So I've mentioned in the comments before that I've wanted to start a Gator football podcast, potentially in conjunction with Alligator Army (as I like you guys way more than the other fansites) or just unaffiliated. I know gator country does paid versions of their stuff, and some of it's pretty good, but I thought if the writers here can do such a great job of providing free content, we should be able to provide a free one as well.

I have some good experience producing podcasts as it stands, so I got pretty much all the technical sides covered, but there's some other stuff I think should be gone over.

FlaGators has already told me he has some interest, so this is more to touch base to see if anyone might want to contribute or what you think might be cool stuff to go over. I can probably get in touch with some players as well, and I'd like to do interviews as well.

So...if you have anything to add, please do so below.

The main focus will be Gator Football, but I wouldn't be adverse to talking about other stuff.

Oh blustery. You are but one change of letter order away from my name exactly. You came to Florida to do something. What that was, we can only guess. I suppose the only way I can think of it is through pictures.

Urban Meyer retires after a dismal season. His expression sums up our feelings regarding it:

via blog.cleveland.com

Meh. Thanks for all the fish, but you probably should've left last season.

Coaching search begins. Cautiously optimistic. We're a big program with a lot of money. Good recruiting apparently happened. We should be good, right?

via a.espncdn.com

Jeremy Foley announces Will Muschamp has taken the job as his first choice. Gator fans were a bit conflicted. Ties to the SEC. Pretty good defensive coordinator where he's been. But successful defensive coordinator with no head coaching experience? We've seen this play out before. My expression was summed up by [REDACTED]:

via www.thesportsbank.net

Well, we're going to need a very good offensive coordinator at the very least right? Charlie Weis? Oh. Well, I remember Notre Dame's offense struggling substantially at times. It also was good at times. He helped turned around a NFL team, so clearly there is good coaching potential in there. Honestly, I was under the impression, hey, this could work. Go get 'em.

via media.al.com

And then the season began. It looked way better than the beginning of last year. John Brantley looked comfortable. The offensive line was doing pretty well. We might be able to do OK this season beyond losing to LSU and Alabama, but hey, that's not that bad. We could still win the east. Charlie Weis also coached us to a win over a rival in Tennessee. Brantley certainly looked happier than he did running the god damn option.

via blogs.palmbeachpost.com

Yeah, buddy. We all felt that way after the Kentucky game.

Than the Alabama game happened. It started out OK. We thought Charlie Weis would be alright. And then, a summation of what happened to our season in one picture:

via t2.gstatic.com

Uh oh. What's that? Two true freshmen behind him? Well, they were highly recruited. But...oh...they're still true freshman. That's not Charlie Weis's fault, and we were going to lose to Alabama anyway. Let him rest for LSU, since we're going to lose that game anyway. Hopefully he can come back healthy for Auburn. So whatever. I ain't even mad.

via www.block-c.com

OK so that LSU game was worse than it was supposed to be. Brad Wing totally posterized a couple of special team players. The defense couldn't stop the interior run...again. We were passed all over. We still have a young team. John Brantley is still injured for Auburn. What's this. Ted fucking Roof shut us down. Granted, muffed punts everywhere. True freshmen at QB. But still. Ted Roof.

via brightcove01.brightcove.com

OK. John Brantley is back. He's clearly still injured. He's playing OK at best for this first half. Oh...what's this? He's in way too much pain to clearly do anything for this second half? Well...why is he still playing? Granted, the True Freshmen aren't any better, but at the very least you won't permanently damage the only QB who has played well and sacrifice the rest of the season. Weis has direct control over this. Seriously starting to feel apprehensive.

via ufrsports.com

Well. We beat Vandy. Barely. We won with a semblance of offense as well. It seems like we have nobody on our fucking team though. Why do we have like 15 scholarship spots available? What the fuck was Urban Meyer doing? This South Carolina game is endemic of this entire season. The anger...it rises.

