This is something that has stuck in my craw for a long time about the mighty, awesome, University of Florida Gators Football Program and their recent tumult concerning embattled Coach Ron Zook. This is just my opinion, and others are certainly entitled to theirs. But it concerns just how good a coach Steve Spurrier was, and just how dominant, powerful, and awe-inspiring the Spurrier-coached Gators really were, and how it has distorted UF football fans' perception of the true reality of SEC football. The time period of 1992-1996, when Florida rose to power, was a strange and unusual time for SEC football. The traditional powers of the conference were either in very bad down cycles or rebuilding phases. Think about the SEC in the early '90s. -Georgia was down. -LSU was down. -Arkansas had not yet emerged as a winning program. -Neither had Mississippi St. -Ole Miss was on probation. -Auburn was on probation. -Tennessee was good but not yet great. -Alabama peaked in 1992, then rapidly spiraled downward after that. Enter Spurrier at UF, a school that had not won an SEC title up until that time. Bringing in an exciting new offense, in a rapidly emerging hotbed of recruiting, they easily moved to the top of a conference that was very soft at the time. Only two programs were strong enough to consistently stand in Florida's way; Alabama and Tennessee. And Alabama kept them from the top for a little while, beating them in the first SEC title game. But Alabama was on the way out. Tennessee was emerging, but would not be strong enough to defeat Spurrier-led Florida until 1998. In 1997-98, the Gator lost two conference games for two years straight and it seemed as if the rest of the conference had finally caught up to the Gators. But in 2000, they once again went 7-1 and, save for a loss at Miss. St. and the infamous "catch, non-catch" game at Tennessee, crushed everybody. And Miss. State got blown out in the Swamp next year. Again, no one but Tennessee could challenge the Gators year in and year out. The point is, why now, does Florida, like everyone else did all those years, end up with 3 conference losses or more? I don't think it's because Spurrier was so awesome or that Zook is so terrible. I think it's because the rest of the SEC has finally caught up. Georgia and LSU have reasserted themselves as national powerhouses, Tennessee is super tough consistently, and even Arkansas and Auburn are making noise on the national stage. The SEC is not Florida's private shooting gallery anymore. We all finally have the power to fight back, that we didn't have for so many years. Does anyone else have any thoughts? How about Gator fans?
One question comes to mind, Where would the Gators be today if Spurrier was still the coach, with the talent and senoirs(14 starting) that is on this team today? Need I say more?
Florida is out of the top 25 for the first time in over a decade and the fans are despondent. I mean, the Florida fans are really demoralized and ready to fire the coach. No coach will ever meet the unrealistic expectations there. If they don't get 10 wins, they are disappointed in the season. Florida will be a coaches graveyard for years, ala Alabama after Bryant. I sat through six straight losing seasons under Archer/Hallman. I don't feel sorry for Florida. They need some humbling.
This is the first year in a long time that LSU has been favored to win this game. Every body is picking the Tigers. LSU has not done very good as the favored, until today. We will win this game. Two in a row against the Gators.
We always play down to our opponent. The 1st half today is no exception. The next two quarters will tell us whether we are a Top 10 team or not. :geaux: :lsug:
Jean Lafitte - I hear you and most of the time would agree with you. But win or lose, I do not believe LSU is a top ten team. I think we have all ben swept into the success LSU has experienced against a very weak schedule with Georgia being the exception in the schedule. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe the better team did lose between LSU-UGA. I see too much of the same ole LSU in this game. A slow start is one thing, but to be dominated by UF and Zooker out coaching LSU. I just don't see us pulling this game out.
I think when Spurrier came in, the SEC was a running conference. Defenses were set up to stop the run. Here comes Spurrier with his passing attack and now teams had to recruit speedy DB's and come up with new defenses. It took a while for everyone to catch up. Now passing teams don't have quite the mismatches they used to. One could argue that while Spurrier's last few teams were good, they weren't as consistently dominant as they had been. I like your points though about the few dominant teams in the conference.
I do think Spurrier changed the SEC during his time. The point is valid that many teams were down during his "rise to power," but he helped usher many of these schools out quicker than they would have without him. It took a while for (1) coaches to realize that they have to change their defenses (and offenses) to stop this type of attack; and (2) coaches to actually change their styles. That said, I think coaches have made those adjustments, and the league is more balanced (in terms of offensive attack) than it was in the early-mid '90s. If Spurrier was still there, I do not think he would be winning the SEC every year as he had for a while. It took a while, but other schools have caught up.
