Well....other than his first one I think I have to agree with most of the points made by this writer: http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20080820/COLUMNISTS/152674 Last year some first time negatives did occur: - first loss at home under UM - first bowl game loss - first loss to a rival All in all....some things happened that Florida fans would not want to see as the beginning of trends.
If the thought is last year was Meyer's first loss to a UF rival as HBC, I disagree as I think the '05 loss @ LSU and the '06 loss @ Auburn were losses to rivals. Unfortunately, the AUB game is no longer an annual event.
I think generally the annual triumverate of Tenn, Ga and FSU are the three that he is referring to Gaterz.
While every season is important, I don't think a guy who has won a Nat'l Championship can fairly be described as facing his most important season. Now if he loses 3 games this season, and three games next season you Gators might start to get a little itchy. Say like Texas fans before Mack Brown won the NC with Vince Young. Mack had won a lot of games but just didn't seem to be able to win the big one. I look for Texas fans to start getting antsy again if Texas loses to OU and 2 other teams this year.
I've often wondered if Mack Brown is Earle Bruce with a Nat'l Championship. Earle had a lot of very good teams and in a time when 10 game seasons were the norm he had a lot of 9 win seasons. But like Mack he was short in his victory column with the big rival. If he'd somehow won a Nat'l Championship then went back to losing the big game, would he have been fired?
People always speculate about old 9-3 Earl...what they forget is that he had major issues with the school administration...that had nothing to do with W's or L's.
This writer needs to put on his big girl panties, hike up the skirt and grow a pair. Those are all things that happen to good (even great) coaches who stay on the job for more than 2+ seasons. If you play games, against quality competition, you will eventually lose some. It happens. Its the nature of sports. Sure sure.. someone can tell me that its the 'sports media world we live in today of what have you done for me lately' but that still doesn't make that position valid or relevant to the real world of college football.
I hear ya Stu.....if ole 9-3 Earle had been old 11-1 Earle, my guess is that he would not have been run out of town. But it is fair to say that he was not politically savvy and 9-3 did not give him quite the political leverage he needed in Columbus to do his own thing....and in all fairness, it was clear in the latter years that the quality of personnel had begun to slip. He did have a winning record against the Stripeheads and came within 1:30 seconds and 1 point of bringing home a national title to Columbus in the 1979 season. God bless Earle...he was and still is a tough old cuss and die hard Buckeye!
I couldn't agree more Corey. Meyer is in solid and this season, unless it's a disaster, isn't going to change that.
Rivals and revenge games <t>Basically I think Tenn, Fl State and Georgia are the rivals. But Tenn only became a real rival when the SEC East started. We didn't play every year until then. LSU or Auburn would be revenge games. We get LSU in the SWAMP.</t>