Gators overrated?

[Muggsy]

"As I sit here cursing the name of Ryan Succop, along with half of the state of South Carolina and every BCS team currently ranked 4-8, I’m wondering why it is that the Florida Gators enjoy such a favored status amongst pollsters this year.

 

In the last three weeks the University of Florida has beaten three unranked teams—Georgia, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina—by an average margin of less than five points. Respectively, these three vaunted SEC rivals of the Gators have to their credit this season a last-second win (at home) versus a 2-9 Colorado team, a 4-7 record that includes wins versus Tennessee State and Temple, and a 7-point win over I-AA Wofford. And yet, over that three-week period Florida has magically surged from #9 to #3 in the rankings even as their close loss to Auburn has diminished with Auburn’s 22-point shellacking by Georgia.

 

By comparison, take a look at Notre Dame. While, like Florida, they were helped by the Great Top Ten Implosion of 2006 that was Week 11, consider that, for all the talk of the alleged “ND hype machine,” the Irish remain the only Div I-A team in the country that has dropped in at least one major poll on four separate occasions after either a win or bye week (for the record, after the Georgia Tech, Michigan State and UCLA wins, and after the Week 7 bye.) They are also the only ranked team to win a game and be jumped by a team that had a bye week; not only that, it happened twice (Florida and Cal), and in consecutive weeks. And ND’s 10-spot drop after the Michigan game—granted, a humiliation of epic proportions—remains the single biggest one-week drop of any team in the Top 25.

 

But this isn’t about Notre Dame. This is about Florida and the SEC Conference.

 

My theory is that the SEC mystique is a way for people south of the Mason-Dixon line to gain a measure of revenge for their absolute beatdown back in the 1860s. As I’ve been known to say to my genetically challenged cousins (distant cousins) in the hills of southern Kentucky, “You lost the war, GET OVER IT!” (That would make an excellent bumper sticker by the way, with the Stars and Bars crossed out in a big black circle. My other idea for a a bumper sticker is, ”Bass Fishing Stops a Beating Heart.” But I digress.)

 

Although to his credit after the Florida-South Carolina game he started second-guessing himself, Kirk Herbstreit said earlier in the year, ”The SEC is always the best conference in football.” And if we’re being honest, there are many years if not most in which this statement would be correct. But in 2006? What the hell am I supposed to be impressed by?

 

A non-conference schedule that includes the likes of Louisiana-Monroe, Florida International, I-AA Southeast Missouri State, Buffalo, Tulane, Central Florida, I-AA Western Carolina (Florida’s opponent this week), I-AA Western Kentucky, UAB, I-AA Texas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, I-AA Northwestern State, I-AA Jacksonville State, I-AA Wofford, Florida Atlantic, Middle Tennessee State, and I-AA Tennessee State?

 

The fact Arkansas, arguably the conference’s best team, lost at home by thirty-six points to USC?

 

A graduation rate and overall scholastic record that, minus Vanderbilt, inclines me to think “SEC” should stand for “Shortbus Edu-mu-cation Conference”?

 

Apologies to those I offended with that last jab. But for years the SEC has been at the forefront of putting the “ATHLETE” in student-athlete. They treat their athletes like spare parts on a conveyor belt. The SEC commissioner all but conceived of the money-hording joke that is the BCS Championship, and their wins-first/education-second credo is a poison to the NCAA. Having to stomach on top of that this endless fellating—the Gator “Chomp” indeed—of the conference’s competitiveness and depth makes me want to vomit."

Edited November 13, 2006 by Muggsy

[untateve]

I’m wondering why it is that the Florida Gators enjoy such a favored status amongst pollsters this year.

 

You ever notice the beauty of an Orange and Blue sunset...Even God loves the Gators.

 

Otherwise, I'm not sure why we are so loved by the pollsters. I was not surprised to see USC leap frog us. Our defense is what has won games for us. Our offense has simply not delivered this year. In our one loss, against Auburn, the Auburn offense did not score a touchdown. The Gator offense is just doing enough to win. If our offense found any rhythm or consistency, we could be a scary team.

 

 

All that being said, I'll take an ugly, close victory over a team we should have stomped versus a pretty loss. Given that this is only Urban Meyer's second year at Florida, and having gone through the Ron Zook experience, I have high hopes for the Gators in the future.