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

So that Furman game was terrible, but that was on the defense for basically not knowing how to defend against a triple option. Whatever. Offense looked OK, but it was against a FCS team so it really doesn't count. Maybe it'll be some momentum into FSU. John Brantley does look injured still. Maybe he'll. What's that. Quadruple coverage? Wow. Has he just full on regressed to last year? What the hell happened? The offense is unable to move the ball at all? Like...at all? Fuck it. Fuck the end of this shitty season. It's like Zook again except he beat FSU.

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

Urban Meyer is apparently a douche. No big surprise. This offseason blows. Even this rumor of Weis going to Kansas isn't that big a deal. Why on earth would they hire this guy. He's here only because he wants to be with his kid. He knows he belongs in the NFL.

Wait.

For real?

TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE DOWN BAGHEAD. DANCE PARTY!

via gifsoup.com

We all love College Football. We all love EDSBS. Why? I think it's because it brings joy to all of our black hearts and dead livers. Unfortunately, stories will occur that will make us all feel angry like with Mike Leach or sad like with Eric LeGrand or just fucking horrible like with this Penn State thing. In the course of events, Spencer as a guy that covers college football will cover these stories, as he should, and we should talk about them because they are important.

That being said, life is pretty tough out there as it stands for a lot of people, and this (a place I've always viewed as a place of good humor) might just not be the best fit. To that end, I offer a proposal that if you want to talk about the Penn State stuff, please reserve it for threads in which Spencer presents stuff about it, and not spread throughout the rest of threads. It came up some this last weekend in the open threads, and while I don't want to feel like anyone should be censored, I think it might just be common courtesy that we condense it, so this site will continue to be a a happy escape from the daily drudgery and not a reminder of the terrible things that people can do.

Further, an incident like this can affect anyone, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to have people on this site familiar from some perspective with incidents like this through relatives, friends, or whatever. I'm sure those people would like to still be involved with the site without feeling ill about the the things it can, should, and does report on being brought up in threads not related to this.

Just a suggestion.

Since we got a good amount of comments in last week's thread, I figure it's good enough (whip crack) to put a new one up this week.

Week 4 is where we start meeting the real meat of conference schedules, so it's possible we'll see more travel since it'll probably be closer to home.

How's it done:

Make a comment below saying what city you'll be in on game day in the title (ie: Tuscaloosa, Columbus, Norman) then say what part of campus or what part of the city you'll be setting up to get drunk before/after the game or where you're going to watch football. People can then look through the titles, see if they're in the same city, and they can put where they will be in the info in a response to the original city comment. Just for ease of people to navigate basically. If people are close enough, they can set up a point of contact for tailgating, drinking, whatever.

Current big time match ups that you might be able to meet up at:

Vandy at South Carolina

Arkansas at Alabama

Okie State at A&M

FSU at Clemson

LSU at WF'nV

So, I was actually considering not throwing this one down this week since Orson put up the where people will be at main post, but I received a few emails asking if I'd do it again, and it'll give people a bit more time to get their stuff together, so here's week 3.

EDSBS fans are made up of those living the high life right now, 2-0 and a strong looking team, and a great many realizing the sad fact that this season won't be what you've been dreaming of ever since you were a little girl.

Good news though: You can still enjoy the games to come with fellow EDSBS commentators with liquor and laptops in tow.

Here's how it works:

Make a comment below saying what city you'll be in on game day in the title (ie: Tuscaloosa, Columbus, Norman) then say what part of campus or what part of the city you'll be setting up to get drunk before/after the game or where you're going to watch football. People can then look through the titles, see if they're in the same city, and they can put where they will be in the info in a response to the original city comment. Just for ease of people to navigate basically. If people are close enough, they can set up a point of contact for tailgating, drinking, whatever.

