To barrow the two title theme from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle shows :Is Teddy the Most Importantly Player in UL Sports History or Why Every UL Fan should Thank the University of Miami. Think about all of the great players in UL history: Griffith, Unitas, Redman, Lyles, McCoughtry, and many more. These are all great players, but Bridgewater is the most important.
Why is Teddy the most important player in UL history? Simple. If it wasn't for Teddy Bridgwater, UL would not be in the ACC. UL would be in the AAC and pretty much a forgotten program in the college football world. Without access to a Power 5 conference all of UL sports would have suffered. Recruiting would be much harder, there would be a lot less money in the program to fund the olympic sports and the dream of wining a national football championship would be lost. All of the years spent raising the stature of the program would have been for naught. UL would essentially be back in CUSA.
When conference realignment was just getting underway UL football was emerging from the darkest chapter in it's football history. UL football had gone from a top 5 team to start the 2007 season to a team that had a losing record and hadn't been to a bowl game in 3 years. UL's athletic director, Tom Jurich, turned to former Florida DC Charlie Strong to turn the program around. Charlie's first order of business was to upgrade the talent the on roster and to instill a winning attitude into a program that had lost it winning ways. Strong's first class was huge upgrade in talent across the board but it was his second class that set the stage for UL's future. The 2011 class was Teddy's class. Teddy originally committed to play for the University of Miami Hurricanes, but during that year Miami fired their HC Randy Shannon. Charlie waisted no time in going after not only Teddy, but a whole host of former Canes committees and players that were strong Miami leans. But Teddy was the star of the show.
Teddy is a once in a life time player that gave Charlie's offense it's pop. UL's offensive coordinator Shawn Watson, was a decent offensive coach, but Charlie's conservative style and reliance on defense first hamstrung the offense. If it weren't Teddy's amazing ability to get out of bad plays and into the right ones, as well as his amazing accuracy and toughness UL would not have been the team that destroyed Florida in the Sugar Bowl and Miami in the Russell Athletic Bowl. Teddy was able to turn bad play calling into magic. His skills covered up a lot of glaring holes in UL's offense. He, more than any other players was responsible for us winning so many games. If Miami didn't fire Randy Shannon and UL instead had a different QB, we don't beat Rutgers to get into the Sugar Bowl. We don't go 12-1 and beat Miami in the Russell Athletic Bowl. Instead we are looking at UConn getting the nod over us to join the ACC.
So, the next time you see a Miami fan say thank you. Because if they didn't fire Randy Shannon we would be taking about a thrilling mid November match up between us Tulsa.
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