You know, I have been pretty critical of Urban Meyer over the last couple of years. I didn’t like that he was going to come in to the SEC with his snake oil, and sell it to the folks down in Gainesville along with everyone else in the SEC, claiming it would cure the disease left over by Ron Zook (a disease that looked like a cupboard stocked full of awesomeness). I didn’t like the fact that he bolted from school to school every two years, not having to prove himself in the recruiting department at all.

But over the last two years, something changed. I hated him for different reasons. I hated that he kept winning. I just couldn’t understand why his system, which was seemingly not going to be effective against the speed of SEC defenses, kept managing to pull out wins. I mean, at least when Spurrier was kicking everyone’s ass, you felt nice and used afterwards with numbers like 50000 passing yards put up against your defense.

As much as I hate different aspects of the guy, I have to respect him. He’s proven himself in the toughest division in the toughest conference in the country. He has compiled an 11-1 record in his second year (we’ll see how well they do with more of Urban’s players, and the pure “spread option attack”), and as much as I hate to say it, he’s now an SEC guy. He’s been in the SEC for two years, and although that’s not really long enough to create hatred say, between other coaches, he has been around long enough to be able to notch up wins against most of the other SEC coaches. It’s about familiarity and respect.
That being said, the team I hate but still respect, the Florida Gators, have been screwed. They’ve been penalized for winning the toughest division in the toughest conference in the nation. They’ve been penalized for winning 11 games and losing 1. They’ve been penalized for not running up the score against hapless opponents (sure, one might argue that they simply couldn’t run up the score, but still). Urban Meyer even went so far as to say that perhaps there should be a playoff because once style points come into the mix, sportsmanship goes out the window. I can agree with that. Hmm, all it takes is one coach to start the talk, and then hopefully more and more will follow suit. Perhaps there should be a 4 team playoff for the SEC Championship, that’d be pretty sweet, and set a good example for everyone else.

C’mon SEC, time to be a leader in something other than felony convictions.