By Greg Fuchs
Taking a gander into the Florida sports garage, it was an unusual
weekend in the Florida football world for 2 reasons. For one, all 3 NFL
teams, the Dolphins, Bucs, and Jaguars were on bye this week. As for
the Florida based college teams, most of them probably wished they
had a bye as only FSU came up a winner.
Florida St. crushed Louisiana 49-17. The Noles did most of the damage
on the ground as they rushed for 251 yards and 5 touchdowns. QB
Jordan Travis ran for 38 yards and 2 scores while he also completed 9 of
14 passes for 112 yards and 1 touchdown. FSU is now 8-3 and ranked
16 th in the country. They take on the rival Florida Gators this coming
Friday in Gainesville.
Speaking of the Gators, they were upset by Vanderbilt 31-24 and
dropped to 6-5. Florida allowed Vandy to rush for 175 yards and they
also fumbled a punt that resulted in a TD for the Commodores.
20 th ranked UCF was also upset this weekend losing to Navy 17-14. The
Knights turned the ball over twice, but it was Navy’s running game that
was the difference. They rushed for 248 yards while throwing only 1
pass, which was incomplete. As a result of their rushing attack, the
Midshipmen controlled the time of possession 39:36 vs. 20:24 for UCF.
The Knights fell to 8-3 and are now ranked 25 th in the NCAA rankings.
And then we have the Miami Hurricanes, who have become much too
associated with the word embarrassment. They laid another egg on
Saturday losing 40-10 to Clemson. The Tigers were up 24-0 at the half
and the final score could have been worse, but it looked like the Tigers
lost interest in the 2 nd half. One stat sums up Miami’s performance. For
the game they had 98 total yards. Not 98 yards passing. Not 98 yards
rushing. Not 98 yards in a half. But 98 yards in total for the entire game!
It’s hard to fathom that the Hurricanes have become this inept. The
Canes are now 5-6 and finish the season at home on Saturday vs. the 7-
4 Pitt Panthers. If Miami should somehow defeat Pittsburgh, they
would become bowl eligible while a loss ends their season.
But football isn’t the only sport in Florida, so let’s switch to a happier
topic – baseball. It was announced that Miami Marlins pitcher Sandy
Alcantara was the unanimous winner of the National League’s Cy Young
Award. Alcantara’s ERA of 2.28 was 2 nd in the league while he led the
league in innings pitched (228.2) and complete games (6). He won 14
games to go with an elite WHIP of .98 and 207 strikeouts, which was 4 th
in the NL.
In other Marlins news, they released 3 rd baseman/outfielder Brian
Anderson. Once one of the team’s top prospects he has struggled to
stay healthy the past 2 seasons and in 2022 hit only .222 with 8 home
runs and 28 RBIs. The Marlins decision to release Anderson was part
financial as they would have likely had to pay him $6.7M this coming
season via the arbitration process. Look for another team to give the
29-year-old a shot as he can play multiple positions and still has
potential.
Switching to hockey, the Florida Panthers dropped their 3 rd straight
game on Sunday, 5-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Cats are 9-8-2.
Last year the Panthers had the best record in the NHL, but right now 14
teams have more points than Florida and if the season ended today,
they wouldn’t be in the playoffs. Keeping the puck out of the net has
been their biggest problem as only 7 teams have given up more goals
than the Panthers whereas the Cats offense is ranked 7 th in goals
scored. The overall team defense and goal tending have got to improve
if the Panthers want to turn things around.
As for the Miami Heat, they are also off to a slow start. Their 113-87
loss to Cleveland on Sunday dropped their record to 7-10. That places
them in 11 th place in the Eastern Conference. In the Heat’s defense,
they have been battling a litany of injuries all season. Once everyone
gets healthy, they will turn things around as they have too much talent
not to mention of the best coaches in the NBA in Erik Spoelstra.
So take a deep breath Florida sports fans. The 1 st place Miami Dolphins
will be back in action this week hosting Houston while I’m confident the
Panthers and Heat can get things turned around. And FSU is having
their best season in a long time. As for the Hurricanes, well, there is
always next year.
