FULMER CUPDATE: GATORS CHARGE IN
If it’s Monday, it must be time for us to mention that Scoreboard-domo Brian is hung like Reggie F’n Nelson and that it’s time for the Fulmer Cupdate for the week. Expansions, digressions, and other elaborate lies follow.

Florida makes a stout appearance with Jamar Hornsby’s credit card fraud charges, an eight pointer that’s enough to put them on the big board, albeit right down there at the bottom with only the mildly felonious teams. Urban Meyer, who kicked Hornsby off the team, is to be congratulated for nothing because what the crime lacked in actual severity it more than made up for in craven opportunism with despicable timing.
There’s something at root here to acknowledge: despite the vaunted decline in character and overall permissive tone in the Meyer era at Florida, there’s little to cite in his stay indicating he’s particularly lenient or harsh. For all the drill sergeant talk, he let Marcus Thomas smoke through a zillion failed drug tests before he got the boot. And for all the carping (ourselves included) about him being a lax disciplinarian, every kid who committed a major crime (Ronnie Wilson, Jamar Hornsby) was booted from the team…albeit after the requisite wait/see period that makes fans slightly queasyish.
To counter an additional angle of the argument, it doesn’t seem like there’s much differentiating his tenure from [NAME REDACTED]’s in terms of player discipline. The two biggest incidents in the prior regime involved an accusation of sexual assault (Clint Mitchell,) Taurean Charles’ double manfest of punching a smaller man off a porch at a party and then attempting to keggenate the guy’s head with a half-full keg, and then the frat fight [NAME REDACTED] broke up/got involved in towards the end of the Times of Trouble.
Toss in capers with Channing “Nope, Not my Car” Crowder and Steven Harris, and then go even further back to look at the long line of youthful, muscled-up stupidity at Florida re: football players and discipline during the Spurrier era, and there’s only one crucial difference between any of them: Spurrier was a bit quicker to boot someone immediately, whereas [NAME REDACTED] and Meyer seem willing to do anything to avoid giving shoe leather enemas unless absolutely necessary. All three excused, hemmed, hawed, and kept players on when it was convenient to do so.
It’s a warm place–like Tallahassee or Miami–filled with top-notch athletes from impoverished backgrounds. Give them booze and a diet-sized slice of fame cheesecake, and this will happen…especially when coaches enable them by being even slightly tolerant of it, something Meyer undoubtedly and demonstrably has been. He’s enabled it where other coaches haven’t, and–we tremble with irony as we type this–he could look to the hardline fear Randy Shannon seems to instill in the same kids a few hundred miles south in Coral Gables as an example of how to do it in circumstances extremely conducive to player misconduct.
Oh, and an Alabama player got cited for walking around drunk. If the police actually applied this law even-handedly and not just to young drunk black men across Alabama, the state would be deforested in a matter of days with the frenzied ticket-writing.
Finally: Brian O’Blivion gets his points, corrected dutifully in comment threads for something like two months, awarded to Washington State. Their total now stands corrected at 12 total. Missouri’s looking difficult to catch at this point, yet the others refuse to drop out of the competition: WHY ARE YOU HURTING THE RACE BY STAYING IN, WEST VIRGINIA?!?!?!?









1
Mr. Pelican Pants says:
We would like a recount…..Wf’nVU has 15 points???
Or is that the “one point per kid” awarded to Noel Devine, and his “No Ho’ Left Behind” program???
Man, they really do have a potent offense……they may actually be in the hunt this year….
May 12th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
2
Johnny says:
The Rage-o-hol just won’t let us quit O.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
3
sb says:
Dammit, just seeing Florida’s name on the big board makes me want to win the fucker…I know its wrong, but it’s got my team on it and it is a scoreboard…
May 12th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
4
Youngator says:
I just want to point out that Mario Manningham (last seen scoring a touchdown against us) has admitted to failing 2 drug tests while playing at Michigan. He was never suspended for them. In fact, Michigan doesn’t even suspend students for a failed recreational drug test. A second failed drug test, 90 days after the first, results in a suspension for 10% of competition.
So I don’t think Urban Meyer was unduly lenient with Marcus Thomas while he was here. Meyer certainly created an air of impropriety with the way he handled the affair and reinstated Thomas for the LSU game, but if Thomas was only smoking marijuana, Meyer’s punishment was actually harsher than it had to be. By actually suspending Thomas, then eventually kicking him off the team, Meyer was a disciplinarian, but the timing of the suspensions can be criticized as improper.
Linkage (new window)
May 12th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
5
GamecockTony says:
I’m too lazy to look this up (and too old to remember) but did every team on the Big Board play in a bowl game last year?
May 12th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
6
Seven Years in Gainesville says:
Wazzu missed the postseason.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
7
Seven Years in Gainesville says:
As did Nebraska. Someone find that link of the drunk Husker chicks.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
8
Limedust says:
Everytime I see Channing Crowder’s name printed somewhere, my brain interprets it as Channing Chowder… because Channing “New England Clam” Chowder would be worthy of some sort of De’Cody Fagg styled award.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
9
chg says:
Re #4, it’s not fair to compare your program to a Big Ten school. That’s like trying to get out of a speeding ticket by claiming you were moving pretty slow for a fighter jet. Although any analogy that equates the Big Ten with speed is probably a bad one.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
10
Anon says:
Why does Illinois have an asterisk for impressive singular achievement, but Florida lacks one?
