Tampa, Florida					Thursday, September 09, 2010

All ‘s Well That Ends Well, Isn’t It?
Sunday, October 19, 2003
TAMPA—That declaration of a few weeks ago here that synonymous with the State of Florida collegiately—hey, perhaps professionally well—is the State of Football, remains a claim with continuing evidence as the current season passes its midpoint. Miami rolled over Temple 52-14 for a 6-0 standard, Florida State, losers only to Miami this year, put the late clamps on upset ideas of Virginia for a 19-14 win in tribute to a new landmark passed by Coach Bobby Bowden, the University of South Florida in Tampa outclassed little Charleston Southern 55-7, and the enigmatic Florida Gators held on for an important win at Arkansas 33-28. Miami won easily and as expected at Temple and now readies for Nov. 1 at Virginia Tech, figured, along with final foe Pittsburgh, as the only possible stoppers of this Larry Coker coached team with an eye on a national championship which eluded the 2002 in the title game against Ohio State. This 2003 may not yet be quite as good as that of 2002, but Miami fans will take it for it is working so well behind Gator transfer quarterback, Brock Berlin. Florida State got all it wanted from Virginia at Virginia in a new stadium that attracted a record in excess of 62,000 before shutting down late attempts by the Cavaliers to slip up on the Seminoles. The win tied Bowden with Penn State icon Joe Paterno for total wins at the major college level, advanced the Seminoles closer to yet another Atlantic Coast Conference championship—the 11tih in 12 seasons—and maintain a shot at the national title as well. Bowden dismissed the significance of the win total because he is so admiring of Paterno. He said he’d just as soon they stay tied forever. The ACC title chases in the future won’t be so easy as in the past, for Bowden or whomever follows him, because Miami and VPI enter the ACC next year. FSU used the strong leg of Xavier Beitia for four field goals and a touchdown pass by tough-guy quarterback Chris Rix for its points, a modest total by FSU standards. In Tampa, this up and coming University of South Florida Bull team could have named the score against Charleston Southern, a late fill-in for the Bulls. But, 55-7 was impressive enough for this team that represents the second largest university in the State of Football , which Jim Leavitt coaches so well, which seems headed out of Conference-USA to the Big East and which drew nearly 30,000 for this pushover win over Charleston Southern. The Bulls are truly on their way to the big college time. They play in a bigtime market, and in a bigtime stadium, Raymond James, home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and past Super Bowl. USF’s task will be keeping Leavitt as its head coach. A plus is—he is a native of the area. Then, in this State of Football, there are the Florida Gators, a talented team with a new coach of uncertain future which	led by 26 points with less than eight minutes to play at Fayetteville, and very nearly let favored Arkansas get away, as they did Miami and Mississippi earlier in the season. Ahead by those 21 points, the final ones on a third interception and a return of 44 yards by Keiwan Ratliff for the final touchdown, the Gators lost their collective heads. In celebration of his pick, Ratliff, a senior, threw the football into the stands with the score 33-7. That drew a 15 yard penalty after the kickoff and set the Razorbacks spirit soaring and to three touchdowns engineered by quarterback Matt Jones. The sputtering, puzzled, out of sorts Gators fell on an onsides kickoff but got nowhere on two downs with less than two minutes to play. On third and long, Arkansas, penalized often on this long Arkansas afternoon, pulled the boner of the season. Gator freshman quarterback, Chris Leak rolled to his right, threw a ball near the sidelines downfield. It was picked off by Arkansas, but Tony Bua, an aggressive Hog safety, continued his rush into Gator QB Leak and his helmet slammed into Leak’s helmet for a personal foul. All replays showed the official to have made a good call. The interception was nullified, Florida got the ball back, accepted a 15-tyard penalty, a first down and ran out the clock, for the win. Arkansas fans showered the official with debris, to no avail. Guilty Arkansas safety Bua said he wanted to crawl into a hole, that he would be the most hated person in Arkansas for the foul and the foulup, that led to the Gator survival, 33-28, that advanced this Zook team to 5-2 overall, 3-2 in the Southeastern Conference and a week off before playing 2-1 Georgia for a spot in the SEC title game Nov. 1. Bua might want to team up with the Chicago Cub fan who interfered with a Cub outfielder that set scene for the Miami Marlins to beat the Cubs in the National League title baseball game in Chicago. Governor Jeb Bush of Florida has offered the Chicago fan asylum. Might want to do the same for Tony Bua of Arkansas. Remarkably, the Gators now have won back to back games at Louisiana State and Arkansas, if barely at Arkansas and perhaps not in a manner to give Gator Coach Zook a world of comfort after the third poor fourth period of the year. Few will point to the coaching in the final period as much of a factor in the Gator win at Arkansas. After the game, Zook, a rapid-fire talker, said, “we’re improving. There is a thin line between there and there,’’ in the state that produced the USA president (Bill Clinton) who said much depends on “what is. ’’ Zook went on, “we’re a few plays from being 8-0. We’re not 8-0 but they’ve hung together and continued to improve.’’ By the way, Georgia, next up for the Zook Gators, is a fine fourth period performer, someone said. ##
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