According to the L.A. Daily News, Bush is taking his skillz to the next level next season. Selfishly as a college fan I wish he’d stay around and break the Heismandments next season as he is a once in a decade college player, but he’d be a fool to stay and risk a blown knee.

Dophin’s rookie linebacker and former Gator Channing Crowder has this great quote about the Zooker in the Miami Herald:

”`Ron Zook, now he was crazy. He would call at 6 a.m. or 2 a.m., yelling and cussing the whole time about some mistake on defense,” Crowder said, doing an impersonation of Zook by blinking rapidly and shaking all over. “We joked that he had ADD.

Cuddles Swindle will be graduating from Auburn University today, so we’ll be running down I-85 for the day. Stock up on liquor for the weekend and feel free to peruse our vast archives for spelling errors and some of the most erroneous preseason conjectures ever made.

Going to Auburn graduation today. Monster truck rally to follow.

George O’Leary’s turnaround of the program can surely be credited with the news that UCF is building a 45,000 seat stadium for its football team. The stadium good be open for business by 2007.

Congratulations are in order for The Blue-Gray Sky, winners of this years Webblog Award for Best Sports Blog (thanks to thousands of ill-gotten votes being invalidated for Athletics Nation). Keep making us look like hacks.

ESPN’s reporting that Colorado has all but tossed the job in Dan Hawkins’ lap. OC Chris Petersen will bump up to HC at Boise, continuing their tradition of smooth transitions. Hawkins, as usual, looks really excited about the gig.

Hawkins, not switching to decaf any time soon.

Some people love to prognosticate the whole bowl season. In our self-appointed role as college football anti-pundits, we love to make our picks based on predjudice, caprice, and regional politics. With that, we present who we’re rooting for in each bowl this season.

New Orleans Bowl: Arkansas State versus Southern Mississippi.

Orson: At the risk of infuriating SMQ, we have to pull for Arkansas State, since we bludgeoned them to death innumerable times with the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders in NCAA 2004. As coach Blue McFistley we put the Blue Raiders on track to four straight national championships, each one of which ran squarely over the squashed innards of an Arkansas State team. So for karma’s sake, we’re pulling for them with the full knowledge that they’ll stand little chance against a disgruntled and very pissed off Southern Miss team.

Stranko: At first I confused Arkansas State with the University of Arkansas-Monticello Fighting Boll Weevils and was going to pick them both because I actually know an alum and because, in that region of the country, what mascot could be more frightening. Having realized that they are in fact the now banned Indians of Arkansas State, I was disappointed. Kind of like when you take a sip of your beverage at a restaurant expecting a Pespi and it turns out to be Iced Tea… you might have been satisfied with Iced Tea, but because of expectations, you almost spit it out. So, I have chosen Southern Mississippi.

GMAC Bowl: Toledo versus UTEP.

Orson: By day she go to school, and night she turn strip-PAHHHH… Mike Price, baby. Dig ‘em, Miners. Hehhhhnnnggghhhh!!!!

Stranko: I want to root for Mike Price, I really do because it is more entertaining. But as explained below, I can’t because he’s coaching in Texas.

Mike Price wants Toledo to drop it to the floor. Hehhhhnnnggghhh!!!

Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl: BYU vs. Cal.

Orson: Caffeine, sex outside of marriage, pornography, and booze: four reasons we’re rooting like hell for Cal.

Stranko: No brainer. South Park ruined any hope of me ever rooting for BYU Fighting John Smiths(sad and puerile, I know) so I too will be pulling for the crazies from Berserkly.

San Diego State Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl: Colorado State versus Navy. Sonny Lubick is hard to root against, especially after you read the chapter on him in Every Week A Season. And he’s named Sonny, which automatically makes him cool.

