Massacre on the St. Johns

My lack of posting as of late has been a disgrace to the handful of friends who apparently enjoy the ramblings on this blog. For that, I apologize.

I had a lot of positive thoughts a couple of weeks ago after the Dawgs trounced LSU but in all honesty my joy was short-lived. I woke up on Sunday after the LSU game with the realization that we were in all likelihood going to get overwhelmed on Saturday against the Gators. I just had a bad feeling in my gut. Now I tried to envision some positive scenarios and even sought some advice from some sages (Scott,Karl,Matt T.,Mookie) but nothing I heard could give me any true relief from my gut feeling. Unfortunately the feeling I had was correct. We were out-manned, out-coached, out-everythinged...

I can't even bring myself to watch a replay for any insight into this game. Did we play bad? Yes. Is Florida that much better than us? No. It was just one of those days. They had a better game plan, had more intensity, got the breaks, etc. Was it classless of Urban Meyer to call 2 late timeouts? Yes. But you know, what really irks me is that it even came to that. We have too good of a team and too good of a program to play against ANYONE and have that be an issue. We should never have been down 49-10 like that but... it is what it is.

One area that the Gators lost in, at least in my experience of the weekend, was partying. I saw some of the most hardcore partying (not the porn site) I have ever seen and the majority of our group is 4 + years out of college. We had a lovely little home a block from the beach on St. Simons and turned that place into an absolute breeding ground of mayhem and destruction. We had an absurd Halloween party w/ ridiculous costumes which included; Joe the Plummer,John McCain,Sarah Palin,a Construction worker,2 Scottish horndogs,an inmate,an 80's mom and prom queen,Tequilla Man,Superman,Wonderwoman, and my personal favorite-some sort of Richard Simmons-esque fitness class leader. Too much happened to go into but I am stunned the house was still standing at the end of the night.

Saturday culminated with a lot of hangovers and the arrival of a bus to take us to Jacksonville. The ride was filled with a lot of people dealing w/ very full bladders and no bathroom. Of the numerous exits off the bus to urinate on the side of the road, the best had to be a female who got off the bus and attempted to enter a doctor's office to pee. When the door was locked she decided to squat behind a column about 5 feet from the door of this office. Oh, and in case you were wondering-the lobby was full of patients who no doubt were in sheer amazement at what they saw. Among other events yours truly also nearly incited a riot with some ill-timed remarks in bad taste which I truly regret making, but it was dealt with and the day went on. Oh and before I forget, another favorite moment from the ride to the game involved our man Mook-Dawg getting off the bus on the highway to keep a Gator's car from merging into us.

Let's skip the game. Had great seats and watched us get killed, I think someone lost their girlfriend and some other folks about got in about 60 fights over a 2 hour period but that's neither here nor there.

And then came the ride home. Never in my life have I seen such a scene:
-Nearly 30 drunken people yelling and dancing to any music that came on the radio.
-At least 4 impromptu dance parties where probably 10+ bus patrons got off the bus and attempted to seduce pedestrians and other vehicles with their erotic and exotic dancing.
-A man who we believe to be 30+ years old stripping down nude and giving almost every single person on the bus a lap dance and swinging all up and down the bus with his over-sized package flopping around
-A gas station stop with 10 men peeing on the side of a Subway
-Two men hanging from rails at the top of the bus engaging in the single most acrobatic simulated dance/sex act I have ever seen and will see. Words cannot begin to do this particular scene justice.

I'm sure I forgot some things and events worth noting but hopefully the feeling of the weekend will come through in the words that have been written.

And onward we go; we've still got 3 regular season games left and a chance to get back in the top 10 w/ a 10-win season. Then we can spend 8 more months talking about how next year will be 'the year'. I, for one, will savor the rest of this season though. I still love this team and want to see us start to realize our potential.

God Bless,

Les