Big Time match ups:

Thursday:

LSU at Miss St (Starkville)

Saturday:

Tennessee at Florida (Gainesville)

Auburn at (fuck) Clemson (Clemson)

Sparty at Notre Dame (South Bend)

OU at FSU (Tallahassee)

Stanford at Arizona (Tucson)

With the initial euphoria of week 1 of football season out of the way, we now move onto the either sustained pleasure of a successful season for our team of choice, or, more likely, despair as we watch all of our dreams collapse and fall around us.

/BWAAAAANG

With the first week gone, we now move onto our second week of games, which will include a new week of traveling and matchups providing EDSBS commentariat opportunities to meet up, get drunk, and presumably burn shit down.

Here's how it works:

Make a comment below saying what city you'll be in on game day in the title (ie: Tuscaloosa, Columbus, Norman) then say what part of campus or what part of the city you'll be setting up to get drunk before/after the game or where you're going to watch football. People can then look through the titles, see if they're in the same city, and they can put where they will be in the info in a response to the original city comment. Just for ease of people to navigate basically. If people are close enough, they can set up a point of contact for tailgating, drinking, whatever.

Big time matchups:

Thursday: Arizona at Oklahoma State

Saturday: Miss St. at Auburn

Alabama at Penn State

South Carolina at Georgia

Because we're all college football fans here, it would stand to reason there'd be some overlap in terms of us grouping out there in the world. A lot of us are fans of the same team after all, and will probably come within a few hundred yards of each other on game day anyway. Even so, a lot of us are going to be in other cities than where the schools we root for are, and might want to hit up a sports bar, so you won't be the random alone dude at Buffalo Wild Wings saying "Fuck Clemson." As a result, I thought it'd be a good idea to put a thread together so people could put their information out regarding meeting up to tailgate or whatever.

Basically, here's how it would go. Make a comment below saying what city you'll be in on game day in the title (ie: Tuscaloosa, Columbus, Norman) then say what part of campus or what part of the city you'll be setting up to get drunk before/after the game or where you're going to watch football. People can then look through the titles, see if they're in the same city, and they can put where they will be in the info in a response to the original city comment. Just for ease of people to navigate basically.

If people are close enough, they can email each other if they want to meet fellow members of the commentariat and get drunk, eat, watch football, and make EDSBS jokes without getting weird looks from the waitresses.

In order for us to have one consolidated open thread for the ND/Miami game and the Clemson/USF game, as well as covering the 3:30 start of the UGA/UCF game, I am creating this open thread so we may all have one place to congregate without destroying our computers.

The games for the day:

Meineke Car Bowl: USF v. Clemson

Hyundai Sun Bowl: ND v. Miami on CBS

Autozone Liberty Bowl: UGA v. UCF

We'll all converge back to the Chick Fil A bowl between FSU and USC tonight at 7:30.

via 30fps.mocksession.com

Via the most proggish of Bubbas. USC vs. UCLA. End of Big 12 CG of Nebraska vs. OU. End of Big East CG being decided with UCONN vs. USF. UNLV vs. Hawaii as well to finish it all up.

By the way FSU, this will be your high watermark. Losing to a VTech team that lost to Boise and James Madison. Just keep that in mind. Take it in. You guys at your best in the last half a decade. Learn it. Love it. This is you guys without Christian Ponder.

I know that you aren't all Gator fans. In fact, I'm sure the majority of you are having fun watching us crash and burn. That being said, I think everyone can find it humorous that after UF put 7 on Mississippi State, Urban Meyer said during his show that "Steve Addazio is doing a great job." Not a good job. Not even an OK job. He's doing a great job.

Seriously.

via 4pack.files.wordpress.com

Of course the reality of the offense is more like this:

via seeker401.files.wordpress.com

So we need some context by which to compare this. Modern Equivalents to Addazio:

via www.iancfriedman.com

Heckuva job.

via www.appletreeblog.com

More historical equivalents:

via bcm.bc.edu

via awesometalks.files.wordpress.com

via upload.wikimedia.org

via freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com

via www.livius.org

via www.livius.org

I always imagine Darius is saying "What the fuck is this shit?" in that last one.

