I think Alabama, after their defeat of then #1 Florida is definitely the clear #1 going into the National Championship game.  And I think that Texas deserves to be there as well.  Both these teams have been there and finished the job on their regular season.

You can argue about Cincinnati, Boise State, or TCU.  And I agree that the BCS system has flaws.  But it’s gotten better in recent years.  Not great, but better.   So to all you other football nuts out there, just sit back and enjoy the holidays and the bowl season!

So Peyton is not the career leader in these statistics, not yet anyway.  But when you look at the combination of all the statistics he has amassed and he has answered one of the big questions always asked about quarterbacks, can he win a Super Bow.  He’s done that.

Now back to the original question… is Peyton the best ever at his position.  And is it really crazy to ask that question at this point in his career.  Well, I asked the question, but I am going to say this.  I don’t think that we can declare Peyton the king just yet.  But given what he has accomplished, I believe that it is only a matter of time.  I’m not wimping out, I will go ahead and say that he will end up being declared the best quarterback ever to play football in the NFL.  I just don’t think it’s quite time yet to make that declaration.

But I do believe that what Peyton has done to this point in his career has positioned him to claim that title, even if he isn’t as productive for the rest of his career as he has been so far.

Ok, football fans, let’s hear you weigh in on this one.

Here are my thoughts on it and I’d be interested in what you other football nuts out there think.  I’ll start by sticking my neck out there right way. I prefer the NFL approach and I’ll tell you why in just a moment.

Let me add that I don’t go along with that “keep the human element” part of the game.  If you could realistically eliminate all officiating mistakes, that would be great.  I have coached at the high school level and bad officiating drove me crazy at times.  But to downplay or eliminate the use of instant replay just to keep whatever the “human element” is doesn’t make sense to me.  I think that the mistakes that officials make at the college and professional level of football are just something that football players, coaches, and fans will just have to accept unless they want to really slow the game down.  And I don’t think anyone wants to slow it down that much.

So, in my opinion, we will end up living with a combination of human officials and instant replay. So now let me get to why I prefer the NFL approach to this and we can let the football debate begin.

I believe that the NFL approach to instant replay makes the use of a challenge more of a strategy decision than the NCAA approach of reviewing every play up in the booth.  I really like the idea that the coach has to decide whether to risk a timeout and can’t hope that the officials will proactively take a call under review as can happen at the college level.  And it makes the use of timeouts even more critical.

This was driven home to me recently in a pro football game where a team had to burn a timeout early in the first half due being disorganized on the field.  With about 3 minutes to go in the half, there was a questionable call, but the coach had no timeouts due to burning that first timeout early in the first quarter.  They could have overturned a call and ended up giving up a touchdown as a result. But being out of timeouts, they couldn’t even throw the challenge flag.

That first timeout (and the disorganization that caused it) cost them a critical call late in the first half.   And that puts both strategy and accountability for discipline and/or focus squarely on the coaches shoulders.  Which I love.

So there is a chance to have a critical call overturned if it’s wrong, but not if you have hurt yourself in other ways earlier in a particular half.

So there’s my argument. No system will end up being perfect, but currently, I like the NFL use of instant replay the best.  Football fans, what do you think.

Now both Paterno and Favre are enjoying revived success, I ask myself the question, when is it time for a player or coach to step down?  And should coaches like Bowden and Paterno be left to choose the time or should they be fired when others decide that it’s time?   Like a lot of issues in college and pro footbal, it’s primarily a question of  opinion, but I’m going to give you mine.

I think there is responsibility on each side.  In the cases of coaches like Paterno and Bowden, I believe that these guys have firmly established themselves as legends in the game of college football.  And as such, I believe that they have earned the right to step down with grace and dignity when they are ready.  They should not be forced to leave or have their arms twisted by the “power alum” groups.

But I also believe that, as legends, they also owe it to their programs and the legions of college football fans who follow those programs to not hang on too long.  I think that they should talk to those trusted advisors, whoever they are, around them and not let ego convince them that they can still do it, no matter how hard it may be to leave the job and the sport that you love.

