(SIGH) If Meyer were to suddenly show clear signs of taking this team in this direction, I'd be ready to embrace that kind of optimism again--but the clearest sign would be to start by demoting (or even better, at this point, firing) Addazio. ...
To be honest, I do believe that Meyer has lost his edge as the brightest offensive mind in college football. He had it two years ago, started losing it a year ago, and is almost out of juice. We have him until 2012, at least that is my assumption. It's not too late to squeeze some juice out of him even in 2010, but he has to wake up and modify his Plan to Win and his personnel. We can still win three more games this year--Appalachia, SOW, and Loser Bowl--by benching some veterans or promoting some freshmen. The SEC East is within reach in 2011. We can still win the SEC in 2012 with most of these coaches and a modified offensive and defensive scheme with the right recruits plugged in. We have lost that dominance that we enjoyed until this year, and if Foley is not working behind the scenes to reel in Malzahn, Kelley, or Petersen then we have to reluctantly support Meyer through 2012 to see if Meyer has an ounce of juice left to squeeze out. We may not have another choice.
Meyer will regain some support from his naysayers if he does SOMETHING with Addazio right now or at the end of the season. Demote. Fire. Anything. I doubt he can hire a top-tier OC before 2011--he does not have any connections left that have not moved on to other programs. It is not too late to show that he can adapt even more than he has. He has modified his offense before by trusting his assistants. The Banzai? Borrowed from Oklahoma, installed by Azzanni. Good modification, bad execution--or wrong personnel. Maybe it was just too late in the season. Three-headed QB monster was just a band-aid.
This 2010 offense needed a Leak-Tebow or Tebow-Harvin backfield. Now, if Moooody were a better tailback, or Demps/Rainey were a lot bigger, and the o-line recruited for the pro-style, the John Brantley Experiment may have worked. Meyer and his staff may have tried to update their Plan, but as we can see, it failed. Meyer gets points from me for trying, but he needs help at the OC position to be more creative with the kids he has on the field next year.
We all look across the pasture and want Malzahn, but we can't copy that scheme without or own Cam Newton. Jordan Reed could run that, but not Brantley. Brantley would work well in the Petersen/Harsin offense at Boise State, which looks like the offense that we saw in the Gator Orange and Blue debut. The problem there is that o-line does not look anything like the O&B game o-line.
In summary: Urban Meyer has some juice in him. He is no longer the top offensive mastermind, but with some help at OC he can still win some games by modifying his own Plan. Give him until 2012 to prove it. If Addazio is still OC in 2011, it will become Driskel's job to be our Tebow or Newton or Kellen Moore--Brantley lacks that quality. (Or, Burton or Reed could have an epiphany and be "that guy"--that would be faster.)