Guest Blog: Gators First

Our good friends at Gators First have been kind enough to provide us with an interesting article as we gear up for a huge weekend.

This topic has been controversial and hotly contested as of late.

Just my two cents: Meyer is better at everything than Saban. Everything!
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The Meyer v. Saban Debate

A couple weeks ago, one of my Arkansas-fan friends asked me if I thought Urban Meyer or Nick Saban was the better coach. There are some similairites. Saban is a part of the 'Belichick coaching tree', while Meyer is turning into Bill Belichick. Meyer's "year-two" magic was well publicized at Utah, and then when UF won a National Title in 2006. Saban, of course, has Alabama the undisputed #1 team in the country, and in position for a National Title in year two. There are more, but that's not the point. The point is, who's better? My answer, of course was Meyer.

Consider Nick Saban's coaching record outside of powerhouse schools LSU and Alabama. Up until year 5 at Michigan State, they were really a .500 team. They also lost 3 consecutive bowl games to start his tenure (the only 3 they made). In fact, Nick Saban never won a bowl game while at Michigan State- when they beat Florida after the 1999 season, they were led by an interim coach. He lucked into an SEC title in 2001, as the best teams were most certainly Florida and Tennessee, but a 3-loss (all in-conference!) LSU was the West's representative in Atlanta, and benefitted from what is now considered the beginning of the end of Phil Fulmer.Urban Meyer has won everywhere. He went 17-6 at Bowling Green! BOWLING GREEN! He started Utah on a roll that hasn't stopped. And I thoroughly blame the players and their lack of maturity for last season. Even last year, which was probably his worst year (it certainly was, record-wise, though his year end rankings were roughly the same in 05) he coached a Heisman winner! He has a phenomenal record in bowl games, rivalry games, and games played with extra preparation (usually after a bye).

I’m not trying to put down Nick Saban. I think these guys are easily 1 and 1a, whichever way you rank them. The only other name anyone ever throws out there is Pete Carroll, and I’m on the record for my opinion of Pete Carroll. I chose Urban for probably two reasons: 1) He’s our coach and 2) I can make the argument for Meyer over Saban, but can’t formulate the Saban over Meyer argument. We should see where these guys are in another five years, but I think it’s safe to assume for now that these are the two best coaches in the NCAA.Anyways, what do you think? I've tried to look at this objectively, and the only arguments I've come up with for Saban over Meyer I can attribute to his being a head coach for longer. I also don't think this will be decisively answered Saturday- I think it will be but one more data point from which to form a conclusion.

Guest Blog : Gators First

The Good 'ol Boys from Gatorsfirst were nice enough to provide CFB 365 with another great article this week.

This post was provided by Chris of Gators First. Chris does a great job of laying out a proposed playoff situation. Unfortunately, I couldn't provide the whole article myself, so check out the full version here.

Enjoy!

Conference Realignment and Playoff Proposal…Part Deux

I recently read over James’s original realignment plan and I found it very interesting. It was basically a way to allow the major conferences to make a few minor additions and subtractions to their conferences to make sure the big ones will be guaranteed a championship game. He then went on to mention the Wetzel Plan, which called for a 16-team playoff. However, after reading both, I found that there were a couple of flaws. So, mainly because I have a lot of free time and have nothing better to do, I decided I would make some updates to both plans…

The main point I’d like to start with is that I propose to make eight 12-team conferences, each of which will be entered into the BCS. Yes you read that correctly, the BCS will stay. As much as the BCS has failed to determine the final two teams to play for the national championship game, it has done a good job on a much larger scale figuring out where teams stand. Read further and you’ll see where I’ll use it. As a 12-conference, each will be required to have a championship game, and the winner of that game will earn an automatic bid into a 16-team BCS championship playoff, similar to the NCAA college basketball tournament. The remaining eight playoff spots will go to the top eight teams in the BCS standings that are not already guaranteed a spot in the playoff. This usage of the BCS should quell people’s fears, because the only teams that might have an argument against the BCS will be those teams that feel their team deserved a chance when they were the 9^th or 10^th best team left of those not already guaranteed a spot. In my eyes, this argument holds no weight, because your team clearly wouldn’t have shown itself to be one of the top five best teams in the country at that point and you should stop your bitching. But I digress…

With that being said, you might be wondering to yourself “Wait, if there are eight 12-team leagues, that means there are only 96 BCS teams. What happens to the other 24 teams in the bowl subdivision?” That’s a good question for those who thought that… The remaining 24 teams will still have a chance to play in the tournament, as long as they have a BCS ranking that is in the top eight of the remaining slots. It’s that simple. I will discuss their role later.