You may think that I’ve copped out on this issue, but let me add one thing to this equation that may convince you differently.  Take Mark Richt at The University of Georgia as an example of a coach with challenges.  I am a UGA graduate and a big Georgia fan.  And I  love what Richt has done with the Dawgs.  But I also believe that if he can’t get a handle on the issues with his players and his coordinators, then it may be time for him to go.  He, unlike Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden, doesn’t qualify for that status of “legend”.   I think that right now, they are the only two football coaches in the country that do.

So, my opinion is to give Bowden the chance to realize when it’s time and to do it himself.  And Coach,  to you I say, look hard within yourself, talk to those you trust, and make the right decision.

Here we are in the midst of one of the worst economic crisis that I can remember, we have the war on terror that doesn’t seem to be working, our education and health care systems need reform and our so called “political leaders” in Washington need to be worried about college football rankings?  I don’t think so.

My only prayer is that this PAC will fail completely for lack of support.  But that cynical side of me fears that this whole think will take on a life of it’s own and we’ll be watching Senate subcommittees debating this topic for the next year or two.  I hope it doesn’t play out that way.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I actually would love to see a playoff system instead of what we have today.  But that’s not my point.  Let the NCAA and whoever else, in fact anybody else besides our leaders in Washington figure this one out.

But as I have said many times, nothing should surprise me any more.  But I really hope this one goes away.

The first twist came when the SEC announced that this particular crew was going to have to sit out their next assignment.  You can read more about it here.   Then ESPN interviewed the white head head of the crew who admitted that he blew the call in the Arkansas Florida game.   More details if you want to read about it in this article.

Now as I have written before, I know Marc Curles very well and have spoken to him several times about these calls.  And the bottom line is that he is a class act.  At this point, I’m not so sure that I feel the same way about the SEC at this point.

Now before you start jumping up and down, hear me out.  I do believe that there has got to be accountability and I do believe that it makes sense to sit crews down as a part of that accountability.  But I want to see consistency in that, not just a knee jerk reaction to screaming and yelling because of the implications of one game (Ark-Fla).

I have seen a lot of bad calls caught on TV and several this year alone.  But I didn’t see those crews called out.  I didn’t see head coaches crying and whining like Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino (that’s a whole story in itself) did afterwards.  So my question is WHY THIS TIME?

Crews are graded for each and every game each and every week.  Why did this crew and this official get singled out?  Some might argue that it was the combination of the UGA LSU game with this recent incident.  But after seeing the film on the AJ Green penalty and understanding the vagueness of the rule on Excessive Celebration, my thought is that the SEC threw this crew and ref under the bus.

Show me some consistency and I’ll change my opinion.  But the bottom line, as I told Marc, is that every ref misses a call now and then.  But if we are going to have accountability for these blown calls, let’s see it across the board.

And now I am really through talking about it. I really mean it!

So I’m not going into all the details of the penalty.  The guy missed the call.  And I talked to him and he admitted that he missed it.  But what transpired afterwards is just not justified.

Like after the Bulldog game, he has received ugly email after ugly email.  But it got worse this time.  The Arkansas football fans hunted down his home phone number and are calling his house?  Now the question in my first post was, When is enough enough?

And I almost don’t know what to say after this last incident.  Well as I said, almost.  But here is the bottom line in my humble opinion.  If football fans really want to see bad calls in football games, keep harassing the crews in this manner.  And sure enough it will get worse.

Because these guys will just  stop doing it.  And most of them do it because they love the game.  But if we run off this generation of officials, we will probably see a new generation that are there ONLY to pick up a few extra bucks.  I’ve seen it before at the high school level and it can happen here.

So I don’t agree with it, as I said last time.  And I hope that the rest of us avid football fans will help talk some sense into the more emotional ones and help bring some sanity to this madness.

Just my thoughts.  What about yours?

