COACHES HOT SEAT BLOG

Thanks to Adam Rose of the Los Angeles Times for posting the “BCS Song” skit that was on Saturday Night Live over the weekend.  Adam is right, many of us have gravitated away from SNL in recent years because Lorne Michaels hasn’t been able to replace the talent that he has lost, but this guy doing this “BCS Song” has some talent, and he is a very wise man as well…

 

 

Speaking of the BCS, we remind the BCS Boys that the tock is clicking on them and that it is now 7 days until Barack Obama is sworn in as the Forty-Fourth President of the United States.  These BCS Boys seem to be living in a fantasyland, because if they do not believe that the United States government can change the postseason in college football, especially when the federal government (i.e. the American taxpayers who are overwhelmingly in favor if a playoff) doles out BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to the institutions of higher education every year then they have no understanding of who is paying the bills.  College football fans pay the bills in college football and the American taxpayers sends BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to higher education every year and that means WE ARE CALLING THE SHOTS.  The BCS Boys are going to learn that fact the hard way…… 

 

Memo to the BCS Boys:  For those arrogant asses calling themselves conferences commissioners let us clue you on “Washington speak” when the President of the United States says…

 

“At the same time, he said, “If I’m Utah, or if I’m USC or if I’m Texas, I might still have some quibbles.”

 

Obama said: “That’s why we need a playoff.””

 

Translation for the Arrogant BCS Boys:  Either institute a playoff for the college football postseason or someone in the US Justice Department or a few of the US federal district attorneys are going to take a good long look at the BCS and see if it violates any US laws.

 

Is that simple enough?

 

For some reason the BCS Boys seem to think that they are above the law of the United States of America, not only the Sherman Antitrust Act, which we believe is a slam-dunk that the BCS violates, but we also believe that the BCS is breaking the 1964 Civil Rights Act by treating the same class of citizens in different and unequal ways.  It is not legal for the BCS Boys to treat the Notre Dame football program differently than the BYU football program, even if the Mountain West conference commissioner says if it is OK to do that, and the BCS Boys are about to get a lesson that they are not above the law and in fact we may just find out that these BCS Boys have personally broken US laws in recent years in their actions with the BCS.  If the BCS is proven to have broken US antitrust laws we remind the BCS Boys that is a FELONY under current US law.

 

Laugh if you like BCS Boys, but be warned, your world is about to drastically change and we recommend that you either get together in the next week and institute a college football system that treats all teams equally in division I-A football and involves a playoff to determine the national champion or risk not only losing the entire bowl system, but also the chance that individual BCS Boys, including conference commissioners, bowl executives, college presidents, and even a few ADs will be indicted by a federal grand jury…. 

 

7 days and ticking BCS Boys, 7 days and ticking…..

 

Something we will never figure out about the arrogant BCS Boys and anyone else that supports that BCS is how any American can believe the outrageous idea that the Americans on BCS conference teams can be treated differently and unequally in our mind, than players on teams in “non-BCS” conferences.  How could it possible or legal for the US citizens on the Florida football team to be treated in a different way than the US citizens on the Utah football team?  Answer:  It is outrageous that any American, especially people involved with education in our Republic could possibly support a system that treats one set of our citizens one way and other another set of citizens in another, and in a very detrimental way for that matter.  No, that is not right, nor legal in our mind for the BCS Boys to set-up a postseason in college football that treats American citizens differently.  No, that is not right, and that is why the BCS will be ended, and it will be ended by our government, for when this government starts looking into the way the BCS operates we are very confident that it will be ruled as an illegal enterprise that violates multiple US laws and statues…

 

Laugh BCS Boys, but when the tables are turned, it will be you trying to explain to BCS schools why your illegal system has now made those very schools responsible for paying back the ill-gotten gains that they received from the BCS over the years.  Yes, the very real possibility exists that if, no make that when the BCS is ruled illegal, that lots of that money that the BCS schools have taken in will have to be “disgorged” and transferred to the “non-BCS” schools in division I-A.  Yes, that will not only be a bad time for the BCS Boys, it will also be a time when many conference commissioners are replaced by folks that actually respect and follow US law and believe that ALL US citizens must be treated in an equal manner.  Yes, that is our opinion and it should be the opinion of any REAL AMERICAN.

