Everyone knows that Saban and Meyer aren’t preparing for the SEC Championship game this week, but you’ve got to believe it’s like a mosquito flying around in the back of their thoughts at this point.  Every time Coach Meyer tries to focus on FIU, there’s that buzzing as he finds himself suddenly thinking about how to eliminate Julio Jones’ passing attack or how to keep Ingram from gathering more Heisman stats. 

According to fans here, though, we shouldn’t be worrying about Alabama’s offense yet, as we supposedly have problems of our own.  When you listen to sports radio in this town, all you hear lately is how anemic the offense is, how disgusting Steve Addazio’s play calling has been, how we’re not the same team who played last year.

My response to the whiners:  Really?

Are Gainesville fans already so spoiled by their football successes that you’re level of expectation has risen beyond simply winning the games?  Do you feel that Meyer’s lost a step?  Or that Tebow really isn’t the NFL caliber quarterback you all believed he was just a couple short months ago?

Where, oh where, has your confidence gone?

This week seems to have gotten worse, as we somehow didn’t win big enough against South Carolina while Alabama managed to spark its offense the last couple weeks, with big throws from Jones now complimenting those huge Ingram ground plays.  Up until now, the Tide’s been playing like the Gators with stalwart defense and a pound the rock run game that wears down the opponents into the fourth quarter.  This approach means close games, as we’ve seen all year, and ugly wins.  Now, there’s some sort of perception that the Tide have exceeded us and are scoring more with more confidant wins.

Kids, it isn’t all that bad here, either.

The Tide just put up a 24-15 win at LSU, and dropped 31 points on Miss St during a span when people said Alabama was finally playing better than Florida.  During that same span, when we here in Gainesville are calling for the offensive coordinator’s head, UF beat the Cocks 24-14 and dropped 27 on Vanderbilt.  Pretty similar if you ask me.

How about numbers?  There have been complaints that the UF running game has become one dimensional, with runs up the middle as the standard, usually stopped for short gains, and a lack of real fireworks (Tebow is the leading rusher with 604 yds on 171 carries for 10 TDs, while their number one running back, Demps, has 577 on 79 attempts with 6 TDs).  If you want to keep this Alabama comparison going, let’s look at Ingram, one of the favorites to travel to the Heisman finals (probably with Tebow, McCoy, and Andrew Luck from Stanford, with one of the best names a QB could ask for).  Crimson Mark has been on fire this year with 1297 yds, averaging 6.9 per carry with 10 TDs all by himself.  Then, there’s our team rushing, which averages a combined 230.6 yards per game (Ingram runs about 217 per game).  Again, our team doesn’t look so bad, especially when you realize our depth.  Yeah, the running game may not have that IT guy, but we’ve got a back for any situation, and a quarterback who runs for as many yards, if not more, than most teams star running back.

And Tebow’s arm?  About the same, as our respectable 86th ranked passing attack may not be making head lines, but the fact that we rank 13th in the NCAA in points scored should make you sore fans see that we are still winning.  So what if our average score is about 10 points less this year, our defense has shaved about 3 points off the opponent’s average this year and we didn’t lose to a team from Mississippi.  In fact, as you may have heard, we haven’t lost in 20 games.

In order to get to the Ole Miss loss, you have to go back 10 games this year, then go back to last season and go back through 10 more games, so it’s been a while.

In order to try and make the point a little clearer for you naysayers, we’ll just throw Alabama out the window (for this week at least) and focus on Florida 08 vs. Florida 09, or the Players vs. the Team.

Last season, Harvin, Tebow, and Murphy accounted for 216 points (here we’re just giving Tebow credit for when he crossed the goal line himself rather than throwing a TD), while in 09, the top 3 of Tebow, Cooper, and Demps have scored for a total of 132 points.  I know, it seems like a lot of difference, but if you remove Harvin from the equation and replace him with Demps (they’re #4 scorer in 08), they’re total points for the top 3 in 08 drops to 162 and that includes the postseason (SEC and National Championship games).  Anyone who has taken the time to watch Harvin in the NFL this year knows what a special athlete and scorer he is, yet people here forget how much he really did for this offense.  When the chips were down, Harvin was our go to guy.  He was Tebow’s first choice in good situations and safety measure in bad ones.  Take him from any offense and the numbers will decrease, so maybe it’s not the play calling from Addazio, but the talent available this year; great, but not the spectacular, once in a season type of special that Harvin was.

