Most of my bike trips have been like bohemian adventures: piling in a car with some friends, stops for fast food, a cooler of beer and accommodations just a step above a hostel. So looking at pictures of George Hincapie’s place “Hotel Domestique” in South Carolina was something that didn’t seem real. A luxury hotel […]
While the off season has been full of quarterback and giant video boards talk, the on-field product for the Jaguars this year will be tested in an unglamorous way. Up front. Both sides. We can talk about the future for Blake Bortles and whether Chad Henne is the right call all we want. We can […]
From the opening series, the Jaguars were looking to get different players involved in the offense and use their up tempo look to move the ball downfield. Both were evident as Marqis Lee, Toby Gerhardt and Marcedes Lewis all had touches for considerable gains right away. The “no-huddle” started paying dividends right away, keeping the […]
From the opening series, the Jaguars were looking to get different players involved in the offense and use their up tempo look to move the ball downfield. Both were evident as Marqis Lee, Toby Gerhardt and Marcedes Lewis all had touches for considerable gains right away. The “no-huddle” started paying dividends right away, keeping the […]
It’s easy to admire greatness. I’ve always been fascinated by sports dynasties. Some might find it boring to see the same team win year after year. On the other hand, I marvel and admire and what it took that group and their leaders to get there and stay there for an extended period of time. […]
No matter where you went, its all people could talk about. The US team had played well enough to advance into the knock round of the tournament but were still underdogs. A young team, they had a coach who was positive, challenged them, and made them believe in themselves. Sound familiar? While that’s been the […]
Saturday was just a validation of who we are. Not how we’re perceived. Not how we’re talked about or thought about or written about or disparaged by people who don’t live here. They’re usually about two years behind what’s actually happening in North Florida. Whether you decided to watch a sailing regatta or a powerboat […]
Competition is what it’s about for Jaguars Head Coach Gus Bradley. It doesn’t start at a specific time, and it’s obvious with him, it never ends. “Everything counts,” Bradley said after practice. “Everything. They way they walk on the field, they way you handle yourselves in the huddle, the way you talk to your teammates, […]
It didn’t take long for Jaguars fans to get excited about the draft class of 2014. At the first rookie mini-camp at the practice fields, more than 2,000 showed up to see Blake Bortles, Marqis Lee and the other 7 draft picks take the field for the first time as professionals and for the first […]
As the main presenter on Tuesday, Jaguars President Mark Lamping reviewed what the team calls the “sustainability” of the franchise, outlining different ideas to create revenue and not raise ticket prices across the board. Owner Shad Khan admitted they have big ideas in their organization. From the no-reality of the big scoreboards, to the potential […]
Expecting a shootout between Germany’s Martin Kaymer and the USA’s PGA Tour wunderkind Jordan Spieth, fans surrounded the first hole from tee to green, five deep when the two approached for their 2:35 tee time. Kaymer ripped it 310 yards down the middle. Spieth hit it in the right rough. A chink in the armor? […]
As predicted, low scores were the rule of the day among the morning players in the first round of The Players. Russell Henley shot 65, seven under par while, eight players, including Lee Westwood, Gary Woodland, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia are at -5. “It’s playing a little softer,” Woodland said after his […]
Tee times for the first two rounds are out fo the 2014 Players. They’ll play in threesomes and start at 7:15 as expected, going off the first and the tenth tee. If you’re a morning player on Thursday, you go in the afternoon on Friday and vice versa. In the morning on Thursday, last week’s […]
As the PGA Tour progress through the past five decades, some of the old adages have faded away. Fields were smaller and not as deep, meaning you could probably pick the winner any week out of a pool of about 20 players. Jack Fleck beating Ben Hogan was a huge story on tour, given Hogan’s […]
For most of it’s existence, The Players signaled the beginning of the golf season for many fans. While the Masters was a sign that spring is here, The Players in March is where golf fans started to focus on the season and the sport. Many of the top players skipped the California swing (private jets […]
As the last qualifier for The Players, JB Holmes has quite a story. He was a well-known quantity on the PGA Tour. A popular player with galleries and a two-time winner in Phoenix, one of the most raucous stops on the circuit, Holmes embodied the ‘grip it and rip it” bomber style popular on Tour. […]
For a while it was a murmur, then some idle chatter but the talk about the greens at the Stadium Course for this years Players has grown into a full-blown conversation today. It’s been customary to allow players to practice on the Stadium course starting on the Saturday before the tournament, accommodating those who either […]
It’s annually called the “Pre-Draft Luncheon” and it qualifies as that because it is before the draft and they do serve lunch. (Great potato chips and nice BBQ sliders this year). It’s mainly a chance to get the powers that be with the Jaguars on the record about their philosophy when it comes to the […]
In addition to Tiger Woods, add Jason Day’s name to the list of PGA Tour players not participating in next weeks Players. Day is still recovering from a thumb injury and has decided he needs at least another week of rest before reentering competition. The 26 year old Australian won the Match Play Championships in […]
It’s been a while since there was this kind of buzz around the Jaguars. While the national media has always considered putting a team in Jacksonville “a mistake” and has always looked at Jacksonville as an outpost, they couldn’t ignore the early success the franchise had particularly in 1996 and 1999. Although they tried. In […]
