IT IS TIME FOR BOBBY TO GRACEFULLY BOW OUT

I am going to change up the format of this week’s blog. Instead of ending with the Baller & Scrub of the Week, I am going to start with my Baller of the Week and then end with my Scrub of the Week.

BALLER OF THE WEEK: THE NFL – While watching the NFL last Sunday, you may have noticed that a lot of coaches were wearing baseball caps with pink bills. Officials are also wearing pink wristbands. The goal posts are protected by pink padding, and commentators & game analysts have been wearing their best pink shirts and ties. Most notably, the players have been wearing pink wristbands, gloves, and thanks to a brilliant idea by DeAngelo Williams of the Carolina Panthers, pink cleats. For those that don’t know, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast Cancer affects roughly 1 in every 8 American women and countless other worldwide. The purpose of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is to raise awareness of the disease and to also raise money to continue to improve treatment and ultimately find a cure. The NFL, which is the most popular sports league in America, is definitely doing its part to raise awareness through its high-visibility support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Many of the pink items that are being worn by players and coaches can be purchased from nflshop.com with a portion of the proceeds going to breast cancer research.

All over America, a variety of fundraisers are taking place to raise money to fight breast cancer. Walks are one of the most popular types of fundraisers. My wife will be participating in American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.” If you would like to sponsor her by making a donation to the American Cancer Society’s efforts to fight breast cancer, please click on the link below.
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/MakingStridesAgainstBreastCancer/MSABCFY10SouthAtlantic?px=13127018&pg=personal&fr_id=19944&fl=en_US&et=5ytmJfK6d1OE2FiXxAR-xw..&s_tafId=360975

You may have noticed that this week’s entry appears to be written in pink font. Don’t adjust the color settings on your monitor. This is my way of contributing to the fight against breast cancer. Therefore all entries written this month will be done in pink (with a dark background so that it can easily be read).

Now for this week’s entry:

This is by far the most difficult blog entry that I have had to write since I started STRAIGHT CASH HOMEY!!!! For those of you who know me or read this blog regularly, it is obvious that I am a huge sports fan. Although, I enjoy watching many different sports, players, and teams there are four entities that I am especially loyal to. I am obviously a HUGE NFL FAN! I enjoy the entire league, I don’t have one particular team that I am a fan or, I am simply a fan of NFL football. I watch and follow every team in the league. I am also the Self-appointed President of the unofficial Atlanta Hawks fan club. I have been a Hawks fan forever, and have been serving in my current capacity of self-appointed President since 2004. I am also a big fan of the University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball program, and the Florida State University football program. The fact that I have been a Florida State football fan since my childhood is what makes this such a difficult entry to write. I regretfully say that IT IS NOW TIME FOR BOBBY BOWDEN TO GRACEFULLY BOW OUT!!!!

Since 1976 (before I was born) Bobby Bowden has been a stalwart on the sidelines at Florida State University. During his illustrious tenure with the Seminoles, Bowden has won 12 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships (FSU didn’t join the conference until 1991) and 2 National Championships. His career record as a head coach (including stints at Samford University & West Virginia) is 384-127-4. His 384 career wins are second all-time behind only Joe Paterno of Penn State (388 wins). Of Bowden’s 384 wins, 311 of them came at Florida State. Needless to say, he is a legendary coach and figure in college football. He has also coached many future NFL stars such as Warrick Dunn, Deion Sanders, Derrick Brooks, Peter Boulware, Darnell Dockett, and Leon Washington just to name a few. I could name more but it really would take up too much space. However, I would be remised if I didn’t mention Charlie Ward, who never played in the NFL for reasons that are an entirely different blog topic.

In the 73 years of football at FSU before Bowden’s arrival Florida State had a combined record of 157-136-14. This includes a 19-37 record in the in the last four seasons before Bowden took over. This basically shows that the Florida State University Football Program was built by Bobby Bowden. Unfortunately, today it seems as though it is being destroyed by Bobby Bowden.

There are those that say, “Bowden built that program from nothing, so he should be able to coach as long as he wants to.” I used to be amongst that crowd until I stood back and took an objective look at the program that I have loved since childhood. The truth is that since the end of the 2000 season, FSU has a record of 69-40. Now I know that some of you are wondering what all the fuss is about, because that is a respectable record that a lot of schools would love to have. That is true for most schools, but not for an elite program, the caliber of which Florida State used to be. Prior to 2001, FSU had an unprecedented streak of finishing the season ranked in the top five for 14 CONSECUTIVE YEARS!!!! Do you really think a program that had grown accustomed to that type of success can deal with living in the land of the mediocre programs? We are talking about a team that had grown accustomed to annually playing in the few bowl games that should actually exist. Their last three bowl appearances have been in the Emerald Bowl, Music City Bowl, and the Champs Sports Bowl. Now, I am not putting down other programs that would be celebrating such bowl appearances, but at Florida State this is flat out embarrassing.

