Where have you gone, Daunte Culpepper? You should be UCF College GameDay picker
Running off at the typewriter …
I don’t know who will be the UCF guest picker during ESPN College GameDay’s inaugural trip to Orlando Saturday, but I know who it should be.
On this historic day when UCF football takes the national stage, the guest picker should be the man who originally led the program out of the dark ages and into the spotlight.
It should be Daunte Culpepper.
Except for whatever reason, Daunte rarely comes around UCF anymore. In fact, earlier this week, UCF quarterback
McKenzie Milton talked about how he’d never met Daunte and would love to have that opportunity.
“It would be pretty cool if he showed up,” Milton said. “I’ve never met him before, but I want to, no doubt.”
Isn’t it strange that Milton has quarterbacked UCF to its greatest heights but he’s never met the great one himself? Daunte lives in South Florida, and I unsuccessfully tried to get in touch with him earlier this week.
If you’re reading this, Daunte, we miss you, big fella.
You were a big-time recruit who came to smalltime UCF when you could have gone anywhere in the country.
While it’s true GameDay will put UCF on the national map today, let us never forget that Daunte Culpepper drew that map. Come home, Daunte. Come be a part of the program you helped build.
Mikey likes: UCF over Cincinnati by 21, FSU over Boston College by 4 in a fighting-to-stay-bowleligible Upset Special, Florida over Al’s Barber College by 100, Temple over USF by 17, Virginia Tech over Miami by 5, FAMU over BethuneCookman by 9, Notre Dame over Syracuse by just 5, Jags over Steelers by 3 in Upset Special II, Giants over Bucs by 2, Herbstreit over Finebaum by 300 tastefully lampooning signs, UCF fans over Washington State fans by 1,500 as the unofficial largest GameDay crowd in history.
Short stuff: Top 5 ideas for GameDay signs from me and my peeps on social media: (1) Yo, Playoff Committee, we demand a recount! (2) If UCF played Gators, Seminoles and ’Canes, we’d still have a weak schedule! (3) Disney owns ESPN; Danny White owns Kirk Herbstreit; (4) Even OBT hookers don’t pay attention to
Paul Finebaum; (5) Bring on anybody — except, gulp, Bama! … American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco told ESPN.com college writer extraordinaire Andrea
Adelson that he is warming up to the idea of expanding the playoffs to eight teams. “I hadn't really given a lot of thought to expansion of the playoff, but I'm giving more thought to it, only because it seems to me that half of FBS is pretty much going to be left out of this,” Aresco said. “I haven't made up my mind, but I'm giving it more thought than I did before.” Questions: Why hasn’t he made up his mind? Why hasn’t he given it more thought? And why is he pussy-footing around an issue that would give his league’s champion at least a puncher’s chance of getting into a playoff that is right now nothing more than a Power 5 Invitational?
Did you see where FSU’s athletic department announced Friday that the school will start selling raffle tickets at football games to raise money? Sheesh, when did the FSU football program become a Kiwanis Club fund-raiser? I’m thinking the first item they will try to raffle off is
Willie Taggart’s contract. … Some Detroit Lions football players were complaining the other day because coach Matt Patricia made them practice outdoors in the cold. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why they are the Detroit Lions.
A moment of silence, please, Hee-Haw host, guitar virtuoso and country music star Roy Clark has gone to That Big Cornfield in the Sky. Somewhere up there, Roy’s a pickin’ and Buck’s a grinnin’ … Tom Jones, a columnist for the Tampa Bay Times, couldn’t resist using UCF’s week in the sun to take a gratuitous shot at the Knights. Here’s what he wrote earlier this week: “ESPN's College GameDay is going to UCF this weekend. Great. Now the most delusional college football fan base in the country will become completely insufferable.” Memo to Tom: Have you been to a USF game recently? At least UCF has a fan base!
Three things that never get old: (1) Mac ’n’ cheese; (2) The guitar solo at the end of Free Bird; (3) Lee
Corso putting on the mascot head. … LeBron
James and the Lakers will be in town to play the Magic tonight. Call me old-school, but I absolutely hate LeBron wearing the purple-and-gold. Putting LeBron in a Lakers uniform is as out of place as putting grits on your steak tartare. … Steelers running back Le’Veon
Bell sitting out this season and giving up nearly $15 million in salary he will never get back is the dumbest business decision since Decca Records passed on the Beatles because they said “guitar bands are on their way out.”
Best text I received this week: “Deondre Francois should open up a mattress company because he spends most of his time during games on his back.” … Didn’t you love Florida Gators quarterback
Feleipe Franks shushing UF’s own fans and his many critics after scoring the go-ahead touchdown during last week’s comefrom-behind victory over South Carolina? Yay for him! Any so-called fan who boos a college kid deserves to be told to shut their big, fat mouths. And don’t look now, but Franks has a chance to lead UF to 10 wins this season. Not bad after last year’s 4-7 debacle. Instead of booing him, Gators fans should be applauding him.
Last word: “I didn’t have to go through the security line at the airport. That’s the best thing of all.” — Fellow Orlandoan Corso on why he is looking forward to College GameDay’s inaugural appearance at UCF Email me at mbianchi @orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on FM 96.9 and AM 740.