 

Put a Fork in Steve Spurrier, HE’S DONE! – After the 56-6 loss to Florida we were concerned…..  After the 31-14 loss to Clemson and first year coach Dabo Swinney we took some real notice…. After the debacle against Iowa, 31-10, in the bowl game we have decided that it is time to put a fork in Steve Spurrier, HE IS DONE!  Absolutely, the most shocking thing about Spurrier’s tenure at South Carolina is the very poor quarterback play, and as for the QB that Spurrier has recently started for the Gamecocks, Stephen Garcia, we can only say that Garcia right now would maybe be the third-string, probably the fourth-string QB on the Coaches Hot Seat flag-football team.  Of course, if Garcia wanted to get onto the depth chart with us he would have to pass the Coaches Hot Seat flag-football QB test, which involves running a few plays and “accidently” getting hit and taken to the ground when an opposing player was “trying” to grab Garcia’s flag.  If Garcia could take that hit and get back up without crying we would put him on the team, but we have our doubts….we certainly have our doubts.  After Garcia got on the Coaches Hot Seat flag-football depth chart he would have to prove that he can throw the football accurately and right now we don’t think as Sinatra said during the monologue of a concert at the Sands Hotel with the Count Basie Orchestra in the 1960s…

 

“He couldn’t hit a bull in the fanny with a bag of rice, this bum…. And I cleaned that up!”

 

Yes, it looks like the Steve Spurrier era in college football is over.  In a playing career that started at Florida and included a Heisman trophy, a coaching career that included an ACC title at Duke and an incredible run with the Florida Gators, it now looks like it is going to end in mediocrity at the University of South Carolina…  What is really interesting is that Spurrier is having a pretty good recruiting year at South Carolina, currently ranked eleventh in the country according to Rivals.com, but there is not one QB as yet in this year’s South Carolina class.  We then check the Rivals.com “Pro-style QB” Top 50 Rankings and South Carolina is no where in sight…  Why is Steve Spurrier not recruiting a big-time QB to South Carolina this year?  Does he think he can do anything with Stephen Garcia?  If so, we have some news for the Ol’ Ball Coach, Stephen Garcia is not going to get it done at South Carolina and if he quit today and flew to San Francisco he would be fourth-team on the Coaches Hot Seat flag-football team, if he could even make the roster, which we are highly doubtful on…. 

 

Memo to Steve Spurrier:  You need a top quality QUARTERBACK on the South Carolina roster that can at least start for the Coaches Hot Seat flag-football team, but preferably could start in the SEC.  If you want to be competitive, find a quarterback that can run your offense and improve that running game, because right now you are striking out on both fronts…..

 

 

The final votes for the 2008-09 Final Post-Season Coaches Hot Seat Rankings came in last night and we should have them compiled in the next couple of days.  Just looking through some of the votes it looks like there will be a decent amount of shake-up throughout the Rankings and lots of coaches on the Hot Seat entering the 2009 season. 

 

A few things from the real world that all of us live in…..College football is nice, but the economy is uppermost in all of our minds as we face the challenges of the worst economic crisis of our lives… A few of us remember the tough times in the 1970s, with high gas prices, high inflation and high interest rates, but this time feels different than that, because it seems our entire economy is as risk….  We shall see, but a few things that have come across our desks recently….

 

On Saturday in the Wall Street Journal Weekend Journal, Stephen Moore pretty much sums up the folly of the very people that caused our economic problems, the morons in Washington DC and the greedy bastards on Wall Street, fixing those same problems…  In “Atlas Shrugged:  From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years, Moore talks about working at the Ayn Rand Institute when he was younger and the importance of Rand’s seminal book Atlas Shrugged and how it applies to our country’s current situation.  From Mr. Moore’s column:

 

“Many of us who know Rand’s work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that “Atlas Shrugged” parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit.”

 

Mr. Moore goes on…

 

“For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises — that in most cases they themselves created — by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.”

 

and more from Moore….

 

“Ultimately, “Atlas Shrugged” is a celebration of the entrepreneur, the risk taker and the cultivator of wealth through human intellect. Critics dismissed the novel as simple-minded, and even some of Rand’s political admirers complained that she lacked compassion. Yet one pertinent warning resounds throughout the book: When profits and wealth and creativity are denigrated in society, they start to disappear — leaving everyone the poorer.”

 

How true, and how very important Ayn Rand’s ideas and thoughts are to the current situation facing our Republic…

 

Speaking of the economy, we couldn’t find the interview, but Ben Stein was on one of the news shows the other night and he made a very important point that everyone with extra money to spend should take to heart.  If everyone in this country, especially if the rich among us continue to pull back and quit spending money it will only make the problems in our economy that much worse.  Much like Ben Stein, we recommend that people that have or can easily save enough for their retirement, children’s education, and other future needs, to go out in the American economy and spend money.  Go to local restaurants when you can, visit retailers both large and small, splurge on an extra TV or a Wii, or take that trip you have always talked about taking.  All of that spending will help the economy and thus it will help our country.  Because of some very foolish decisions by a lot of morons both before and during this economic crisis this is going to very tough sledding for the foreseeable future and for those of us that have extra resources we should be out there helping out the economy where we can.

 

As Ben Stein would say:  “Go Out to Dinner!”

 

It will help everyone out….

