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Jaguars News | Jacksonville Jaguars - jaguars.com

I am not Verne

Join jaguars.com senior editor Vic Ketchman as he tackles the fans' tough questions.

Mark from Jacksonville:
Is there a bye week before the first round of the playoffs?

Vic: Only for the top two seeds in each conference.

Andy from Ponte Vedra Beach, FL:
Do you think the fans will storm the field if there's a win?

Vic: No, because the mattresses in jail are very lumpy.

Eric from Ponte Vedra Beach, FL:
If the Jags beat the Colts, do you think it would be acceptable for fans to tear down the goalposts?

Vic: And we could all meet at the fraternity house afterward.

Lewis from Ocala, FL:
"Ask Vick" gets better every day. Thanks, it's great to be a Jag.

Vic: Lewis, I am not related to Michael Vick. It's "Ask Vic."

Johnny from Jacksonville:
Has everyone forgotten about the John Teerlinck throat gesture from the first meeting between these two teams? Does it not matter to anyone since Leftwich won't be in the starting lineup? If the players do remember, what, if anything, will they do about it?

Vic: Play hard. The worst thing you can do to a team is beat them. Just win, baby, win.

Rick from Rio Rancho, NM:
Do I just need to go to the website to see the blog on Sunday, or is it at a different address?

Vic: Just go to jaguars.com. I'll start blogging about two hours before kickoff.

Verne from Des Moines, IA:
I posted on the Colts message board and they thought I was you, right before they banned me for saying what everyone already believes to be true about the Colts.

Vic: Thanks, Verne.

Ron from Indianapolis, IN:
You apparently don't know much about the Colts' salary cap. We don't mortgage the future to win now. Bill Polian is the best GM in the league. His track record speaks for itself. We didn't sign the best back in the league to a long-term deal because he is managing our cap.

Vic: Wow! I sure had that wrong. Thanks for correcting me.

Rick from Rome, NY:
A friend and I were talking about football and he asked a question that I absolutely did not have an answer for, so I turn to you, Vic. Does the NFL have a rule that prevents a player from skipping the draft and then just walking onto the team of his choice?

Vic: Everybody, including you, has a year in which they automatically become eligible for that year's draft, and nobody can become eligible for the NFL draft before that year without applying to the league for eligibility. If you're not drafted in your year of eligibility, you become a free agent who may sign with any team in the league.

Adam from Sandown, NH:
I am a Jaguars fan but my second-favorite team is the Browns and I was curious as to what you think about Charlie Frye's first start?

Vic: I like his size and instincts. He seems to be a born quarterback. He has poise and pocket presence. He keeps his eyes downfield, feels the rush and gets out of the pocket at the right time. He has some mobility. The only thing I question is his arm strength. He may not have an NFL arm, but a lot of quarterbacks did very well in this league with something less than an NFL arm. Frye reminds me a lot of a former Browns quarterback, Brian Sipe. If I were the Browns, I'd go for a quarterback high in the draft and let the two compete for the job.

David from Gentry, AR:
My wife and I had the opportunity to have lunch with Tony Dungy and his wife. We were both impressed by how humble he was. I would like to hear your impressions of the most underrated coach in the NFL.

Vic: Tony is the kind of guy everyone wants to have as a friend. He is calm, cool, kind, loyal and understated. When he was playing for the Steelers in the 1970's, he was a fan and media favorite. He was someone reporters went to frequently for comments because he was so well-spoken and capable of analysis. He had "coach" written all over him from the day I met him. Along those lines, here's a story about Tony I've told before but, since you're part of the new-arrival Arkansas crowd, may not have been here then. The Steelers had a defensive coordinator named Woody Widenhofer. He and I were pretty good friends and we'd hang out at training camp in his room after lunch. One day, Woody kept going to his window and gesturing to someone below. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was gesturing to Tony Dungy, who was hanging around the back of the dorm. Widenhofer explained that he was waiting for the right time to approach Chuck Noll about hiring Dungy as a personal assistant; we call those kinds of guys quality control coaches nowadays. Well, Tony hung around the back of the dorm most of that day before Widenhofer made his pitch to Noll. When Noll approved of Widenhofer's request, Widenhofer said, "Wait, I'll go get him." It was that day in the summer of 1981 that the current boss of the 12-0 Indianapolis Colts became a professional football coach.

Scott from Thunder Bay, Ontario:
Where would you place the Jaguars in your power rankings if they beat the Colts?

Vic: I'm putting a bounty on the Colts head. The first team to beat them goes to number one in my power poll.

Brandon from Jacksonville:
Stop Peyton Manning? We held him to a 44.0 passer rating earlier this year and did we win? No, James ran all over us. I usually agree with your opinion but if stopping Manning didn't work earlier this year, what makes you think it will work this weekend?

Vic: That was as close as anyone has come to beating them. What do you suggest? Don't stop Peyton Manning?

Andrew from Ghent, WV:
I was watching the Giants postgame press conference and Tom Coughlin made mention of the "green zone." What area of the field was he referring to and why is it called the "green zone?"

Vic: Tom loves those "zone" references, especially the "red" and "tight red." I think he has a zone for every place on the field. He may have even invented the "green zone," which is that area on the field from your goal line to your 20-yard line.

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