Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Tebow’s Choice

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More than anything I was glad that decision day finally came for Tim Tebow of Nease High School. Both he and his parents looked frazzled at the announcement in St. John’s County on Tuesday. Tebow picked Florida and the auditorium erupted with applause.

I couldn’t help but think what the reaction would have been if he had said “Southern Cal.” Would there have been groans and catcalls? Probably not but the reaction in Florida for a Florida kid to go to Florida was very positive.

There were about a half-dozen people there with Alabama hats on, and apparently Mike Shula made a big impression on Tebow and his father and that’s how the Crimson Tide stayed in the hunt for so long. And Pete Carroll was equally impressive according to Tebow’s father Bob.

“It was a tough decision, but it was his decision,” Bob told me after the announcement was made. “I finally told him in the parking lot, ‘It’s your decision and you’re going to have to make it.”

It must have been tough, especially on a kid like Tebow who never really has had to say “no” to anybody. “I didn’t have a wrong choice,” Tim said after some of the commotion settled down. “They were all great men with great programs, I just decided on Florida because that’s where I was most comfortable. They’re going to do some great things there.”

Nease football coach Craig Howard thought it would be Gators all along, noting that Tebow’s room has been adorned with Orange and Blue since he was a kid. “He’s the most competitive player I’ve ever been around,” Howard said from the stage at Nease. “You can see his arm and his legs, but you can’t see his heart. That’s what separates him.”

Is all of the hoopla wrong for a high school senior announcing where he’s going to attend college? Probably. But it’s the way things are done. I like to call it the “ESPNification” of sports. Kids Tebow’s age have never known a world without fulltime sports cable television, so it seems normal to him and his peers. ESPN has raised the level of exposure so to compete everybody has to go along.

I can tell you whether ESPN was there or not, if Tim was making an announcement during our news at Channel 4, we’d have been there live. He was Mr. Football in the state of Florida and led his team to the state championship. Those credentials are enough to warrant big coverage.

I hope he makes it, he’s nice, grounded and doesn’t seem too affected by all of the attention. At least his Dad got it right when he said, “I told him you’ve got to go prove yourself again to your teammates, your coaches. It’s a joyous day, but it’s only a beginning.”

Amen to that.

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Risk-Reward Jaguars

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Sometimes it’s meaningful, and other times it’s just for the pride factor.

Against the Colts, the Jaguars really didn’t have anything tangible to play for except pride.

The Colts are going to win the division, win or lose in Jacksonville, and the Jaguars are going to have to win a couple of games down the stretch against inferior teams to make the playoffs. Jacksonville will have to face the Colts in Indianapolis sometime in the playoffs if they want to get to the Super Bowl, so this game, in reality and on paper, was meaningless.

But, of course, the game isn’t played on paper.

The Jaguars wanted this game to put them on the map. They want somebody to notice that they’re 9-3 (now four) and a different team than they were a year ago. But the Colts poise and professionalism were too much. Peyton Manning throws it where he wants it every time, and has the time to do it. Marvin Harrison goes to the open spot and doesn’t drop the ball, and Edgerrin James runs methodically, getting those all important four to nine yard runs and allow his offense the flexibility to do a lot of different things.

So where were the turning points that separated the Colts from the Jaguars?

Turnovers were a key as Kyle Brady’s fumbles stopped drives and Garrard’s turnover cost them points with still a quarter to go. But go back to the end of the first half with the Jaguars down 14-3 having stopped Indy’s trick play out of a field goal formation. There were two minutes to play with the ball inside their own five. A couple of handoffs and a QB sneak play, and the Jaguars were punting back to the Colts.

I know they were trying to manage the game, control the clock and keep Manning off the field, but it was pretty obvious at that point that it didn’t matter whether Indy had an 80 yard or a 40 yard field, they were going to move the ball and score. So that’s where the mind set of the coaching staff has to change. Attack the situation at that point. Spread the ball out, go four wide and start moving it down field, or not.

To beat the Colts at this point, it’s going to take a team that’s methodical like Indy, and can, and it willing to throw the ball around. Take the eight to ten yard gains, keep getting first downs and keep frustrating the opponent. With David Garrard at quarterback, the Jaguars have that ability but didn’t seize the moment. Garrard gives them a lot of options, not the least of which is the ability to get the ball out of the pocket without setting his feet. He’s got a big arm and can use it, and his feet get him, and the team out of trouble when it seems that all is lost on a play.

Aggressiveness is always a risk-reward situation and the Jaguars are going to have to accept the risk with the rewards when they get into games against the Colts or other teams who can score, no matter how good your defense is. Perhaps they were lulled into a false confidence after holding Peyton Manning down to just 10 points in their first meeting. Either way, you only hope that the players and the coaching staff do a self-check after this game and move on.

It was a good effort, just not quite good enough.

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Florida State Found

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I just wrote a commentary called “Finding Florida State,” a little play on the “Finding Forrester” movie that concentrated on self-discovery. To put it nicely, Bobby Bowden’s self-discovery involved a little bit of the “evil eye” all week long.