 

Lastly, one thing that we have not figured out yet is this entire Jeff Jagodzinski firing at Boston College.  OK, the Boston College AD Gene DeFilippo did not like his head football coach interviewing with the New York Jets, but why in the world does that interview lead to the firing of Jeff Jagodzinski?  If were the AD at Boston College and the New York Jets wanted to interview our head football coach we would be thrilled, because that would mean we had a very good head football coach.  Also, if we were the AD at BC and our head coach wanted to interview with the Jets that would tell us a lot about the BC football program, precisely because the head coach was interested in another job.  That is not Jeff Jagodzinski’s problem, but the AD’s problem that the head coach at BC is looking around for another job and that fact should make the AD at Boston College really take a hard look at everything involved with the head coaching position and football program at BC.  Our concern wouldn’t be that Jagodzinski interviewed with the Jets, but WHY did he interview with the Jets and WHY does he want another job.  Once BC answers the WHY questions on why a second straight successful coach wanted to leave Boston College, then they will be able to get to the heart of the problem…..Our guess of what the problems is?  Boston College does not pay its head football coach a market wage and there is not a commitment from the president’s office at BC to a winning football program.  Just a guess….

 

Very strange goings on at Boston College, very strange indeed…..

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Before we get to the quite astonishing press conference by ACC conference commissioner and BCS Boy John Swofford earlier this week, let’s first congratulate the Florida Gators for beating the Oklahoma Sooners and winning the “BCS Championship.”  It is not Florida’s fault that the BCS Boys are putting on a sham of monstrous proportions with their bogus BCS and in what proved to be a pretty boring game, the Gators beat an incredibly over-hyped Oklahoma team that revealed to the country what all of us here at Coaches Hot Seat knew before Thursday night….the Big 12 supposed strength in 2008 was a joke…. 

 

Regardless, Urban Meyer and Florida Gators are to be mightily congratulated on winning a second national title in three years.  Go Gators!

 

Of course, all of those incredibly stupid (and very petty) 154 Heisman voters that left Tim Tebow completely off their ballots have plenty of explaining to do after Tebow led the Gators to another national title and Sam Bradford barely looked like an I-A quarterback on Thursday night.  As we said before the Heisman presentation, if the top two quarterbacks on the Coaches Hot Seat flag-football team were playing in the Big 12 they would have been invited to the Heisman ceremony as well, because anyone can put up big numbers against the paper mache defenses in the Big 12.  Sam Bradford barely got hit or even rushed all year in the Big 12, and when Bradford actually had to play against a real football team (Well, Texas did a nice job against Bradford and the Sooners, but they were the only one), we all saw what happened.  Sam Bradford is a nice enough of a guy, but the most outstanding player in college football today?  Please, that Bradford won the Heisman Trophy is one of the great travesties in the history of college football, because all of those big numbers he put up were in one simple word…..BOGUS!  Tim Tebow is not only the best player in college football today he is among the Top 5 football players in the last 30 years and if we were asked to compile that Top 5 list right now it would look something like….

 

1.  Herschel Walker

2. Bo Jackson

3.  Tim Tebow

4.  Ricky Williams

5.  Reggie Bush

 

Yes, Tim Tebow was robbed of the Heisman Trophy in 2008 and the football game on Thursday night only confirmed what we already knew…and anyone with an IQ over room temperature or that has watched 1 minute of football in their lives should have known…

 

TIM TEBOW IS THE BEST PLAYER IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL.

 

Shame on those Heisman voters that left Tim Tebow off their ballots, yes shame on each and every one of you….

 

As for the head coach of the Florida Gators, Urban Meyer, in his last 6 seasons at Utah and Florida his record is 67-11 (.859) and in addition to the two national titles he also has the 2004 undefeated record at Utah.  There is a lot that could be said about Urban Meyer and how his particular approach to coaching his football teams has generated such great success, but when you get right down to it there is not 1 or 5 things that we could list that would encapsulate what makes Urban Meyer go.  Meyer is best described in the same way that former Alabama football player Bobby Marks described Paul “Bear” Bryant:

 

“I don’t know what he had, but he had a lot of it.”

 

That statement sums up Urban Meyer very well and many other great football coaches in the history of the game.

 

As for Bob Stoops, Stoops is one of a handful of great football coaches in the game today, but Bob Stoops is not the same coach or man he was 5 years ago.  We have had the opportunity to watch Bob Stoops and his Oklahoma staff from the sidelines of several games in recent years and because of Oklahoma’s recent failures in recent big bowl games the OU staff’s attitude and approach to coaching is now creating a loop that could have only ended with Oklahoma losing to Florida on Thursday night.  There is only one way for Stoops and his staff to end this loop and that is to look inside themselves and remember why they got into coaching in the first place…..which we would guess to be:  Because they love the game of college football and they enjoy working with young men to become better football players and to help prepare those young men to take on the challenges of life.  Walk through the Oklahoma football offices today and the hum that was there 5 years ago is long gone.  Is that because of the departures of Mike Stoops, Mark Mangino, Chuck Long, and other OU assistants, or has Bob Stoops and some members of his staff no longer having fun coaching the game football any more?  Hard to say….

