Listening for sweet music

If you’re a college football coach, you worry about the attention span of players from moment to moment.

So what to do about 31 days? That’s how long it will have been between football games for the Florida Gators when they take the field at Dolphins Stadium to play Oklahoma for the national championship.

The Gators had been on such a tear, playing perhaps at the highest level in school history for 10 games, that it took a Christmas vacation to stop them.

It took a lot of work to find that synchronization in the first place, not to mention the oratory skills of their quarterback and a rededication to football by their middle linebacker.

You wonder: Can they just turn the key and expect that engine to purr like Porsche again?

The last time I saw Tim Tebow he was carrying The Gator Nation on his back, cobbling together one of the great drives in Florida football history.

Tebow to the left, Tebow to the right. Watch Timmy run. Watch Timmy pass for the clinching touchdown against Alabama to cap a magnificent 65-yard march to clinch the SEC.

It felt like we were watching a maestro that night at the Georgia Dome, as Tebow’s precise timing resulted in a clutch 33-yard, on-the-run catch by Louis Murphy. And then a 15-yard strike to Aaron Hernandez. And then a low liner to Riley Cooper for the touchdown — three plays for the scrapbook on offensive efficiency.

What we have to remember, I guess, is that the offense had gone into hibernation for the third period which Nick Saban’s defensive dominated for a 20-17 Alabama need. And again, it was Tebow with the wakeup call.

Timing is to offensive execution what the metronome is to music and it does not come in convenient spray cans — it comes through practice. No doubt Meyer is aware of this, but at the same time he’s never had a team playing at this pitch before. So while maybe he doesn’t worry, we worry a little for him.

When the maestro steps up to the podium, will there be sweet music again?

The secret is for Urban to keep them all interested.

The Florida coach learned several yeas ago about the importance of pace, and that means not wearing out his team with one long, continuous practice schedule. He said if he told his players they had 31 straight days of practice that they’d probably rebel. So he has broken the workouts into bundles.

The second key is not opening up the gate until the race is ready to be run. Two years ago before Florida was scheduled to play Ohio State for the BCS title, Meyer called some fellow coaches for advice. Dr. Lou warned him against premature stimulus.

“Don’t play that game until January eighth,” Lou Holtz told him. “Don’t play it December thirteenth and don’t play it December sixth. Play it January eighth.”

And so they did. The night before the 2006 championship game, Meyer called his team together and broke down each team by components, with an honest evaluation of each unit. After the meeting, several players later told me they were brimming with confidence. And when January eighth came, they played the game — oh, how the played the game.

This Meyer team is on the precipice of greatness, with a chance to catapult the University of Florida program to an elite status in college football by notching a second national title in three seasons. Should the ‘08s do it, they could secure their place in UF history as the greatest team of all time.

It’s true that right now the ‘08s are blazing a trail that might never be blazed again. What’s more, they are also blazing that trail for another potential championship caliber team in 2009.

There will be plenty of time for comparisons later with the 2006 and 1996 national champions for their rightful place in history.

For now let’s let them log in a few good practices, work on that timing and worry about playing Oklahoma on January eight — and not before. First, they’ve got to find the sweet music.