College Football Live: Sat. 8 p.m. ET: No. 4 LSU-No. 11 Florida
Ricky Jean-Francois went off this week.
Ricky Jean-Francois and all of his six tackles.
R J-F and his one sack.
Yeah, Tim Tebow, you'd better watch out Saturday when LSU comes to Florida.
"If we get a good shot on (Tebow), we're going to try our best to take him out of the game," Jean-Francois told the Orlando Sentinel this week. "With his size and his heart, it's hard to get a clean shot."
WWL is all for smack talk. It's the stuff that flips our down marker. But let's consider the source. Big talk for a guy who was left home to nurse hip and groin injuries.
Jean-Francois described a clean hit on Tebow like "a car wreck without a seat belt."
"If he (Tebow) does get hurt, there's a trained medical staff at Florida, so you can go to the training room on Sunday," Ricky the Knife added.
Let's just say Tebow shouldn't be concerned.
This is the same Ricky who missed the majority of last season because he was on academic suspension. His statistics this season speak for themselves. To be fair, he was the defensive MVP of the BCS title game but it's obvious he hasn't done much since then.
"I think every lineman wants to get a good hit on a Heisman Trophy winner," Jean-Francois said.
That would have been it had not LSU put out the fire with gasoline issuing a "clarification" of Jean-Francois' comments. The lineman said his comments were "misinterpreted."
"By taking him out of the game, I meant, as a defense, we are going to try to make him ineffective," he said in a school press release.
There's a big difference, Ricky, between "ineffective" and "car wreck." You said what you said.
Now show up to back it up. If you can.
Florida on the ledge: The Gators hopes, wishes and dreams could be gonzo by Saturday night. The media's preseason pick to win the SEC is in a precarious position.
Never mind, the national championship. Florida simply doesn't deserve to be in that conversation at the moment. It isn't on the same roll as Alabama, Oklahoma or Missouri.
A loss to LSU could just about eliminate the Gators from the East Division race. At 2-2, Florida would be in a position of having to win out and hope that 6-2 would be good enough to win -- probably in a tiebreaker.
The Gators go into the weekend trailing first-place Vanderbilt (5-0, 3-0) by a game. They still have East Division games left against Kentucky, Georgia, Vandy and South Carolina.
Watch out for the jump pass: Les Miles got that reminder from his son Manny this week. Manny reminded his dad that Tebow's famous jump pass has become a staple on short yardage plays. Two years ago, Tebow broke it out at The Swamp throwing a touchdown pass to Tate Casey.
Manny got up at 5:45 one morning and immediately hit his dad with "You've got to stop that jump pass."
"I wrote that down," Miles said. "I'm ready to go coach that one. He said, 'You need to keep somebody back.'
"The tough part about that play is that anytime they involve a run action, the want and desire to tackle the run is key, and if you're backing up on the pass, and he's running it, it's a bad matchup."
That's not good news for LSU's pass defense which is 8th in the SEC and 46th nationally. Safety Chad Jones, who plays four positions in the defensive backfield, says sometimes the plays don't get in on time, "because we've got so many guys running on and off the field with different formations."
Last call on State Street: What's going to give out first, JoePa's hip or Wisconsin's flickering chances of winning the Big Ten?
Already 0-2 in the conference, the Badgers can't afford another loss -- at all. Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions are purring along. A win would give them only their second 3-0 Big Ten start since 2000.
If Paterno decides to coach again from the press box, it would certainly eliminate the risk of further physical damage. The coach broke his leg two years ago at Wisconsin when he was run into on the sidelines.
Mishandled: Mike Gundy could have saved his reputation and our ears a lot of damage if he had just told the truth a year ago.
Zac Robinson was better than Bobby Reid at quarterback. That's why Robinson was playing at the time instead of the highly recruited Reid. Instead, the public was denied the truth as the Oklahoma State coach was in the process of switching quarterbacks. Maybe Gundy didn't want to hurt Reid's feelings when he vehemently defended his player during his infamous rant.
Maybe Gundy is a scene stealer. The outburst deflected attention from the fact Okie State had won a big game that day and that Robinson is a pretty good player. Reid has since transferred. The Cowboys head to No. 3 Missouri with Robinson, the nation's No. 3 passer, directing the nation's No. 3 scoring offense.
Where's the rant for Zac, Mike?
Red River Breakdown: WWL is a big Texas guy this week, even though we're on record as picking Oklahoma.
Here's how the Longhorns win: Reach OU quarterback Sam Bradford with the front four. That's a huge task considering Oklahoma's offensive line has given up only five sacks this season. Point is, if Texas has to blitz to get to Bradford that puts more pressure on a secondary that is 96th in pass defense.
WWL believes the 'Horns will move the ball on offense so it comes down to the likes of defensive end Brian Orakpo and defensive tackle Roy Miller.
