2010 SEC Championship Game

[TenGator1]

I am curious to know how you folks at GatorEnvy feel about last years let down in Atlanta for the SEC Championship game. I have heard a many opinions over the last 7 months but before I go into what I personally think and have heard. I would like to get a idea of how posters on GE feel about the Gators play that day.

 

[AK Gator]

Without going back and watching the game again I remember the mood going into it as being more somber than any other big game I can remember from my time in Gainesville. Knowing that Dunlap wouldn't be able to play really seemed to take everyone's certainty again. It was this huge wound on the team that hadn't had enough time to heal. On top of that there were so many questions from the regular season about how the offense was performing and compensating without having Harvin anymore. There was Tebow's concussion, a couple of games that were supposed to be blow outs that stayed close. It was just a season of success, but it just never really took on the feel of certainty that previous season under Meyer had.

All throughout the first half, I kept expecting a huge play to come from the D-Line that would make a statement against Bama's offense, but it never really appeared. When the offense huddled up and tried to get some life back in the game I got hopeful, and when the team marched down the field I thought to myself that if they get a TD right here, that Gator spirit will catch on fire and it will turn the game around just like last year. When Tebow threw that INT, however, it was crushing. That play really just sucked the life out of us who were watching together because it followed a period of renewed hope.

Not having Dunlap, losing James at half time, and just never clicking made for a very tough day. It was really sad to that team be so close to history and to have it slip away like it did in that game. What was really bad was the elation that nearly everyone else had at the Gators losing. I had people from FSU, South Carolina, and all the way back home to Alaska just peppering their Facebooks with anti-Gator smack talking. None of their teams had accomplished anything that day, but just the fact that the Gators lost was enough for them to run into the street and - for the first time in a year and a half - celebrate our short fall.

That was a rough time. The mop up of Cincinnati was a far better way to end the year and to send the senior class off with, but it felt like such an automatic and a consolation prize, that it was hard to really get that into it. When that game ended I don't think I was alone in wanting one more jam packed University Avenue to celebrate on to close out the Tebow years.

 

[TenGator1]

Well said and Thank you AK

I remember watching Tebow attempting to rally the defense before Bamas last scoring drive. Followed by the heart breaking INT. Watching Mark Ingram bouncing off tacklers like a pinball was dizzying. Personally, I never wanted to watch that game again.

Recently the game was replayed on TV and i sat down to watch it. just before and in the months after the game, I began to hear rumors. It was said that some individuals on the team adopted a "me first" mentality. These individuals decided that their number one goal was no longer to repeat as national champions, but instead to avoid injury and prepare for the millions that waited in the NFL. UF played tight and constricted all year long, it seemed to me that because of the enormous pressure, no one was having fun playing football anymore. Tebow's Ra-Ra attitude was now catching eye rolls instead of rallying the team around him to win. After the FSU game, tempers and egos collided and the team was divided during the preparation weeks leading to the biggest game of the season, the SEC Championship. It showed that weekend in Atlanta. Add Tebows concussion, Carlos Dunlap's arrest, Coach Meyers health problems, and every Gators fans expectiations of how the team should have played and it was a recipe for disaster.

I personally didn't understand how a team could abandon their dream of making history. After all, that was the reason Tebow and Spikes returned for their senior years. Once the pressure was off we proceeded to crush Cincinnati, playing like a rejuvenated football team what was finally having fun on the field. I am thankful that we were able to send the Seniors and departing coach's out in winning fashion. We ended the season with a mass exodus of Juniors and the resignation/leave of absence of Coach Meyer, a Sugar Bowl victory that felt like second place along with many questions.

After watching the replay of the game, some of this allegations seem to make sense. For me the 2009 season will forever be about what could have been.

thoughts??

 

[AK Gator]

Without question 2009 will live on as a year that could have been so much more. If UF had beaten Alabama, finally gone undefeated through the SEC gauntlet, and gone on to play Texas in the BCS title game and won there...we're talking about UF having a recruiting class mentioned as one of the all time best in college football. The class that came in for 2006, their winning record, their championship titles, their record breaking seasons, and their utter dominance would have become the thing of legend. Instead, by coming 2 games short of all of that it left the class as one of many great classes, but straddling the line of deserving to me in the conversation for best ever or not.