 

Memo to Bob Stoops:  We would recommend that Bob Stoops look at the reasons he got into coaching in the first place and in the words of Joseph Campbell that “find one’s joy” again.  No doubt, the absolute absurdity of the BCS has taken a lot of the fun out of the game for Stoops (and many other head coaches), but life is as Mr. Campbell says…

 

“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.”

 

Don’t worry Bob, we will have a playoff soon (you can count on that), so as you face the failures of your Oklahoma team in recent big games remember another great quote of Mr. Campbell….

 

“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.”

 

Also Bob, pick up a few books by Joseph Campbell and get a hold of the Bill Moyers special with Joseph Campbell that aired in the 1980s, The Power of Myth.  Both things will change the way you view the world…

 

 

 

Speaking of a playoff for college football and changing the world what an absolutely astonishing press conference that ACC commissioner and BCS Boy John Swofford held this week on the state of the BCS.  The most astonishing thing that John Swofford and the rest of the BCS Boys seem to believe is that they have the right to set up a postseason in college football that treats schools and college football players in I-A football differently (and even gives preferential treatment to a school in Notre Dame).  It is settled law that college football has the right to set up a postseason system, but that system cannot violate federal law and it is clear as Friday was in San Francisco (Friday was one of those incredible winter days in San Francisco when the Golden Gate Bridge seems almost surreal and the City is a shimmering beauty tonight on the Bay as one gazes out the window) that the BCS violates several US law pertaining to competition and even the personal civil rights of US citizens. 

 

John Swofford and the BCS Boys have no more right to decided who and who will not be invited to play to play in their meaningless exhibition bowl games more than….

 

 

…..George Wallace had a right to stand in the school house door in June 1963 to deny Vivian Malone and James Hood from registering to attend school at the University of Alabama.  It is just outrageous to believe that there are Americans that have come to the conclusion that anyone in our country can deny other of citizens their equal rights and some of the stories written by sports writers in recent weeks supporting the BCS go way beyond propping up a bogus postseason system in college football, but seem to state that the basic tenants of our country can be violated just because a person in power says so.  Just amazing, but not really surprising…  A fundamental axiom of the current postseason is that being able to participate in the bogus BCS is not the same as have the right top play for a national championship and the BCS by setting up its system has not only in our opinion, and we are very confident in that opinion, violates US laws pertaining to competition in the Sherman Antitrust Act and in other places, but the BCS also violates the basic tenants, intentions and laws of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

 

There has been much made of the Utah attorney general looking into the legality of the BCS, but the attorney general of any state will only be the window dressing to what the BCS will be facing in the coming months, because it is clear to us that President-elect Obama has an interest in this subject and that the Obama administration will have a lot to say on the BCS and college football’s postseason.  Of course, most of the people writing on this subject are sports writers and they have very little understanding of the US laws that in our opinion the BCS has and is now violating or where the real challenge will come from to take on the BCS and their bogus postseason system for college football.  It will not be a President Obama that will take up the challenge to end the BCS and replace it with a playoff system, but rather “his” US Justice Department and more troubling and worrisome to the BCS Boys, one of the 93 United States Attorneys that this new Administration will name in the coming weeks to replace the Bush Administration’s federal prosecutors.  These 93 United States Attorneys are stationed throughout the United States with 1 US attorney for each federal judicial district and of course each United States Attorney has a staff of assistant attorneys that help prosecute cases.  These 93 United States Attorneys are potentially an incredible nightmare for the BCS Boys because these federal prosecutors have broad powers to subpoena people, gain access to any documents pertaining to a case (think ALL BCS and bowl agreements/contracts), seat federal grand juries, and call in people to testify under oath.  These United States Attorneys also have a power that should send shivers through the BCS Boys, because not only can these federal prosecutors bring evidence before a federal grand jury that could lead to federal indictments, they also have the power to file a case that would have the title:

 

The United States of America vs. BCS (Bowl Championship Series)

 

Yes, such a case filed by an United States Attorney against the BCS with the American government representing the American people against the BCS should be of a big concern to the BCS Boys because the President-elect has made it very clear that he feels the BCS is not the appropriate nor the fair way to determine a national champion in college football.  Once a President makes it clear how he feels on an issue, no doubt somewhere in the US Justice Department just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, someone will open a file that says something like….

 

“BCS – Antitrust Issues, Civil Rights, Competition”

 

Yes, that case file will be opened up somewhere in the Justice Department in the next few months and we believe that when our government begins looking into the mechanics of the BCS and how it treats schools and thus individual college football players (read, US citizens) differently in I-A football, the US Justice Department will make the determination that the BCS violates US laws, and that will be a day that will be the beginning of the end for the BCS, the BCS Boys, and maybe even the current bowl system.

 

The United States of America vs. BCS (Bowl Championship Series)

 

My that has a nice ring to it!

