The High Five, Vol. 10

By
Pat Dooley
-
18
298

The High Five is recovering from the great weekend in Nashville, my second favorite SEC city not named Gainesville.

1. The most stunning score of another great college football Saturday? It wasn’t LSU beating Alabama or FSU losing to a depleted North Carolina team or Arkansas’ thrashing of South Carolina. It was Navy scoring 76 points while throwing for 75 yards. How does that happen? Well, East Carolina had four fumbles. The two teams combined for 1,163 yards. Navy scored 48 second-half points. Didn’t see it so I can’t explain it.

2. It’s always interesting to me to see how a team plays when GameDay is in town. Some teams thrive on it and some collapse. Like Utah. At the half, TCU had 328 yards and Utah had 72. Game over. Why do I think TCU will be playing in the national title game? Should Auburn and Oregon win out and TCU and Boise State are left out, I think we might see the movement crank up. Imagine a playoff scenario where Boise played Oregon and TCU played Auburn and the winners met in Glendale. Is it really that hard?

3. If you’re like me you go back and forth on Les Miles. At times you think he’s brilliant and at times you think he’s a buffoon. Saturday was one of those good light days for Miles (Seinfeld reference noted). That fourth down call was beautiful. I’ve always been a fan of coaches who think outside the box and I’ve also said that reverses will work in short yardage situations. So I guess I’m now a Les Miles fan. Unfortunately for The Hat, his only hope of getting to the SEC title game rests with Georgia. If Auburn beats the Dogs Saturday, it’s over in the West.

4. I know it was Hawaii but methinks my Heisman ballot may changed a bit when Kellen Moore threw for 507 yards and completed 19 straight passes at one point. My penciled-in ballot reads — 1. Cameron Newton.; 2. Kellen Moore; 3. LaMichael James.

5. Player of the week: One reason I love going to Florida at Vanderbilt is our hotel is across the street from the stadium. So we got back in time to watch the second half of LSU-Alabama and North Carolina-FSU. And the player of the week has to go to Tar Heels receiver Dwight Jones, who caught eight passes for 233 yards.

Three to grow on
Georgia at Auburn, 3:30 p.m., CBS
Penn State at Ohio State, 3:30, ESPN
South Carolina at Florida, 7:15, ESPN

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18 COMMENTS

  1. I’m definitely going for the dawgs to pull the monumental upset against the cams. That way if we can beat sc we might have a shot at the hat again to revenge the no call trickery. Yes I’m still bitter!

  2. Hey, Pat! We live up here, have been to a number of ECU games over the years our second daughter attended, and it’s a first class football atmosphere. Kind of SEC in a smaller venue. The stadium jumped to just over 50,000 for this season, and it’s a beautiful facility inside. The BIG East may pick up ECU. Meantime, ECU has the Texas Tech “Air Raid” offense in place with the nation’s youngest offensive coordinator, a 26-year old who was a grad assistant at Teax Tech last year. Head coach Ruffin Mcneill was def. coord. for the Red Raiders, has an awful unit at ECU. They’re smallish, really young and physically depleted by injuries. McNeill had two defensive ends dressed for the game, so he burned a redshirt year for a promisng freshman just to rotate a substitute against Navy. Ironically, it was the annual “Military Appreciation Day” for ECU. Navy was certainly appreciative. As for us, we’re with the Gators and the game against Vandy was splendid.

  3. I just want to beat USC. I don’t care who we play after that. If we beat Auburn for the SEC title, that will be enough vengeance on the Hat for me. Having him know that even his blind luck couldn’t stop us from winning the title he couldn’t win will be sufficient.

  4. Pat: What’s with UF and South Carolina lately? First we eke out a win against their baseball team to claim the SEC championship, then a USC on goal gives the SEC tournament to UF and now we’re in another championship game this weekend. The AD have something going over there?

  5. The Three Headed Monster is awaken, hungry and lurks within the Swamp behind the intense blue-out. Vandy was only an appetizer.
    Woe upon SC. The Monster intends to swallow up Lattimore and Jeffreys whole and chew up and tear the old ball coaches’ visor.
    The land mass between the Swamp and Atlanta is eerily quiet, and a very dangerous place to be. Tread softly Auburn.
    Gators win big, 48-17 and move up to # 15 in the BCS rankings.
    Lakeland GatorNaught

  6. I REALLY like the 48-17 score, “BUT” to get that done the offensive line has to be the best the’ve been all year. Clearly we will only go as far as they will allow. After watching the Backs kick the crap out of the Cocks I think we have a real chance—“OL”— must be great!!! I will be wearing all blue–how about you?

  7. This is it Gators, for the SEC East Crown. Stay hungry and feast with the poultry coming to town this weekend. Let the 3-headed lizzard monster loose. We are getting USC at the right time, in the right place, the Swamp will be loud. Let’s paint the town blue.
    Go Gators!!! Play Like Champions!!!

  8. Well, you had to move on. No one really likes it but there it is. The only real question, does Brantley transfer or stay as the back up?

    Was South Carolina looking ahead? Does the ball coach have them ready to play on Saturday? Could be a good one.

  10. I say get real and start the real talent, Jordan Reed. Should have been done from the beginning but the politicing from the Brantley family not only ran Cam out of town, it kept the true talent off the field. Thank the Lord we got to see what he can do. The same thing happened to Emmitt when he was a freshman. I like Brantley as a person, but he just does not fit in this offensive scheme. John is great when he has all day in the pocket and can pick apart a secondary, but that rarely happens.
    Sure like all of the offensive options that are now available, especially with hurry up. Defenses just cannot get set. Go Gators.

  15. This is going to be one heck of a game. Let’s get everyone behind our Gators and they will come out with fire and determination. We can do all things. Let it fly and fire all the ammo we’ve got….and we’ve got a lot!

  16. Jordan Reed is just what the Gators have needed. Would we have lost 3 games if he was playing quarterback? Probablt not.
    And I don’t understand politicing, what’s the big deal? Anybody, everybody can politic and why is someone more important than someone else. How many football alumni are there? Thousands? Go with on field production and competencies now!

  17. Also, I do see John Brantley as a stellar professional football player. With time to set up and pick his receivers
    he will do very well. I’m sure there are many pro teams that will benefit from his talents. I also respect his waiting behind Tebow for his chance. As part of the 3Q system he fits in perfectly.

  18. Even when Brantley has time to throw, he’s not particularly accurate – even without pressure.
    He MAY have just enough talent to be a journeyman at the next level, but probably more-so in the CFL (like Kerwin Bell).
    IGTBAG!
    Ciao