PUH-SPECTIVE, AS LIONEL OSBURNE WOULD SAY

Man, you Florida guys will believe anything except that Meyer was overrated coming in. Mostly that isn’t his fault, but I don’t seem to recall anything he said to dispel the image that grew around him.

I’m with the over-rated believers at the moment.

Yes, because isn’t that exactly what we said here?

The big difference between Carroll and Meyer is the caliber of their assistants. Carroll had the smarts to go out and hire/retain the best when he came in. Chow’s legacy needs no introduction and while Orgeron is a time bomb waiting to go off in a massive explosion of piledrivers and ripped shirts at Ole Miss, the man can recruit and coach defensive lineman. Their OL coach who just left was also a very good position coach.

Meyer essentially brought in some Bob Davie/Notre Dame re-treads and guys with potential, but no where near the experience needed to thrive in the SEC. I think Mullen and Hevesy could develop into good coaches, but neither of them have ever coached at any level above grad assistant in a BCS conference. When you’re the hottest coach in the country and I’m guessing a blank check from UF to round out your coaching staff, you have to get the best you can get. Like Willingham at ND, Urban played it safe and stuck with guys he knew or were close associates of his (limited) circle of friends.

Urban can still be successful, but he’ll probably need to make the coaching moves that Ty refused to make at ND and bring in more experience and proven production at some of the assistant spots.

Well said, Pat. Hey, don’t I know you?

Not necessarily the case, Pat. Mattison is the notable case of Davie retread-dom, but the offensive staff are predominantly young Bowling Green/Utah guys best classified as Meyer acolytes.

I was trying to cover all the bases with one big run-on sentence, as it my habit, ever since the one time I….

How’s this:

Meyer essentially brought in some Bob Davie[and/or]Notre Dame re-treads [Mattison,Addazio,Strong,Heater(sorta), Mullen(sorta)] and guys with potential, but no where near the experience needed to instantly thrive in the SEC [Mullen, Hevesy, Gonzales, Drayton].

I’m not saying all of the assistants are bad. I’m just saying there is a lot of inexperience and/or guys he knew from his time at ND on the coaching roster.

Inexperience being the key word, there. Hate to say it, but Shula’s best decision as a head coach putting together a new staff was hiring crusty, incomprehensible SEC veteran Joe Kines. Strong is experienced, but he can’t play the part of salty sea dog like Kines does for ’Bama.

Have you guys seen/digested the article discussed here:

As far as the Carroll/Meyer comparison, one thing to keep in mind is that, despite their record, Carroll’s first Trojan team looked noticably better than the previous year’s squad, especially in regard to point differential. You guys have to be asking yourself if that’s the case with UF this year.

Pat, are you the Pat from BGS? I’d love to see you guys and Stranko and Orson do a mid-season comparison piece on Meyer and Weis, like the pre-season comparison you did. I find it highly ironic that Meyer believed Davie’s advice about ND being too hard to win at nowadays, though I’m very glad he did. Meyer may eventually get things going at Florida, but considering the quick starts he had at also-rans BG and Utah, it’s kind of surprising to see him not having instant success with UF. You guys (BGS and EDSBS) would be better analysts of why than I would, so I’m interested in what you think the problem is down there. This isn’t meant to be a vindictive “Meyer spurned ND, so I hope UF sucks” comment—I’ve got no ill will towards him at all, he made the choice he thought was best for him. It’s more of a “why is Meyer’s supposedly genius offense not working at UF, and why is Weis’s system working at ND?” In the previous article you compared the two and found them to be very similiar—so what’s different now?

“great coaches are great coaches, period…” —that is what was said in reference to Meyer in the ranking of SEC coaches. Yes, EDSBS contributed to the false Kingdom of Urban. The Emperor Has No Offensive Plan…

Yes…but not exactly saying Urban’s a great coach now, is it? See what you get when you mess with devious minds? Depends on what your definition of “is” is…a revealing post on Stranko and our divergent views of the potential for this year can be found here. We thought 8-3; HP and Stranko thought we were sandbagging.

Turns out we may have been overly optimistic. Ironically, Stranko’s the dire apocalyptic of the house, while we’ve remained relatively patient.

I am a manic depressive fan, that’s why.
I’ll admit it that I started drinking the Kool Aid. Urban was the best off season coach in history. No arrests in an SEC offseason… that is amazing. Teaching team work and accountability… nice touch. The problem is that his offense really is gimmicky. My ultimate feeling on this is that his offense cannot work, but that is only part of being a great coach. A great coach can recruit, win, and adapt to the every changing landscape. Frankly, the jury is out. I hope Meyer turns out to be a great coach, but to do so, he’ll have to adapt.

Wow, a lot of people ready to declare unsuccessful an offense that hasn’t had a full year yet. The Weis comparison is unfair because the system didn’t change drastically.

Just look at the defense. The scheme didn’t change dramatically (not many defensive schemes do) and the defense is playing like we had always hoped during the Zook years (you know back when we said “they better get a turnover cause we can’t stop a two minute drill” every game).

The way I look at it, if the half of the team that has an easy transition is being coached well by Meyer, can’t we give him the benefit of the doubt on the other half?

With the bye week coming up, that’s what we’re hoping, Pace.

As an SC alum, I remember year one horrifyingly well. While not excited about the hire, I figured Pete would at least bring in a decent defense. And Chow’s credentials are without peer. But SC was woefully undertalented, outside of Palmer and Polumalu. SC’s fortunes changed in year 2 for three reasons: yes, it often takes more than a year to implement a new system (Chow’s); but more important was the emergance of Mike Williams and the insertion of Justin Fargas as starting tailback over Sultan McCullough. Once that happend, Palmer had a go-to guy and his confidence soared appropriately, and Fargas gave SC some toughness and straight-ahead running over the dancer McCullough. By the way, Williams also babysat Leinart in his first year; without Williams saving Leinart’s butt no way SC splits the MNC in 2003. Leinart has the same thing now with Jarrett; whenever in trouble, he looks DJ’s way.
Florida is in the same boat. This year will be like chompin’ on tin foil. Next year, you will start seeing results, and in year 3 Florida will be contending for the National Championship

Pace—I’m only interested in the Weis comparison because these guys made one prior to the year—I’m wondering how the thinking has changed, that’s all.

I think the Weis comparison is a very interesting one
given the Notre Dame dynamics in the offseason.

If the offense can come around at all the SEC should be Florida’s for the taking. UFs defense may be the best in the league as everyone of importance except Mincey returns. Moss is more than capable of replacing him however.

UGA, UT, and Bama all lose a ton of significant players. LSU is just not good. If UF had any offense they would have won by 20+. That pretty much leaves Auburn to fight it out with UF. Again that is IF the offense comes around.