In a perverse way, I have to tip my cap to Heisman Pundit. He’s been taken to task in several quarters for his insistence that Florida’s win in the BCS title game is a complete validation of his “Gang of Six” theory (which in essence boils down to offensive scheme matters more in college football than anything else), including this bludgeoning by Michael Elkon that is so devastating in its thoroughness that I was almost embarrassed for HP after I read it. Almost.
Perhaps a lesser man would have slunk away, changed the subject, something. Not HP, though, who’s back with another essay on the subject – “The Spread Spreads” – in which he continues to insist that the reason Florida’s point production in Meyer’s two years in the SEC has been middling is because Meyer has deliberately chosen to hold things back:
… If the spread works, why did it only score 21 points against SEC teams? Well, I think the answer is clear: it didn’t need to score more. How long should a man’s legs be? Answer: Long enough to touch the ground.
… Going into most conference games, Meyer knew that the other team couldn’t score against his defense, so why open things up? He played the percentages.
This all ties back in to HP’s overarching theory about the SEC being a conference (with a couple of exceptions in Meyer and Spurrier) full of offensive coordinators who believe the game should still be played with leather helmets.
But – thank God! – help is on the way for the millions of souls who despair over the current state of SEC football. According to HP, the SEC is going to have no choice but to play catch up with Meyer’s exotic spread offense. Fortunately, the process has already started at LSU, where “… the issue has apparently been settled in Les Miles’ mind.”
Les Miles? Well, count me as convinced.
Never mind that LSU has outscored Florida’s offense (both in SEC and seasonal play) in the two years that Meyer has been the head coach. Or that LSU and Ohio State were both in the NCAA top 10 in scoring in 2006.
Never mind that in ’06, when Meyer had more of his players like Tebow and Harvin to run in his offense, Florida’s point production in the conference actually declined from its ’05 numbers.
Never mind that Meyer saw fit to score 42 and 62 points against the two non-conference teams on Florida’s ’06 schedule that the Gators shut out. So much for “playing the percentages”.
Never mind that HP doesn’t bother to explain why SEC coaches will respond to Meyer’s offense as he suggests, even though they apparently never responded like that to Spurrier’s introduction of the “Fun ‘n Gun” (which was an immediate scoring sensation, by the way) to the SEC seventeen years ago.
“Forget it, he’s rolling.”
Urban Meyer is a genius. Resistance is futile.
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