Column: Growth in football shows in amount of state teams

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Column: Growth in football shows in amount of state teams

By Andy Hall

TAMPA — Time was this could be knocked out in an afternoon. And was.

As recently as the early 1990s, that’s how the Florida Sports Writers Association handled its College Football Media Day. There were six teams — the Big Three, plus Florida A&M, Bethune-Cookman and Central Florida. Half an hour per coach and it didn’t even take the whole afternoon.

The growth in Florida college football has been such that there are seven Division I programs alone. Add three I-AA teams (Florida A&M, Bethune and Jacksonville University) and two NAIA programs (Edward Waters College and Webber International) and you have 11 college football teams in the state, making it necessary for the FSWA to add an s, making turning its Media Day into Media Days.

“It’s getting like the old Southwest Conference,” said Saturday’s leadoff speaker, Miami coach Randy Shannon. The Southwest consisted of eight Texas schools — Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Texas Christian, Baylor, Rice, Southern Methodist and Houston — and Arkansas before the Southeastern Conference picked off Arkansas with the Southwest in decline in 1992.

Notes and quotes from the most recent FSWA weekend, hosted by Sun Sports/FSN Florida and the Tampa Bay Sports Commission:

Still the Big Three. For all the growth, make no mistake that Florida, Miami and Florida State (listed in order of most recent national championships) are still the Big Three.

South Florida coach Jim Leavitt, whose Bulls have made bowls the last two years and get the biggest push as the breakthrough team, shot down suggestions that playing the Gators or Hurricanes or Seminoles gets the Bulls to that level.

“A lot of people have played them and gotten their butts beat,” Leavitt said. “We can play that (Big Four) game all we want. We’ve got to beat them. Those three programs deserve to be where they are.”

USF is 0-1 against Miami and plays the Hurricanes again in 2008, the same year the Bulls get their first shot at Florida.

The state’s existing programs are a combined 1-10 against the Big Three, the win Florida A&M’s 16-13 defeat of Miami in 1979, the year after the Rattlers won the first Division I-AA national championship.

n Puny Putnam presence. Where Putnam County has had several players scattered across the state in many years, it won’t in 2007. There are only three, not including possible walk-on players.

The big news is that Interlachen’s Cory Johns has the edge in a three-man quarterback race at Webber International, where onetime Ram teammate Braxton Blitch is an offensive lineman.

“Cory’s going in as the No. 1 guy. It’s his job to lose, to be honest,” said Warriors coach Kelly Scott, citing Johns’ arm strength as his greatest asset. Johns, who originally signed with JU, owns the county’s single-game passing record with 434 yards in the 2003 regular season finale, a 41-33 loss to Branford.

“(Johns) has been in the system and knows what’s expected of him.”

And Blitch?

“What a teddy bear,” Scott said. “I don’t know anybody who’s ever met him who’s not fallen in love with him. He’s on his way to graduate. He’s always in the coaches’ office.”

The only other Putnam high school product currently on a state roster is Rian Giddings, a 2007 Palatka High grad who signed with Bethune-Cookman as an offensive lineman.

There are two other names of local note. Chris Robinson, a talented but temperamental athlete at Crescent City before transferring to Flagler Palm Coast, has come into his own as a 6-foot-3, 240-pound linebacker at South Florida.

“He’s as talented as most linebackers out there,” Leavitt said. “He’s a fun guy. He’s started to understand what it’s all about. We have high expectations for him this year.”

Robinson had seven sacks among his 28 tackles as a freshman in 2006.

Meanwhile, Jarvis Williams Jr., is a 5-9, 200 pound freshman linebacker at JU via Flagler Palm Coast. Jarvis Sr. was one of the most celebrated players ever to come out of Palatka, a hard-hitting defensive back who played with new JU coach Kerwin Bell at Florida before going on to an NFL career with the Miami Dolphins.

n Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Florida coach Urban Meyer was only a couple of days removed from the SEC Media Days when he hit Tampa Saturday morning and was again asked if hard-charging quarterback Tim Tebow had the passing skills required of a starter.

“No. He’s a recruiting mistake. We screwed that up,” Meyer deadpanned. “Put it in big, bold print.”

Then he smiled.

n Rocket, man. Longtime SunSports personality Paul Kennedy infrequently misspeaks, but got some good-natured grief from Scott when he commented on Webber International’s “mediocre rise” in NAIA.

Kennedy, of course, meant “meteoric rise.” The commentator and coach settled on “a rocket rise.” (Come to think of it, though, the Warriors were 5-5 last year.)

n Dean’s list. Bobby Bowden, is obviously the dean of the state’s coaches, entering his 32nd season at Florida State. But who’s second?

(Cue “Final Jeopardy” music.)

OK, it’s a trick question. Two are tied for second: Alvin Wyatt at Bethune-Cookman and Leavitt, the only coach South Florida has had since it began playing in 1997 — which was Bowden’s 22nd season with the Seminoles.

Andy Hall is sports editor of the Palatka Daily News. ahall@palatkadailynews.com

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