Urban Meyer has problems. What kind of problems?

via rolltidegameday.com

Julio Jones problems.

I know what you're thinking. "But Julio Jones only got about 45 yards on Florida's defense." You are correct, but also completely wrong, and probably a bad guy. According to Urban Meyer:

How startling is it that Florida gave up a 41-yard punt return to Alabama's Julio Jones on Saturday?

The Gators had only given up 46 yards in punt returns in 2008 and 2009 combined. Jones' return was the longest UF has given up in five-plus seasons under Meyer. The previous mark was an 18-yarder by Tennessee's Jonathan Hefney in 2005.

"That kind of fried me a little bit," Meyer said of Jones' return, in which he cut back and had an open lane along the sideline. "That's never happened and that can't happen. The punt coach is in charge of that and it's got to get corrected. Whether it's personnel changes, that's something that might changed immediately if we don't see it fixed, like, now. That was bad."

via jacksonville.com

That's right. Julio Jones did a 41 yard punt return against Florida, and that shit will just not stand. Personnel changes are required. It needs to be fixed immediately.

As hilarious as it is that this is what Corch focuses on as the thing that requires immediate attention while Aderpzio is still running the O-Line and play calling to equal levels of ineptitude, this presents an interesting solution to our problems. From now on, every person needs to act like Addazio is actually our special teams coach, and every mistake on offense is actually a mistake on special teams. What I'm hoping for is a kind of mass delusion to alter Corch's perception into seeing every offensive failing as a special teams failing, and every special teams failing as being under the watchful eye of Addazio.

Together, we can make this happen.

By the way, did you see some of those shoddy snaps by Pouncey on Special Teams. Man, Addazio should have had him better prepared.

One of my favorite things about football is that, unlike soccer, there are breaks built in to allow you to do simple kitchen tasks like flip burgers, add cheese, or remove something from an oven. Constant attention isn't required for the full three hours purely from all the commercial breaks. Over the past 4 years, I've become pretty good at making burgers in these time windows, and now I'm going to share some of the ones I've made that have been most popular.

Bacon can, of course, be added to any of these.

Italian burger

This is probably my most requested one. What you'll need:

The meat: Ground Sirloin Beef. How much? At least enough for a 1/4 pound per person. I know that this goes against the fat ratio you see in most burgers, but it becomes pretty important for what you're using in the marinade. Salt and pepper the whole thing. Sprinkle some fennel seeds throughout. Pour on some mixed dried Italian herbs (oregano, rosemary, thyme, parsley combos. They usually sell this in the spice isle.) Lay on a good amount of onion and garlic powder. A couple dashes of soy. Splash it with a heavy wine (like a cabernet.) Mix it all together and form the burgers. Brush the burgers with butter on each side.

On top of this, you're adding Italian sausages. It's important to cook these sausages, let them rest, and then slice them into strips as they're going on top of the burger.

Toppings: Portobello Mushrooms and Onions

Cheese: Provolone and a Parmesan or Asiago shredded cheese

Sauce: Honey Mustard. I know it sounds kind of strange, but just go with it.

Start out by sauteing the mushrooms and onions in oil with some salt sprinkled on them. Once they get nicely carmelized, take them off the heat. Put the burgers in the remaining juices and cook those about 3 minutes on each side on a nice medium high heat. Generally, this will put most people in a nice medium rare to medium range for 1/4 pound. After you flip it once, put on the shredded cheese and then put the provolone on top. You have to do this pretty soon after the flip to make sure both melt well. Now is also the time to reheat the mushrooms, onions, and sausages. Once the time is up, let the burgers rest for about 2 minutes.

You're going to want to use toasted buns here. I like the onion cobblestone mill ones.

From bottom to top: Bottom bun, honey mustard, burger, cheese, Italian sausage, mushrooms and onions, top bun.

