TENNESSEE COMES UP "LAME" AT THE END

After a year of relentless mouthing about what he was going to do to Florida when he came to Gainesville to play the Gators for the first time, Tennessee Coach Lane, aka "Lame", Kiffin finally had a chance to put actions behind his words on Saturday Sept. 19 at The Swamp. After an unexpectedly impressive performance by the gutty Vol's, Kiffin was poised to pull a dramatic upset on Florida's home field in front of a record crowd of frothing Gator fanatics. How did Mr. Big Mouth respond to the pressure of an unanticipated opportunity for an upset? He ran out the clock on his team. As precious seconds, then minutes, slowly melted off the clock, Kiffin directed his offense to slowly trudge up to the line of scrimmage for one straight hand-off between guard and center after another, after another, after another, after another, after another, after another......all the while making sure to burn as much time off the play clock as humanly possible. After all the hype, the bravado, the self-aggrandizement, not to mention the vitriol and the lies directed at Urban Meyer, for the last year, when everything was on the line, Kiffin did Meyer a huge favor----he ran out the clock on his own team, denying his own gallant players a chance at the victory they played their hearts out to have the opportunity to achieve.

Why? Because Lame is not only a punk, he's lacks the courage to risk losing big in order to have a chance to achieve a great victory. So Young Lame took the easy, safe route to defeat. You see, if Kiffin had played the game to win (which all "Old Schoolers" know is the ONLY way to play the game) by moving the offense quickly in and out of the huddle, calling plays at the line of scrimmage, throwing the ball down the field, or at least in the flats or over the middle behind the linebackers to gain ground quickly and bleed the clock with quick first downs, he not only would of had a chance to win, he would have ALSO had a chance to lose big in the final 6 minutes by risking interceptions and by leaving Florida time to put up a cheap touchdown or two. So Kiffin took the easy way out...in order to preserve HIS accolades and headlines from his admirers in the national media peanut gallery---- "Kiffin's Vols played the Gators unexpectedly close", "great coaching job by Lane Kiffin" , "big moral victory for Lane Kiffin", etc., etc.---- Lame sold out his school, his fans and, most disgustingly, his players.

And one more thing, Young Lame; there are no "moral victories" in the SEC, Son.

After watching Kiffin's lame act in person, this "Old Schooler" is left with the exact same opinion I had the second that I heard Tennessee had hired the failed former Oakland Raiders Coach---this is very bad move for Tennessee. Kiffin is a classic smart-aleck, pampered, Gen-Y, California surfer-dude pretending to be a football coach by trading on his Fathers' success and running his mouth. He doesn't fit in in the SEC. The prediction from the Old School blog? That young Lame will last 2, maybe 3 years, at Tennessee before he's run out of Knoxville, most likely taking his AD down with him.

Roger Franklin Williams, Old School Blog, ESPN 1080 THE TEAM

TEBOW PERSONIFIES OLD SCHOOL....AND HE WAS ROBBED OF HIS HEISMAN!

The 2009 college football season will provide the last chance to witness a player who represents the "old school" approach to the game like no other modern quarterback---Tim Tebow. In his first 3 years the boyish, crew cut dynamo, who coaching legend Bobby Bowden has descibed as "Bronko Nagurski playing quarterback", has brought a unique, one-of-a-kind style of play to  the quarterback position---rambunctous, uninhibited, helmet-to-helmet physical play, coupled with his direction of an up-tempo, high-tech pass oriented offense.

Over the past two seasons Tebow has produced an average of almost 3,000 yards passing and an upper echelon passing efficiency rating and completion percentage to go along with his bone crushing, between-the-tackles running style....not to mention his record setting bushels of touchdowns, both passing and rushing, which, by the way, is the whole point of offensive football---to score touchdowns. Plus, he's wearing 2 National Championship rings.....which is the whole point of playing the games...to win Championships. He has also been the Gators leading rusher for the last two years, averaging over 700 yards for those years to go along with the almost 500 rushing yards he picked up as a freshman....which included 2 yards on 4th down at Tennessee, without which Florida would not have won that game and had the opportunity to play for the 2006 National Championship.

No quarterback over at least the past 50 years, and most likely in college football history, has ever brought the diverse, wide-ranging set of skills; the combination of passing, rushing and scoring production; the hard nosed in-your-face physical style AND, the on the field success for his team that Tim Tebow has brought to the quarterback position. And still Tebow has an Army of  detractors.....to the extent that 154 voters left the hard-nosed innocent off of their Heisman ballot completely in 2008. Tim Tebow not one of the best 3 football players in the country? Give me a break. We'll save a head-on discussion of the obvious anti-religious bias directed at Tebow for another day (and I want to take it on) and focus on a factual comparison of Tebow to Bradford.

Bradford better that Tebow? Are you kidding???...C'mon Tebow haters, you can do better than that......let me get this straight...skinny, drop back quarterback Sam Bradford a better FOOTBALL PLAYER than Tim Tebow????...OK, so how many rushing yards, not mention rushing touchdowns, did Sam Bradford have last year? How many times was Sam Bradford called on to gain a crucial yard or two or three to move the chains or score a touchdown to win a game? Yeah sure, he passed for a zillion yards....so what, every Oklahoma QB in the Bob Stoops era has passed for a zillion yards. Half of the quarterbacks in the Big 12 throw for a zillion yards every year.

Oklahoma throws the ball almost every down....a stiff from the morgue would throw for 3,000 yards in that offense...speaking of stiffs, Jason White, another Heisman fraud, threw for a zillion yards in that offense, a couple of guys with essentially the same last name---Nate Hybl and Josh Heupel, or is it Josh Heupel and Nate Hybl?----threw for a zillion yards in that offense....C'mon Sam, show me something that a couple of dozen other guys haven't done before. And I haven't even mentioned that Bradford plays in a league that is essentially flag football with pads. It's easy to rack up thousands upon of thousands upon thousands of passing yards and 60+ yards a game when you're playing in a flag football league with absolutely no defense.

How many points did Bradford/Oklahoma score when they played an SEC caliber defense? What was is, 14? What happened to that 60 points a game, OU breath? And Florida didn't even have the best defense in the SEC last year. I have an idea, why don't we put Sam Bradford in the Gator offense against SEC defenses and put Tim Tebow in the Oklahoma offense in their powder puff Big 12 league and see what happens? And we haven't even gotten to the real heart of the issue---is Sam Bradford a winner? Well.....he played in 2 big games (Texas and Florida) last year and he lost both of them.(And no, I'm sorry OU honk, Texas Tech hardly qualifies as a authentic Big Game.)

 In the end there is only one, absolute "Old School" way to determine the true winner---The  Scoreboard. Tebow 24-Bradford 14.