Urban Meyer: It’s a ‘one-game season’ for Gators
You heard the injury report…now onto the highlights from Urban Meyer’s Sunday teleconference in preparation for the SEC title game.
*Considering his team clinched the Eastern division on Oct. 31 — at the end of a particularly average month of offense for Gators standards — Meyer is proud of his team’s resiliency through November while knowing the stakes. “To think that we clinched a berth in this four weeks ago and still took care of business,” Meyer said. “Everybody wanted to keep talking about the SEC championship game. We kept our focus.”
*Said he feels the bigness of this game, but “that’s just great storyline. We’re not concerned about that. I can’t think of a bigger football game that I’ve been a part of, we’ve been a part of.”
*Meyer was hazy on all the details of last year’s monumental fourth quarter in the 31-20 win over ‘Bama. You might recall, Florida outdistanced the Tide in offensive yards 141-1 in that quarter on the way to a 14-0 advantage. Tebow went 7-for-7 passing. Meyer remembers Alabama “took the ball right down our throat” in the third quarter — yeah, we all remember — and Florida desperately needed a response. “The fact they have great players and great coaches, that’s the only thing that matters. Last year is last year.”
*He later added about the fourth quarter: “Those are the moments you remember. Those are the great moments in college football, the ones coaches cherish.”
*After a distracting season full of flu bugs, concussions, eye-gougings and mini dramas, Meyer is sort of relieved to be at this point — 12-0 and sort of a one-game season in December. “All young people can gauge and see it’s coming to a close,” Meyer said. “The effort level and focus the last couple of years has been phenomenal…Now it’s right here in front of us, I do feel a sense of ‘Hey, we’re here, now let’s not worry about it and just play,'”
*More on last year’s game: “This is a one-game season now,” Meyer said. “Last year is last year.”
*Though these two defensive powers could create a grind-it-out, low-scoring style of play, Meyer says don’t front on the respective offenses. “I also think when you look at the stats, basically it’s the two top offenses in the SEC in a lot of categories,” Meyer said. “The defense may be because they are one and two, I think they are one and two in the country…both these offenses are very, very powerful.”
Orlando Sentinal
11/30/9
