Urban Meyer > Steve Spurrier buy/sell

[Sutterkane]

BUY.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

but could Urban have built UF up from where it was like Spurrier did? Sell.

 

[patdog]

2 national titles > 1 national title. And while Spurrier was the one who built Florida football, all the tools he needed were in place when he got there, including being right in the middle of the best football state in the country with, at the time, only 2 in-state rivals to recruit against. Based on what I've seen from Meyer, I think he could have built them up like Spurrier did.

 

[OMlawdog]

Meyer recruits his *** off.

Spurrier knew that he could basically do what he wanted and recruit at his leisure and Florida would still be good.

Meyer could do that and be solid, but the guy works his *** off on the recruiting trail and if Tebow comes back, which he probably will, Florida in 2009 will be scary, scary good.

 

[SoxFan343]

No one works harder than Urban Meyer. I think Urban Meyer could build a program just as well as Spurrier did.

 

[8dog]

that Galen Hall won a lot more of his games prior to Spurrier's arrival than Zook did prior to Meyer's.

Granted, Zook was renowned for getting some talent in there.

 

[uscreb]

Galen Hall - 1984/1989 41-18-1 (0.69167)
Gary Darnell - 1989/1989 3-4- 0 (0.42857)
Combined previous record 44-22-1 (0.6667)

Steve Spurrier 1990/2001 122-27-1 (0.81667)

Ron Zook - 2002/2004 23-14-0 (0.62162)
Charlie Strong 2004/2004 0-1-0 (0.00000)
Combined previous record 23-15-0 (0.6052)

This is a difference of .6667 games per year.

Meyer at 4-year mark 44-9
Spurrier at 4-year mark 39-10

Spurrier took over a team that was on probation and been forced to reduce scholarships for three or four years. He roster was not "full" until 1994. Zook continued to recruit well despite his limitations as a coach. His classes were ranked 20, 2, & 7. Even though a few athletes left the class when he was fired, it was still ranked at 15. Needless to say, Meyer walked into a well-stocker larder, reportedly the primary reason that he turned down Notre Dame and the reason that many folks thing he may eventually go there if Weis leaves next year.

Meyer is a great, great coach. Assuming that Pete Carroll is sort of in a different generation---midway between Spurrier and Mack Brown's generation and Meyer's generation---I would say Meyer is probably the best coach in the college game in his generation.

 

[MaxMaroon]

Spurrier was younger and more gung-ho in his days at Florida. I think he has mellowed some in his latter years and doesn't have the fire he once did. Also, the SEC was a much different conference in Spurrier's UF coaching career.
Tennessee was tougher then as were Arkansas, Mississippi State, Mississippi, Auburn and Alabama. This year, three of those Western Division teams were down and Tennessee had a horrible year. LSU was up-and-down during Spurrier's stay at Florida so I didn't include them in that equation.
I will say that Spurrier is the one who built Florida's offensive philosophy around speed and quick passing. Meyer has been the benefactor of a program built on that philosophy.
I would say in Spurrier's younger days that he and Meyer would be equal. As of right now, Meyer is the better buy.

 

[8dog]

which makes his edge a little more impressive.

I didnt think florida got hit that bad by probation when Spurrier took over. My research shows that they didn't lose any football scholarships, but I could easily be wrong.

 

[RebelBruiser]

can anyone imagine being a Florida fan about right now?

Of the last 6 national titles awarded in the two biggest college sports, they own 4 of the 6 freaking titles. That's not freaking fair.

And of course, for good measure, their baseball team, that no one even cares about in Gainesville, finished national runner-up just 4 years ago.

I'd be curious to know if any school has ever had a period like the last 3 years in Gainesville. I'm betting no one's really been close, unless somehow UCLA won some national football titles during Wooden's run of dominance.

 

[uscreb]

Pell's misdeeds were never made up by Galen Hall. When Spurrier came in, there were no scholarship reductions as a punishment. However, when the NCAA reduction rules went into effect, teams were allowed to "wean" their rosters. In other words, teams that had 95 players were allowed to keep those that they had on schollie, but could only add 25 per year, so for the first three years, most of the SEC teams had more players than Florida.

As a sidenote, it seems unlikely that a difference of 2/3rds of a game difference per year would be statistically significant.