Get to know me!! - Urban Meyer
Our long national nightmare is over...America's favorite miniseries, GET TO KNOW ME!!, has returned. We enter the homestretch with six coaches down and six to go. Next up, Urban Meyer, head coach of the Florida Gators.
"You're excited? Feel these nipples!"Urban Meyer enters his second year at Florida with high expectations, which are the only kinds of expectations available in Gainesville. Blessed with the fact that he is not the one who had to replace a legend, as the OBC is long gone at this point, he can't help but appear savior like to the Jorts wearing Gator faithful. Even if tons of people seem to think Urban's spread option will never work in the SEC. I am not among those people - I think its more that Chris Everett-Leak simply isn't made for it and thats the problem. But that's what Tim Tebow is for.
Unlike most of the coaches of the SEC, I have a personal experience with an Urban Meyer coached team that I can relate. It is one of the proudest moments of my collegiate career. Back in '02, as a 12th year junior/senior at Central Michigan, my Chippewas took on Meyer's Bowling Green Falcons. This was late in the season, BG was just outside of the Top 25, Meyer was starting to be called the next big coach, etc etc. CMU was probably 3-6 or something along those lines at the time. It was no doubt ugly. Therefore, we drank heavily before the game. BG streaked to a huge 20 something point lead. I did what any drunk student in a 1/4 full MAC stadium would do. I started to harass the BG Falcon mascot. The mascot started "talking shit" if you will, pointing at the scoreboard. Things got loud. The bird got closer. And then, we noticed members of the coaching staff were looking over at us (all of about 15 feet from the field) and appeared to be mocking us and our efforts at starting a scrap with the BG bird. This really has nothing to do with Urban Meyer himself, but its close enough for government work. Also, Meyer has a fairly attractive wife who looks good in a denim skirt. This is highly important in the SEC East.
You wanna fight this mothafucker too...goddamn bird..
posted by Lord Jorts @ 6:12 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Ok, so here's why I don't think Meyer's offense can work in the SEC. It's not that the concept won't work. Because I believe with the right QB (see Harris, Josh; Smith, Alex; Tebow, Tim;)it can. But in a major conference like the SEC, the right quarterback isn't enough. You need the right quarterbacks. Plural.
Think back to 1995 when Nebraska steam rolled Spurrier's Gators. It was the last great hurrah for the old school option. Spurrier went out and found a man who could stop it. That man was Bob Stoops. Soon, everyone learned what Stoops knew. The option in modern college football can be stopped cold. Not because the concept won't work. But because if you hit that quarterback hard enough, enough times, he's eventually going to lose the fire. (There's an excellent essay about this found in the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia. I left mine at work or I'd tell you the author.)
See, the option used to work when Bear Bryant and Tom Osbourne and Darrel Royal and those guys could all stock pile 5 or 6 QB's. One could take a lick or two, then they'd run the next guy out. Rinse, repeat. I know Bryant usually had 3 prepared every Saturday. Now, with scholarship limitations, you can't afford the roster space to keep that many guys on hand.
Nothing against the MAC or the Mountain West, but the hits don't come as early, or as often, or, well, I'll just say it, as nasty as they do in the SEC.
Chris Leak took some stiff shots in the game against Alabama last year and was off of his game all day.
Who knows, maybe two QB's are enough to pull it off. Leak can be the guy, Tebow can come in to let him collect himself, then next year Tebow's in, and have another youngster spell him some.
Still, I just don't think there will be enough fresh meat to keep it going. And I don't think that Meyer's spread, in it's current form, can work consistently in conference play.
It's nice to see an actual arguement against the spread with more than just "them boys is too fast" as the basis. I definately agree that you'll need at least two qbs who can run the system, but thats almost a prerequisite for any offensive system - especially one where the QB is putting his body out there that much.
I don't have a big counterarguement as to why I think it can work, except that I just think any offense, if executed properly, can be successful. We're still a couple of years away from seeing how the system will work, as this is going to be the first year that Meyer has a spread type QB available to him. If Tebow is as good as advertised then he will make a good change of pace QB and I think the Gators will see some success. I think if Meyer is able to get that system rolling at Florida though, every one and their mother will be running it in five years a la the proliferation of Fun N'Gun style offense after Spurrier's reign of terror. And I'm not even a Gator fan...
Additionally, I miss the triple option. It was my high school system and we went 25-2 running it in '95 and '96. No schools run it up here. They all wanna pass the ball. Damn high schoolers.
Quick note. The article I cited above is called “Born to Run: Requiem for the Option” by Joe Posnanski.
Great essay.
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