 

On the last point, there is still some time left for the BCS Boys, 10 days until President-elect Obama is sworn in as the President of the United States on January 20, for the BCS Boys (the conference commissioners, bowl executives, some ADs and college presidents) to come to their senses because they could lose the entire current college football postseason when these cases against the BCS start to move forward.  Yes, there is a very real chance that our government, the United States of America on behalf of the American people, will bring a federal case against the BCS and we have no doubt that this is a case that the BCS Boys will lose on ever level of the federal courts, but especially in the Supreme Court which is now stocked with free market/free enterprise conservative justices that will not look kindly on the bogus BCS which does not give all teams an equal chance to play for the national title nor does it even meet the basic underlying organizing function of our Republic.

 

What is that underlying organizing function you ask?  It is very simple…

 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

 

Yes, Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence laid down the one essential fundamental bedrock of our Republic, “that all men are created equal” and the BCS fails that one essential in spades.  Somehow the BCS Boys have come to the conclusion that because they have the consent of all 11 conference commissioners that they have the right to violate the fundamental rights of US citizens and US laws pertaining to competition in this country, but the BCS Boys are wrong….  Boy, are they wrong.  If all the crime families in the New York City area get together (the mob) and then their subsequent actions break laws, that all of the crime families agreed to break the laws does not make the mob legal nor does that somehow make their actions legal.  For some reason the BCS Boys have come to believe that because all the conference commissioners have agreed to the BCS that the BCS is thus legal.  Uhhhh, NO, you are SO WRONG ON THAT!

 

The BCS must stand on its own, and it is our opinion that not only does the BCS violate US laws pertaining to competition and violate the Civil Rights of US citizens (How many times are Mormons, which are a minority in our country and make up much of the roster of the Utah football team, going to allow the BCS to treat them in such an unfair and illegal way?  Utah has been jobbed by the BCS two times in recent years when they finished with undefeated seasons, and we believe that the BCS is violating the civil rights of Mormons because the BCS does not treat teams from the MWC conference in the same way they treat….say Notre Dame.  Why does a Catholic school in Notre Dame get preferential treatment and two schools that enroll lots of Mormons, Utah and BYU, get treated in a different way?  Yes, that is a damn good question and goes to the heart of why the BCS is illegal in our mind…) but that the BCS is nothing more than an illegal criminal conspiracy to violate US law. 

 

Yes, the BCS Boys know they and their BCS system are in a very dangerous position right now (if they don’t that they are very stupid and they are getting very bad legal advice), and how their own personal actions may have put the BCS Boys themselves into danger of prosecution.  If the BCS is proved to be a criminal conspiracy to restrict competition, then the men behind the BCS going all the way back to Roy Kramer will be held accountable for their “personal” actions (and that certainly includes the conference commissioners that have recently retired) in setting up and running the BCS.  The United State of America is a nation of laws and President-elect Obama is only reflecting the views of the vast majority of the American people on the BCS, because the American people intuitively understand that the BCS violates US and the basic tenants of our Republic, and that we will not sit idly by and let the BCS or college football postseason continue in its current form. 

 

The BCS will not be allowed to stand because it is in our opinion an illegal criminal conspiracy to restrict competition which also treats schools and US citizens that play college football in Division I-A in an illegal way by treating them differently and in an unequal way.  That is not right and that is not legal, and the BCS will not be allowed to stand.

 

You can count that BCS Boys.

 

The BCS Boys and men like John Swofford represent the worst of America because they place personal greed and power above what is right and what our great Republic stands for.  Yes, the BCS Boys are an ugly part of America, just like the greedy bastards on Wall Street that would take our country to the edge of destruction just so they can turn an extra buck.  No the BCS Boys, the Wall Street Bastards and others in this country that put selfishness and greed above what is right, and it is right that ALL participants in I-A college football have the right and opportunity to play for a national championship, will eventually be held to account for their actions, and that time is now for the BCS Boys.  The BCS does not allow for equal treatment for all college football teams in Division I-A, and even puts schools that are not members of the so called “BCS Conferences” at a disadvantage and in our opinion treats those teams in an unfair and illegal way.  No, that will not be allowed to stand and our country is about to inaugurate a President that will have the power to hold the BCS and the BCS Boys responsible for their actions.  For that, we are very thankful.

 

We also remind the BCS Boys that if the US government or anyone else brings and wins a case against the BCS, that will open the BCS and thus the conferences, schools, and bowls to litigation and possible damages for what would have been determined an illegal BCS.  There is a real possibility that the BCS Boys could find that their conferences and thus schools could be on the hook to pay damages, i.e, disgorge past payouts, to the schools and players that were damaged by the existence of the BCS.  That possibility, that the current BCS conferences and schools might find themselves paying out millions of dollars to people and schools that were damaged by the BCS should really worry the BCS Boys.  Yes, that thought should be a REAL CONCERN to the BCS Boys, because there are potentially millions of dollars at stake if the BCS is found to be an illegal entity. 