May 12th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
11
dudis41 says:
#3
You want Florida to win? Just kill one of Hornsby’s friends. That is… one of Hornsby’s friends with something resembling a credit history.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
12
Out of Conference says:
If Stephen Garcia drank a dead guy’s beer, would the Cocks be on the board? Just wondering…
May 12th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
13
Guillory says:
No mention of USC? Are they at least receiving votes?
May 12th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
14
ryan says:
am i missing something? where did wfvu’s extra point come from? they had 14 last week…
May 12th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
15
Mike Pigott says:
… and Zook brought Tebow and Hornsby before the angry Seminole fans and asked them, “Who shall I release for the beginning of the season? Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Gators’?”"
“No, not him! Give us Hornsby!!!”
May 12th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
16
Year2-Dave says:
Hornsby only counts for 6 or 7 points – the 8 point count assumed two felonies but it was a felony and a misdemeanor.
I know, I know… Florida, recounts, etc.
May 12th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
17
UF Ghostal says:
Not to be an apologetic homer, but Meyer’s team G.P.A. has gone up each semester since he came on board. While there have been some regretable and dispicable offenses on his watch, his wait and see approach to discipline has produced some graduates(Steven Harris, Dallas Baker among others) that would have failed out otherwise. So that’s good. Until the inevitable FSU-style grade fiasco.
May 12th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
18
Brian O'Blivion says:
OMG!!11!!, that correction was pretty tough to get. Now that’s it’s done, like a young man coming in for a quickie, I feel so unsateeesssfied. But the big board is correct, so it’s all good.
May 12th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
19
Joe says:
Long live the new flesh!
May 12th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
20
St. Daywalker says:
My kid (a Bama sophomore) also got cited for “walkin’ around drunk” in T-town this Spring.
I think it’s part of a shady land-grab where the University is in cahoots with developers to gentrify the strip. Not that my kid didn’t deserve to be cited, but I think they have ramped up the harrassment of the clientele where in the past they would have let the ones not operating motor vehicle or acting the fool stagger home.
Greed rather than race seems to be the motive.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
21
Shane says:
Don’t forget the late UF player Avery Atkins.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
22
shanensga says:
I have been posting as shane, in the future I will identify Myself as shanensga, as I find nothing amusing in #21. A young Man throwing away a bright future is not funny, no matter what colors he wears on Saturday, even the hated orange. I am a UGA fan, but I want to defeat the Gators fair and square, on the field. I get no joy from Their off field problems.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:52 am
23
OhioDawg says:
I get great joy from their off field problems. Off field tragedies are another issue, but problems I’m all for.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:30 am
24
Tater Salad says:
20-
I finished up my time in T-town a year ago this month and I agree with your assessment of the strip.
Great name by the way. Classic.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:42 am
25
sb says:
Ohio @ #23…schadenfreude is an unattractive trait, even in dawgs.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:56 am
26
Because They Can says:
“If Stephen Garcia drank a dead guys beer, would the Cocks be on the board? Just wondering ”
Maybe, if he also keyed the dead guy’s car then set off a dorm fire extinguisher in celebration (all under the influence of TFMM, of course).
May 13th, 2008 at 8:02 am
27
Sundawg says:
sb, isn’t the Fulmer Cup all about off-field problems. Are we not to celebrate our opponents’ miscues and general fuck-ups? Can this be so wrong? Nay, I say! NAY!
May 13th, 2008 at 8:10 am
28
sb says:
Because @ #26…only if he’s spoonin’ with his guru, Matthew McConnoughe (sp?)…interesting that excess hair on unshaven, partially clad, sweaty males lends itself to intoxication and singular experiences…
May 13th, 2008 at 8:11 am
29
sb says:
Sun @ #27…yes, but as a fan I reserve the right to be inconsistent; to engage in pettifoggery, to drag red herrings, to use ad hominem attacks together with any other tools at my disposal to denigrate my foes and raise the glory of Florida for all to see and fear/respect. But only when it suits me…otherwise I’m just cranky and pissed off so I write some shit to pass it on…
May 13th, 2008 at 8:24 am
30
Sundawg says:
sb – Well stated, sir [looking up pettifoggery ...]
May 13th, 2008 at 8:31 am
31
sb says:
Sun, when you find it let me know…
May 13th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
32
Al Groh says:
Another arrest for my Virginia Cavaliers – Mike Brown does it again:
May 13th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
33
Al Groh says:
Sorry…here’s the link:
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/sports/more.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-13-0063.html
May 13th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
34
Wild Bill says:
If I got a ticket each time I was drunk on the campus of Alabama I would still be in jail 10 years after finishing school. Something has changed in T-Town. I got so drunk my freshman year the cops had to drive me to my dorm. Now if you look at a beer wrong you get a free ride to the lock up.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
35
Saben's Hair Dye says:
Nine arrests in the 16 months since Saben arrived in Tuscaloosa.
Nine arrests … Wow.
Maybe it should be re-named The Saben Cup.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:17 am
36
crazycavs says:
Here are more points for Virginia you left out:
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/sports/more.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-13-0063.html
Mike Brown AGAIN. He’s trying to push the Cavs to #1 I guess.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
37
Mr. Pelican Pants says:
#35
Those arrest you speak of? Makin room for more talent…. Natural selection…thinning out the herd where only the strong will survive….U Barners know your lil time is over for the next decade,and after Saban takes AU down, Tubs is gone too..
May 15th, 2008 at 4:20 pm