But Sonny gets outranked here in coolness by the Navy. It’s not his fault; it just so happens that like most red-blooded American males, we imagine that if fate had tweaked itself in one flap of of the butterfly’s wing or another, we’d be climbing the outside of a building in a desolate corner of the world wearing underwear made of plastic explosive with a survival knife in our teeth, poised to strike and then make our escape on the back of a combat llama. Navy SEALS or Sonny? Like Michael Bolton in Office Space, we’ve got SEAL envy, and will therefore pull for Navy.

Like Michael Bolton, we’ve got Navy SEAL envy. Anchors Aweigh!

Stranko: Wouldn’t I have to either be a CSU alum or hate America to root for the Rams??? Well, I love this country and I too think that there is nothing more bad ass than a Navy Seal, so Anchors Aweigh!!! (By the way, is it Point- Set- A or Point- Set- Ee- A)
(more…)

We’ll know in two more days.

Just 24 hours after his dramatic commitment to the University of Florida, Gator-watchers and fans alike have pronounced the highly touted qb recruit Tim Tebow “the biggest bust in the history of the program.”

“There were such high hopes for him,” said self-styled recruitnik ApopGator 86 of the GatorSports message boards. “He could run, he could pass. He was perfect for Urban Meyer’s system. But after watching his underwhelming press conference, I can safely say that he’s the next Bobby Sabelhaus: a complete bust waiting to happen. If he’d committed a week earlier, I’d be talking differently. But after watching him not rip his shirt off to unveil a full chest tattoo of a Florida Gator at the press conference, I have to say that he’ll always be a disappointment to me as a Gator fan.”

Fellow recruiting pundits agreed:

“Gator fans were ecstatic over his announcement intially,” said recruiting guru Tom Lemming. “They were particularly excited over his thickness and ability to run as well as pass. But his lackluster reading of his speech, his post-dated 1999 hairstyle, and his frequent use of the word ‘awesome’ dashed Gator hopes immediately. Even his continuously polite yessirs during the interview quickly became a source of annoyance to Gator fans. From the five minutes of exposure we’ve had to him, it’s obvious that’s he’ll never master the spread option.”

“He probably should have gone to Notre Dame,” Lemming added.

Tebow: pre-bust.

Pronouncing a recruit as a bust immediately is an unprecedented move by recruit-watchers, with the previous record going to Tennessee fans for their pronouncement of Michael Munoz as a bust just two weeks after signing with the Vols. Munoz’s unimpressive performance at a local Taco Bell was cited as the reason in his case, with Randy Eggers of Soddy Daisy leading the charge on Vol message boards:

“I saw Anthony at the Taco Bell and he only ordered three chicken soft tacos. Three soft damn tacos, and he left half on one on the tray when he was finished. HE DIDN’T FINISH LUNCH, PEOPLE!!! To be a champion, you gotta be hungry, people. It’s clear that Michael Munoz, who we all hoped would bring us national titles, doesn’t even have the hunger to finish lunch, much less win at the University of Tennessee. What a bust.”

Eerily similar reactions could be found across the internet and talk radio community yesterday immediately following Tebow’s announcement. Even the mainstream media got in on the act, with Peter Kerasotis of Florida Today getting in on the act:

Yesterday, Florida waited.

Today, they know.

Now, they’re disappointed.

Tim Tebow.

Bust.

As the unprecedented verdict swept its way across the internets, recruitniks were pondering new ways to push the envelope of prognostication following the Tebow incident. Jamie Newberg of the Insiders.com thinks the possibilities are endless.

“We’re working on ways to prognosticate not only busts on signing day…we’re working on forecasting them as busts while they’re still in high school. We’re simulating them in NCAA 2005, actually, designing them and playing out full seasons. In fact, we’d like to just go ahead and predict that Tebow fumbles four times against Tennessee in two years, since that’s exactly what we did. Barring the invention of a better button to press on those option pitches, we’ll stand by that forecast.”

Tebow and his new coach declined to comment for this article.

We’re late for this one thanks to a meeting, but here it is anyway: Matt Leinart proves he’s ready for the pros, courtesy of ND Nation. Strong evidence that even when Leinart’s not between the lines, he’s always looking to give the ball to Bush.