In the twenty-five years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen Bowden as angry as he was last week. I know it was a little out of line, and it was particularly pointed because he thought the attacks against Florida State were personal toward his son, Jeff, the team’s offensive coordinator. But Bobby was mad, and he didn’t mind showing it this time around. He was surly with the media, and terse with his players. He was looking for that “something” that would make the difference between his team thinking they were just another team and thinking they were Florida State.

There weren’t a lot of niceties in Tallahassee during the week.

Apparently it worked.

When the Seminoles came out of the locker room, they looked like a different team. They looked like Florida State, not just another ACC team. The ‘Noles have built their reputation on a national scale, recruiting players from all over the country and garnering fans from Florida to California. Perhaps they were having a crisis of confidence, or maybe they just were too beat up and not good enough to compete in that three week stretch where they lost to N.C. State, Clemson and Florida.

They were losing offensive linemen to injury it seemed every series and they looked like they were feeling sorry for themselves. But they were transformed against the Hokies; even offensive play calling seemed to be hitting on all cylinders. Jeff Bowden was supposed to be run out of town but when he opened the game throwing the ball all over the place with a freshman quarterback, he looked like the “Riverboat Gambler” his father was when he was calling the plays in the ‘80’s.

Drew Weatherford showed poise, toughness and a strong arm all night throwing to receivers that were getting open. Where were those patterns three weeks ago? Perhaps they were there all the time, but Weatherford either didn’t have time to find them or the receivers were not running very precise routes. Virginia Tech has a fast, strong and physical defensive backfield, but the Seminoles didn’t seem to care about how good the Hokies were according to the stats. They just went out and played, and that looked like the difference.

Watching that game, I kept wondering, ‘how could not one of those FSU players be named to the All-conference first team? However; you look at it, whether Virginia Tech underestimated Florida State or the Seminoles got their act back together, the credit has to go to Bowden and the ‘Noles. They were a two-touchdown underdog! Two touchdowns?

One thing Frank Beamer said during the week really made sense. “They might be down, but they have good players and when you have good players you can get real good real fast.”

And that’s exactly what happened.

Leon Washington, Lorenzo Booker and the defense went back to playing like they were capable of. No tricks, no fancy stuff, just better blocking and tackling.

Now everybody likes Penn State to beat FSU in the Orange Bowl. Didn’t Penn State have all kinds of problems just a year ago? They’re better, but when you’re the best team in the Big Ten, how good are you, really? Hasn’t anybody learned? Don’t count Bobby Bowden and his team out until he says so.

And he hasn’t brought it up yet.

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Finding Florida State

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It’s Bobby’s fault.

No, it’s Jeff’s fault.

Wait a minute, it’s Mickey’s fault.

Actually let’s blame it on Chris Rix or even Jared Jones.

That’s the game that’s going on in Tallahassee: Who’s to blame? Perhaps the blaming should stop (it won’t) and the hand wringing could take a small break for a quick analysis of what’s going on with the FSU football team.

Start at the top if you like, with Bobby Bowden. He didn’t all of the sudden forget how to coach, or motivate or lead. He didn’t get stupid overnight. Bowden is still one of the best coaches in college football, seemingly ageless. Perhaps a little less patience with the media, but still a solid coach, leader and recruiter. Talk football with Bowden for about two minutes and it’s obvious he’s very involved, very much part of what’s going on when it comes to game planning, strategy the Seminoles mind-set.

If there’s one area that’s I’ve criticized in the past, it’s whether Bowden has the energy left to discipline a large group of young guys, particularly guys with the personality to play college football. Outside of that, Bowden has no downside, except that he’s created a situation where he’s nearly impossible to replace.

Bowden can call his own shots at FSU, stay or leave, coach or retire when he chooses and have a large hand in who his successor will be. Bowden isn’t the type who’s inclined to walk away when the going gets tough and will only leave with his legacy intact.

Bobby has come under a lot of criticism for putting his son Jeff in charge of the offense as the coordinator. The plays look fine and the sequences of plays aren’t the problem. The problem is execution and that’s where a coordinator takes the heat.

FSU likes to throw the ball downfield, and they’re still doing that. They like to try and hit the big running play, and that’s been hit or miss. Which brings the focus on the offensive line. The Seminoles will start their sixth different compliment of offensive linemen, having lost three starters since the beginning of the year. No team can be successful with that kind of change unless their skill players continue to be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

FSU has had a continuous flow of surprises at top positions, particularly at quarterback. The latest was Wyatt Sexton’s bout with Lyme disease that put him out of the lineup for the year. Drew Weatherford won the job, beating out Xavier Lee, and believe it or not could actually set all kinds of records this year for first-year quarterbacks in the league, eclipsing Phillip Rivers’ marks set at N.C. State.

Weatherford has taken a lot of heat, like Jeff Bowden, but as he said this week, when the plays work, they’re great, when they don’t, they’re not. It goes with the territory.

They could lose to Virginia Tech and possibly get beat in whatever bowl game they play in, finish the year 7-6 and out of the top 25. But they won’t panic and they won’t throw up their hands and walk away. They’ll get back to work; they’ll recruit harder, play better and return to the national picture with Bowden at the controls.

And that’s when he’ll walk away.