Maybe you could call it bragging, but more accurately you might say it’s a case of giving props when Urban Meyer starts talking about the Fourth Quarter Domination by his 2008 national champion Florida Gators. He’s so proud of it that he even commissioned a poster-like display bearing those words on the weight room wall.
It wasn’t good fortune, dynamic playmaking or even great preparation and coaching that led to the way Meyer’s team performed in the big games, he said. It wasn’t even The Promise, legendary though it may have been.
It’s the time and effort the players put in with the strength and conditioning staff all the way back to the previous January, February and March that Meyer feels was responsible for the remarkable way his Gators closed out Alabama and Oklahoma in the final period. And that’s exactly what he reminded his team about before the offense took the field against Alabama with Meyer ordering them to “Go win the game.”
Meyer’s exhortation of “this is what we’ve trained for all year” provided a inspirational boost on the sideline huddle and the Gators took the field post haste with a mission in mind, which led to a pair of touchdown drives that will surely go down in Gator lore as two of the most memorable. Jeffrey Demps’ touchdown capped an 11-play, 63-yard drive highlighted by David Nelson’s 13-yard catch and Aaron Hernandez’s 6-yard shovel pass-run on third down which put Florida up 24-20. Then Tim Tebow sealed the deal with an 8-play, 65-yard march capped off by Riley Cooper’s diving five-yard touchdown grab.
“I haven’t been around Florida football as long as many others have,” Meyer said, “but those two drives against Alabama have to be among the best ever.”
Perhaps even more impressively – and this is where Urban lights up when he talks about it – was the defensive dominance. Look at the numbers, Urban will say to a visitor. And so we did.
Alabama’s fourth-quarter offensive total was 6 yards of offense on six plays with no points.
Oklahoma, one of the most potent offenses in college football history, did scrape up 98 yards on the fourth quarter but 77 came on an 8-play drive that tied the game at 14-14. In the final 12:13 of the game, OU could only muster 21 yards on eight plays while Florida scored 10 points and had 158 yards on 23 plays that controlled the clock for 10:46.
And the credit for that Meyer lays directly at the feet of Strength and Conditioning Coach Mickey Marotti and his staff. “The best in the country,” says Meyer.
We found Marotti where he usually is – in the weight room – on a hot June day, in between workouts with players. He and his staff are allowed to work the players in “voluntary” drills, but Meyer and the assistant coaches are not allowed to be present.
Subsequently, it’s Marotti who is tethered to bodies, minds and spirits of more than 100 players on a virtual year-round basis. He can tell you not only how much the defensive tackles are bench pressing, but how well the wide receivers are following their nutritional program and maybe even if one of the linebackers is not getting along with his girl friend and if the running back is going to class regularly. And, of course, Marotti is allowed to pass that information along to his boss, Meyer, if he doesn’t already know.
“You’re the go-between for the athletes and coaching staff,” said Marotti. “So you know what the needs and the goals are of the coaching staff. And you also know the genetic potential and the mental makeup of your athletes. So you come up with a plan.”
One point Marotti makes is that there are no quick fixes in the weight room.
“To get to where they have to be there’s a process, both physically and mentally,” he said. That means starting in January when the season ends, which is something he likes about this 2009 team. “They’ve got great leadership and they don’t need to be told what to do,” he said.
As important as the physical component may be, the mood and the mindset of the players is also critical – especially before a big game. Marotti, remember, helped construct that 10-foot-high propaganda wall Meyer used to psyche up his Gators before they went out and pounded Ohio State, 41-14, for the BCS title after the 2006 season.
The board was full of dispatches from the Internet and newspaper clippings which portrayed the Buckeyes as huge favorites. Meyer later said of the bulletin board material: “Some of it was real, some of it was made up and when we didn’t know where it came from we put Kirk Herbstreit’s name on it.”
The weight training room is full of stories, but one of my favorites is about Tebow’s first trip there as a high school player and the Superman feat he pulled off.
Tebow had come to take part in a one-day Friday Night Lights Camp. It started about 7 and now it was 10:30 p.m. and most everybody had left. He and Marotti were sitting on bench eating hamburgers when Tebow said:
“Coach Mick, let’s go do that leg press.”
“What leg press?” Marotti asked.
“Remember that leg press you were talking about?”
“Oh, yeah, yeah. But Tim, it’s 11 o’clock. There’s nobody here.”
“I need to do it, coach Mick.”
So they go back into the old weight room and Marotti put the weights on the leg press that had been used earlier in the day. Tebow asked how many reps the previous guy had done and Marotti said, “Oh, 26 or so.” He really wasn’t sure.
“I don’t remember how many I told him, but whatever it was he did five more than that number.”
The Tim Tebow legend began building before he ever set foot on campus as a Gator.
Tebow racked the weight, the two of them shook hands, hugged and said goodbye.
Meyer happened to be coming down the elevator when Marotti stopped him and said: “Coach, I don’t know if this guy can throw the ball, but he’s is a winner. There aren’t too many people in the country that would do what he did at 11 o’clock at night. His determination, his focus and his drive are what we’re looking for.”
Who knows what part that moment played in Tebow coming to Florida. Meyer has many good coaches on his staff, but none more valuable to him that Mickey Marotti.
Urban makes the point to say that the strength and conditioning of the 2008 team was the key to the championship season because in the fourth quarter of the games against Alabama for the SEC title and Oklahoma for the BCS National Championship the numbers speak for themselves.
“I like to give credit where credit is due,” Meyer said. “I just think the strength staff – how we won the games, how we finished so strong, how we overcame injuries – is the best in the country.”
It’s hard to argue that these days.
The Florida Gators beat the nation’s No. 1 teams in back-to-back games – shut them down in the fourth quarter.
The numbers really do speak – in historical terms.