September 2nd, 2012 11:09am
by Pat Dooley
College football season is back, so that means the Sunday Blog is back as we recap some of the things that happened over a Labor Day weekend that is still going.
As I did last year, I will publish what would be my Top 25 if I was a voter. Why I am not a voter on either AP or the Harris Poll is a mystery. Nobody watches more college football than I do. I had three TVs going at 1:30 …
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August 13th, 2012 12:38pm
by Pat Dooley
Are you ready?
Have you bought your new shirt? Come up with a new tailgate idea? Got your mix tape ready?
It’s that time of the year. Thank goodness. It’s not just that I love watching college football, it’s that there has been so much bad news associated with the sport that it will be great to see actual games.
I have your first weekend planned. Have fun.
Thursday
7 p.m. — South Carolina at Vanderbilt. This could rock the college world right from the …
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July 19th, 2012 01:50pm
by Pat Dooley
One of the biggest reasons I find the SEC Media Days invaluable (despite inane questions from pseudo-media members) is simple — you can read all the preseason magazines you want but spending three days eyeballing players, listening to coaches and getting a feel for confidence levels gives you a better idea of what to expect each season.
It’s hardly an infallible method. I’ve been sucked into believing in a team at this event in the past two decades only to see …
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July 18th, 2012 11:12am
by Pat Dooley
The SEC is the best football conference in America for a lot of reasons, but one of them is the passion of its fans. With passion comes heat and almost every coach in the league is feeling some sort of warmth.
At the end of SEC Media Days, I always rank the league’s coaches based on their presentations in Hoover. Today, I’m giving you them in the order of the heat they are feeling.
1. Derek Dooley — There is no question …
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July 17th, 2012 11:46am
by Pat Dooley
HOOVER, Ala. — So here we are again as our summers continue to shrink down to long weekends. Summer is over when we descend on Hoover because football season is here.
Already this has been an odd trip. It seemed to take longer than usual to make the drive. Our favorite barbecue place outside Dothan shut down. And when we got here I realized I never made a reservation.
So I’m bunking with Robbie Andreu, which is fine and looking forward to …
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July 3rd, 2012 12:47pm
by Pat Dooley
If you haven’t heard (and apparently taking a vacation week really put me out of the loop), it appears that South Carolina baseball coach Ray Tanner could become the next athletic director at South Carolina.
To a lot of people, that seems odd for a couple of reasons. First, he has been to three straight College World Series finals and won two of them. His 2013 team loses a lot but not any more than the year before.
And second, what qualifies …
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June 16th, 2012 11:41am
by Pat Dooley
One thing I enjoy about Omaha is that the people are so friendly and helpful and that includes here at my home away from home, the Courtyard in La Vista.
But, of course, you didn’t think I would get through my first four days here without complaining about something.
I’m a simple man on the road. I just want a place where I can sit at a bar, eat my dinner and watch sports. So when I got here, I asked if …
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June 14th, 2012 03:22pm
by Pat Dooley
One thing about another trip to Omaha, it’s easier not to get lost.
There is a certain familiarity after being here for last year’s College World Series and Florida’s first two games in the NCAA basketball tournament. I mentioned to someone today that I was here three times with Florida when it was at Rosenblatt Stadium (which is being demolished next week) and it was like I was in a different city from the one I am in now.
This is Mike …
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June 1st, 2012 09:55am
by Pat Dooley
For those of us who are thrilled that college football has finally taken its head out of the sand and will start a playoff, we have to temper our giddiness because they still haven’t figured it out.
Sides have been taken and it appears that the SEC, the Big 12 and Notre Dame are on one side and the other BCS conferences are on the other. The SEC is adamant that the four best teams should be in the playoff (what …
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May 24th, 2012 12:38pm
by Pat Dooley
Is it the players or the coaches?
You tell me.
Players or coaches?
The easy answer is both, of course. Who is responsible for success and failure? Can a good coach get fired because of bad players? Can good players be let down by a bad coach?
I asked Roland Thornqvist, the Florida women’s tennis coach, and he said it takes both.
“What percentage of each, I’ll let the experts decide,” he said.
So who was the worst coach to win because he had great players? …
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Pat Dooley shot an 85 at Augusta National. Tripled the 18th. Other than that, there’s not much to tell. Great wife, two beautiful daughters. Been at The Sun since 1987 and worked in Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale before that. Spent a year in Storrs, Conn. Actually, it was only five days but it seemed like a year. Likes Tom Petty, The Beatles, Weezer and long walks on St. Augustine Beach as long as they end at the Beachcomber. Reads every e-mail except those sent with Russian alphabet. Favorite sports are college football, college basketball, golf and cooking chili.