The Best in Florida: Gators, Hurricanes or Seminoles?

By: Candy Man

            Who can lay claim as the best football program in the state of Florida? College football in the Sunshine State took off in the 80’s when Miami won their first national championship in ’83. The U went on to win 3 more titles before UF or FSU won their first. FSU got on board in 1993 with Heisman Trophy winner, Charlie Ward. Soon after, the Gators joined the club in 1996 when they beat the Seminoles in the title game. Since the 1980’s, the rivalries between the U, FSU & UF have grown into the national spotlight and these 3 programs combined to win 11 national championships, about 1/3^rd of all the championships in that time period. That is a great accomplishment and a testament to the quality of football being played in this state at the college and high school level. But who can say they have the best football program out of the three?

The team that invented swagger makes a good case as they have the most national championships with 5. The U was the most dominant and most hated team in the 80’s when head coaches Schnellenberger, Johnson & Erickson led them to 3 championships. They spoiled many teams’ shots at winning a title including Florida State, Nebraska, Oklahoma & Notre Dame. That success carried over into the 90’s until a Pell grant scandal knocked them off for a few years. They came back strong with Larry Coker and won another title in 2001 with the “greatest team in college football history.” Their cocky & flashy style created a brand & a legacy that is recognized throughout the college football landscape. You can say they produced the most talent in the state also. 2 Heisman Trophy winners have played for the Canes, quarterbacks Vinny Testaverde & Gino Torretta. They have set multiple NFL draft records & they could field a complete NFL team, 2^nd string and all, with just their own players. Ray Lewis, Michael Irvin, Warren Sapp, Ed Reed, Sean Taylor, Edgerrin James, Willis McGahee, Frank Gore, Andre Johnson, Clinton Portis, Devin Hester, Reggie Wayne, Santana Moss, the Blades brothers, Jonathan Vilma, Jim Kelly, Jerome Brown, Bernie Kosar and many other stars at every position.

The Florida Gators are the oldest team in the state but didn’t reach consistent success until the 60’s when they had Steve Spurrier, 1966 Heisman winner, at quarterback and Ray Graves as head coach. This is also the time when Gatorade was first invented. The 70’s were so-so with head coach, Doug Dickey, and the 80’s were more successful but tarnished with major infractions that resulted in severe penalties from the NCAA. The Gators rebounded in the 90’s & reached national prominence with multiple SEC titles and a national championship in 1996 under head coach, Steve Spurrier. They won 2 more championships with Urban Meyer & arguably the best college football player ever, Tim Tebow. Some of the Gator greats include Heisman Trophy winners, Danny Wuerffel & Steve Spurrier, Emmitt Smith, Fred Taylor, Ike Hilliard, Jevon Kearse, Brandon Spikes, Percy Harvin, Joe Haden, the Pouncey Twins, Kevin Carter, Rex Grossman, Jack Youngblood & Wilbur Marshall.

           

The Florida State Seminoles, the former all-girls school & the youngest team out of the 3, started playing D1 football in the 1950’s. It’s impressive what they’ve done in a short amount of time when there are schools that have been playing D1 since the 1800’s. One of the greatest coaches in college football history, Bobby Bowden, took over in the 70’s and led the program to great heights. FSU ran the 90’s, fell off in the late 2000’s at the end of the Bobby Bowden era and have rose back to the top under Jimbo Fisher. Now you can say they are on the same level as UF with both having 3 national titles and 3 Heisman winners. No question, the best team right now are the Seminoles. Jameis Winston led them to a championship last year & he is on his way to becoming the 1^st overall pick in this year’s draft. They’ve racked up on a lot of talent with top 5 recruiting classes and are sending them to the league more than any other school besides Alabama. Their most impressive accomplishment, in my opinion, are the 14 straight years they finished in the top 5 beginning in the late 80’s to the end of the 90’s. That’s consistency and they could’ve added a few more championships if it wasn’t for Miami & Florida. Some of the greatest athletes to come through Tallahassee are “Primetime” Deion Sanders, Heisman Trophy winners, Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke & Jameis Winston, Warrick Dunn, Peter Warrick, Terrell Buckley, state of Florida legend Derrick Brooks, Marvin Jones, Ron Simmons, Peter Boulware, Anquan Boldin, & Fred Biletnikoff..

            

One thing for sure, each one of them had successful runs. It’s like a power cycle where one program is on top for a few years then comes back down to Earth while the others catch up & take over that top spot. Miami ran the 80’s, all three programs dominated the 90’s, UM was scary in the early 2000’s & the Gators were on top a few years later while FSU struggled. Now FSU is one of the best teams in the nation while the U & UF are struggling. Miami hasn’t done much in more than 10 years after losing their last title game to Ohio State & moving to the ACC. The Gators were in a great position just a few years ago but all that got derailed when Urban Meyer left & Will Muschamp was hired. It’s been years since Miami & Florida beat Florida State and both are trying to place themselves in the best position to knock off FSU & return to their glory days. Factoring in the history & present day of all three programs, who would you say is the best in the state of Florida?

