Time to get something off my chest, I guess.
I made the mistake yesterday of stumbling into a Twitter debate highlighted by this:
Dude—Florida is literally 21-9 vs uga since ‘90 w/ no NCs in sight
. Where you get you that level of chirpitude is baffling. Uga are eternal Kings of Spring. Champions of nothing. Hell even UT has at least won an NC in that time! — Boom shaka laka (@ufslide) May 12, 2020
Ah, yes, 1990, the last refuge of the embattled Gator fan. Literally.
Look, I’ve followed Georgia football for four decades. Believe me, I know the shortcomings of my program better than this guy does. At least I’m honest about them, which is more that he can say about himself.
Spurrier and Meyer owned Georgia for two decades. There’s no question about that. Since Corch left, though, Georgia leads the series with Florida 6-3, and the Gators haven’t won a conference championship. That is current and that is reality.
What’s fantasy is your typical Gator fan’s belief that the period when Florida was coached by two Hall-of-Fame level coaches (skip the personal shortcomings for the moment) represents normality for their football program. The truth is that what’s going on now — a good but not elite level of accomplishment — is what is historically normal for Florida football.
Could Dan Mullen win a conference championship? Sure, why not? Galen Hall did… sort of, anyway. Florida’s got the kind of resources available to it, particularly in recruiting, that fans of most other football programs would sell their mothers to have. They’re good enough for a program to win its share of titles. It’s just that the story of Gator football over the years is mostly a story of squandering those resources.
What history tells us is that it takes an elite coach to guide Florida football to an elite level of accomplishment. Is Dan Mullen an elite coach on the level of Spurrier and Meyer? Something, something, 21-9, sez the Gator dude.
They’ll always have 1990. Too bad it’s 2020.