1. A Stir In The Swamp
“What if I told you that a team filled with felons, coached by a man with shaky morals, and led by a preacher would dominate their competition?”
I’ve previously written more in depth about this 30 for 30 and I’m baffled, dumbfounded, and flabbergasted that ESPN hasn’t made this documentary yet. The 2008 Florida Gators are arguably one of the best college football teams of all time and has one of the most eccentric rosters.
The Gators were coached by Urban Meyer who was just fired from the Jaguars for treating his job like a joke. On offense, Dan Mullen called the plays who was just fired by the Gators and their defensive coordinator was Charlie Strong, who’s now on the Jags staff.
On offense, Tim Tebow led like none other behind his strong faith in the lord. The guys he was leading were murderous tight end Aaron Hernandez, racist receiver Riley Cooper, and stanch defenders of Aaron Hernandez, the guard and center tandem of Mike and Maurkice Pouncey.
Other notable players on the roster were Percy Harvin, Brandon Spikes, Cam Newton who was kicked out of Florida for stealing computers, Janoris Jenkins who had a dead body in his house, and Joe Haden.
The Gators started off 3-0 and lost their fourth game to Ole Miss. That was when Tebow took the podium and told the media “You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season and you'll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season, and you'll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season.”
Florida went on to win their eight remaining regular season games, the SEC Championship against Bama, and the National Championship against Oklahoma. This team was unreal.
Another thing that could be sprinkled into the documentary is the campus life in addition to the ridiculous football team.
Other students on campus were gold medal swimmer Ryan Lochte, influencer Dan Bilzerian, FedEx Cup Champ Billy Horschel, ESPN analyst Laura Rutledge, MLB outfielder Matt Laporta, and NBA players Al Horford, Corey Brewer, and Joakim Noah.
This one NEEDS to be made.
2. Every Rose Has A Thorn
“What if I told you that the leagues most promising young player would never become what we all thought?”
Derrick Rose quickly became one of the NBAs most promising players. He became the leagues youngest MVP when he won it at twenty two. Rose was setting the league on fire…until playoff game against the 76ers in 2012.
Rose played high school hoops at Simeon Career Academy and was a highly coveted recruit. He eventually decided to play college ball at Memphis for Coach Calipari. Rose led the Tigers to the National Title, but fell to Mario Chalmers and the Kansas Jayhawks before forgoing the rest of his college career to goto the draft.
About a month later, controversy followed Rose when it was reported that at Simeon he had someone take the SAT for him so he would be admitted to Memphis. The Tigers 2009 season wins were vacated along with their championship run.
Rose would go onto be drafted first overall by his hometown Bulls. He was the leagues youngest MVP, until April 28th.
Everything that Rose was working towards came crashing down when he tore his ACL. He was the hometown hero playing for the Bulls repping every Chicago kid and every high school player from Simeon Career Academy.
Rose was on pace to be one of the NBAs greats and it all began to dwindle. Rose rehabbed back and played a few more years with the Bulls before being shipped to the Knicks and then spent a year with the Cavs. It looked like Rose was at the end of the road.
Then, he was sent to Minnesota and on Halloween of 2018 against the Jazz, Rose dropped fifty points. After the game, he wept when he spoke to a reporter and you could see the pure emotion on his face. What a comeback story.
3. The Voodoo of Number Two
“What if I told you that being in second place was the scariest place to be?”
In the 2007 college football season, sixteen AP Polls saw nine teams claim the number two spot, seven of which held the spot for only one week before losing. It was absolutely bananas and one of the most hectic college football seasons ever.
Each squad was wildly unique. LSU held the number two spot in the preseason to week four, reclaimed it in week ten then lost it, then moved back to number two in week fourteen. The Tigers were led by senior quarterback Matt Flynn who was coached by Bo Pelini and Les Miles. They also had one of the best defensive tackles of the last twenty years, Glenn Dorsey.
USC claimed number two in week five, and just week five. The Sarkisian, Carrol squad with Mark Sanchez and one of the best collegiate linebacking cores of all time only held the spot for a week.
In week six another California college slid in. Cal took over at number two, and was only there for a week. DeSean Jackson and Justin Forsett couldn’t keep the Bears at number two for more than a week. Week seven rolled around and a new one and done suitor entered the mix. South Florida held the spot for a week before the Bulls lost to Rutgers.
Week eight found a team that would hold the number two spot for two weeks. Matt Ryan and Anthony Castanzo led the Eagles to that spot, but eventually fell victim to the curse of number two when they lost by ten to Florida State at home. With BC dropping, LSU slid back into number two, but gave it up very quickly because they moved to number one.
With the Tigers moving up, Oregon slid in, but the Dennis Dixon led unit dropped a road game to the Arizona Wildcats. Kansas was next up to try and hold the number two spot, but Mark Mangino and Aqib Talib just could not handle the number two spot. They lost to Missouri.
As the Jayhawks fell, the West Virginia Mountaineers rose. They pushed their way from number two to number four and had one of the most explosive teams of the past twenty years. With Pat White at quarterback, Owen Schmitt and Steve Slaton in the backfield, and Pat McAfee bombing punts, I thought they’d hold number two. But I was wrong.
WVU dropped the 100th Backyard Brawl against Pitt at home the very next week and LSU slid back to number two and in the final AP Poll, the Georgia Bulldogs were number two and LSU was number one.
This 30 for 30 could show the absolute madness that teams went through. There were upsets every week and really makes you remember why college football is so special.