It's Hard Out Here for a 'Nole

I can't escape it. Everywhere I turn I see it. And it's driving me MAD! That stupid Gator logo is everywhere, and when I say everywhere I mean EVERY-FUCKING -WHERE! As a college sports junkie the two sites I spend the most time on (other than Warchant) are Rivals.com and ESPN.com, and I defy you to spend more than 30 seconds on either site without stumbling across some article or another openly fellating the Crocs and Urban Meyer. Never mind that it took a staggering collection of lucky breaks and colossal upsets for UF to find itself in its current position as National Champ, never mind that Urban is being hailed as a genius despite the fact that UF won thanks to a defense he didn't coach manned by players he didn't recruit. Such trivialities as "facts" needn't cloud one's judgement when it's so much easier to revel in partisan hystrionics, as exemplied by this column from former Orlando Sentinal columnist Jemele Hill who apparently believes the 'Noles should just go ahead and shut down the football program now instead of continuing to offer token resistance against the Urban Empire (note to self: next time in Florida, hit Jemele Hill with car. Run.) Never mind that we nearly forced the omnipotent Gators to overtime despite feilding one of the youngest teams in the nation, never mind that with a competent OC we win four more games at least. It's over, the dream is dead, time for 'Ol Bobby to head out to pasture. The Age of Urban has begun.

Resistance is futile

And now the Croc-luv has extended beyond the collgiate level and invaded seemingly every other facet of the sports universe. All weekend I've had to watch analysts praise Rex Grossman (who had one decent throw against Seattle after killing his team for three-plus quarters) and Tom Brady's all-UF receiving corp (who have hamstrung the Pats offense all year with their lack of pace and inconsistent performance). Today there's an article in USA Today spotlighting David Lee just a couple of pages after the new college basketball poll is posted...you'll never guess who's #1 (hint: it's a team FSU beat just a few weeks ago).

Bottom line: Seminole fans everywhere are in a Best of Times/Worst of Times situation here. On the one hand there's more hope for the football team then there's been in years. The coaching situation is working out quite nicely (post once the changes are complete), and recruiting is going better than expected. At the same time it's physically impossible to escape constant reminders of the unprecedented run our enemies from the East are on right now. I can't change it, I can't make it better, all I can do is offer three pearls of wisdom for Seminoles everywhere:

1. It can't last forever. Seriously, for the last two years everything has gone against us and for them. But luck is a cyclical thing and eventually even the biggest rush comes to an end. At some point, probably sooner rather than later, they'll stop getting all the breaks and some semblance of order will return to the universe.

2. It can't get any worse. This is a mixed bag since right now UF is hotter than any athletic department has been in recent memory. And yet we hung right with them in football (and have I mentioned that we whupped the Crocs' and Joakim Noah's ugly ass in Basketball? I thought they were supposed to be good or something). The gap between the two athletic departments is already smaller than people believe, and the Crocs have to come back down to earth soon.

3. They're still Crocs and we're still 'Noles. Seriously, who would you rather root for: a whiny littly bitch like Urbie or a classy gentleman like Bobby Bowden? As someone once said, I'd rather root for an 0-12 FSU team than a 12-0 Gator team, and after this year I realized they were right.

Keep you chin up 'Nole fans, for better days are ahead for us (and the BS in Gainesville can't go on forever...can it?)