"A Quick One While He's Away"

We made a semi-emergency call to B-Daddy this evening to cover for us. A late phonecall while at work from friends beckoned to a swank little watering hole in the Gaslamp and since they offered to buy… who were we to resist? And since B-Daddy refused our offer so he could instead, wine and dine Mrs. B-Daddy, we felt obligated to post on what we witnessed this evening.

While at the bar, kept an eye on the Florida St./Wake Forest game which as recently as 2-3 years ago would not have even drawn our attention from the libations and company in which we were enjoying. After all, Florida St. put together one of the most phenomenal runs in college football during the 80s and 90s, finishing with consecutive Top 5 rankings during one 14-year stretch straddling those decades. And Wake Forest…? Tim Duncan went there, didn’t he?

Wake Forest won the ACC championship last year and after 2 losses to start this season, the Deaks have won 4 straight and are 3-1 in conference after tonight’s win against FSU setting themselves up for another run at an ACC title. But sorry, this shouldn’t be happening… even in a basketball conference should Wake Forest be winning football titles as long as Florida schools (FSU and Miami) are in that same conference. (We will venture forth a theory here that the rise of teams like West Virginia, Rutgers, Louisville and the University of South Florida in the Big East has coincided with the relative demise of the ACC as prep talent has been diverted to the geographically-similar Big East).

On Florida St. though… what happened to these guys? Once one of the most consistently dominant programs has been downright mediocre the past 5-6 seasons. Despite what was noted just above, they still manage to get top-flight prep talent from both Florida and selected spots around the country. So, what gives?

We think we found it in a quote that was put up on the screen as Wake Forest was shoving the game-winning drive down Florida State’s throat late in the 4th. Being a Thursday night game, Bobby Bowden was apparently not too excited about it and (we’re paraphrasing) said, “Thursday night games are great for teams that do not yet have reputations but for teams that already do, they don’t do much”. Can ya hear Bowden’s arteries hardening?

This is from a coach that invented the expression, “Any time, any place, anywhere”. Florida St. made their bones in the late 70s and early 80s by playing teams they had no business playing. They would sucker national powers into home-and-home schedule arrangements where they would sneak up on these teams on the road on the first go-around and then absolutely blitz them the next year at Doak Campbell in Tallahassee.

We guess that this only proves that Bobby Bowden is human and at some point he is going to lose his edge. His team may have never seen that quote but it wouldn’t have mattered. If that is the coach’s attitude then the team will sense that as well and perform accordingly. Never in a million years would Bowden have uttered anything remotely like that some 20-30 years ago. The Noles program is done – stick a fork in ‘em.

Many thanks to The Who for the cheap, throw-away pop reference of the title. Perhaps it will bait B-Daddy into taking the reins tomorrow as we will be sampling some of Jalisco’s finest at the Tequila Expo down in Tijuana. We sense something epic that he wants to get off his chest that may get this site shut down…. were we in the EU but not yet here in America!!!