Filed under: Florida, Florida State, Georgia, University of Miami, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Tennessee, SEC
The SEC's latest soap opera drama couldn't wait for 2011. Urban Meyer's resignation, this one supposedly to last, swept across the nation and reworked the fabric of college football. One of the two best jobs in the nation -- the other is Texas -- was suddenly wide open. Should we have been surprised? Not really. The signs were there all season.
In the immediate aftermath of the Florida Gators overtime victory over Georgia in October, Meyer addressed the media. His wife was nearby, tears recently wiped clean from her cheeks. "This," Meyer said, "is the biggest win I can remember." On its face, the comment sounded absurd. Meyer had already notched two national titles and two SEC titles. Before the start of the 2010 season, he'd run up a 26-2 record in his previous 28 games. But this, this victory in the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, the one that represented the 18th time in the past 21 meetings that the Gators had triumphed and the fifth in Meyer's six-year tenure, this was the biggest win that Meyer could remember?
At the time, the comment sounded absurd, but now it makes more sense. The last big win is the sweetest and that was to be the final big win of Meyer's coaching career at Florida. Even in his yearly victory over Georgia, Meyer was in the midst of saying good-bye to all of us. Meyer's departure -- whether you loved or hated him, no one can dispute that he and Alabama's Nick Saban were the two best coaches in the league -- leaves a gaping void at the helm of the SEC's top program. While Meyer often coached like an automaton lacking any enjoyment in life, I dubbed him the Smoke Monster in homage to Lost, Meyer won. And he won big. His departure raises an awful lot of issues, six of which we'll now examine.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2010/12/09/the-urban-meyer-shakeout-in-the-sec-what-happens-next/
No comments:
Post a Comment