The chances of an upset, though, are not good. The last time an underdog won in this rivalry was 11 years ago. In 1996, Oklahoma beat No. 25 Texas 30-27 -- Texas last won as underdog in 1992.
Something else to consider: Don't count the Texas-Oklahoma loser out for the national championship game.
First, it's the Big 12. Twice in the BCS' 10 years, a Big 12 team that didn't win the conference has played for the national championship -- Nebraska in 2001 and Oklahoma in 2003. Because Texas and Oklahoma are so highly ranked, a close game wouldn't necessarily doom the loser. If the loser wins out and finishes 11-1, it could also be spared of having to play in the Big 12 championship game.
The Sleestak were insulted: Most players prefer Gatorade, Arian Foster might want to look into a bit of lithium. The Tennessee tailback, who is about to become the school's leading rusher (if he makes it that far), demanded recently that interviews be conducted in pterodactyl.
Since few of the Vol scribes don't speak dinosaur or have even seen Land of the Lost, the interviews didn't get done. But Foster was off to the side, screeching "Veek, veek, veek."
And you're wondering why Tennessee (at Georgia) is having problems?
Sun Deviled: A once-promising season should die an ugly death when Arizona State (2-3) visits USC.
Quarterback Rudy Carpenter is "very doubtful" according to coach Dennis Erickson because of an ankle. Carpenter's absence would end a streak of 36 consecutive starts.
Meanwhile, USC was heartened by Mark Sanchez's return to practice on Wednesday. Linebacker Rey Maualuga is likely to return to the lineup.
It looks like USC is going to win the rest of its games, easily. The question is, do the Trojans believe that or are they willing to pay attention long enough to get back into title contention.
Trap game of the century: Is there anyone not picking Mississippi State over Vanderbilt? Vandy is not familiar with winning a big game. It is less familiar with dealing with the inevitable emotional letdown the next week. Mississippi State isn't inept -- in fact, it is very similar to Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs should pick up their first SEC win.
Rip his f------ his head off! We in the Midwest tend to get all riled up when it comes to free speech. We're all for it until it offends us.
Kansas students have this relatively new tradition of yelling the above phrase during kickoffs. Apparently, it is taken from some Adam Sandler movie so there is no accounting for taste. Anyway, Kansas officials are in a tizzy over the f-word flying all over Memorial Stadium.
Coach Mark Mangino has filmed a segment to be shown on the scoreboard before the Colorado game urging students to keep it clean. Let's not be hypocritical: Mangino has been known to drop some f-bombs of his own (See: YouTube).
Part of the game, right? So are the students so, please, get over yourselves critics. This is cute, fun. No one is getting hurt. Frankly, WWL is getting tired of Kansas trying to be everyone's moral compass.
Go to your average NFL game where suds are sold all day. Feel your ears burn after three hours of alcohol-fueled rooting.
Kansas needs some attention on its football program, not its prudish, antiquated crowd control tactics.
Tiger trouble: Did Tommy Tuberville panic? Did Bobby Lowder flex his mysterious, hidden muscle?
There are a lot of questions looming as Auburn gets ready for Arkansas three days after the firing of offensive coordinator Tony Franklin. The program looks like it is at a crossroads, especially with Alabama on the rise over in Tuscaloosa.
Maybe that's the ultimate reason that Franklin was broken off. Auburn couldn't afford to fall any further behind in the everlasting war with the Tide. Never mind that Auburn has won six in a row in the series. The quest for the Iron Bowl is a day-to-day battle.
Check out this statement from Tuberville from slightly more than a week ago.
"I love this offense," he said. "It's going to be great. I'm glad we've gone to it. It's going to give us some options. We're 4-1 and played a very tough schedule to this point and we hadn't hardly seen anything from this offense. Once we get going, it's going to be much better. There's no panic mode."
Panic mode seems to be exactly what Auburn is in at this point. An adequate explanation hasn't been given for Franklin's dismissal. Sure, the offense struggled, but Franklin got only six games -- seven if you count last year's Chick-fil-A Bowl.
That's not enough to install an offense. What's weirder is that Auburn is going to continue to run the spread option. The ugly specter of Lowder is looming too. Auburn's resident puppeteer/most powerful man in state has been known to mandate coaching moves in the past.
Bobby Petrino is in town this week. Anyone remember Jetgate?
Friday walk-through:
- Neither Texas or Oklahoma has allowed a first-quarter touchdown.
- Just what Nebraska needed after getting smoked by Missouri, a trip to Texas Tech. The last time Nebraska visited Lubbock it lost 70-10 in Bill Callahan's first season in 2004. Nebraska is playing its first road game this season.
- Since winning his first eight road games at Notre Dame, Charlie Weis is 2-5 on the road heading for North Carolina.
- Tulsa has surpassed 50 points in five consecutive games. Make it six in a row with the Golden Hurricane visiting SMU.
- Oklahoma State's Dez Bryant has 27 catches this season, nine of them for touchdowns.
