Wednesday, November 19, 2008

A New Urban Era

Okay Okay... So the boys in Orange and Blue prevailed over the Cocks. Actually... it was a beat down of epic proportions with a 56-6 rout of the squawkers. The Gators successfully handed Spurrier his worst loss... EVER.... in what has recently become typical Urban fashion reflective of the ol' ball coach himself.

With outstanding defense and special teams, the offense was put into great field position to start cranking out scores, and the Gamecocks just couldn't stop the bleeding, or turnovers, or Percy Harvin, or Brandon Spikes or Tim Tebow.

I was in the Swamp back in the day when we would hand the opposing team 60, 70 and sometimes 80-point losses.

Six SEC titles and one national championship.

Besides his own personal success as a Heisman Trophy winner, that is the legacy Steve Spurrier left behind at the University of Florida.

After Spurrier resigned in 2002 to coach in the NFL, the Zooker officially took over (we like to call these the dark years), and Florida football turned mediocre.

For the next three years, the "fun n' gun" was made to look more like "run n' done." Three seasons compiled records of 8-5 (2002), 8-5 (2003) and 7-4 (2004). The Swamp was no longer one of the most feared stadiums in college football as the Gators became accustomed to losing at home. In these three years, the Gators lost more home games than in the 12 seasons under Spurrier.

Many of the losses were a result of the “Z” factor. Ron Zook was famous for taking over the lead in the first half, and then trying to protect the lead for the rest of the game by playing zero offense. He would run it up the gut and just try to run out the clock. Unfortunately, other teams started to notice this trend, and they started to capitalize on it. Hence what led to the Zooker’s demise.

One positive that came from the Zook-man: He was a great recruiter. The 2006 national championship team consisted of 22 starters who were recruited to Florida by Zook. Impressive.

But not as impressive as the Gator’s new Urban Meyer era:
SEC champions – 2006
National champions – 2006
Heisman Trophy quarterback – Tim Tebow
SEC East champions – 2008

If the Gators beat Bama, another SEC championship lurks around the corner, and then on to possibly a third national title in school history… second under Urban.

Enough said.

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