College Kids Are Drinking Beer!!??

The entire college football world was shaken up earlier this week when pictures surfaced of Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen participating in beer drinking games. I have seen this story show up on television (ESPN obviously) twice today and I have read numerous comments by fans saying that Clausen needs to "smarten up" and that as the quarterback of the Irish he should be holding himself to a higher standard.

Now, I realize that Clausen is under 21, which makes it against the law for him to drink. But, I can't believe that this is a story. In my post-NBA draft post , I spoke about how unfairly scrutinized these athletes are. These are college kids. Think about your college days. Think about what an average weekend is like on any of these college campuses. If you have a son or daughter in college, please don't scrutinize Jimmy Clausen, because these pictures are probably nothing compared to what your kid has been up to lately.

What makes the criticism especially ridiculous is that Charlie Weiss isn't going to tell Clausen "Jimmy, you really shouldn't be drinking. It's against the law. And, it's really not healthy for you. I really think you should stop." He's only going to talk to him about being more discreet, because everyone on campus is going to be taking pictures of him and telling stories about times when they see him out. If the real issue here is discretion, and not the drinking itself, then what are we even talking about? As long as he's not out going nuts during the week of a game, what he does is not any of our business.

Sources at Notre Dame say that this is Clausen's second alcohol related offense. The deans have informed him that one more will buy him a one-way ticket straight to hell.

Since I already talked about one college quarterback, I might as well talk about another:





Before I get in to Tim Tebow, I want to first state the roomofzen was 100% behind Tebow last season in the Heisman Trophy race. The only guy who was even close in my mind was Dennis Dixon up until his injury. I can't get enough of watching Tebow, and I am very excited to see what the ceiling will be for this year's Florida squad.

I believe that if Tim Tebow continues to improve, he might leave Florida as the greatest quarterback ever to play college football. I made that statement publicly in a bar recently and several people insisted that he had to improve his passing for that to happen. I won't disagree, and Tebow has said on record several times this off-season that he has a lot of room for improvement. But, if you make the argument about him needing to improve as a passer, just keep in mind that he threw for over 3200 yards last year and his touchdown to interception ration was 32/6 (not to mention over 20 touchdowns on the ground). We'll have a more comprehensive college football prediction post coming soon. But, for now I just want to go on record as stating that the Gators are my pick to win the SEC this year, and I'm taking Tebow to win a second straight Heisman Trophy.

Right now much is being made of the Ohio State at USC matchup in September. But for my money November 1st, when Florida and Georgia renew their rivalry, will be the best day of the regular season. The world's largest outdoor cocktail party could reach new and unprecedented heights.