This started off as a response to Illuminati's Games of the Year post, but got so far off-topic, I didn't think it fair to post it there. So....
Tim Tebow is the ideal college football player and will be held up as such for the rest of my life, HOWEVER, I have serious doubts if Florida would have won the championship last year had they NOT lost to Ole Miss. UF was a different team after that game and I think clearly the best team in the country from there out, but UF was not clearly better than every other team on a player-by-player basis. I think that that distinction is being overlooked by all of the bandwagoneers this year. They do return their entire defense this year, which is awesome, but lets face it, the main component of their defense last year was the 20 point and growing deficit their opponents tended to face about 10 minutes into the game. This year O line has 2 big holes, Harvin is gone and they have no real lead RB (at least, not yet). And most importantly last year, post Ole Miss, they played with an unbelievable sense of purpose. I don't think there is any way they pick that up where they left off last season.
You know who's a great coach? Bill Parcells. Want to see something interesting - look at his record without Belichick at DC, ASC, etc. Know who else is touted as a great coach? Urban Meyer. Want to see something interesting - look at his record without Dan Mullen. You may want to study it more deeply, but I'll summarize it for you : 0-0. Mullen was QB coach for Tebow and Alex Smith and OC of late. Imagine an Urban Meyer team without the high-powered offense and great QB play - I don't know about you, but I'm drawing a blank. I guess we'll see. And of course, we're already into uncharted water with Meyer staying at one school for more than 2 years. Let's see how he does as he gets further and further from Zook's recruits.
I'll say it now, I don't think UF will win the Championship. In fact I don't think they'll win the SEC. Wait for it...I don't even think they'll win the SEC East.
Double digit favorites in EVERY game? Sounds like a great opportunity to me.
On the other hand, while I hope I don't have to take UF -27 in the UT game, I will.
UGA will probably lose outright to Oklahoma State, but I think they'll beat UF and win the tie-breaker for the SEC East. I know Stafford and Moreno are gone, but I don't think that's really that big a deal. Stafford was a better NFL prospect than college QB and Moreno was good in an NFL Michael Vick sort of way - deadly against bad defenses, not really much of a factor against good ones.
I'll gladly take UF -11 over LSU right now. I think that it will be substantially higher by game time. Look how similar Miles's year 4 at LSU was to his year 4 at OSU. I think Les Miles is one of those coaches that is great with other people's teams, but maybe not so great at building his own. I know they have highly ranked recruiting classes, but getting great players that you NEED is more important that grabbing every 4 and 5 star recruit you can (I also wonder if Urban Meyer is like this - we'll have to wait and see).
Alabama went 12-0 last year in the regular season mainly because the Ole Miss game didn't last 5 more minutes. After Terrence Cody went down in that game, Bama was nowhere near the same. We did ok, I guess, but you never knew when JPW or Arenas was going to level the playing field with an exihibition-quality screw-up. We lost to UF and Utah because they were better teams. We'll lose to Ole Miss this year because they're a better team ,mainly because their O will be so much better than ours. On the other hand, UT might not score, as God will smite UT this year in ways not thought of since Cecil B. DeMille was in charge of retribution. We should finish 11-1.
Ole Miss runs the table this year, including beating UGA in the SEC championship game and beating whoever they play in the Sugar Bowl. Nutt will be given a lifetime contract, then fired in 2012 once the last of Orgeron's recruits leave and Ole Miss's record drops back down to a more familiar 7-5. They can get together with Auburn fans and show off their national championship rings that they made for themselves for the year when they were SCREWED out of getting to play for it.
Folks will talk about it being a down year in the SEC again and how the best football is being played in the BIG XII (again!) and mainly how, sure last year the offensive numbers were inflated due to the poor defenses, BUT THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT.
Tebow will play his last game at UF, not win the Heisman (again, not appearing on most of the BG XII ballots), get drafted in the 3rd round, play about 5 plays that we actually get to see in the NFL, then get obscenely rich lending his name to car dealerships and restaurants in northcentral and central Florida. We'll see a picture of him in about 20 years, bloated and balding, and spend hours trying to see the person we remember in that alien face, just like we do now with Pat Dye. And our grandkids will put no more faith in our tales of Tebow than we did in our grandparents tales of Thorp.
Oklahoma will naturally go undefeated (handing Texas its only loss), Bob Stoops will FINALLY win a BCS Championship with a team he built, probably against Penn State or some such team, and appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated with story line "Best of All Time?..."