There are also those that say that, “It may be time for Bowden to step down, but FSU has to handle this situation better than they have.” To those people I ask, “How can Florida State handle the situation any better than they have?” Not only does everyone know that this should be Bowden’s last season as head coach, they also know that his last season should have been about four years ago. The Florida State University administration has been tremendously patient with Bowden. They have endured countless scandals, the recent losing, and in my opinion, six years of the worst offensive play-calling in the history of college football. The six years I am referring to are 2001-2006 when Bobby’s son, Jeff served as offensive coordinator. With Jeff Bowden calling the plays, you could be certain of one thing. You were going to see a plethora of screen passes each Saturday afternoon. Down and distance didn’t matter, he was going to be sure that he got at least 30 screen passes into every game plan. Whether they up by 20 or down by 20, you can be sure that a screen pass was coming at some point on each drive.

I must commend FSU for being proactive and going ahead a hiring their next head coach. I feel as though Jimbo Fisher will do an excellent job to restore Florida State back to their rightful place among college football’s elite programs. He is an innovative offensive mind who has a track record of success. Many people say, “Bobby doesn’t coach now, so why bother forcing him out as head coach?” I agree that at this point Bobby Bowden is no more than a figurehead. His primary role at this point consists of mostly shaking hands and kissing babies to raise money for the program. However, there is one problem with him staying on in his current figurehead capacity. He still has the title of head coach, therefore giving him complete control over the coaching staff. Bobby is an extremely loyal person, which is why his assistant coaches enjoy great job security. There needs to be some staff-wide changes that won’t take place until Jimbo is officially made head coach. Mickey Andrews is certainly not the defensive genius that he once was and Bobby even welcomed back fired NC State coach Chuck Amato (who was originally on Bobby’s staff from 1981 to 1999). The bottom line is that it is time for sweeping changes at FSU and they won’t take place until the Jimbo Fisher era officially begins.

You may have noticed that I have not mentioned Bowden’s age one time in this entry (he will be 80 years old in November), because that honestly doesn’t matter to me. Truthfully, if FSU were still winning and competing year in and year out for Conference and (more importantly) National Championships, I would not be writing this blog. I feel as though, as Tony Kornheiser likes to say, “THIS IS A GOTS TO GO SITUATION!”

I know that everything is cyclical, but at no point in the cycle should Florida State be the fourth best college football team in the state of Florida (behind Florida, Miami, and South Florida with Central Florida and Florida Atlantic fast approaching at this pace). The arrow on this program is clearly pointing down, and I honestly don’t think it will ever point up again under Bowden’s leadership.

By no means am I saying that FSU should kick Bowden out like yesterday’s trash, I mean he did build the program. He should be given a football related role within the athletic department and he should be paid his entire coaching salary (over $2 million annuallly) for the rest of his life. However, he should no longer be the football coach. The 2010 season should start a new era of Florida State football.

SCRUB OF THE WEEK: Florida State University Football Team – You are currently 2-4 overall with a 0-3 conference record. That’s why you are my Scrub of the Week. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

DEATH OF THE QUARTERBACK

Without a doubt, the most important position on the football field is the quarterback. If you don’t believe me, just take a look around the NFL. The teams that get good consistent play from their quarterbacks (i.e. the Colts, Patriots, Chargers, Eagles, and Steelers) are regular post-season participants, while the teams that are inconsistent at that position struggle to make the playoffs with any regularity (i.e. the 49er’s, Chiefs, Raiders, Bills, and the infamous Lions). Of course, as with anything else there are some exceptions. For instance, Baltimore’s defense has traditionally been good enough to overcome the lack of a consistent quarterback. On the other end of the spectrum, there are players like Drew Brees and Jay Cutler who aren’t annually competing for a playoff spot simply because their teams have terrible defenses. Whatever the case may be, it is fair to say that in the NFL the quarterback is usually the difference between a winning team and a losing team. Even in Baltimore’s case, the quarterback has to be good enough to stay out of the way of the defense.

With this thought in mind, I am sad to announce that in the coming years the quality of quarterback play in the NFL will decline tremendously. I am placing the blame for this on one group of people, COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACHES! Gimmick offenses are the new flavor of the month in college football. You have the “Spread (running) Option” of West Virginia, the “Spread (passing & running) Option” of Florida, and the glorified “Run – and – Shoot” of Texas Tech, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Add to that the “Triple Option” of Georgia Tech, the “Snap it to Pryor and Get Out of the Way” of Ohio State, and you have a host of teams that put quarterbacks on the field who never truly learn to read a defense and go through progressions. The list goes on, because I didn’t even bother to mention the host of teams who run some copycat form of one of these offenses (with no success at all).

Obviously, there are several reasons why these gimmick offenses have become so popular in college football. For example, the reason that West Virginia and Florida run their versions of the “Spread Option” is to simply keep the ball in the hands of their best players as much as possible. In the case of both teams, that player is the quarterback. As far as the “Run – and – Shoot” offense, teams simply have more good receivers than the opposition has defensive backs. The triple option on the other hand is a fairly safe offense and is hard for opponents to prepare for, because there aren’t many teams at the highest level of college football who run such an offense. As for Ohio State, they run the “Snap it to Pryor and Get Out of the Way” for two reasons. The first of which is that Terrell Pryor is a great athlete and the second is that Coach Sweater-vest (Jim Tressel) doesn’t have any offensive imagination.

