John Pennington has written a post about SEC parity that serves as a pretty good retort to Bret Bielema’s Big Ten bravado. One point in particular jumped out at me:
When you think of the best football programs in the nation, Florida probably comes to mind. But the Gators have lost four or more games six times in the last 13 years.
Pennington sees that as evidence of how tough the SEC is, and that’s a fair observation. Also, to Florida’s credit, let’s not forget a couple of national titles tucked in that time frame. But the other thing that indicates is a level of inconsistency that, to my mind, is surprising, given the advantageous recruiting base the Gators start with year in and year out. How much of that can you pin on the coaching? The Zooker is responsible for half of those sub-par years by his lonesome, Corch gets credit for a couple and Boom’s got one, too. (For comparison’s sake, Spurrier had two four-loss seasons in twelve years at UF.)
Nothing snide meant here – let’s face it, the first comeback a Gator fan can throw at me is that Florida hasn’t had a losing season in any of those thirteen years, which is something we at Georgia can’t claim. I’m just wondering if the SEC is really that tough or if Florida’s program has underachieved a bit. What do y’all think?