I guess I'm living in the past.  However, let's look at history.  Steve Spurrier arrived at Florida and the world as we knew it changed.  Imagine one of these alleged powers could win four SEC titles consecutively.  That ain't ever gonna happen.  Lord Spurrier did it with ease.  The Gators won, but they also put on a show.  They became the Lakers, winning plus a show was simply a treasure of us Gators.  Lord Spurrier was right when he said as he retired from coaching in Gainesville that 12 years at a major institution in the Southeastern Conference is enough essentially for all parties.  He was right(Mark Richt, I'm looking at you, your winning streak is a fraud, you beat one good team, and as a Gator I am a bit humiliated that that one good team you beat was Vandy.  Fuck my life.

Anyway, Ron Zook arrived, and as a Gator was quite familiar with his ineptness.  When you know the name of the special teams coach/secondary coach, he is either an all time great, or an all time clown.  I admit I didn't give Zook one game in my judgment of him.  We were smart enough to know what we lost when Coach Spurrier left for Washington, we didn't expect we could ever replace him, but we at least required competence.  Thankfully Zook was Zook, even after the accusations that seem to hold today of being left an empty cupboard, how that was accepted i have no idea, returning the Heisman runner up and assorted other future pros.  Fuck Ron Zook, what an asshat.

Then somehow Steve Spurrier returned in Urban Meyer, and gave us glory.  I admit I still consider Spurrier's 7 SEC crowns trumping 2 Nationals as not even being a close.  We had greatness with Meyer, it was the Lakers again, winning with a show, all any college football fan could ever ask for.  Except for not letting Percy smoke, I am a grateful Gator for the Meyer years.

2010 was a disaster and I didn't care.  It was obvious from the get go it was a disaster, so I gave myself a year to enjoy the greater landscape of college football, and admittedly instinctively committing treason when I found myself rooting for the South Carolina Gamecocks with the Head Ball Coach when they came to the Swamp with the Division Title on the line.

2011 the hangover continued.  I have been indifferent to Gator Football.  I was turned off by the hiring of Muschamp,simply because he was a Georgia Bulldog in my eyes.  Add to that the fact that I do not want the Head Football Coach at the University of Florida to like the Tennessee Coach, be a clear lesser to the Alabama Coach, and I am absolutely puking already to the piece this Saturday about Jimbo's and Muschamp's sharing of a beach house.  Fuck that shit, he's the coach at florida state of all places, a wretched, clearly lesser place to all the world that can see.  I do not want that.  Let's be honest.  While it would be great to put up half a hundred against georgia every year, we don't expect it.  But we expect the Head Football Coach to spend his days of dreaming of doing such.  And to rub it in their faces when we do beat them by 30 as we are wont to do a few times a decade.  Will Muschamp is never going to outwardly relish in such moments and for that he's got a bit of a burden.

Now, with those thoughts, I gave the Gators a fair chance this year.  I didn't expect them to compete for the Division title.  They were not going to be good, and I thought South Carolina was gonna be awesome, so I was happy watching South Carolina play, and for about 7 games got my hopes up for the mighty Gators.  But it was evident early on that this Gator team was putrid.  I don't know how to call a play, but I expect the coaches at the University of Florida would be able to do more than this no matter the talent level whether spectacular or average for what a Florida team looks like.  This has been a putrid product.  The fucking Clippers.  Gimme one impressive win and I'm a happy Gator. Should the Gators beat Florida State, I will be a happy Gator, and Will Muschamp is my Coach.  If not, which I admit is doubtful, who exactly is he gonna beat on the schedule next year.  Do something.  Anything, entertain us, we Gator fans are tough but the facts are Urban Meyer won 2 SEC titles in 6 years, and that ain't close to Steve Spurrier levels, but boy, they were glorious years.  I think winning 1 SEC title every 4, 5 years is adequate, not unrealistic.  Beat someone.

For I am starting to get delusional from what i've seen on Florida Field.  Not good stuff.  So my advice to Urban Meyer, is to wait another year.  Penn State, Ohio State ain't for you.  Take another year off, and if Muschamp is Muschamp without a signature win, come back to Hogtown, give us another 5, 6 years.  You'll have your 12 years at a major institution in the nation's premiere athletic conference.  Yeah, you'll only win 1 more NC, but that's just fine by us.  Do you really want to coast year in and year out to big ten title after big ten title with a spot in the NC game each year.  Gainesville is home.  Or for selfish reasons as I live in Southern California now, come to UCLA and make UCLA what UCLA should be.  You did it in Gainesville once, and you're welcome to do it once again.  Quick flight from Gainesville to Atlanta to watch some volleyball.