In-N-Out Style Burger

This is the In-N-Out style burger if you want a simple cheese burger.

Meat: This is going to be all chuck, the fattier the better. In-N-Out uses 40% fat, so if you can find it, you'll probably have the best experience. You're going to divide it into 1/8 pound patties, but you'll be using two per burger. Just salt and pepper on these and only do that right before they go on the burner.

Sauce: This is something you'll want to have done about 10 minutes before you start so the flavors blend. The percentages are 60% mayo, 30% ketchup, 10% sweet relish. Add a dash of vinegar and a little sugar as well.

Onions: To get good animal style onions, you have to dice the onions thinly. Saute them in some oil. When it looks like the oil is drying out, pour in some water. Once that water is out, pour in some more. Repeat until you have ultra carmelized onions.

Cheese: American. Don't get the kraft singles. Those taste so much shittier than the kind you can get at the deli. Get nice thick slices. Two for every burger.

Toppings: Head Lettuce, Large Tomatoes, slices of onions (very lightly sauteed), pickles.

Buns: The best buns for these are potato buns. Put them in a 400 degree oven to make them warm as you're cooking the burgers. Check every minute or so to make sure they don't toast.

Coat frying pan with oil, get up to medium high heat, and put your burgers down. Spread mustard over the side that is facing up. After 2 minutes (thinner burgers after all) flip them so they cook right in the mustard. After you flip them, put the cheese right on top so it'll start melting.

The construction is this: Bottom bun, sauce, pickles, tomato, lettuce, burger with cheese, onion slice, other burger with cheese, carmelized onions, top bun.

Chili Cheese Burger

Meat: Normal chuck will do ya fine. 1/4 pound. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and cayenne (or chipotle.)

Chili: Store bought is OK. If you want to do it yourself, by all means. Make sure it's a thick chili though.

Cheese: Cheddar and Pepper Jack

Toppings: Jalapeno slices, Bacon seriously recommended, crisp Lettuce, Ranch dressing

Bun: This is another toasted bun thing. I don't have a particular recommendation beyond it being a bit more hardy.

In a saucepan, heat up the chili. When it gets nice and hot, take it down to a simmer and put your jalapenos and burgers in a frying pan and start cooking on medium high like the rest. Move the jalapenos around so they don't get black. Spoon some of the chili onto the raw side of the burger. Flip it right on to that chili.

Once that's done cooking, assemble: Bottom Bun, pepperjack, burger, cheddar, jalapenos, chili, lettuce, ranch.

UPDATE for Sliders.

So I figured I should include sliders so you can have a burger appetizer for your burger. In my opinion, the best slider is made like this:

Beef patties: Each one should be about 2 oz or 1/8 pounds chuck. This will get you patties that are about twice as thick as white castle burgers. If you really want the thin burgers, portion into 1 oz burgers and put them in between sheets of aluminum foil, and press down to get the nice thin burger.

Buns: To get the whitecastle style buns, don't get "slider buns." Those are just mini burger buns. Instead, get dinner rolls. These are more similar to the traditional sliders.

Cheese: This is a challenge because any slice of cheese will be way bigger than any bun, and burning cheese into your pan is rarely fun. The best way is to get your American cheese cut so it portion on the burger well. Only do this for about half the sliders your making, and just spread the scrap on the other burgers. They'll melt, so it's no big deal.

Other toppings: Onions, Pickles, Mustard and Ketchup (or that special sauce I used for the In-N-Out style burgers)

The process is a little than normal burgers. First, get a real finely diced onion. Real fine. Instead of blasting them on high heat, you're going to be cooking them on medium. Put the patties right on the fine dice. You want these to cook right on the onions. After about 5 minutes, flip them over. Put the cheese on the top, and then put the bottom bun on top of the cheese. Put the top buns in the gaps between the bottom buns. This will cause the top buns to get kind of steamed giving you that great slider taste. Cook these for another 5 minutes, put on the pickles (diced or whole,) the sauce, and the top bun and you'll have solid sliders.

