NARROW ESCAPE

It is 8:04 a.m. and 57.8 degrees and Patrick is crouching under my chair, waiting for his breakfast.

Well, boys, for the second time in a row, Maria Sharapova just barely misses scoring a Love-Love match in the U.S. Open. She defeated Aussie Casey Dellacoua, who could only be described as "tubby" 6-1, 6-0. Our favorite Siberian Hottie wore her red dress again and beat the aussie without much of her serve...The TV commentators kept talking about a 129 mph serve and the ring announcer asked her about it after the match, but I guess it was some kind of inside joke?

So LSU opened on ESPN last night against Mississippi State. Slow start for the Tigers. Only 3-0 in first quarter. Got first TD with 6 minutes left in the half and second with ONE SECOND left! for a 17-0 lead at the break. Bulldogs hanging in there. Nothing special from what you would expect of the Number Two team in the nation. Finally turned it off after MSU's QB threw his SIXTH interception, a skyball put up for everybody to chase, and his back-up turned it over on a snap fumble...

I think MSU fought a better battle than the final score, whatever it was, indicated...

So the Tigers probably covered the spread, but it was ugly. We shall see...

Gators open on ESPN GAMEPLAN in 27 hours, 14 minutes, 45 seconds, 44, 43, 42...

FROM THE INBOX:

Dear Friends,

On September 6, 2007, Fred Thompson will be announcing his intention to run for President of the United States with a webcast available to millions at www.imwithfred.com. The launch of the video will be followed by a five-day campaign tour through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. On the evening of the 6th, there will also be a National House Party, during which there will be a conference call with Fred....

...Yadda yadda, yadda...

Sincerely,

Bill Lacy
Manager, Friends of Fred Thompson, Inc.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? "ANNOUNCING HIS INTENTION" ??????????????????

We thought he'd already done that--over and over and over again. Hope they meant "Announcing that he's running". Whew! We're NOT amused.

GO GATORS

GO BULLS

CASTRO LIKES CLINTONS, OBAMA,PEANUT MAN

Yeah, that's not hard to figure:

Castro Votes for Clinton-Obama Ticket

Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:25 PM (Reuters)

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is tipping Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to team up and win the U.S. presidential election. Clinton leads Obama in the race to be the Democratic nominee for the November 2008 election, and Castro said they would make a winning combination. "The word today is that an apparently unbeatable ticket could be Hillary for president and Obama as her running mate," he wrote in an editorial column on U.S. presidents published on Tuesday by Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, Granma. At 81, Castro has outlasted nine U.S. presidents since his 1959 revolution turned Cuba into a thorn in Washington's side by building a communist society about 90 miles offshore from the United States. He said all U.S. presidential candidates seeking the "coveted" electoral college votes of Florida have had to demand a democratic government in Cuba to win the backing of the powerful Cuban exile community. Clinton and Obama, both senators, called for democratic change in Cuba last week. Castro has not appeared in public since intestinal illness forced him to hand over power to his brother Raul Castro in July last year. He has turned to writing dozens of columns and essays, but rumors that his health is worsening or that he may even be dead have swirled through the Cuban exile community in Miami in the last two weeks. Castro's only reference to U.S. President George W. Bush in his latest essay was to say that he "needed fraud" to win Florida's electoral college votes and the presidency in the fiercely contested election in 2000. Castro said former President Bill Clinton was "really kind" when he bumped into him and the two men shook hands at a U.N. summit meeting in 2000. He also praised Clinton for sending elite police to "rescue" shipwrecked Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives in 2000 to end an international custody battle. But even Clinton was forced to bow to Miami politics and tighten the U.S. embargo against Cuba in 1996, using as a "pretext" the shooting down of two small planes used by exile groups to overfly Havana, Castro wrote. He said his favorite U.S. president since 1959 was Jimmy Carter, another Democrat, because he was not an "accomplice" to efforts to violently overthrow the Cuban government. Sixteen years after Dwight Eisenhower broke off diplomatic ties with Cuba, Carter restored low-level relations in 1977 when interest sections were opened in each country's capital. Castro made no mention of Republican Cold War victor Ronald Reagan, or of John F. Kennedy, whose Democratic administration launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion by CIA-trained Cuban exiles in 1961. One of the most dangerous moments of the Cold War came a year later when Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev faced off for 13 days over Soviet missiles that Castro allowed Moscow to place in Cuba.

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER?

A new Rasmussen poll has Fred Thompson in a close second place nationally:

	Thompson	Giuliani	Romney	McCain
Rasmussen: National (8/27/07)	23	24	13	12

WEEK ONE PREDICTIONS

Our Picks this week: (0-0)

All top 25 teams win, except Cal loses to Tennessee and FSU loses to Clemson.