 

Yes, start worrying BCS Boys, no matter what your legal counsel tells you, because you are in a very perilous position right now…

 

Lastly, in 1858 with storm clouds gathering in the US Congress and elsewhere over the issue of slavery Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln held a series of Lincoln-Douglas debates as the two men vied for a US Senate seat from the state of Illinois.  During one of those debates, Abraham Lincoln illustrated the essential nature of our country and why today those same principles make institutions like the BCS and abomination to our Republic.

 

In one of those debates Douglas and Lincoln, and the crowd listening to the debate had a very similar exchange to what is below:

 

Abraham Lincoln:  Judge Douglas says he, he doesn’t care whether slavery is voted up or voted down.

 

Heckler:  Neither do we, Lincoln, you know-nothing!

 

Lincoln:   Well friend, I may not know much, but I think I know right from wrong.  Now you say that you don’t care whether slavery is voted up or down.  Now any man can say that, who does not see anything wrong in slavery. But no man can logically say it who does see wrong in it.  Because no man can logically say he doesn’t care whether wrong is voted up or down.

 

Lincoln:  I say this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free.  A house divided against itself cannot stand.

 

Heckler:  That’s what you think, you long drink of water!

 

Lincoln:  Yes, my friend, that’s what I think.  That is the real issue.  That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silenced.

 

Stephen Douglas:   As I say, I have known Mr. Lincoln for twenty-five years.  He is a fine lawyer, possesses high ability, and there is no objection to him.  Except….the monstrous revolutionary doctrines which he conscientiously entertains and is determined to carry out if he gets the power!

 

Spectator  Don’t worry, he ain’t gonna get it!

 

Spectator:  Never! No never! Not that hillbilly railsplitter!

 

Douglas:  Why didn’t I tell you…that this doctrine of Lincoln’s declaring that men are made equal by the Declaration of Independence and by Divine providence is a monstrous heresy!

 

Lincoln:  My countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with those great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence, if you have listened to suggestions which would take away its grandeur, if you are inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our chart of liberty, let me entreat you to come back.  Think nothing of me.  Take no thought of the political fate of any man whatsoever.  But come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence.  You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles.  You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me out and put me to death.  Do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity.  If that Declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute book in which we find it and tear it out.

 

Lincoln:  Who is so bold to do it?

 

Spectator #3:  No one!

 

Spectator #4:  I won’t!

 

Spectator #5:   Not I!

 

Lincoln:  If it is not true, let us tear it out!

 

Spectator #3:  No! No! Never!

 

Lincoln:  Then let us stick to it then!  And let us stand firmly by it.

 

Yes, President Lincoln, if the Declaration of Independence is true then the BCS cannot exist, because the BCS does not treat all Americans equally.  It is that simple, and that is why we have no doubt the…

 

BCS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO STAND

 

Of that, WE ARE VERY SURE….  Strap yourselves down BCS Boys, for if you do not move soon to institute a playoff system in the college football postseason (and we mean real soon!), one will be implemented for you and you will have no control over this new system.  The Clock is Ticking BCS Boys and you had better answer the bell in the next 10 days or….

 

The BCS is FINISHED.  Of that, we are VERY SURE…

 

Today, at Walt Disney World one can hear a portion of this debate at the wonderful experience, The Hall of Presidents:  Enjoy!

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The great thing about looking at so many news stories as we do here at Coaches Hot Seat everyday is that many times almost the moment that we go to write something ourselves on a football game or particular issues about college football, we read almost exactly what we would have written in a news story.  It would be hard to praise too much how good the reporting is right now in the print and even electronic media on the game of college football, and amazingly this is at a time when print media is on its last legs.  Yes, there was some great sports print reporting in the years before and after World War II, but the depth of reporting across the entire country today informs us on the goings on with college football programs from coast to coast and we hope other people as well through Coaches Hot Seat.  That was certainly one of our goals when we created Coaches Hot Seat almost two years ago and we continue the mission of bringing the relevant news from across the country to our website users everyday. 

 

Of course, the current state of the economy and the challenges that all of us face on a daily basis don’t leave a lot of time for writing unless it is done in the middle of the night as this post is being done right now and when the college football season is over and we move on to inaugurate a new President we will have more to say on college football and the very tough thing that are now facing our Republic.  Yes, the challenges are great, but there is more opportunity now in the current state of chaos than has ever existed in our lifetimes in this country and smart entrepreneurs will find ways to both found companies and grow their current enterprises which will make them much stronger when America comes back from its current weakened condition.  Lots more to be said on that subject, but lets get to the subject at hand, which is the BCS title game tonight between Florida and Oklahoma…. 