5 Things I Learned during the 2014-15 NCAA Football Season

By: Jimbo Brown

SEC Exposed

• For the first time in 8 years the best conference in the NCAA was not represented in the inaugural college football playoff championship game. Out of the 5 power conferences the Pac-12 had the best record. The SEC was second with a record of 7-5, but this record can be deceiving. Three of the five losses were by the SEC’s top teams: Alabama, Mississippi and Mississippi State. Alabama who has won national championships throughout the decade lost in the first college playoff game against The Ohio State Buckeyes. The SEC had a losing record (2-4) against ranked teams this bowl season. In my opinion, the most talented conference didn’t get exposed this bowl season. Teams throughout the NCAA just have been getting better through recruiting. 

Urban “The Greatest Ever” Meyer

• During his 15-year Head Coaching career, Urban Meyer has an awesome record of 141-26. He followed up that great success with a 9-2 bowl record. Urban Meyer has had an winning record at every school he has coached at. When he first arrives at the school he automatically turns the football program around in the first year. For example at Bowling Green University, Urban turn a 2-9 team the year before to a 8-3 record. He finished that season off with beating conference rival the University of Toledo. I believe that Urban Meyer will retire as the greatest to ever coach college football. He has already changed the culture at 4  different program and brought national championships to 2 of the 4.

Talent will be Found

• When I was growing up all the good recruits went to the national headlining schools. They wanted to play on TV each and every Saturday so that NFL scouts will have a chance to catch their talents. The growing demand for college football cause smaller schools to gain national relevancy. This has lead to recruits deciding to play at smaller schools. With schools outside the power 5 conference being shown on the EPSN networks during the week, recruits are considering these schools more often. For example, a 4-star recruit out of Miami chose to go to FIU over local rival University of Miami. In this day and age, Talent will be found no matter what school the student-athlete decide to go to. Lynden Trail, star defensive end from Norfolk State was selected to this years Senior Bowl. He has already been labeled as a sleeper in the upcoming draft. When/if Trail is drafted he will help out Norfolk state recruiting game plan by showing recruits they can make it no matter where they play. 

University of Miami is at the point of no return 

• The University of Miami hasn’t been the same since the devastating lost to Ohio State in the 2002 National Championship game. Since 2003, The U hasn’t won 10 games. It hard to believe that this program isn’t one of the national powerhouses when their is abundance of local and in-state talent. Randy Shannon had to deal with the sanctions handed down by the NCAA. I feel he wasn’t given a fair chance due to his skin color. The hire of Al Golden may be the start of this downward spiral. Former players under the Golden era feel cheated and misused during their career at UM. If you wasn’t recruited by Golden, you usually got put on the back burner for a freshman. This disgruntled the players because the more talented and experienced players wasn’t on the field. To me, the nail in the coffin was when UM signed a multi-million dollar deal with Adidas to sponsor their athletic programs. The Hurricanes was the first team to have a sponsorship deal with Nike and for them to just jump ship over money is a desperate move.

Who is the king of Florida?

• This year we seen two of the states top three programs look like their players still had the high school mentality. UM and UF used to be known as the dominant teams in the state of Florida. While FSU had some success against them and others, they still came second to the two big dogs. Each school has won multiple national championships over the years. Each school created a legendary coach. In my opinion, there will never be just one king of the state. History shows that the #1 spot has a revolving sit. We just have to wait and see who will step up and compete with the Seminoles of Tallahassee.

The Great Urban Meyer

By:Candy Man 

​Ohio State just won the first College Football Playoff National Championship. Before the season, many people counted the Buckeyes out when their star quarterback for the prior two seasons, Braxton Miller, suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. Then they lost their first game of the season to Virginia Tech. But since then, backup quarterback & Heisman candidate J.T. Barrett led his team to 10 straight victories before he went down with an ankle injury during the Michigan game. In came the 3rd string quarterback, 6’5 250 pound Cardale Jones. Never before getting a chance to step ontothe field for Ohio State, he finished the season with a win in the B1G TEN championship game over Wisconsin, the playoff semifinals over Alabama & the national championship this past Monday over Oregon. It was an improbable season for Ohio State full of adversity and many people thought they were still a year or 2 away from reaching the championship game. When the playoffs committee picked them as the #4 seed in the playoffs over TCU & Baylor, it was a controversial decision and the general thought was that they didn’t deserve a spot. But with a coach like Urban Meyer, anything is possible.

