I may be a tad late here, but what is "weres"? Randy ----- Original Message ----- From: Shane Ford To: GatorNEWS Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 8:37 AM Subject: [gatornews] [SUN]: Tebow weres glasses, just not during season + Dooley's Notes
Tebow weres glasses, just not during season By Pat Dooley Gainesville SUN Staff writer Published: Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 9:54 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 9:54 p.m. It turns out that Superman does have a weakness. Clark Kent wore his glasses as a disguise (fooled everybody, too) but Tim Tebow wears his for a reason — he’s nearsighted. Tebow wore the glasses to the ESPY Awards earlier this month but said he doesn’t wear them all the time. At first he tried contacts but didn’t like them. He just started wearing the glasses a few weeks ago. Tebow didn’t sport the specs at SEC Media Days and doesn’t plan to wear glasses or contacts during the season. I know what you’re thinking — how can he hit the deep pass if everything is a blur? Don’t worry. He can see streaking receivers just fine, according to Urban Meyer. SAD DAY: The news that Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday was devastating. He was one of the good guys, a man so unassuming he never sought the spotlight. But it still managed to find him. Johnson, who had cancer at the base of his spine, was cancer-free after surgery eight years ago before it returned and forced him to the press box last season. The thing about Johnson is that he could be in a room with your for an hour and you’d never know it. He was quiet and sweet and one of the brightest defensive minds in football. I only got to spend one season covering Johnson when he was the defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Bulls in 1985. Johnson took a rag-tag group of players and put together a solid defense that had 26 interceptions. Jacksonville went 9-9 in that, the Bulls’ last season. Two young defensive players from that team went on to have stellar NFL careers — defensive end Keith Millard and linebacker Vaughan Johnson. BIG DEAL: Remember when Mike Slive, early in his career as SEC commissioner, said he wanted all of the league’s teams off probation in five years? Well, the fact the SEC is relatively clean (Alabama’s Book-gate got in the way) didn’t hurt when the league started negotiating what turned out to be an unprecedented deal with ESPN. The $2.25 billion contract with the Worldwide Leader probably wouldn’t have happened if the SEC programs had not cleaned up their acts. As great as SEC football is, ESPN wasn’t going to throw that kind of money as a league with a bunch of teams on probation. Certainly, one reason the network cut the deal was to keep the league from starting its own network but staying out of trouble with the NCAA gave the league some leverage. COOPER UPDATE: Will he stay or will he go? Maybe both. Riley Cooper is still waiting to hear from the Texas Rangers and the amount of money they throw at him will help the Gator wide receiver make a decision. There are three possibilities — he could sign and say goodbye to college football if the money is really good, sign and play for Florida this season if it’s not or just not sign at all. Even if he does not sign, he probably won’t be playing baseball for the Gators next season because of roster limits. And after he didn’t play in the SEC Tournament and was left off the roster for the regionals, Cooper basically left the team. Stay tuned. RANK THE RECRUITS: It’s early. Way early. Commitments mean little more than Mark Stanford’s wedding vows. There’s a long way to go until we get to National Signing Day. Did I mention that it’s early. But you still have to be impressed with the class of recruits Urban Myer is putting together. Just out of curiosity, I checked the Rivals.com ranking and Florida comes it at No. 3, behind Texas and LSU. Now, I’m a firm believer recruiting rankings are of little meaning but they do mean something if you’re, say, like 34th in the country. The rich get richer every year and you have to keep getting rich. But it still comes down to team chemistry and player development in football. BERRY GOOD: I really like Eric Berry. Very nice young man and a great player. Tennessee has launched a Heisman Trophy campaign for Berry and he was one of two players who went up front to the podium and SEC Media Days (you can guess the other one). As good as he is, Berry cannot win the Heisman. It’s a nice gesture and he seems to be embracing it. Tennessee fans are hoping he can avenge Peyton Manning’s snub. Manning lost to a defensive back in Charles Woodson in 1997. That’s how badly some voters did not want to vote for Manning. Three reasons Berry can’t win: 1. Woodson only had to beat one guy. Ryan Leaf was a distant third with 70 first-place votes. Berry has to beat two Heisman winners and Colt McCoy, who is expected to put up monster numbers again. 2. Woodson played some offense and was an excellent punt returner. His Heisman moment came when he returned a punt 78 yards for a score against Ohio State, a game in which he picked off a pass in the end zone and caught a long pass to set up Michigan’s only score. Lane Kiffin said he plans to stick with Berry playing only defense because it would hurt his preparation if he spent time in the offensive meetings. 3. For Berry to even be in the hunt, Tennessee would have to win at least nine games, maybe 10, probably 11. I don’t see that happening. PAT-POURRI: The Sporting News list of the top 50 coaches was pretty solid although I would rank Red Auerbach ahead of Don Shula and there were a couple of hockey guys I didn’t know. I wonder if the list had been done back in 2002 if Steve Spurrier would have made the list ... and if they do it again in 2012 might Urban Meyer be on the list? ... Dan Cross’ basketball camp is coming up Aug. 4-7 at Florida Gym. The price for the camp, which also will include former Gator Andrew DeClercq, is $180 and you can go online at allfundamentals .com for more info ... You can’t do much better than Cross to learn fundamentals and, more importantly, to be pointed in the right direction in life ... Say it ain’t so, Big Papi ... Be safe. Contact Pat Dooley at 374-5053 or at dool...@gvillesun.com. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