 

There is a lot that could be said about the incredible inequity and downright un-American nature of this BCS title game and the college football postseason, but we will hold that for another day, because we have never been more confident as we are now after our work on this issue in the past several weeks that once all is said and done, the BCS will go the same way as the Soviet Union…….that is DOWN THE TUBES, and it will be the American people, supported by our government that will stand up for what is right and fair, and legal for that matter, and there will not be a damn thing in the world that any of the BCS Boys, from the conference commissioners, college presidents, or bowl executives will be able to do about it…  Yes, time is running short for the BCS Boys and they are about to cross a Rubicon in a little under two weeks where if they are still holding to their current positions, they might not only lose the BCS, they might lose the entire college football postseason as it is currently configured.  Much more on this in the coming days, but for now we have a real football game to be played against two very good college football teams….  On to our prediction….

 

We here at Coaches Hot Seat only picked the score of one game in 2008, in the battle in the LA Coliseum between USC and Ohio State back in September.  Our prediction for that game was: 

 

USC 41 – Ohio State 21

 

Final Score:  USC 35 – Ohio State 3

 

We were way to optimistic about Ohio State’s ability to score against the USC defense and even though the Buckeyes have improved on the offensive side of the ball as Terrelle Pryor has gotten more comfortable at          QB, Ohio State was still only able to score 21 points on Texas in the recent Fiesta Bowl.  That is the same Texas team that Texas Tech scored 33 points on this season and that thought brings us to the 4 games this season that we believe provide the most insight into the game tonight between Oklahoma and Florida.

 

Oklahoma

9/27 – Oklahoma 35 – TCU 10

10/11 – Texas 45 – Oklahoma 35

 

Florida

9/27 – Ole Miss 31 – Florida 30

12/6 – Florida 31 – Alabama 20

 

We here at Coaches Hot Seat are big believers in match-ups, or in this case previously played games against the same or similar opponents.  In Oklahoma’s case, the best two defenses the Sooners played in ’08 were against TCU at home and Texas in Dallas.  Interestingly, Oklahoma scored 35 points in both games, but neither TCU nor Texas have a defense that compares to the speed and power that OU will face against Florida.  Also of note is that Oklahoma gave up 45 points to the best offensive team they played in ’08 in Texas (no not Texas Tech), and we believe Florida has a better offense than the Longhorns.

 

Also very interesting is that Florida scored 31 and 30 points against the two very good defensive teams it faced in 2008, and we believe that both Ole Miss and Alabama have better defenses than Oklahoma.  Against Ole Miss Florida gave up 31 points and 20 points to Alabama which brings us around to the conclusion that Florida scored around 30 points on the two very good defensive teams they played in ’08, teams that we believe are better than Oklahoma on defense, which coupled with that fact that Oklahoma “only” scored 35 points against the best two defenses it played in ’08 to the inescapable fact that….

 

The Florida Gators will beat Oklahoma in the BCS title game.

 

Our Prediction:  Florida 42 – Oklahoma 31

 

The Vegas Boys and the bettors of the world tell us that Florida is a 5 point favorite and that the over/under is 70 points, so if we were betting folks (if this game was being played on a Saturday as all college championship games should be, we would probably be at Lake Tahoe skiing and we could drop into the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe and put down a “sawbuck” on the Gators) but we are not, we would guess the Gators will cover and that “Over” will hit, but only barely….

 

Well, there you have our pick for tonight’s game, the Florida Gators will win their second BCS title in 3 years and Urban Meyer will have established himself as firmly one of the top 2 or 3 best coaches in the game.  Of course, Bob Stoops and Urban Meyer are both already in the top 5 coaches in the game so there is not much room for either man to move up very far!

 

Since no one here at Coaches Hot Seat has a dog in tonight’s game and we have tremendous respect for both programs, head coaches, coaching staffs, players, and their fans we will have a lot of fun sitting back tonight and watching two great football teams square off.  No, these two teams did not earn their way to this “title” game, because no team can “earn” their way to such a game with the current bogus system that is the college football postseason, but these are still two very good teams that will be a lot of fun to watch play tonight.

 

Our very simple keys to the game:

 

Keys for the Florida Gators

 

1.  Get to Sam Bradford – Bradford was hardly challenged at all in the Big 12 this season so we would get after Sam early and often if we were calling defensive plays for the Gators.

 

2.   Stop the Sooners run game – Oklahoma can get a little impatient with their run game and when they need to get some yards on the ground, they sometimes find they can’t get it.  Stop up the OU run game is a big key…

 

3.  Trust in Tebow and the Gators’ skill players to get it done – Earlier this year, after Florida had committed to going with their very talented, but very young skill players on offense, there were a few mistakes made, but the Florida coaches stayed with those young players and it has really paid off.  Trust them one more time and they will take you to a title. 

 

4.  Attack, Attack, Attack – An attacking team, as is Oklahoma, hates to get attacked and we would attack the OU offense and defense wherever we found them on the football field.

