*A lot of FSU football fans are probably still celebrating the Tallahassee thrashing of arch rival Florida in front of the year’s first full-house crowd. And that awful, coach-in-waiting plan now probably seems downright defensible after Jimbo Fisher’s successful first season. The ‘Noles, it would seem, are back. All hail the Jimbo Era. Bobby Bowden is among the celebrants.
But there’s another scenario that could have unfolded, according to former FSU President T.K. Wetherell. Had Fisher declined the touchy, coach-in-waiting gambit, FSU’s number two choice was Lane Kiffin. THAT Lane Kiffin. He of the arrogant, ethics-challenged reputation proven so graphically at Tennessee, who he left in the lurch for the football factory at Southern California.
Yes, there is a lot for Seminole fans to celebrate.
*There are three Florida (football) schools in USA Today’s top 35. Not among the three: the University of Florida and Miami. FSU is 20; UCF, 25; and USF, 34.
*Ray Lewis, the Bartow native and veteran All-Pro linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens, still shows no signs of slowing down. He entered the NFL in 1996 out of Miami. Tampa Bay quarterback Josh Freeman, whose Bucs lost to Baltimore last Sunday, says he literally grew up watching Lewis’ career. In fact, he was only 12 when Lewis pled guilty to obstruction of justice in that Atlanta double-murder trial.
*The Trib’s savvy, veteran sportswriter Joe Henderson wrote this recently after the Bucs’ Mike Williams was arrested in the wee hours for a possible DUI violation: “Why does this keep happening with this team? We don’t hear about many incidents with the other pro teams in town, the Lightning or the Rays.”
Surely, that’s a rhetorical question.