REACTIONS???? GREAT GAME!!!! Manning, Wayne, Addai, Harrison, Clark, Moorehead, and that Defense came through to get over the Patriots "hump"...how far can they go? The Bears looked good today. The Bears proved to me that SuperBowl XLI will be one to be remembered for a long time!

Times have been pretty hard recently in Wildcat Country. The coal severence tax still makes the state a one-sided smorgasborg of wealth. The influenza epidemic is starting to spread state-wide which is rare for a southern state this early in the Winter months. The pride of northern Kentucky's Florence area, Shaun Alexander had a tough season and a tough loss in the NFC Divisional playoffs against the Bears. But unlike the last few years, our hoopsters have been showing potential. Potential being an operative word open for discussion. Yes, times have been hard, but the Wildcats are on a mini-roll right now. Not since the days of Chuck Hayes and Keith Bogans have we had a winning streak we couldn't count on one hand. The Wildcats have ran off eleven wins in a row. They are 4-0 in SEC play and stand atop the SEC East alone. What does all this mean? I wish I knew. All I know is that the Wildcats haven't lost since they traveled to Chapel Hill on December 2, 2006. A respectable game not by score, but that Kentucky showed signs of this potential. In the loss the Wildcats held the Tarheels to just over 37% shooting, which is where they pretty well are holding all opponents presently. Randolph Morris, center for UK, outshined All-everything Tyler Hansbrough again by holding him under double figures while collecting 23 points himself on 11 of 12 shooting. That game may have been the catalyst for Randolph's game. And it couldn't have come at a better time. Morris is averaging 16.4 points and 8.1 rebounds in 28 minutes of play a game. Of course the winning streak has importance though. The Wildcats are showing no let-downs. They are beating the teams this year they are supposed to beat. Will they get a win over a team they aren't supposed to beat? Yet to be seen. Since starting the season at 4-3, the Cats have stepped up their game. Largely on defense. But that is usually a constant under Tubby Smith. On offense two other starters are averaging over 13 points a game. Point guard Ramel Bradley has been showing promise at the position, one he was very uncomfortable with early in the season. Bradley's line 13.5 points, 4.6 reb, 3.8 assists are respectable and a compliment to freshmen back-ups. Starting shooting guard, Joe Crawford is coming out of his shell this season also. The Junior is averaging 14.1 points, 3.9 reb, and 2.6 assists per game. Overall offensively the Cats are showing some signs of life. The Cats scored 87 points in their last outing against a struggling South Carolina but beat them by 38 points. As opposed to last season when they at many times had scoring droughts of 8 minutes or longer. Can the Cats sustain this level of play when the competition gets tougher? We'll see in the month of February. Ending this month home against Vandy and at Georgia, UK hosts ranked (for now) Tennessee to start off the month. A tough road game against the Hogs of Arkansas, then a brutal stretch in which the Cats in successive games host no. 1 Florida, play at Tennessee, then travel to Tuscalusa to take on the Crimson Tide, travel back to Lexington to host a tough LSU team. Kentucky ends its regular season on March 4th as always with a trip to Gainsville to battle the defending champs Florida again. Tubby has a lot of coaching to do. Kentucky fans have a lot of praying to do. Many questions will be answered this season. Is this the year the Junior class of Morris, Crawford, and Bradley can get their act together and show some passion and toughness? Or will it be another season of let-downs and disappointing under-achieving? The most important question on Kentucky fans minds is whether a quick exit in the NCAA tournament, should Kentucky be so fortunate to be in the field, be the end of Smith's tenure at the school. Tubby won the National Title in his first season in Lexington in 1998 but has failed to maked it back to the Final Four since. Tough losses and close calls as well as blow-outs and poor play has tainted his resume since. January has been good to Tubby so far. A loss to up-start Vanderbilt this weekend could start a landslide. Any sign of life at the end of February could mean brighter things ahead for Wildcat fans and for Tubby Smith himself. As in a job at seasons end. NOTES: KENTUCKY'S 11 GAME WINNING STREAK IS TIED FOR 4TH LONGEST IN NATION. KENTUCKY'S THREE LOSSES WERE AT NORTH CAROLINA, UCLA AND MEMPHIS AT THE MAUI INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON. KENTUCKY IS RANKED 6TH NATIONALLY IN RPI.