So what kind of gameday food do you guys have or make? I'm always interested in trying something new.

Yesterday, I returned to the south from a week long vacation in California. My stay mostly was in San Diego and Northern LA. My girlfriend had never seen the San Diego zoo before, so for one day we went there. There's a bus at the San Diego zoo that goes around pretty much the entire zoo. Takes about 40 minutes. I was wearing a Gator hat because it is never cloudy in the San Diego afternoon as a result of the weather wizard that I presume lives in Ocean Beach (Coincidentally, got a sun burn for the first time in 6 years or so despite living in the sunshine state.) On this bus, I struck up a conversation with a thirty something guy there with his kids. He  was wearing a UCLA hat. Being as my grandparents have no internet, and my grandfather is a Michigan alumni and therefore completely unwilling to discuss current college football, I was desperate for some conversation.

So I start talking to this UCLA guy. I ask him how he thinks the team is going to do this year. He gives a pretty cheery outlook. A 10 win season is what he predicted. I was polite and didn't really push it. In any case, he asks me how I think Florida is going to do. I give him my opinion that we'll have 1 or 2 losses this season, but not much worse since we have an easy OOC schedule and a ton of home games anyway. I then asked him what teams he's going to be following this year. It's at this point it starts to go downhill.

My experience with guys from other conferences tends to be on places like this site. Pretty much everyone here would watch a college football game if it was between the worst team in all of Division 1 on a Wednesday night and be psyched about it. He said he was going to be following UCLA like I was a moron. I then rephrased because I didn't think he understood. I asked him if he was going to be interested in watching any teams besides UCLA this year. His response was "Why?" I then asked if he was a big fan of college football. At this point, I figured he was probably more interested in basketball considering he was a UCLA alumnus. He responded that he was a big college football fan, but he didn't see any point in watching teams besides his or to see USC lose. I nodded, and then asked him some questions about UCLA before leaving the tour.

On Sunday I went to a sports bar to see Tebow play for the Broncos. The guy next to me and I talked a bit. I told him why I was there, and I was interested in seeing how Tebow will do. I told him where I went to school, and he said that he watched Tebow play as well. He was an Oregon State fan. I asked him if he follows college football a lot, and he said he loved college football. I asked him what teams he'd be following this year. He said he follows the Pac 10. I told him that I was interested in seeing how Jack Locker will do this year for the Huskies. He asked me who Jake Locker was. I told him that it was the QB for Washington, and he just kind of stared at me blankly.

At this point, I felt like I had to bring this up here. Do you guys that live outside SEC country and college towns (Ann Arbor, Columbus, Eugene) know many people that are really into college football in general. Obviously in Gainesville everyone cares, so it's not really comparable, but in Tampa, where my parents live, college football is still pretty ubiquitous (Urban Meyer does commercials in Tampa.) I don't think this a "SEC Passion" kind of thing because obviously the people that really care are going to be passionate, but more the general population that is outside the more intense college football fanbases.

Also, for Go Big Rev:

via sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net

I had In-N-Out 4 times in a week. Hell yes. By the way, the reason their burger is so good is that they use 40% fat chuck burgers.

So this week's Digital Viking got me thinking (as it does every week.) This time, however, it got me thinking about the food I no longer get in Florida that I got in California (In-N-Out burger.) I'm looking to do some traveling this football season now that I've completed my engineering degree, and I'm moving into the jello shot land of the Business School. I figured this should be made to all of our benefit though no matter what conference you're a part of. Chances are someone on here will be visiting your town, and I believe we should all take part in delicious deliciousness.

For this reason, I would like you guys to tell us all the best places to eat in the town/city/megalopolis that your favorite team plays at. Why? The taste of the town thing on ESPN is garbage. I remember when they came to Gainesville, and they said Ballyhoo was the taste of the town. Bullshit. They just serve mediocre Americana with an OK bananas foster.