2007 preseason poll
Rank	Team (first-place votes)	2006 Record	Points	Final 2006 rank
1.	Southern California (45)	11-2	1,481	4
2.	LSU (4)	11-2	1,372	3
3.	Florida (9)	13-1	1,278	1
4.	Texas	10-3	1,231	13
5.	Michigan (2)	11-2	1,218	9
6.	West Virginia	11-2	1,205	10
7.	Wisconsin	12-1	1,114	5
8.	Oklahoma	11-3	1,026	11
9.	Virginia Tech	10-3	1,005	18
10.	Ohio State	12-1	919	2
11.	Louisville	12-1	836	7
12.	California	10-3	763	14
13.	Georgia	9-4	604	NR
14.	Auburn	11-2	595	8
15.	Tennessee	9-4	583	23
16.	Rutgers	11-2	466	12
17.	UCLA	7-6	454	NR
18.	Penn State	9-4	440	25
19.	Nebraska	9-5	388	NR
20.	Arkansas	10-4	360	16
21.	Florida State	7-6	301	NR
22.	TCU	11-2	233	21
23.	Boise State	13-0	222	6
24.	Hawaii	11-3	214	24
25.	Texas A&M	9-4	209	NR
Others receiving votes (with 2006 records)
Boston College (10-3) 150; Georgia Tech (9-5) 150; Miami (Fla.) (7-6) 91; Notre Dame (10-3) 90; South Carolina (8-5) 90; Wake Forest (11-3) 71; Missouri (8-5) 58; Oregon State (10-4) 52; Brigham Young (11-2) 47; Clemson (8-5) 30; Oregon (7-6) 30; South Florida (9-4) 26; Texas Tech (8-5) 20; Alabama (6-7) 16; Oklahoma State (7-6) 15; Southern Mississippi (9-5) 14; Iowa (6-7) 12; Kansas State (7-6) 8; Memphis (2-10) 5; Houston (10-4) 4; Arizona (6-6) 1; Duke (0-12) 1; Kentucky (8-5) 1; Washington State (6-6) 1.
The USA TODAY Board of Coaches is made up of 60 head coaches at Division I-A institutions. All are members of the American Football Coaches Association. This season's board: Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech; Mike Bellotti, Oregon; Bret Bielema, Wisconsin; Larry Blakeney, Troy; Bobby Bowden, Florida State; Tommy Bowden, Clemson; Jeff Bower, Southern Mississippi; Art Briles, Houston; Mack Brown, Texas; Bill Callahan, Nebraska; Neil Callaway, UAB; Lloyd Carr, Michigan; Mario Cristobal, Florida International; Sylvester Croom, Mississippi State; Bill Cubit, Western Michigan; Mark Dantonio, Michigan State; Butch Davis, North Carolina; Bill Doba, Washington State; Randy Edsall, Connecticut; Dennis Franchione, Texas A&M; Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee; Jeff Genyk, Eastern Michigan; Joe Glenn, Wyoming; Jim Grobe, Wake Forest; Dan Hawkins, Colorado; Pat Hill, Fresno State; Steve Kragthorpe, Louisville; Mike Leach, Texas Tech; Rocky Long, New Mexico; Sonny Lubick, Colorado State; Bill Lynch, Indiana; Doug Martin, Kent State; Les Miles, LSU; Shane Montgomery, Miami (Ohio); Hal Mumme, New Mexico State; Joe Novak, Northern Illinois; Houston Nutt, Arkansas; Tom O'Brien, North Carolina State; George O'Leary, Central Florida; Gary Patterson, TCU; Chris Petersen, Boise State; Mark Richt, Georgia; Mike Riley, Oregon State; Rich Rodriguez, West Virginia; Greg Schiano, Rutgers; Howard Schnellenberger, Florida Atlantic; Mark Snyder, Marshall; Frank Solich, Ohio; Steve Spurrier, South Carolina; Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee State; Bob Stoops, Oklahoma; Jeff Tedford, California; Joe Tiller, Purdue; Bob Toledo, Tulane; Dick Tomey, San Jose State; Jim Tressel, Ohio State; Tommy Tuberville, Auburn; Charlie Weis, Notre Dame; Tyrone Willingham, Washington; Ron Zook, Illinois. The AFCA prohibits coaches from voting for schools on major NCAA probation. FOR THE RECORD: TRADER RICK IS A PROUD MEMBER OF THE GATOR NATION AND ALSO A FAN OF THE USF BULLS (RANKED 37TH IN COACHES PRE-SEASON POLL) , HOLDING DEGREES FROM BOTH SCHOOLS. OUR NEXT FAVORITE TEAM IS WHOEVER IS PLAYING AGAINST WHATEVER TEAM RON ZOOK IS COACHING... GO FLORIDA GATORS! GO SOUTH FLORIDA BULLS! GO MISSOURI TIGERS!