However, what we continue to overlook here is how good the team as a whole has become at finding ways to keep winning.  Points aside, the wins this season have gone beyond the great titan that was 08 through ingenuity and a flat out will to keep succeeding.  People are all looking for scapegoats for the offensive drop off, yet aren’t praising the win-loss upswing this year.  No SEC losses, no NCAA losses, and a number one ranking the whole season.  If you think throwing Addazio to the wolves for his supposedly tame, repititious play calling will make things improve(I’ve heard people complain that it only looks like we’re running 4 plays in any game, over and over), my point is that there’s no need to fix the unbroken.  Also, taking shots at Addazio, my dear Gainesvillers, is the same as taking shots at Urban Meyer, who is the last word in play calls and is the one who formulates the game plans, deciding what plays are appropriate to the team they’re playing and the long term goal of winning the game, not just scoring.  Addazio isn’t the problem; he’s been patient enough this season not to start mashing the gas pedal and roaring down the field blindly out of control, opting to wait for the right opportunity before striking. 

Oh, and both he and Meyer have faith in their defense.

I know, defense is boring, but when you’ve got a squad that has only allowed 20 points once this season, you can get a little excited.  Maybe that’s the problem; no one wants to get excited about defense.  Last year, LSU scored 21 and Ole Miss dropped 31 in their victory over us.  Opponents in 08 averaged 180 yards in the air and a little over 105 yards on the ground, compared to 09’s 139 yards passing and 94 yards rushing allowed, and last year’s defense was good enough to hold Oklahoma to 14.  They gave up 100 more first downs last year (again the season isn’t over yet, but that number won’t be getting whittled down too much more, even including the National Championship).  As a whole, our D-line requires more attention from blockers, our line backing core are dangers both as tacklers and interceptors, and our secondary (though Haden specific) are just clamping down on opposing receivers.

All this data points towards a winning team, even if their margin of victory isn’t up to the level set last season.  Gator fans, you’ve gotten spoiled.  The Percy Harvin show last year was a limited engagement and I think it may have skewed your appreciation of the finer things in life this season.  Tebow is playing just as hard for us as we saw last year, winning games in the face of concussions and numerous, numerous hits (some aren’t even penalized with refs standing 5 feet away).  Our defense stayed healthy last year and was vicious, but wasn’t called on very often to win games (which they couldn’t do at Ole Miss, but were more than able to against Oklahoma), while they have been depended on several times this year in key games (see LSU, see Arkansas) and have shown their depth and talent repeatedly. 

Perhaps we should stop ragging on the offense and start praising the team’s ability to segue from one year to another, to really see the strengths of the team and make a season-long recipe for success that keeps us undefeated and number one.  Rather than focus on the negatives or what you don’t like, start seeing what you have in front of you before you pessimize this season right out of your memory.  Urban Meyer saw the team as a whole last year, knew where it was going, and had a plan on how to use the talent available to get him back to the National Championship game.  Why can’t we see that Meyer did the exact same thing this year?  The only difference between the two years is where the strength of the team fell, not the competency of the coaching or the end result.

This is the NCAA people, not the NFL.  You can’t bank on players being there long term as there are no athletes to build a franchise around, but you can build a year around them and we’ve done that here.  Truth be told, watching this year makes me believe that post-Tebow UF football won’t be so bad, as we have an intelligent coaching staff that can adjust their philosophy to create a winning team, rather than trying to fit new players into an old system.  And who cares if Alabama isn’t playing the same football as us anymore?  The difference will be even more highlighted when we’re going out west and Alabama will have to settle for the Sugar Bowl.  Our offense will do enough to win the SEC against Alabama, and our defense will keep them in a strangle hold, just like we’ve done all season to the tune of 10-0, so stop waiting for the other shoe and enjoy the rest of Tebow’s games.

The clock is ticking.

Oh, and one last thing.  Meyer isn’t going to jump ship when Tebow leaves, so stop with the Notre Dame talk.  Why cause distraction to your own coach just to try and get some juicy quote that will further cause distraction?  See what Jon Gruden is doing instead, he’s not focused on a perfect season and is ten times more likely to coach there next year. 

But seriously, leave Meyer alone, as I’m sure he’s got enough to occupy his mind right now what with spending all that time not thinking about Alabama which has got to be mentally exhausting.

Go Gators, you need four more and you can rest.

Josh Bauer is a Columnist for GatorTailgating.com