Bold Predictions

Well, as I reviewed my last post before I went AWOL, I realized I had made very prescient observation:

"Probably won't save Larry Coker's job, but now he has a job for another month or so."

As it turns out, he was fired the very next morning. I found out by way of a text message from Robert, about the only guy who will discuss college football with me on a regular basis. On the one hand, I hated to see Coker guy. I thought he was good for the program as far as academics and character go. But I began to see things in games this year that just left me no confidence in him. Obviously the administration felt the same way.

I was pleased with the Randy Shannon hire. My first choice was Greg Schianno. Good for him if he wants to stay at Rutgers and build a program. But I will be upset if he ends up at another major college in the next couple of years. Miami needed to get this guy. But I think Shannon will do fine. I was impressed with his recruiting class. I'm not normally a recruiting junkie. I don't pay attention to it and I don't think you can judge the quality of a class until they leave the school. But the thing I like is Shannon competed against some guys and won. He was able to sign Robert Marve out of Tampa even though the kid had commited to Alabama and was being re-recruited by Nick Saban. I was also impressed that Shannon got some big name kids to sing on signing day that other big schools really wanted. It seems Shannon is already turning things around. I hope he does.

On a side note, I saw him jogging near the house the other day. That now brings the total number of coaches I have seen jogging to two. I saw Urban Meyer jogging across campus last year while I lived in Gainesville.

On another note, I have been rolling a post around in my mind about the recent push to require young girls to get the HPV vaccination. Part of my rant was going to be about how Merck was behind this and it really did not have anything to do with public health, but rather the health of Merck's bottom line. Well, now it's too later. Merck announced that it is no longer going to openly lobby for these requirements. Of course, that does not mean they won't go through back channels. They beat me to the punch and now I won't look so smart. I think I will still give my thoughts on the issue later on because the states have not necessarily given up the push even though Merck is not showering them with cash any more.

I hope to keep providing you wise predictions of the future like these I have mentioned. Right now, I predict that it is time to go home and I will write again later.