Beyond that recruiting class think about what it would have done for Urban Meyer. He had already eclipsed Spurrier in total championships won, but he was still fairly young in the job and far from being as seasoned as the OBC was during his time in Gainesville. Regardless, he more or less walks on water in the minds of the Gator Faithful. Imagine him winning a 3rd title in so little time. His critics would still be able to tie his success primarily to one class of recruits, but there wouldn't be a single person who could legitimately knock his track record anymore. All of his success as an assistant, his time at Utah, and then what would have been a 3rd title in Gainesville during a stretch of national dominance in the SEC. He too would have been cemented as an all time great among college coaches.

So many of these things could have happened, but didn't because of a brutal day in Atlanta Georgia. I know that everything I said was contingent upon going on to beat Texas, but even if McCoy stayed healthy I believe Florida would have won the day. Going forward UF and Urban Meyer can still cement their claims to greatness with continued high level of play, it just won't have that poetic, 4 years of greatness storyline ending anymore, which is a sad thing to see pass you by.

 

[Mr2Bits]

Whenever I think back to the SECCG my first thought is always about Carlos Dunlap, and how he was suspended for the game because of a DUI. I don't know if we would have beat Alabama with Dunlap on the field, but there's no way McElroy would have torched our secondary like he did. We got no pressure on him the entire first half.

 

[TenGator1]

i agree that the presence of Dunlap would have helped out. Ingram just refused to be tackled that game. I remember one play in particular he broke at least 5 tackles and juked out Will Hill for a huge gain. We just didn't play our defense, it was ugly. There was no intensity and we seemed to give up on plays at times. I was so mad watching that game....and guess what when i rewatched it, i turned it off right after the Tebow interception.

 

[AK Gator]

I don't blame you for turning it off. I don't know if I could even get that far into watching that game again. I remember when the Gators lost to Michigan and feeling pretty low then, but the loss to Alabama was the most complete gut busting blow that I've felt as a Gator fan to date. None the less, next season is a whole new chapter and I know we all cannot wait for the team to take the field against Miami of Ohio and get things rolling.

 

[Escambia94]

That loss was a team effort. It takes an entire team to suck that bad--we cannot blame Dunlap's absence on that one. Timmy tried his best to rally the troops, but in the end that entire team failed him.

 

[O-town Gator]

Dunlap's DUI suspension was definitely a distraction that they could have done without, but I've also heard that some of our guys were already talking about going to the NFL right after the SOW win, and based on the way they were playing that day I had to question whether or not their hearts were really in that game. Our guys had nobody to blame but themselves for tanking it.

Thank God we were able to regroup and get into the right mindset for the Sugar Bowl; I'm also glad that our guys got behind Coach Meyer and stood by him as well after what he went through. I only wish Tim Tebow and this stellar senior class could have gone out on top, but it didn't happen - and there's no use crying over spilled milk. We wound up winning in NOLA, and I'll never be disappointed with a BCS bowl win.

Beyond that recruiting class think about what it would have done for Urban Meyer. He had already eclipsed Spurrier in total championships won, but he was still fairly young in the job and far from being as seasoned as the OBC was during his time in Gainesville. Regardless, he more or less walks on water in the minds of the Gator Faithful. Imagine him winning a 3rd title in so little time. His critics would still be able to tie his success primarily to one class of recruits, but there wouldn't be a single person who could legitimately knock his track record anymore. All of his success as an assistant, his time at Utah, and then what would have been a 3rd title in Gainesville during a stretch of national dominance in the SEC. He too would have been cemented as an all time great among college coaches.

In spite of what happened last season, Meyer still has more opportunities to grab that third National Championship and even more - and I for one really hope he does. With another stellar recriuting class coming in this fall and another one in its infancy, Meyer doesn't have to worry about a shortage of talent on the roster. Since he righted the ship after what Zook did and filled the gaps, he's in a position where he's not forced to rebuild, but instead reload. 2009 was an ordeal for Meyer, but he's learned from that experience not to take anything for granted ever again - nor forsake his own personal health.

2005 and 2007 were also difficult years - but as I've seen it we've bounced back the following year and did so in a big way. Our guys should be hungry to avenge last years SECCG loss, if anything - and our coaches are making sure they don't forget.