What a glorious week it's been for college football: Adam James got trapped in a closet (or maybe not) and his ham-fisted father was outed as a meddler (or maybe not), Miami attempted to beat Wisconsin without an offensive line, and Urban Meyer retired, changed his mind, and saw Florida State steal one of his top recruits (or maybe not).
Today, it gets just a little more glorious, with both the last stand of Bobby Bowden and the last stand of Urban Meyer for an indefinite amount of time which may be until August or might be never, at least at Florida. You might have heard something about each, and if you didn't, it's because 23 hours of Tim Tebow on regular news outlets just isn't enough and you're buried all day at Tim Teblog.
Oh, yeah, he's playing in his last college game as well. Might as well just rename New Year's Day "Tebowdurban Day" and get it over with.
Here's what's shaking:
1:00 p.m., Gator Bowl: Florida State vs. no. 18 West Virginia
Bobby Bowden spent 10 year as the Mountaineers' head coach, and started his 28-year bowl streak in 1982 with a win over West Virginia. Bill Stewart is certainly no Bobby Bowden, but he does have junior running back Noel Devine, a C.J. Spiller-like threat to score every time he touches the ball. Florida State struggled with Spiller, allowing him over 300 yards, so if they can't figure out how to contain Devine it won't be pretty.
If they do, they might have a foothold in Jacksonville. The Mountaineers' passing game isn't much, though, without starting quarterback Christian Ponder, the Seminoles' isn't what it could be either. In fact, there's little on paper that says Florida State (6-6) can compete with West Virginia (9-3), but considering the circumstances it'd be silly to count them out.
8:30 p.m., Sugar Bowl (Fox): no. 5 Florida vs. no. 3 Cincinnati
Oh, boy. For most people, this is a more intriguing matchup than the actual BCS Championship Game -- or would have been, if Bearcats coach Brian Kelly hadn't bolted to Notre Dame a few weeks ago. Cincy will be lead instead by interim coach Jeff Quinn, who's on his way to be head coach at Buffalo as soon as the game ends. And Florida will be coached by not-for-long-for-a-while head man Urban Meyer, interim head coach Steve Addazio, and Charlie Strong, who's leaving his post at defensive coordinator to take over at Louisville.
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That's just the staff, of course. It's Tim Tebow's last chance for college football glory -- can he make for himself a final image other than that crying one? And then there's a handful of Gators juniors reportedly heading for the NFL. Will they regroup, or is so much change and controversy too much to handle?
Or might the 12-0 Bearcats be too much to handle? Cincy ranks fifth in scoring offense and sixth in total offense, and the Tony Pike-to-Mardy Gilyard combo is as good as any the Gators have seen yet, though corderback Joe Haden has the talent to shut it down.
And Tebow? Well, we all know what he's capable of. The only question is if the rest of the team shows up to redeem themselves as well -- and if so, so long Cincinatti.
Janie Campbell lives for a day of bowl games. Her work has appeared in irreverent sports sites around the Internet.