Now that Oregon, Clemson, Oklahoma State, have lost today, the BCS Championship Game will have two SEC teams guaranteed.  (Oklahoma is about to go to overtime as i type)  Oklahoma has lost as well.

New Poll is 

1. LSU

2. BAMA

3. ARKY

distant 4. Virginia Tech

5.  Oklahoma State

6. Stanford

Assuming LSU beats Arkansas, then LSU will be in BCS even if it loses to Georgia because they won the west.  They will then face Alabama in BCS because Bama beat Arky head to head.

Assuming Arky beats LSU, who wins the west?  I think it will go to Arky, if it does, then they win the west and go to bcs even if they lose to georgia, and lsu gets in over bama because of head to head.

if it goes to alabama, then bama wins the west and is in bcs even if it loses to georgia, and face arky because arky beats lsu head to head.

if it goes to lsu, then lsu wins west and goes to bcs even if loses to georgia, and face bama because they beat arky heads up.

So, I think it is fair to say, whoever does win the West, goes to BCS even if they lose to Georgia, they shouldn't get penalized for playing the extra game.

And the second team in the BCS is the winner of the head to head match up between those two teams.  I doubt a one loss LSU/Bama/Arky could possibly be lower in the polls than anyone, even if Virginia tech wins the ACC(like that's a prize)

I can't imagine if Oklahoma wins this overtime game vs Baylor could leap them ahead of the SEC triumvirate. Oklahoma has now lost.

I ask we remain calm, but the reality is, that there is still a good chance that November game in gainesville will mean quite a bit.  And we gators need to be prepared will a couple possibilities. 

Let's go back to 1989 first though.  Spurrier takes Duke into North Carolina's house and mopped the floor with them.  And Coach Spurrier is wont to do, feels appropriate mementos be taken.  the team picture in front of the keenan stadium scoreboard, sprawled out on the field.  I am confident that that picture at Duke and in Coach's Office is a happy happy picture.

fthere's a long way to go.  But there is certainly a definite possiblity that the gamecocks can win the east in gainesville, it would be am impression that needs to be on the walls of the gamecock football conference.  I mean we have museums.  I say, let them have there picture if they earn it.

Yeah, the optics may feel raw for some, but to see Coach Spurrier with his team of apparently fine young men, lay down for a picture at the swamp.  He has earned that right.  He's beloved.    Take it easy on the man.  He gave us so much.

My credentials--i was probably most thrilled with the orange jerseys, brought me back to my first two years in gainesville, never knew any better at the time.  And then as a junior, Lord Spurrier entered our graces.  I guess I'm officially a traitor, first time in my live that i am indifferent on the gators winning the east.  I hope spurrier has his day, and his picture if he so wants.   I just hope that the Carolina team understands that Coach Spurrier expects to be carried off the field only with winning a championship.  Hope to see him hoisted in atlanta.  i ask gator nation for a few months reprieve while i flirt with usc.  if you cut me, my blood is the same as yours, orange and blue.

A week ago, i was expecting the gators' trip to Tuscaloosa was going to be strange.  It would be the first time in several years that the gators were going to enter a game as a clear cut underdog to a very very talented alabama club.  On Saturday, we walk in with our heads up and i bet those kids will walk in there ready for a bloodbath.  The gators can go get them rawhide elephant skin perhaps, or at the very least bruise them the way it is done in our neck of the woods.  All they gotta do is tackle mark ingram.  which ain't gonna be easy.  but at the end of the day, either the gators will win, or they shall lose leaving a corpse of an alabama team on the field for spurrier to finish them off.   and there you have the recipe for the sec championship game in december.  alabama will get cut up by auburn that week before the sec championship game leaving them exposed as they will entering columbia in two weeks.  So who remains standing between the gamecocks and gators when they square off in november will have a clean shot at bama in atlanta.  should make for a hell of a season and championship game.

Am i crazy or is the heirachy of the sec pretty set:

1.   Alabama--the only elite team presently;

2.  Florida--a step below but not what we thought it was a couple weeks ago, can you say trey burton jump pass kirby smart?

