Dolphins GameDay: Gator Appreciation Day

The Miami Dolphins will honor the Florida Gators last NCAA Championship team today when the clock strikes 1:00.  The team, through the ideas of CEO Mike Dee found the opportunity to reach out to the thousand of south Florida Gator faithful by hosting the celebration of the winners who won their championship in Miami back in 2007.

Little did the brain trust know that today the Denver Broncos would be starting the victorious former collegiate star at quarterback.  Tim Tebow.  Tebow, for the record is two and zero at Sun-Life Stadium and will go for the “three-fer” today against a Miami Dolphins team that is struggling to win any game let alone a home game.

The Dolphins currently hold the longest winless streak in the NFL standing at 8 games dating back to last season.  Today’s game puts a lot on the line for a franchise teetering on collapse.

Rumors have been swirling that a loss today will put Tony Sparano on the unemployment line come Monday.  Sources close to the situation, that I have spoken with, have been non-committal but their personal speculation is that Ross wants to keep Sparano for the season but realizes that another loss will make it next to impossible.  One said that Ross’ concerns now are not so much winning, but showing the fan base that he understands their frustration but he re-iterated to me that firing Sparano will not simply be made to appease the fans.

For his part, Sparano is not the only one responsible for this mess or the eight game losing streak but he is responsible for the efforts on the field and the game planning off of it.  Sparano’s failures to make sound in-game adjustments and half-time adjustments are blatantly obvious.  Not so obvious are the fans disdain for the decade long slump that has seen the team fail yearly to land a franchise type QB, regardless of whether that QB failed or not.

In the years since Dan Marino walked away, the Dolphins have started 16 different QB’s and have drafted no QB’s in round 1 of any draft since 1983 when Marino was taken late in a draft that produced three Hall of Fame QB’s.

In that same time, the Dolphins have spent high second round picks in trades (Philly for A.J. Feely and Minnessota for Daunte Culpepper) as well as 2nd round picks on John Beck, Pat White, and Chad Henne.  The inability of the Dolphins several coaching regimes to land a QB has forced some fans into an uncharacteristic habit of rooting against the team in the hopes of landing Stanford standout prospect Andrew Luck.

Today’s game is especially important as the Denver Broncos are one of those teams settled into the derby for the Luck services.  Some believe that Luck himself may try to force his hand if he is not on board with the team who ultimately owns the top pick in the draft, making Ross’ after season search for a new head coach and possible GM increasingly important.

Today presents the Dolphins a solid opportunity to win their first game and save their head coaches job for a couple of more weeks but the team must come out and play like they want to win and not simply go through the motions of a team on the verge of mathematical elimination fro the season.

To get that first win, the Dolphins will need to stop an opposing QB who will have thousands of supporters in the stands, whether they root out loud for Tebow remains to be seen until kick-off.

Today, the Dolphins will need to find a way to keep Tebow under wraps and not allow him to pick up his third victory in Sun-Life Stadium.  Join us at 1:00 for our “Live” game day chat.