I have divided it into four categories to meet the needs of the traveling EDSBS viking.

Lunch:

If you're coming to Gainesville, Liquid Ginger in downtown Gainesville has the best Lunch Menu at the best prices you can find. It's an upscale pan Asian fusion place with 8-10 dollar entrees for lunch. Local Hint: Ask nicely if they have ice cream and you'll get some for free.

Dinner:

As far as steak goes, we have Mark's US Prime that is basically the Ruth's Chris kind of place in Gainesville. Personally, I find those places hilariously overpriced for what any man should be able to do with a grill, but it's an option for you people who know who you are. I'd rather have something I can't do myself, so I'd recommend trying out Sawamura's Japanese steakhouse for some hibachi grilled meat.

Fast Food:

Chik-fil-A on University. They do chicken primarily, but god damn is it good in the mouth. It's closed on Sundays because they're religious fundamentalists, but whatever.

Update: Apparently Epictetus doesn't believe that Chik-Fil A really isn't that well known of outside the south east, so I'll add to this one.

For quick, cheap food that's near the University, Leonardo's on 13th and University and Pita Pit, nearly directly across from the stadium are options. They are seriously mobbed to death though as they're really just able to handle the average fall or spring semester load. There is a place called El Toro that's a little past University on 13th that's drive through, and because it's past 13th, most visitors aren't super aware of it. Unfortunately, it's on the wrong side of the stadium, so you should expect to wait in traffic for about 4 hours if you go there after a game.

Tailgate food and ingredients:

This is a no brainer. Ward's Supermarket. Local ingredients and products. Organic and grass and corn fed meat without the ridiculous price. Lots of prepared slow cooked BBQ type food as well. Tons of local fruits and shit to make your daiquiris out of.

Your turn. I expect you LSU folks to deliver...

As a Florida fan, the most common trash talk I hear from other people is that Florida has no history in football until the 90s. It's partially true. Except for a couple of years in the early 80s and mid 60s, Florida doesn't have much of a winning history we can hang our hats on. We only have 33 winning seasons in the SEC out of the 77 years we've been in it with only reaching bowl eligibility 19 times before 1990. Compared to Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Alabama and others, we really haven't accomplished much before our redacted SEC championships in the early 80s.

I was 9 when Florida won its first title. Even if I had grown up a Gators fan (which I didn't, I watched the NFL because we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area where everyone watched the 49ers) I would have been at an age where the game wasn't something I could fully grasp and the importance of the event I couldn't have truly understood. Because of this, I have no emotional attachment to that national championship, and I was alive for it.

As a result, I commonly find it ridiculous when rival students/recent alumni are telling me all about Bear Bryant, Robert Neyland, Barry Switzer, Bob Devaney, Darrell Royal, any Michigan coach before Lloyd Carr, or Woody Hayes. How could you possibly feel connected to the emotions of those wins in any real or visceral way? What does that history mean to you? Did you feel that shit in the womb? I suppose if your mom was a fan, you felt some of that alcohol drip on down but otherwise...?

So when people tell me Florida football didn't start until 1990, I either respond that I didn't start until 1987 or that the impact of Florida football winning or losing didn't start for me until I started caring about it, namely my admittance to the University circa winter 2004. Obviously, I didn't grow up with college football, and I could very well just not get it. It's kind of an intriguing topic to me though.

So how far back does your connection with your team go? Before you were born? Growing up as a fan? Starting school at the actual university? When you see or use the phrase "Good Football History" when referring to a team, what importance do you put into it?

My God, this off season has revealed a plethora of videos showing the absolute worst our species has to offer. From the inane to the eyeball bleeding, it is time we must come to a consensus on who reigns supreme on the altar of humiliation. The videos and a brief description are after the jump.

Continue reading this post »