All of these offenses are fine and well in the college game, and I don’t fault the coaches for doing what they feel will give their teams the best chance to win. However, they are doing kids who dream of playing quarterback in the NFL a huge disservice and all but ensuring that NFL teams will have to spend extra time teaching new quarterbacks the basics of playing the position.

One would think that at the professional level, coaches would not have to spend time teaching quarterbacks how to do such basic things as take a snap from under center, go through progressions, or identify a defensive formation. However, the under-development of these skills in college football will dictate that NFL quarterback coaches spend a lot of time working with the quarterback on these things. A lot of college quarterbacks go their entire college career without taking a single snap from under center. Taking a snap from center is a mandatory requirement in the NFL because your footwork has to be on point in order for the timing of routes to work and because being in shotgun all the time severely limits the amount of running plays at your disposal. The other problem with the gimmick offenses is that the majority of them are one-read offenses. This basically means that the quarterback has a predetermined receiver that he is supposed to pass the ball to, and if that receiver is not open he should keep the ball and run it himself. That is another philosophy that simply won’t work in the NFL, because good NFL defensive coordinators usually scheme to take away your first option on most pass plays. Therefore it is very important that the quarterback learns to go through his progressions and get to his second, third, or even fourth receiver. Oh, by the way he needs to be able to do this is about four seconds. If you are an NFL quarterback and you don’t have the speed of Michael Vick; running is not an option, it is only to be done as a last resort. Teams really don’t like their quarterbacks running around because they make too much money to risk injury taking open field hits and because defensive ends in the NFL run like college running backs, so the chances of them catching you are very high. In short, if an NFL team tried to run Florida’s, West Virginia’s, or Georgia Tech’s offense, they would have to change its name. It wouldn’t be called an “option”, it would be called INJURED RESERVE!!!! NFL defensive players and coaches would LOVE to play against these offenses, and the shelf life of quarterbacks would be greatly reduced.

Most of the college football fans that I know enjoy the college game because of the excitement associated with seeing so many completely different offensive styles. I on the other hand, enjoy the precision of NFL offenses. Moderately skilled college quarterbacks can have a great deal of success in that game because receivers are allowed to routinely get wide open in their routes. A college receiver is open when he has the defender beat by five yards or so. Therefore it isn’t hard to get him the ball. On the other hand, a receiver in the NFL is open if he is running even with the defender, but has inside position. The NFL quarterback is expected to be able to not only get him the ball, but get him the ball IN STRIDE! At the rate that the college game is going, there will be very few quarterbacks entering the league in the coming years who are talented enough to even attempt such a throw. The Tennessee Titans are already realizing that they wasted the third overall draft pick in the 2006 draft on a quarterback who can’t throw the football (in my opinion his passing has not improved one bit since he arrived at the University of Texas). Trust me, other teams learned from their mistake, which is why Tim Tebow or Pat White won’t be drafted early to play quarterback. Ohio State’s Terrell Pryor is very similar to what Young was at Texas, which means he has a lot of work to do if he plans on ever being an NFL quarterback. He has plenty of time, and I hope he is successful.

I am not saying that every NFL quarterback has to be a classic drop-back passer in the mold of Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, Tom Brady, and Carson Palmer. In fact I would love to have a duel threat lead my team (i.e. Donovan McNabb, Steve Young, Michael Vick, and even David Garrard), as long as they are truly a duel threat and not a player that couldn’t throw a football in an ocean like Young and (currently) Pryor.

I believe that two of these “gimmick” quarterbacks have bright NFL futures at the position. The two players that I am a referring to are Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy. They are in the minority of those who seem to actually be able to go through progressions and are also very accurate with their passes. The simply have to learn to take snaps from under center and get their footwork together.

Year in and year out, the best rookie NFL quarterbacks come from colleges that play a “Pro-Style” offense. Look at Matt Ryan and Joe Flaco. That was also the case with Phillip Rivers, Ben Rothlisberger, and Eli Manning, all of whom were in the 2004 draft and were still alive in the playoffs this past weekend. Jay Cutler belongs in this group as well. This will also be the case with this year’s draft, where Matthew Stafford (from Georgia) is likely to be the first quarterback taken. He comes from a “Pro-Style” offense and has proto-type NFL size and a rocket arm. He already knows how to take a snap from under-center and read a defense. Although there have been some busts who came from traditional offenses, there have been very few that have been successful from “gimmick offenses”.


AND NOW FOR MY BALLER & SCRUB OF THE WEEK!

BALLER: Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals) - Fitzgerald had 8 catches for 166 yards and 1 touchdown while leading the Cardinals to the NFC Championship game by crushing the Carolina Panthers 33-13.

SCRUB: Jake Delhomme (Carolina Panthers) - Delhomme helped lead the Arizona Cardinals to the NFC Championship game by completing a very Favre like 5 passes to thier defensive backs. Just for good measure he also lost a fumble.