And the world will spin on.
Tim Tebow is the ideal college football player and will be held up as such for the rest of my life, HOWEVER, I have serious doubts if Florida would have won the championship last year had they NOT lost to Ole Miss. UF was a different team after that game and I think clearly the best team in the country from there out, but UF was not clearly better than every other team on a player-by-player basis. I think that that distinction is being overlooked by all of the bandwagoneers this year. They do return their entire defense this year, which is awesome, but lets face it, the main component of their defense last year was the 20 point and growing deficit their opponents tended to face about 10 minutes into the game. This year O line has 2 big holes, Harvin is gone and they have no real lead RB (at least, not yet). And most importantly last year, post Ole Miss, they played with an unbelievable sense of purpose. I don't think there is any way they pick that up where they left off last season.
You know who's a great coach? Bill Parcells. Want to see something interesting - look at his record without Belichick at DC, ASC, etc. Know who else is touted as a great coach? Urban Meyer. Want to see something interesting - look at his record without Dan Mullen. You may want to study it more deeply, but I'll summarize it for you : 0-0. Mullen was QB coach for Tebow and Alex Smith and OC of late. Imagine an Urban Meyer team without the high-powered offense and great QB play - I don't know about you, but I'm drawing a blank. I guess we'll see. And of course, we're already into uncharted water with Meyer staying at one school for more than 2 years. Let's see how he does as he gets further and further from Zook's recruits.
I'll say it now, I don't think UF will win the Championship. In fact I don't think they'll win the SEC. Wait for it...I don't even think they'll win the SEC East.
Double digit favorites in EVERY game? Sounds like a great opportunity to me.
On the other hand, while I hope I don't have to take UF -27 in the UT game, I will.
UGA will probably lose outright to Oklahoma State, but I think they'll beat UF and win the tie-breaker for the SEC East. I know Stafford and Moreno are gone, but I don't think that's really that big a deal. Stafford was a better NFL prospect than college QB and Moreno was good in an NFL Michael Vick sort of way - deadly against bad defenses, not really much of a factor against good ones.
I'll gladly take UF -11 over LSU right now. I think that it will be substantially higher by game time. Look how similar Miles's year 4 at LSU was to his year 4 at OSU. I think Les Miles is one of those coaches that is great with other people's teams, but maybe not so great at building his own. I know they have highly ranked recruiting classes, but getting great players that you NEED is more important that grabbing every 4 and 5 star recruit you can (I also wonder if Urban Meyer is like this - we'll have to wait and see).
Alabama went 12-0 last year in the regular season mainly because the Ole Miss game didn't last 5 more minutes. After Terrence Cody went down in that game, Bama was nowhere near the same. We did ok, I guess, but you never knew when JPW or Arenas was going to level the playing field with an exihibition-quality screw-up. We lost to UF and Utah because they were better teams. We'll lose to Ole Miss this year because they're a better team ,mainly because their O will be so much better than ours. On the other hand, UT might not score, as God will smite UT this year in ways not thought of since Cecil B. DeMille was in charge of retribution. We should finish 11-1.
Ole Miss runs the table this year, including beating UGA in the SEC championship game and beating whoever they play in the Sugar Bowl. Nutt will be given a lifetime contract, then fired in 2012 once the last of Orgeron's recruits leave and Ole Miss's record drops back down to a more familiar 7-5. They can get together with Auburn fans and show off their national championship rings that they made for themselves for the year when they were SCREWED out of getting to play for it.
Folks will talk about it being a down year in the SEC again and how the best football is being played in the BIG XII (again!) and mainly how, sure last year the offensive numbers were inflated due to the poor defenses, BUT THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT.
Tebow will play his last game at UF, not win the Heisman (again, not appearing on most of the BG XII ballots), get drafted in the 3rd round, play about 5 plays that we actually get to see in the NFL, then get obscenely rich lending his name to car dealerships and restaurants in northcentral and central Florida. We'll see a picture of him in about 20 years, bloated and balding, and spend hours trying to see the person we remember in that alien face, just like we do now with Pat Dye. And our grandkids will put no more faith in our tales of Tebow than we did in our grandparents tales of Thorp.
Oklahoma will naturally go undefeated (handing Texas its only loss), Bob Stoops will FINALLY win a BCS Championship with a team he built, probably against Penn State or some such team, and appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated with story line "Best of All Time?..."
And the world will spin on.