3. 4. 5.  Arkansas, Auburn, and South Carolina.  All have potential still to do great things this year.  And I think a talented bunch of clubs that just have to learn how to do it and get it done.  Only one person in this group has the knowledge and skills and balls to take that leap--his name is Steve Spurrier.    Don't beat mad auburn, that game last night is in columbia, and you lose by eight.   no shame.  Two solid football teams in 2010.

6.  LSU  just because they gonna get embarrassed by someone this year, maybe a couple times.  there's just something not right there.

7.  Kentucky--despite the cold reality of getting handled by a superior team, Kentucky has something.  what it is i'm not sure.  but i'm pretty sure the rest of the pack definitely lacks it.  

the rest of the pack,   miss st, ole miss, vandy, tenn and uga.---with the exception of miss st and maybe vandy, the other three are simply trash.   and so if you are kentucky, or lsu, or vandy, or miss st,  you can confidently say, "hey, at least we not tennessee or georgia, or ole miss, cause we better than them."  and the beauty of it all, georgia and tennessee knows it.

so, to recap the ramblings of a stoner, alabama better be off that hangover by sunday night, for one thing we do know is that right out of the gate until the final whistle, bama gonna get punched in the mouth.  all day long.  of course, ingram might just punch us in the ribs all day and bruise us badly.  and then the following weeks, gamecocks, you are instructed to step on bama's neck and either give them their first loss, or the second of two losses. 

and as to you tennessee and georgia, couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch of santorum.(google santorum if you please)

For the first time in my adult life, I think I hope the Gators do not win the SEC this year.

Living in Hume Hall as an anonymous freshman in 1988, we would go to the games, not knowing about glory, championships or dominant football.  We were a .500 team essentially and we didn't know any better, and to be frank, we didn't care.  Yeah, it would have been nice to win, glorious to win an SEC championship, but it was what it was.  As a junior in 1990, something in the air changed.  Coach Spurrier returned to Gainesville as I hope to do in a few years, and introduced us to what we have become today.  The Head Ball Coach gave us things we didn't dare to dream.

The Head Ball Coach has always been a Gator through and through.  Looking back, the reality is that in the long proud history of our conference, in 2002, when one talks about the greatest leaders in our conference's history, there would now be two names at the top of the list, standing together, looking down on their 'peers.'  Coach Spurrier and Coach Bryant.  And I hope Coach Meyer joins that list.  The potential is certainly there.

The 2010 edition of the Florida Gators was going to struggle.  We knew that going in, youth, a fairly thick schedule, and quite a turnover in talent and experience.  Yes, I would be pleased if they won the SEC, but I knew we wouldn't be the Gators of old.  That was impossible.  It was going to be different, and possibly glorious, and would be should they win the SEC.  It certainly is a strange feeling going into a game in a couple weeks in Tuscaloosa not as the clear cut favorite.  I mean, realistically, it has been several years since at kickoff, the nation didn't expect the Gators to walk out with anything but a victory.  It's different. And this Gator team will certainly improve as the summer fades into fall.  The future certainly is going to be very bright.  I am confident that there will be three on the SEC's version of Mount Rushmore with Coach Meyer joining in a decade, with many more championships to come.  And I'm certainly hoping Coach Meyer can keep saban from getting on there.  We shall see.

But the reality is Coach Spurrier led the revolution.  I mean to possibly say the South Carolina Gamecocks are SEC football champions was simply unimaginable forever, until this moment in time.  And for the Head Ball Coach to be take Duke to glory when noone else since has come close, and to take Florida to places that noone had ever done, and then to take South Carolina to someplace never imaginable would be quite the resume.  I want to see Coach Spurrier carried off the field in December in Atlanta.

So, is this morally wrong?  Am I a traitor?  Am I just getting soft in my old years?  Don't get me wrong, I hope Urban Meyer and the Gators never get my attitude.  But as a Gator, I want Coach Spurrier be able to walk around with that smile of his, knowing that he can do did what noone else could.  I mean, who amongst us doesn't smile when you see the words fifty-two to twenty?

Which is correct?

(1)  Two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar, all for the Gators, stand up and holler; or

(2)  Two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar, all Florida Gators, stand up and holler.

As a Gator, Class of '92, I never knew there was a debate, and the three fellow gators I have asked, along with me as the fourth are split down the middle.   And none of us knew there was a debate.  So, I ask, in your world, which is correct, and two, are you surprised that there is even a debate?  Or am i just dumb?