​Meyer, who already won 2 championships with the Gators, will become a legend in the state of Ohio after winning another one at his alma mater. Urban Meyer got his Master’s in sports administration from Ohio State and also started his coaching career there in the 80’s. His first head coaching job was Bowling Green where he took a 2-9 team to an 8-3 season in 2001. He left after his second year to coach at the University of Utah. He won the MWC Coach of the Year award in his first year after winning 10 games, and followed that up with the first undefeated season at Utah in his second year. He then jumped at the chance to coach the Florida Gators where he won 2 championships in 2006 & 2008. He left the University of Florida in 2010, took a year off, then was hired in 2012 to become the next Ohio State football coach after a disappointing 6-7 season the previous year. In his first year, he went undefeated but couldn’t contend for the national championship because of NCAA violations that resulted in a bowl ban and a loss of scholarships. His second year started strong but ended in 2 straight losses in the conference championship game and the Orange Bowl. He then went on to win the conference and national championship in 2014. So in summary, he went undefeated at 3 schools and won national titles at 2 of them. It only took him 2 years to win one a title at Florida and 3 years to win another title at Ohio State. So you can see why many people and the media are already calling him the greatest of all time and even better than Nick Saban.

While Ohio State fans were celebrating Monday night, Gator fans were reminiscing to the good ol’ days when Meyer was theircoach. Many of them are grateful for the 2 titles that he brought to Gainesville while there are others that would never forgive him for how he left UF high & dry to suffer in the years after he stepped down for “health and family” reasons. Despite that, nobody can doubt his coaching success. He’s on his way to starting a dynasty at Ohio State and could be even better than Woody Hayes, a legend in Ohio who won 5 titles as the Buckeyes coach in the 50’s, 60’s & 70’s. With a young team that is returning most of its starters including the national championship MVP and possibly all three quarterbacks, Ohio State will have the best odds of winning the 2016 CFP National Championship.

Should Collegiate Athletes get Compensated?

By: Candy Man 

We’ve heard the arguments hundreds of times. Student-athletes receive more than enough from a full scholarship & free education. Student-athletes enjoy perks that regular students don’t have access to. Student-athletes should be getting a cut of the revenues the athletic department earns. Student-athletes should profit off the likeness of their names. Over the last few years, this question has lead to heated debates about how universities profit off their athletes while those same athletes can’t profit off themselves until they go pro. The NCAA itself has been taking heat about the petty rules & regulations they use to govern & restrict its student-athletes off the field. “Impermissible benefits” is a phrase everyone has heard & it has affected many big time college football programs around the country such as Ohio State, Miami, Florida State, USC, North Carolina, SMU, & Auburn.

Many people argue that there are so many cases of illegal benefits in college sports because the athletes aren’t being properly compensated. Combine that with the wild wild west nature of recruiting where recruits are being offered any & everything from coaches to play for their teams. You hear stories about athletes getting free cars to play for this football team or getting paid thousands of dollars for a big play. You hear stories of star athletes that can’t even afford clothes or food, such as Shabazz Napier, who said he sometimes goes to bed starving. And then you see cases across the country where the NCAA penalizes programs over little things such as an athlete receiving some extra help here & there from a coach such as a free meal or gas money and you can see why people have been turning on the NCAA to loosen up their rulebook. Even artists such as Wale have taken notice to the hypocrisy of the NCAA, rapping about it in a song called “Varsity Blues.”

 Some student-athletes consider it a full-time job. They wake up early in the morning for practice, workouts & conditioning. Go to class late into the afternoon. Another evening practice, study hall and then spend the rest of the day finishing up on studying or homework. Some athletes desire to work part-time jobs on the side to earn a little extra income but they’re not even allowed to earn money outside of their scholarships. So it’s easy to see how they end up struggling in college. I honestly think student-athletes will be paid eventually. College football, and college sports in general have become too big of a business for the athletes not to see any of the profit. The NCAA & athletic departments make billions, not millions but billions, off television contracts, sports apparel deals, & sponsorships and some of the top coaches are getting paid more than 5 million every year. The University of Texas even have their own network channel with ESPN dedicated to their athletic program. Student-athletes should be getting more than a scholarship & free gear. I don’t believe in them being salaried employees making millions in college but they should at the least, be able to profit off jerseys being sold with their names on it. That’s another issue that rises if they do end up getting paid, how will they split the profits among revenue-generating sports like football and the lesser sports like tennis & volleyball, and how big of a paycheck should they see? But when you realize that some of the top athletic programs earn more in revenues than professional sports teams, they have more than enough to share the wealth.