For Larry Fedora and Joe Wickline it was a great opportunity. For Andy McCollum, it was a tough pill to swallow.
Fedora and Wickline were assistants at Middle Tennessee in 2002 when Ron Zook called with a proposal: Come join the Gators.
Professionally, it wasn't a hard choice.
"The big thing for me was I played at Florida, and I'm from Florida and obviously for myself it was a special deal," said Wickline, a St. Petersburg native.
Personally, it was another matter. Both coaches were close with McCollum, the Middle Tennessee coach.
"It hurt," he said. "It was something, I had been a head coach for three years at that time and those are two of my closest friends. So more so than the professional part, those are guys that you like seeing every day. . . . Friendship-wise it was real tough because they are great people, they are great friends and they do a great job. About the first seven months I didn't handle it very well, but I think you have to grow through that."
Today, the friends meet again, on opposite sidelines.
BABY SAPP
Warren Sapp is Mike Patterson's favorite NFL player, which makes sense considering they're both defensive tackles with similar body types.
That's about all they have in common.
The flamboyant Sapp, a star with the Bucs for years and now a member of the Oakland Raiders, is known for his outrageous behavior, trash-talking and self-promotion.
Patterson, who has quietly emerged as an inside force for No. 1 Southern California, is shy, soft-spoken and clearly uncomfortable talking about himself.
Sapp is listed at 6 feet 2 and 300 pounds. Patterson is 6 feet and 285.
The two have never met, but that figures to change at some point because Patterson appears bound for the NFL.
"I'd probably be excited just to see him," Patterson said. "I know it's going to be odd because we're two different people. I might be a little nervous."
JUST RUN A PLAY!
Ever wonder why games last so long? Two letters: TV.
Televised games last about 10 minutes longer than non-TV games. And it seems longer because of the number of timeouts.
Each network has a different timeout structure for games:
CBS has 18 timeouts, ranging in length from 1:40 to 2:40 (between quarters).
ESPN and ESPN2 have 16 timeouts in length from 1:40 to 2:35 (between quarters).
Jefferson-Pilot has 15 timeouts, all two minutes each.
CBS, ESPN and ESPN2 also add on 20 to 25 seconds at the end of their between-quarter timeouts to set the stage at the game site before play resumes.
Each team also has three timeouts per half that aren't TV related.
"It just seems like forever between plays," Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said.
STATE OF PANIC
Four views on Nebraska's 70-10 loss last weekend to Texas Tech:
"It's not possible for Nebraska as an institution to criticize anybody for a big score." - Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, whose first Tech team lost 56-3 to the Cornhuskers in 2000.
"You don't go to Nebraska for a honeymoon." - first-year Nebraska coach Bill Callahan, who is facing a public outcry.
"You allow 63 points, you should get another player." - TBS announcer Ron Thulin after the Cornhuskers were penalized for 12 men on the field with the score 63-10.
"I pray to God we win this weekend. I certainly think we will, but if we don't, we may have to shut the state down next week." - Bob Knowles, president of Nebraska's Touchdown Club. FIVE THINGS
1. Jamal Pittman's six-game suspension with Mississippi is over, and the sophomore is expected to join the Rebels' rotation at running back this weekend. Pittman was suspended after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor reckless endangerment. He was charged with waving a loaded pistol at an undercover police officer near Beale Street in Memphis over the summer.
2. Neither the leading receiver nor the most efficient passer in the Pac-10 were recruited out of high school. California quarterback Aaron Rodgers didn't get a scholarship offer and went to Butte Junior College, where he only got noticed when Golden Bears coach Jeff Tedford was scouting tight end Garrett Cross. Oregon State receiver Mike Hass was a walk-on before earning a scholarship.
3. Stanford's special teams have three blocked punts (one for a touchdown), a blocked field goal and a 99-yard kickoff return for a score.
4. Utah (5-0) has risen to No. 11 and might cause trouble for the BCS. The Utes host North Carolina tonight and don't have a ranked team on their schedule the rest of the way.
5. If Navy (5-0) ends its 40-game losing streak to Notre Dame today, it has a chance to go undefeated. And don't discount the Midshipmen's chances today. Last year an Irish field goal on the game's final play beat Navy by 3. Two years ago, 1-7 Navy led Notre Dame, which was 8-1 and ranked No. 10, 23-15 with five minutes left before losing 30-23. A questionable official's spot on a fourth-down Notre Dame play that gave the Irish a first down with 1:30 left in 1999 turned an apparent 24-21 Navy win into a 28-24 loss. Navy got to the Irish 2-yard line as time ran out in a 21-17 loss in 1997. BY THE NUMBERS
5: Unbeaten teams at this point last season.
9: Times in 13 years Washington, Washington State, Oregon or Oregon State won at least a share of the Pac-10 title between 1990-2002.
7-13: Combined record of those schools this season.
13: Unbeaten teams in Division I-A this season.
16: Interceptions thrown by Nebraska quarterbacks Joe Dailey and Beau Davis, most for the team since 1972.
QUOTABLE
"I guess that's probably a pretty good analogy. So long as we don't have Bill Buckner playing free safety for us, we'll be all right." - Virginia coach Al Groh on a comparison of the Cavaliers-Seminoles rivalry to that of the Red Sox-Yankees.
Information from Times staff writer Antonya English, the Associated Press, Contra Costa Times, Los Angeles Times, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, Omaha World-Herald and San Francisco Chronicle was used in this report.
