Even after watching video of Florida’s 49-10 rout of Georgia Saturday in Jacksonville, Urban Meyer wasn’t ready to talk Sunday about the Gators football team being in the driver’s seat as the East Division representative for the Dec. 6 SEC Championship Game at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.
Nor did Meyer take the bait when asked about the Gators’ position in the Bowl Championship Series rankings, which were still several hours from being released but certain to be different considering Texas Tech’s dramatic, last-second 39-33 upset of No. 1 Texas Saturday evening in Lubbock.
There’s only one game which matters for Meyer and Florida, now 7-1 overall and 5-1 in the SEC East: Saturday night’s game at Vanderbilt (5-3, 3-2 SEC East). Kickoff is 8 p.m. and ESPN2 will televise the game nationally.
“We have to protect the quarterback and take care of the football against Vanderbilt,” Meyer said Sunday. “We’ve got to make sure we play some great defense against Vanderbilt.
Nevertheless, this season is shaping up as a mirror image of 2006, when Florida battled back from a 27-17 mid-October loss at Auburn to win the SEC East then the SEC Championship Game (38-28 over Arkansas) and finally the BCS National Championship in Glendale, Ariz. (41-14 over No. 1 Ohio State).
Since losing 31-30 to Mississippi on Sept. 27 in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the Gators have played four games in five weeks and won them all – 38-7 at Arkansas, 51-21 over then No. 3 LSU on the evening of Oct. 11 in the Swamp, 63-5 over Kentucky last Saturday in Gainesville and Saturday’s blowout of the Bulldogs, avenging a 42-30 loss from 2007 which included “The Incident” – the entire Georgia team celebrating in the end zone after its first touchdown.
In case you don’t want to get off the couch and get your calculator, we’ll do the work for you – Florida has won those four games by a combined 201-43. With the Texas Tech upset of Texas, Florida has moved to No. 4 (from No. 5) in the Associated Press media poll, to No. 5 (from No. 7) in the USA Today coaches poll, to No. 3 (from No. 4) in the Legends Football Coaches poll and to No. 4 (from No. 6) in the Harris Interactive Poll.
The USA Today coaches poll and the Harris Interactive Poll make up two-thirds of the BCS rankings. The other third is an average of six computer rankings which also figure in strength of schedule.
In the third weekly BCS rankings released Sunday evening, the Gators, who were No. 10 in the first rankings and No. 8 in the second, jumped up to No. 5 behind unbeatens Alabama (No. 1), Texas Tech (2), Penn State (3) and one-loss Texas (4).
As long as the Gators continue to win – following Saturday evening’s game in Nashville which will be televised by ESPN2 at 8 p.m., Florida returns home for South Carolina (Nov. 15) and The Citadel (Nov. 22) before ending the regular season at Florida State (Nov. 29) and then playing a SEC West opponent, likely Alabama, in the SEC Championship – they should find themselves as one of the top two BCS teams. Those teams meet for the national championship Jan. 8 in Dolphin Stadium at Miami Gardens.
Texas Tech plays Oklahoma State this Saturday in Lubbock, Oklahoma in Norman on Nov. 22 and concludes its regular season with a visit from Baylor before the Big 12 Championship Dec. 6. Texas plays Baylor and Texas A&M at home and Kansas on the road. Penn State travels to Iowa this Saturday and ends its season with home games against Indiana and Michigan State. Alabama travels to LSU this Saturday and then closes with Mississippi State and Auburn.
Meyer isn’t looking ahead and his football team won’t be, either, as long as he and strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti have anything to say about it.
“There is no talk about championships, no talk about anything other than how we prepare to win, how we prepare for the (next) game,” Meyer said. “I’ve already met with our strength staff, which is in charge of a lot of that. They follow our lead, and we’ve got good leaders on the team. We need to stay focused on what’s important – the fundamentals of the game.”
Meyer has been very impressed with Vanderbilt ever since watching the Commodores moved to 5-0 on the evening of Oct. 4 in front of a packed house at Dudley Field and a national audience tuned in to their 14-13 victory over Auburn. That start, Vandy’s best since 1943, unfortunately has been followed by losses on consecutive Saturdays at Mississippi State (17-14), at Georgia (24-14) and home against Duke (10-7).
“It’s the best Vanderbilt team since we’ve been here,” Meyer said.
One slip in November, of course, and Urban Meyer may not have to worry about any championship talk – SEC or BCS.