Napier Finally on the Hot Seat

University of Florida head football coach Billy Napier, ever since he's been at the helm, has presided over a team that has under-performed to fans' typically ambitious expectations.  So the question each season is: how long will he go before he's described as being on the "hot seat"?  I've jokingly been entertaining this notion for 2025, a year that the Gators have been hyped as being a breakthrough season that could even propel them to the college football playoffs at the end.  They had a couple of "soft" home games to start off the season.  On August 30th they played Long Island University and performed well for that level of competition, winning 55-0.  Their opponent this past Saturday, South Florida, had opened their own season with a surprising walloping of Boise State, 34-7, so I wasn't very sure about how they'd do against UF.  As it turned out, Florida was a disorganized, undisciplined mess, unprepared for this game, a close contest ultimately decided because one of their childish, unsportsmanlike and entitled players decided to spit at an opposing player at a crucial moment, resulting in an 18-16 loss to the Bulls.  After it was over, I had no trouble at all finding references to Napier now being on the hot seat.  The question was, would he do like he did last year and say something snide about his critics?  I haven't heard anything of this sort yet...let's see how the Gators do on the road this Saturday in Baton Rouge against #3 Louisiana State.  If he survives that contest, then Napier will "get to" travel down-state to face #5 Miami the following week: oh joy...

Football Just Not One of My Interests

Are you getting excited about the upcoming football season? I'm not. One reason rests in the fact that in my nearly 69 years of existence on this Earth, I have never, ever played a single down of tackle football. Sure, I've played flag football at school and touch football on informal occasions, but the sport that people get so riled up about is something I've never been an active part of. I watch my local news program and revel in the fact that the head sports announcer almost exclusively covers either University of Florida sports or high school athletics...and football regularly gets the heavy emphasis. I despise the coaches I had in both high school physical education class and that one time I was on the track team. In these settings there is a martial, military spirit about minors...albeit adolescent ones...having to snap to attention for their coach like he's some kind of boot camp drill sergeant: disgusting.  I see some of these power-sick individuals on the sidelines going off loudly against players who, God help them, actually make mistakes and wonder why everyone doesn't just turn off the TV or go home in protest to this kind of abuse.  And they actually make statues of star players and stage them outside home fields, as if these people were larger than life.  No one covers with enthusiasm when kids do well in math class at school, and I suppose that makes sense...but I never see any coverage either of local running races, at that's definitely a part of sports..  But football? You can have it. The other day there was a season-opening game between Iowa State and Kansas State...I couldn't care less who won.  But then the officials called a delay of game penalty on the Iowa State defense and their head coach literally went berserk on the sidelines, jumping up and down and screaming at the referees.  That dude should have been sacked on the spot...

Snug-Fitting Old Brooks Shoes Seem to Improve Walking

Today on my neighborhood 3.3-mile loop speed walk, I tried wearing my older Brooks running shoes that fit my feet more snugly than the pair I had been wearing regularly.  I seemed to be able to pick up my walking pace with the old shoes, and it may well be because my feet are tighter in them, not moving around wasting energy with each contact on the road surface.  If I walk this coming Saturday's Depot Parkrun, I plan to use the old Brooks for it and see if I can't bring down my finishing time.  Should be interesting.  In any event, I plan to ask around for advice about who can give me authoritative pointers on race-walking form and evaluate what I'm doing wrong or right with it.  I sincerely believe that endurance speed-walking can well be the way to go with my advancing years as I am intent on maintaining high-functioning mobility, as athletically as possible.  I know the non-profit Florida Track Club, of which I am a member, has an auxiliary, commercial "Team" Florida Track Club that offers (for various fees) coaching and advice...and I believe that race walking is covered in it somewhere.  In today's digital information world, it seems that it shouldn't be all that hard to get some sound coaching with my speed-walking...