Now that I have your undivided attention>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I would like each blogger that reads this to read the post written by edclinchsaint. It is called "Have You Ever Heard of Antietam? ML King? Love? Sacrifice?" To me it is the BLOG OF THE YEAR so far. Very nicely written, and worth commenting on. I would post a link to it, but I'm at work and can't because of the restrictions on this PC. -88

I'm not the type to sit around and ponder a loss. Sure the Gators chomped on a scarlet fluff Monday night. I won't even say that there was anything Ohio State could do right and the Florida Gators do wrong in the BCS National Championship game, but I wonder what if.... WHAT IF..... The earth DIDN'T revolve around the sun? With that in mind was there anything the Buckeyes could have done Monday night with their running game to make the game shorter and respectable? And I don't mean the 15 commercial time-outs or the 5 commercials between each snap. ( you suck Fox) Troy Smith is a talent, but you gotta acknowledge sometime during the game that your QB isn't going to be able to throw effectively. This became quite clear in the first quarter, and painfully moreso as the game progressed. With so much attention being placed on the wide-outs and Smith himself couldn't some of these big WRs do some blocking schemes for Pittman and most certainly Chris Wells? OSU did run the ball 23 times, but it was clear this defense had to be worn down to slow down. Sure the Gators defense would have been quick to the ball, but Wells is a talent. He is a big strong back that would not have been so easily tackled. Pittman is a good back as well, but Wells may have been the key to opening the defense. Wells does have a tendency to fumble so maybe that factored in. At least the committment to a running game would have made the Gators defense at the least second guess. Draw plays up the middle in many of Florida's schemes could have gone for some yardage. I guess if you knew you were only going to gain 82 yards the entire game, you'd think twice about your gameplan also. Yardage on the ground inevitably leads to yardage through the air via play action fakes, draws, end arounds, etc. I'm no coach, so I'm just guessing that once Florida scored so quickly and so often one would have to consider slowing down the game and limiting possessions. Maybe OSU was committed to the run and Florida just wasn't going to have it. Rarely though does a defense though shut down both the run and the pass so effectively. Apparently though Florida did. Was it the Gator's defense or the inept play-calling on the part of the Ohio State offense?So... WHAT IF...... Troy Smith had ran the ball more? He cut off a few good runs. One for a first down. One shy of a first down. The guy is capable of running, that's a given. Again, I can think of at least two critical 3rd down plays where Smith threw a horrible pass when he could have easily ran for the first down. Smith's running the ball also could have softened the defense of Florida. He's always had success as a pass first quarterback, but when things aren't working, take what the defense gives you. The lanes were there. The lanes were not taken. Did Tressel and his staff not consider altering the game plan? Again, I'm no coach, and I'm certainly no expert, however I repeatedly saw areas that could be exploited. So.... WHAT IF...... Ginn had played the entire game? Considering how the front four of Florida played, probably wouldn't have mattered. However, the short-passing game may have been effective. Dump offs, and crossing patterns may have worked more effectively with a deep threat. All in speculation though. Considering Ginn scored half of your teams points in 16 seconds of play, well speaks for itself. No real tie-in here.... WHAT IF...... There weren't two costly penalties in the first quarter, on Florida's first two possesions? How would Florida had responded starting from the 20? How would the OSU defense had responded? Simple questions but big keys to the game. Much harder to drive 80 yards for one score since Florida showed no real deep passing game. But this be because they played with the lead. However if you give a talented offense such as Florida's a chance to drive 80 total yards and get two scores, well you're in for a long night. And that's what OSU did. The first drive after the penalty went 7 plays and only 46 yards for the score. The second drive 5 plays covering 34 yards. Speaking of yards... WHAT IF...... There was a measurement on the fourth down call in the first half? Strangest fourth down play in my eyes. One of such importance, yet no measurement? Did they measure and I blinked? Tressel couldn't have challenged because he used his challenge earlier. ( A poor use of a challenge also I may add) But there was no second guessing. Florida made the call for the officials and the officials bought it. It was close. I'm not saying he crossed the 30 yard line or not. But, the view from the sky cam had it been reviewed may have changed some minds. The whole play was just surreal to me. Speaking of surreal... WHAT IF..... Chris Hetland just plain sucked like he did all year long? Just a sign that nothing was going to go wrong for the Gators Monday night. I have watched that guy kick, he really did stink up the team. Made me question everything about Florida at times when they couldn't even make a gimme field goal. But not on that night, not in this game. A 70 yarder was in order. I expected one just for, well, kicks. Didn't happen, but you know...it would have been good on that night. So, finally... WHAT IF The Florida Gators hadn't shown up for the game? I mean litterally shown up. Not like Ohio State not figuratively showing up. I mean litterally. Planes not landed, buses not pulled up. Just the scarlet and grey on the field. On that night Ohio State would have found a way, yes, to lose. WHAT IF I didn't whine so much you say? I'm not whining. Just now realizing how this team could look this bad so easily. Hats off to Florida. I'm not taking anything away from what they did on the field Monday night offensively or defensively. They did absolutely everything right. It was football conceived, practiced, and executed to its finest.Rarely do we get the chance to witness a game where everything just went right for one team and everything just went the opposite for another. But it happened. So many more WHAT IF's, but one could what if his life away now couldn't he? I'm over it. I hope my fellow Buckeye fans are also.

I knew it wasn't good for OSU when:

USC stomped Michigan

I knew it was not going to be a good night for OSU when:

Florida took the ball on offense

I knew it was over when:

Florida's defense took the field.

Congratulations Florida Gators on  your 2006 season and your BCS National Championship.

I bleed blue. My  Wildcats won their bowl game, so I have something to fall back on.

My buckeyes, well...completely outmatched.

Congrats Buckeyes on a great year.