A season-ending look at the SEC
By Chris Low
Special to ESPN.com
An Urban legend? Hardly.
Urban Meyer came to Florida a year ago anointed as one of the hottest young coaches in the country and with a track record of showing his best results in year No. 2 on the job.
He did it at Bowling Green. He did it at Utah, and now he's done it at Florida.
The Gators, fresh off their first SEC championship since 2000, are headed to the Arizona desert next month for a shot at the national championship against No. 1-ranked Ohio State.
"This coaching gig is overrated. It's the players," Meyer said soon after learning that the Gators (12-1, 8-1) had passed Michigan and moved up to No. 2 in the final BCS standings.
"It's a great tribute to coach [Ron] Zook and his staff, the Ray McDonalds, the Jarvis Mosses, the Chris Leaks running around and Jemalle Cornelius. Obviously, you can't get it done without some great players."
The feeling going into the season was that Florida was as good a bet as any to contend for the conference crown. But there was some uncertainty on the offensive line, and the jury was still out on how Meyer's spread option offense would cut it in a speed league like the SEC.
Some injuries up front made the Gators' line play even more of a concern, and they never found the kind of consistency offensively that Meyer was looking for.
But when it came to finding ways to win, nobody was better.
The defense was one of the best in the league, maybe the best when senior tackle Marcus Thomas was in the lineup. His season was cut short, though, because of multiple drug testing infractions.
Senior quarterback Leak came up with timely throws, and freshman quarterback Tim Tebow did the dirty work any time the Gators needed the tough yards. Around them, Dallas Baker, Percy Harvin, Andre Caldwell and Cornelius took turns making plays.
And when all else failed, defensive end Moss showed his hops by blocking a kick, or even two. Just ask South Carolina.
"Have we been perfect? No," said Meyer, whose Gators survived a league-high 110 penalties and overcame 24 turnovers by forcing 27 of their own. "Have we fought and scraped and blocked punts and played great defense? Yeah, we found ways to win."
From a pure talent standpoint, that crown belonged to LSU this season. The Tigers (10-2, 6-2) played their way into a BCS bowl game after shooting blanks offensively in their first two big games against Auburn and Florida. They scored a total of 13 points in those two losses, but ended the season with six straight wins.
The Tigers led the SEC in scoring offense, scoring defense, total offense and total defense. But they also led the league in schedule difficulty. Their four SEC road games were all against Top 10 teams -- Auburn, Arkansas, Florida and Tennessee.
Even if they defeat Notre Dame on Jan. 3 in the Allstate Sugar Bowl and get to 11 wins, there's sure to be a smattering of "What if?" in the Bayou. Some around the league felt this LSU team was even more talented than the one that shared the national championship in 2003 with Southern Cal.
"I still say LSU is as fine a football team as there is on film," said Meyer, whose Gators capitalized on breakdowns by the Tigers in the kicking game to win 23-10 on Oct. 7. "The day after that game, I thought we were a little bit better than I was giving us credit for because that was a two-touchdown win over a top-3, top-4, in my opinion, football team."
With Florida and LSU both going to BCS bowls, it's the first time since 2001 when Florida and LSU both went that the SEC has sent two teams to BCS bowls.