It’s just cliché enough to say “Things are bigger in Texas.” And it’s generally true. Bigger buildings, bigger roads (and lots of them), bigger traffic jams and certainly bigger aspirations. It’s not that bigger is better, but for their first time hosting the Final Four at ATT Stadium, the locals and the NCAA have decided […]
As expected, it wasn’t easy. Florida withstood a run by UCLA in the second half with poise and tough defense as they beat the Bruins 79-68 to advance to the Elite Eight for the fourth consecutive year. “Done it before,” Will Yeguete said in the post-game locker room. “Go back to the hotel, get some […]
It’s like a traveling road show when teams go deep into the NCAA tournament. Like that old saying, this week it’s “If it’s Wednesday this must be Memphis.” Adapting to that kind of travel and schedule, new arena’s, new locker rooms, new environments favor a veteran team in college basketball and certainly the 2014 Gators […]
While looking for a constant upgrade in the draft and through free agency, Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley isn’t forgetting what last year was like. The ups and downs, the teaching and the learning and how he can take that and move forward. “I know this sounds bad,” Bradley qualified his statement before going on […]
It really is all about defense for the Florida basketball team. And while that’s a given for most teams, the Gators have bought into it.’ “This was about to our standard,” Senior Patric Young said in the post-game locker room after Florida’s 61-45 win over the 9th seeded Pitt Panthers. “We can’t always control whether […]
It’s difficult to be such a favorite in college basketball. A team that shoots well, and executes their game plan, no matter what their talent level, size or speed, can make things difficult. Florida found that out in the first half against the Albany Great Danes in their first game in the NCAA tournament in […]
It would be pretty easy for the 2013-14 Gator basketball team to strut into Orlando with an attitude. They’ve won 32 games; they’re the only team to ever go 18-0 during the regular season in the SEC. They won the SEC tournament by beating Kentucky for the THIRD time this year and they finished the […]
No 16 seed has ever beaten a #1 seed in the history of the NCAA tournament. I thought I’d get that out there right away so if there is some kind of jinx, it’ll fade by game time on Thursday. But the Gators won’t need it. As the top ranked team in the country for […]
I’m not surprised, but I am impressed. For what seems like forever, the Jaguars in free agency were a non-factor. And even when they were a factor, it didn’t matter. Jerry Porter, Drayton Florence and Tory Holt were supposed to make a splash. They did, more looking like a belly flop. A bunch of journeymen […]
Walking off the practice field last summer during Gus Bradley’s first training camp as the head coach of the Jaguars, I found myself at the back of the pack walking with the Jaguars new leader. “What the biggest surprise,” I asked as the two of us made our way to the locker room. “Just the […]
“This is just goal number one,” Patric Young said with a big smile on his face after the Gators finished an undefeated regular season in conference play. Florida jumped out to a 21-point lead at halftime over Kentucky, weathered a 15-0 run by the Wildcats in the second half and finished with an 84-65 win […]
I guess we should just be amused when people who don’t know anything about America try and come up with reasons why Americans are, well, Americans. We are somewhat iconoclastic, doing things our way in our almost 240 years as a nation. We drive on the other side of the road than the British. Our […]
It was about racing. From the inception of what is now known as NASCAR through the beach driving in Daytona and onto the 2.5 mile tri-oval through the rule changes designed for speed and safety and all the way up to about 2000, driving at Daytona was all about racing. Finding speed was always the […]
While attendance at the MLS exhibition on Wednesday night between Philadelphia and New York was down because of the weather, that’s no indication of the passion for “the beautiful game” here in Jacksonville. When the NASL had a team in North Florida in the early ’80’s it was relocated from Boston and kept the name […]
It wasn’t quite ten years ago that you could sense a spike in the interest surrounding what was happening on National Signing Day. Formerly reserved for what were called “recruit-niks” and hard-core college football fans, suddenly high school auditoriums were full of students and faculty as football players (although all ‘fall’ sports use today as […]
No team gets to the National Championship game without being a pretty good squad. Actually better than that. So when Auburn and FSU were matched up in Pasadena for the final BCS Championship game, nobody should have expected anything but a close game. It’s never a mismatch unless the pollsters fall in love with one […]
There are only a couple of questions about tonight’s outcome of the National Championship game between FSU and Auburn. If you just look at how the two teams got here, it’s easy to pick FSU to win going away. The Seminoles won every game by double digits and scored more than 40 points almost every […]
When they walked into the ballroom for their “Media Day” interviews, I was struck by how much the 2013 FSU football team reminded me of the 1993 team that played for, and won the National Championship. Big and athletic, there aren’t any “fat” guys on this team. Even the biggest of the offensive and defensive […]
Different events have a different feel. The Super Bowl is big, corporate, sponsor-driven and engulfs the city it’s in; bringing the national focus on everything that surrounds it. The National Championship is a mini version of that, but with a much more homey feel. There’s some national media, but not much. Whichever network is televising […]
I was talking to my friend Dennis the other day, dissecting the Jaguars under Dave Caldwell and Gus Bradley and what their plan has been and will be for the future. A season ticket holder, Dennis cut me off saying, “Yeah, whatever, it’s been miserable for the fans.” You can talk all you want about […]
