Written by: O

If you listen to fans of the University of Florida football team, you would think that football in Gainesville began and ended with Steve Spurrier.  Spurrier was indeed the first SEC football coach that threw the football all over the place.  Not only did Spurrier throw the football a ton, but he also won a ton of football games.  The “Ol’ Ball Coach” (Spurrier’s nickname), who was known for his tendency to throw the football, won six SEC titles (Florida had the best record in the SEC in 1990, Spurrier’s first season, as well, but they were ineligible because of an NCAA violation by the previous coach).  Spurrier was also a 5-time SEC Coach of the Year and is one of three coaches in major college history that won nine games in each of his twelve seasons at Florida.  People thought when Spurrier retired that there would never be a coach close to the success that Spurrier had.

Urban Meyer was hired in 2004 right before he led the University of Utah to an undefeated season, their first since 1930, but the irony is that he had to fight off the “Spurrier” syndrome the entire first season at Florida.  Actually, even before Florida hired Meyer, it was rumored that Spurrier would be re-hired by Florida.  Florida instead hired Meyer while Spurrier stayed in the SEC – he was hired by South Carolina.  Like Spurrier, Meyer won 9 games in his first season, but the difference that Florida did not finish ahead of everyone in the SEC and more importantly, Florida lost to Spurrier’s South Carolina.   By the end of the season, people had wondered aloud if Florida had made the right choice in choosing Meyer over Spurrier.

What was different about Meyer was that not only did he not worry about the “Spurrier” syndrome, but he almost embraced it.  Florida took off the next season and went 13-1.   They won the SEC East and then beat Arkansas in the SEC Championship Game for the SEC Championship.  This along with an unexpected loss by USC and suddenly, Florida was playing in the national championship game.  Florida played Ohio State and destroyed them 41-14 to win the national championship.  In Meyer’s second season, he had already matched Spurrier in the number of national championships he won at Florida.   In Meyer’s third season, Florida went 9-4, but they did get consolation in that their QB, Tim Tebow, won the Heisman trophy, so again, Meyer equaled Spurrier’s total of Heisman Trophy winners.

One could say that Meyer’s early success at Florida was the result of Spurrier’s success at Florida.  The only issue is that Florida fans seem not to give Galen Hall any credit for Spurrier’s success.  Hall went 40-18-1 as the head coach of Florida, but because of NCAA probation, Florida did not win the SEC title in 1984 or 1985 despite having the best record in the conference.

Most people have Florida being the #1 ranked team in major college football this season.  There is no doubt that the Gators are loaded and if they do win the national championship, Urban Meyer will be in a small group of coaches that have won more than one national championship and that does not include Steve Spurrier.

Tags: College Football, National Championship

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Random Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.