OPINION

By Matt Hayes

updated 1:42 p.m. ET Oct. 8, 2009

Matt Hayes

Sporting News' Matt Hayes looks at five under fire for Week 6:

1. Urban Meyer
Ultimately, this entire will he/won't he falls in the lap of the Florida coach. Tim Tebow wants to play, and maybe the training staff says the Gators' All-American quarterback can play this week at LSU.

But none of that really matters. We're talking about the welfare of a player who had severe trauma to the brain two weeks ago against Kentucky. This isn't a swollen ankle or a bruised shoulder or a twisted knee.

This is real life lying motionless on the field, heaving in a plastic bag, getting carted off the field, told not to read or put any stress on your brain for a week, trauma. Why risk it?

Tebow, believe it or not, is like any other athlete (I know, it's hard to imagine). He wants to play. He needs to play.

He'll go through a battery of tests, be cleared and tell everyone he's fit and can't wait to get on the field. You know why? Because he's 22 years old. Everyone thinks they're indestructible when they're 22.

Concussions are the silent career killers in college and professional football. The more you sustain, the quicker it all unravels.

Slideshow   No. 1 vs. No. 4 A look at key players in Florida-LSU matchup more photos

Of course Tebow isn't ready to play. He's less than two weeks from a blow to the head that makes a car accident look like a pillow fight. Aaron Hill, the Toronto Blue Jays star infielder, missed most of the 2008 season from a concussion after a collision with a teammate.

Don't do it, Urban. Play your backup quarterback and watch your team rally around him. If you win at LSU, all the better. If you lose, so what? It could've been much worse if Tebow plays when he's not ready to return.

And gets injured again.

2. The University of Oregon
Let me take you back to Sept. 4, one day after the world — yes, the world — was formally introduced to LeGarrette Blount.

After Blount's postgame one-man melee against Boise State, after calls for suspensions and strict discipline and an end to such repulsive behavior, Oregon president Richard Lariviere said this:

"There is no place on the field of play for that kind of action, and his conduct was reprehensible. We do not and will not tolerate the actions that were taken by our player."

And now we hear that Blount could be reinstated to play next month. I don't really care about Lariviere's self-serving/now meaningless statement. The issue I have — and frankly, one that coach Chip Kelly should have — is team chemistry.

Since Blount's departure, Oregon has strung together four impressive victories and is the hottest team in the Pac-10 — and the Blount incident has galvanized this team instead of fracturing it.

Why in the world would Oregon throw a ton of uncertainty on top of the team's impressive rebound from a horrible season opening loss — complete with endless media coverage of an awful incident and more bad public relations — by reinstating a player who doesn't deserve to play?

Someone at Oregon — be it Lariviere, Kelly or athletic director Mike Bellotti — must see the big picture to end this charade.

3. Ole Miss
If form holds true, watch the Rebels play lights out this weekend against No. 3 Alabama.

The M.O. of Houston Nutt-coached teams: lose games as the favorite, win games as the underdog.

Last year, Ole Miss won at Florida and LSU — and nearly at Alabama — and lost at home to South Carolina and Vanderbilt. This season, another bad loss at South Carolina was followed, finally, by a win at Vanderbilt.

Now, magically, Ole Miss is the underdog again. Alabama has the best win so far this season (over Virginia Tech) and is playing better than anyone in the nation. If the Tide has a weakness, it's pass coverage. The defense doesn't have a shutdown cornerback, and the safeties play two-deep coverage to help out because the Tide can stop the run and get a pass rush with minimal blitzing.

This game is overshadowed by the Florida-LSU showdown but will be the better of the two.

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