 

5.  Challenge and hit the Sooners on ever play – Only against TCU and Texas did Oklahoma play teams that really challenged them and hit their ball carriers on every play.  The Sooners are going to hit some big plays, but on each one of those plays the OS ball carrier must be taken to the ground hard, even if he has gained 30 yards.  As a great football coach once said, “Hit ‘em hard and carry them to the ground.  It reduces their enthusiasm.”  We could not agree more….

 

Keys for the Oklahoma Sooners

 

1.  Be aggressive on defense – The best way to stop an option attack is to attack the option as close as possible to the line of scrimmage or preferable in the backfield.  This seems obvious, but too many teams are not aggressive enough on defense against option attacks and that actually opens up more holes than it stops up.  If you want to be beat an option attack go upfield and get it before it can get going.

 

2.  Defensive linemen get your arms up – Tim Tebow throws a very flat football that does not have a lot of trajectory and if a lineman or rusher cannot get to Tebow the best next thing to do is get your arms up and try to swat Tebow’s passes down.  If that happens a few times, Florida will start rolling Tebow out, but even in open space a jumping rusher can cause a lot of havoc with a flat passer.

 

3.  Tackle Tebow low – It makes no sense to give up a lot of energy by trying to tackle Tebow up high.  Tebow is a very strong runner, but like all very strong runners his weakness is being tackled low and avoiding direct collisions with Tebow will only keep the entire OU defense stronger as the game wears on.  Hit Tebow low and grab on for all your worth Sooners.

 

4.  Attack the middle of the field on offense, first short, then long, short again, then long again – The weakness to the Gator defense is in the middle of the field on pass plays, either in front of or behind the linebackers and a few strikes in the middle of the field will really open up the flats and deep balls, because the safeties will be forced to cover the entire field.  Florida can be very aggressive on defense at times and teams that are aggressive against them force the Gators to move back towards more of a base defense which would give Sam Bradford that much more room to operate.

 

5.  Kick the ball out of bounds, maybe even on kickoffs to negate the Gator returns teams – Oklahoma cannot give up any scores on special teams in this game and we might even consider kicking the ball out of bounds on kickoffs and let the Gators start at the 35 yard line.  On punts, this is a no-brainer…KICK THE BALL OUT OF BOUNDS….

 

6.  Let Sam Bradford be Sam Bradford – Bradford is at his best when OU is aggressive with their offensive play calling and the Sooners need to stay aggressive against the Gators to have a real chance to win this ball game.  We believe OU will need around 40 points to win so get on with the scoring….

 

Well there you have our prediction for tonight’s game….

 

Florida 42 – Oklahoma 31

 

and our Keys to the Game for both teams…..

 

Let’s hope for a competitive and healthy game tonight between Florida and Oklahoma and let’s hope for no controversy so that the best team will win this game…..if not a legitimate national championship though…

 

We hope to get caught up at our day jobs with most of us gouging ourselves with almost three weeks off over Christmas and New Year’s, and once we do get caught up and we can get back to the more important issues of the day, like sending the BCS to the dustbin of history….BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE IT IS GOING…..

 

The American people, the average college football fans and our new President will win this debate on what is best for the college football postseason, not only because we are right and the BCS Boys are dreadfully wrong (and they know they are wrong), but because a system that does not have the popular will of the people can never stand for long, and the BCS is hated throughout our Republic by people from all walks of life.  Yes, the BCS is coming down just as…. 

Strap yourselves in BCS Boys for the revolution is coming……Either come up with a legitimate system, a playoff system as every other sport in collegiate athletic uses (use the bowl games if you like, but a postseason playoff system is a must…), or risk losing the entire enchilada and putting yourselves under a microscope that we don’t believe anyone running conferences and bowls wants to be under…. Much more on this to come, but don’t forget BCS Boys, THE CLOCK IS TICKING and it strikes midnight on all the BCS Boys at High Noon on January 20, 2009.  After that day, the BCS Boys are locked-in to the current positions and without a movement to a playoff system in place by then there will be a huge risk taken by the BCS Boys to open a Pandora’s Box that once open, will not be able to be closed….

 

The BCS Boys and their enablers in the press are like the East German leaders and the thugs in the Soviet Politburo just before the Berlin Wall came down…Yes, the BCS Boys are confident in themselves and their evil and very un-American system, the BCS….but they forget that Americans will not tolerate such inequity and such an un-American system to determine the champion of our favorite sport….No, as we rose up in the Revolution against England and one of our greatest President’s did against the Soviet Union… we shall rise up against the BCS as well…..

 

 

 

What is very sad is that the BCS Boys do not understand, yet that is, just what they are dealing with in our new President…..

 

 

 

Yes, the clock is ticking on the BCS Boys and their very evil BCS….  Don’t let that clock run out BCS Boys with the current system in place…..No, we would not recommend that…..

 

Yes, this is going to be great fun, just like it was great fun in the military to chase the Soviets down wherever we could find them until they could not take it anymore and their very evil communist system imploded from within.  Yes, that was great fun!  My Oh My, this is going to be great fun as well to get after these BCS Boys!

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