Active news day in the sports world
Sorry coach...
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Lots of sports news today…
What’s the worst thing a college football player can do the week before his conference championship when that game may impact whether or not his team wins the national championship? I imagine it would be murdering somebody, but what Florida Gators starting defensive end Carlos Dunlap did was pretty bad too. He was arrested for DUI early Tuesday morning in Gainesville, according to the local PD. And he wasn’t just a little tipsy — cops found his car stopped at a green light with Dunlap slumped over in the driver’s seat asleep! The junior, who was named MVP of the 2009 FedEx BCS National Championship Game, is was considered a potential first-round draft choice if he leaves Florida after this season. Don’t you know the Alabama Crimson Tide fans are drooling over the moral pressure now put on Urban Meyer to make an example out of Dunlap by suspending him from Saturday’s game. Whether that will actually happen, we don’t know yet.
Dunlap’s Gators put a hurtin’ on Florida State last weekend, which was not unexpected but it bit of a shame given it was likely the final game for legendary coach Bobby Bowden. ESPN reports Bowden is expected to announce his retirement today. The 80-year-old coach met with FSU president T.K. Wetherell and AD Randy Spetman for an hour Monday. Bowden told a crowd of boosters at a luncheon yesterday that he planned to meet with Wetherell again today. Bowden’s 388 career wins are second only to Penn State’s Joe Paterno among major college coaches. He’s still the winningest coach in Atlantic Coast Conference history and his teams dominated between 1987 and 2000 with a pair of national titles, but the Seminoles have been 16-16 over the past four seasons.
One thing that isn’t up in the air is the job status of Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, who was fired after five seasons with the Fightin’ Irish. Weis took the proud program 35-27, including 21 losses in the last 3 seasons. ND had 15 losses vs unranked teams. Not good enough to cut it in South Bend, I’m afraid. Athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced the decision to let Weis go yesterday and said the school has not contacted any potential replacements. Who will be the college’s fifth coach of the decade? Will Urban Meyer jump ship? Nick Saban (who is Catholic)? Rob Ianello? Bob Stoops? Brian Kelly? Jim Harbaugh? Gary Patterson?… Don’t feel too bad for Weis. He’ll likely go back to the NFL and Notre Dame, which stupidly gave him an extension, will have to pay big money to get rid of him. Weis had six years left on his contract.
Speaking of the NFL, looks like the New Orleans Saints are the real deal after destroying New England 38-17 Monday night. Drew Brees threw for a season-high 371 yards and five touchdowns, carving up coach Bill Belichick’s defense like few quarterbacks ever have. The Saints averaged 9.6 yards per play while Brees averaged 16.1 yards passing, going 18 of 23. Tom Brady was harassed all night by the Saints defense (or should we blame supermodel Gisele for the Pats falling to 1-4 in road games this year?) and threw 2 interceptions. Is it a foregone conclusion that the Saints will play the also-undefeated Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl for a tie?
And look at the NFL’s old man at 40, Brett Favre, who completed 32 of 48 passes for a season-high 392 yards and 3 TDs in the Vikings’ 36-10 victory over the Chicago Bears. The Bears were pretty awful, and Jay Cutler, like Brady, was intercepted twice as he threw for 147 yards and 1 touchdown. Everybody’s talking about the Colts and the Saints, but Minnesota is 10-1.