1st   Brett Favre  13%

2nd Tony Romo 10%

3rd Terrell Owens 8%

4th Eli Manning 7%

5th Ben Roethlisberger 5%

I thought that I’d like to see who all you football nuts thought was the most overrated so I created my own football fans poll right here:

So vote and we’ll announce the winner shortly!

Now it just happens that I know the white hat (referee) who was in charge of the crew at the Dawg’s game Saturday.  So I took the opportunity to talk to him about the call AND about what has happened since.

Let me first address what has happened since Saturday.  Apparently an upset Georgia fan somehow found his email and posted it somewhere on the web for other Bulldog faithful to find.  And his inbox has been flooded every since.

Now, something that all football fans need to understand is that the referee doesn’t make that many of the calls in a football game.  Most of the time he makes sure that his crew is in position to make their calls, confers with them to make sure they apply the rules correctly, checks with the booth for replay decisions (he doesn’t make them) and unfortunately for him, delivers the bad news to one side via his microphone.

So to all my UGA brethren,  first know this:  the referee (white hat) didn’t throw the flag Saturday and didn’t even see what caused the penalty.  The back judge made the call.  And just like many of you, I didn’t understand the call because I didn’t see ANYTHING on camera that would have caused the penalty.

But to single this guy out with venomous emails just isn’t the right thing to do.  And some fans have sent multiple emails.  Now I believe that if you pay your money and go to the game, you can holler at the refs all you want.  And I have done a little work in the striped shirts in my day.  And you have to have thick skin and the ability to be deaf when you are on the field of play.  But I don’t believe that we as fans, football or any other sport, have the right to hunt these guys down and continue to harass them for days after a game.

And besides, if we had a good old fashioned junkyard dawg defense, it wouldn’t have made a difference in the game, but we don’t.

Now as to the call.  Apparently it wasn’t what was shown on camera that drew the flag.  It was something that occurred after the cameras had turned away from the excitement in the end zone as Green celebrated with his teammates.   I really can’t go into any more detail and I wasn’t at the game, but I think that it’s time for the Bulldog Nation to let it go. And I say that as one who bleeds red and black.

And I think it’s time for football fans as a whole to think about how we may let our emotions and loyalties cause us to cross some lines that we just should never cross.   Maybe the guy blew the call, who really knows at this point.  But is it right to hunt a guy down (and the wrong guy at that) and try to make him miserable over a football game?

Sorry, I love the Dawgs, but I just don’t agree with that approach.

First of all, let’s look at LeFevour’s stats.  Dan has 12,604 total yards in his career.  Tebow has 9,341.  That puts LeFevour 11th all time in Division I football.  So he is not playing Division I-AA or Division II or II.  And while he is not playing in the SEC, Pac-10, or Big 12, he is playing Division I football.   He has completed 65.7% of career passes and averaged 4.5 yards a carry when he runs.  So he is a Tebow type quarterback.   And at 6′3″ and 238 pounds, he is a big, strong football player.

Now, we have to acknowledge that he does play in the MAC conference and his toughest opponents are typically Michigan State and Boston College.  So it does make it a little tough to compare and say just how good LeFevour is.  But here is my comparison at this point.

NFL scouts rate LeFevour as a first or second round pick.  Most analysts won’t give Tebow a chance as a first round pick.  What that tells me is that Tim Tebow is a great college football player who may or may not make it in the NFL.  And Dan LeFevour is a pretty good college player who should continue to develop and will probably make it in the NFL, although he probably won’t start in his early pro career.

By his own admission, LeFevour was raw as a quarterback when he got to college.  “I had to learn to be a quarterback” he says on the subject.  So bottom line, my thoughts are that LeFevour has better stats and is probably a better long term pro prospect at quarterback than Tebow.  But no doubt in my mind, Tebow is the better college player playing in a tougher conference against tougher competition.  As a big Georgia fan, that’s hard for me to admit.  In fact, I am getting a little tired of hearing about Tim Tebow.   He’s a great young man and a great college football player, but I think that we’ll hear more about Dan LeFevour in the future than we will about Tim Tebow.  Just my humble opinion.