1. The UF-UM game proves once again this peculiar aspect of American football that its highest exponent (the NFL)is far from its best exponent. Emotion and psychology play an enormous role in the college game and that was never more evident than last night.It gives the run of play a fickle momentum that can change on a moments notice. 2.If there is a more memorable game in the last ten years (maybe more) would someone please point it out to me? 3. I was trying to watch three games at once,and have never known much about the technical aspects of football to begin with, so I can't comment on the coaching criticisms. It is perplexing. Do you marvel at the possibilities of a staff that can take a team not picked in the top 20 and maul the Canes in the Orange Bowl 33-10 for 3 quarters. Or do you look at Ron Zook in the fourth quarter and see the reincarnation of "One play away Ray" Goff ? But before we all start pining for the "good ole days" (and boy, they were good)I do seem to remember a 31 point lead (maybe 28, I can't recall) disappearing into thin air in Tallahassee one year. Which leads to my next point. 4.If SOS had remained at Florida last year's team would have been the worst he'd ever fielded at Florida. Recruiting had fallen off, badly for a team of Florida's prominence. I'm not saying it was anything other than pure coincidence that he left when he did, and I'm not saying UF's record would have been as bad if he had stayed (it wouldn't have), but the cupboard wasn't as stacked as one might expect when Zook came in. 5.By the way, in the wake of the worst Florida season since the days of Galen Hall, and fireronzook.com humming along with God knows how many hits a minute, Zook assembled the best recruiting class in the nation. The whole farkin' country, people. 6. Which brings us back to last night's game. In fairness to SOS, and to his credit, he was rarely an underdog, and never prohibitively so, but were you ever more impressed with any of his teams than you were with Ron Zook's for the first three quarters? 7. SOS can be best thought of as a truly great pitcher (Neikro) or tennis player (Laver) with a highly unorthodox throwing style or forehand. The sort of unusual player whose eccentricities are served best by throwing the cherished fundamentals to the wind, whose style is so unique that at its best it resembles nothing else at all but itself. But the fundamentals are the fundamentals for the same reasons that shopworn phrases keep hanging around. They have the wisdom of the ages. 8. SOS ultimately found a "balance" in his offensive attack, but it was always like an appendage to the foundation, when an evident talent like Errict Rhett (sp?) couldn't be ingnored. All other things being equal, SOS would rather just "work 'em silly", as the banner reads. And because he became all the rage the very best receivers and qbs wanted to play for him. And that edge in talent together with the most innovative passing attack in the history of modern football, well, the results speak for themselves. But the UF team last night, balance didn't seem like an afterthought, an appendage to the design. It seemed like the design itself. I think thats a good thing for UF football. 7. Leak and the other guy are good. Everyone says Leak will one day be great.Probably so.And they both played well. But UF took a real body blow when Ingle Martin went out with the concussion. If that doesn't happen, UF wins the game. Sure, UM would stage the comeback, but the UF offense wouldn't have stood by while the other guy runs up 28 unanswered points to end the game. 8. A final thought. Do you remember the SEC championship game back when they played it in Birmingham? Outside? Where football is meant to be played? Even in December? Do you remember whem the UF QB dragged his wrecked carcass to the sideline, looking as if he only had minutes to live? And wide-eyed Eric Kresser desperately searching the sideline for his helmet, and rushing onto the field, surrounded by evident confusion? And UF came out in this tight I-formation, all the while (was it Wuerffel?) lay prostrate on the sideline, uttering his last words?And then they run the PA fake and the guy goes long? And he catches it? And Danny gets back up and trots onto the field, high fiving Kresser on his way to the sidelines? If there was ever a more audacious moment in modern college football, could someone point that out to me as well? You can't bottle that. And you can't expect Zook or any other human being walking around to imitate that. Fundamentals can be perfected. Genius cannot be imitated. And just because UF was fortunate to once be coached by a genius, that should not be the standard by which all coaches to follow should be judged. You don't fire Gene Bartow because he isn't John Wooden. Instead, you look at Gene Bartow and say, "That's a damn fine coach." UF deserved a better fate, and I know none of you are of a mind to take comfort in moral victories. And well you shouldn't. But from an outsider's perspective, this was a tremendous effort, and far beyond the expectations of anyone (friend or foe)heading into the game. My best to my buddy Kensler, the UF fan who set me up with the SECCG tickets last December, and mostly to O & B.