 70-30. I was not overly impressed with Tide freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts, who had only 139 yards of offense. His quarterback rating was actually lower than Austin Appleby’s despite Appleby’s three picks. But when you’re handed 16 points without even getting a first down, you’re not going to be asked to do a lot.
* If you thought you could hear some anger in Jalen Tabor’s quotes after the game, the cornerback had a look on his face like he was going to throw up. He kept talking about one of Appleby’s interceptions and said over and over about the Alabama defender on the play, “He’s beat. He’s beat. He’s beat. He’s beat.” Meanwhile, I thought the lack of fight by Ahmad Fulwood on the one pick pretty much summed up his Gator career. Now, the question that will be out there is how much this team will care about its bowl game against Iowa. And the thing is, no matter what they say, we won’t know until the game is played. They’ve fooled us before and one thing coaches always have to guard against is guys who know this is their last game protecting themselves.
* I know that you are going through a little withdrawal now that the season and all the championship games are over (save Army-Navy). But we are less than two weeks from the start of bowl season and there are six games being played a week from Saturday. There are some dog games, but it’s like I always say — nobody is going to make you watch any of them. The three (other than the playoff games) I’m looking forward to the most are the Alamo (Oklahoma State-Colorado), the Citrus (LSU-Louisville) and the Rose (Penn State-USC).
The post
THE SUNDAY BLOG, WEEK 14 appeared first on
Dooleys Desk.
