Incredibly Premature Predictions: UCF Edition

From College Football News:

UCF
Realistic best case record with this schedule: 9-3
Barring total disaster worst case record: 4-8
Realistic record: 7-5

The defending Conference USA champions have to go to Tulsa and get a relatively tough game at UTEP to deal with from the West, but they also get the two other East contenders, Southern Miss and East Carolina, at home. Things get interesting late with back-to-back road trips to Marshall and Memphis before closing out with a sure-thing against UAB. The season opener against South Carolina State is forgivable considering the other three non-conference dates are South Florida, at Boston College and at Miami.

CFN also predicts both the UM and BC games as "likely losses" for UCF.

Percy Harvin To Undergo Surgery

Percy Harvin needs surgery for his heel:

"It's just a bone, the heel bone," Meyer said. "It's really unique. They're having a hard time finding someone else who's had it."

Of course they can't find anyone else who's had this ailment. No, naturally. It makes perfect sense.

The Hits Keep Coming...

...this one for UCF. The Orlando Sentinel's Kyle Hightower notes that the Knights' would-be starting running back Philip Smith went down with a leg injury at practice:

The injury was to his left leg, but it was hard to tell whether it was a knee, break, etc. He wasn't putting any pressure on the injured leg, however.

Par for the course, man, par for the course.

Incredibly Premature Predictions: UF Edition

Scarily-accurate wonder-site College Football News has posted predictions of relevance to any Gator:

Florida goes 11-1...

And plays Ohio State for the National Championship. Though if OSU is involved, that's really the Chompionship, isn't it? Our hopes for a NIT Final between OSU and UF were dashed tonight, so we'll just hold on to this prediction:

Georgia might be the hot team going into the year, but Florida will be every bit as good if the secondary has overcome its growing pains. The D might not be better than Georgia's, but the offense will be unstoppable with Tim Tebow likely to be an even better passer, Percy Harvin on the verge of a monster season, and a real live running game ready to operate behind a line strong enough to push some people around. Even if the Dawgs lose at LSU and/or at Auburn, the Cocktail-Don't-Call-It-A-Cocktail Party might be for the SEC East, the SEC, and the national title. The Gators have to go to Tennessee, Arkansas and Florida State, but those should be manageable for a championship caliber team. It'll be the home date with LSU that could be the big problem, along with the Georgia showdown.

Are You Suggesting That Injuries Migrate?

Percy Harvin's heel injury has now migrated to his knee, The Gainesville Sun Reports. Naturally. Of course. Why shouldn't Harvin have a migratory injury? He's got everything else short of necrotising faciitis. Quote the Sun:

“It's a heel injury and it's gone up into his knee,” Meyer said. “We had a specialist from North Carolina and two guys, a foot specialist from here, and also (head team physician) Dr. Pete (Indelicato). We're coming up with a plan and should have it in the next couple days.”

Harvin was bothered last season by what was thought to be tendonitis in his heel that spread to his knee. Meyer said the injury is not tendonitis, but is a bone issue that could be much more severe.

No, I understand. That makes perfect sense. Percy is unable to be healthy for more than a few weeks at a time.

Necrotising Faciitis: Perhaps the Only Ailment Percy Harvin has Never Had.

Percy Harvin is a Glass Cannon

Percy Harvin has hurt his heel and may miss Spring Practice. What a glass cannon. If you breath on this guy, he breaks.

Not that we don't love him, of course, and the fact that he seems to warp time when he runs.

Nonetheless, here is a guy who missed the South Carolina game with some truly staggering migraine headache. He suffered a hip pointer after the Ole Miss game. He's had Achilles tendinitis.

Let's go back to 2006-2007 shall we? Harvin injured his ankle against Tennessee. He was also knocked out of the FSU game with a neck injury with what was a memorable, memorable hit.

How Did We Let This Slip By? Shauna Moffitt to Reimburse Sumter County For Time Spent Doing Husband's Homework On The Clock

Aaaah.....yes.

Quite a while ago, we noted that then-USF Linebacker Ben Moffitt essentially abandoned his wife and children. The two are undergoing a divorce, which we promised to follow up on and report if anything interesting happened (It hasn't. The parties just had a mediation conference, no idea of any agreement reached or not reached).

Wife Shauna claims that Ben Moffitt "doesn't know how to spell," and that she wrote his papers for him. Shauna claims that she wrote them at her workplace, the Sumter County Property Appraiser's Office. She is being required to reimburse the office for her time spent jamming out papers for her apparently illiterate husband.

We love it.

UCF Player Dies after Conditioning Drill

Redshirt Freshman Ereck Plancher died after a football conditioning workout today. There's absolutely nothing amusing about that, not even a little bit. Condolences to Plancher's family.

Cause of death will be announced after an autopsy. Spring practice has been moved back.

The Orlando Sentinel also has a blog post noting student reactions.

Mascot Fight!

Here at The Persistent Fool, we're quite partial to mascot fights-- even if they arise at Basketball games. Your sublime moment of vicious mascot on mascot action:

UCF 2008 Football Schedule

Peruse it, and be enthused.

Exciting games?
9/06 USF at home.
9/20 at Boston College.
10/11 at Miami.

All are potentially winnable. However, the Knights will be losing all three. No surprise there. Miami will be the closest game-- despite DA U's great recruiting class, the bottom line is they'll be having a rough season. Maybe with 24K the Knights would win it, but . . . you all know how this sentence ends.