I have looked hard at the top 96 teams in college football with respect to current play, history, and current conference value. I chose to leave out those teams out of the eight new conferences that have little value.

Here are the current conference lineups (those struck through weren’t added to new BCS conferences):

SEC

East – Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee

West – Auburn, LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Mississippi St

Big 12

North – Iowa St, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas St, Kansas, Missouri

South – Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St

Big 10 (11)

Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio St, Michigan, Michigan St, Wisconsin, Penn St

ACC

Atlantic – Florida St, Boston College, Maryland, Wake Forest, Clemson, NC State

Coastal – Miami (FL), North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech

Big East

Syracuse, Connecticut, Rutgers, West Virginia, Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, Pittsburgh

Pac 10

Arizona, Arizona St, Southern Cal, UCLA, Stanford, California, Oregon, Oregon St, Washington, Washington St

MAC

East – Temple, Buffalo, Kent St, Akron, Ohio, Miami (OH), Bowling Green

West – Northern Illinois, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Toledo, Ball St.

Conference USA

East – Central Florida, UAB, East Carolina, Marshall, Memphis, Southern Miss

West – Tulane, Houston, Rice, SMU, Tulsa, UTEP

Sun Belt

FAU, FIU, Middle Tennessee, Arkansas St, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette, North Texas, Troy

WAC

Louisiana Tech, New Mexico St, Utah St, Boise St, Nevada, San Jose St, Fresno St, Idaho, Hawaii

Mountain West

TCU, New Mexico, Air Force, Colorado St, Wyoming, BYU, Utah, UNLV, San Diego St

Independent

Notre Dame, Western Kentucky, Army, Navy

With my proposal, here are the new conferences, based off the old ones:

SEC

East – Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Clemson, Georgia Tech

West – Auburn, LSU, Alabama, Mississippi, Mississippi St, Kentucky

Notes: The SEC doesn’t change much. However, they replace Vanderbilt and Arkansas with Clemson and Georgia Tech. Vanderbilt isn’t very “SEC” and Arkansas isn’t geographically near the other SEC schools. Clemson would be a great fit because they, out of any other school in the southeast, resemble a true SEC school, as well as their longstanding rivalry with South Carolina. Georgia Tech also would fit in the east because of their rivalry with Georgia. Kentucky moves to the west division due to geographic complications.

Big 12

North – Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas St, Kansas, Missouri, Tulsa

South – Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Arkansas

Notes: The Big 12 also doesn’t change much. They replace Iowa St and Baylor with Tulsa and Arkansas. Iowa St seems like they should belong in the Big 10. Baylor has sucked at football for a long time now, and belongs with the likes of SMU, Rice, and Houston as poor teams from Texas. They never seem to beat any of the good Big 12 teams anyways. Tulsa would fit right in with the other teams from Oklahoma, especially with Gus Malzhan’s new offense. Arkansas used to be in the defunct Southwestern Conference, with a slew of other current Big 12 members. They’ll fit right in.

Big 10 + 2

East – Ohio St, Michigan, Michigan St, Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame

West – Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa St

Notes: The Big 10 + 2 finally conforms to the conference championship game model that has worked for other major conferences. They replace Penn St with Notre Dame and Iowa St. Penn St joined the Big 10 in the early 1990’s, so leaving won’t take away from much of the tradition they have built over the last 15 or so years. They belong with other Big East teams. Iowa St. has a major rivalry with Iowa and this allows them to play every year within their conference. Notre Dame needs to get over themselves and join a conference already. This opportunity allows them to play big schools in their area. The conference will split evenly into two divisions, east and west. Also, they get to keep their traditional “big ten” name in their conference name, even though they have 12 teams. I’d like to see the clever logo they come up with next.

ACC

North – North Carolina, Wake Forest, Duke, NC State, Virginia Tech, Virginia

South – Miami (FL), Florida St, Central Florida, South Florida, Vanderbilt, East Carolina

Notes: The ACC changes a lot. They replace Boston College, Maryland, Clemson, and Georgia Tech with Central Florida, South Florida, Vanderbilt, and East Carolina. I figured that Boston College and Maryland regionally fit with other teams in the northeast. Also, Clemson and Georgia Tech have big rivalries with other schools in the SEC and remind me of SEC college towns (Georgia Tech is better than Vanderbilt). For those coming in, it made sense to group the other Florida schools together as well as bringing in another school from the Carolinas. Vandy matches well with other schools of higher education like Duke, Virginia, and UNC.

Pac 12

South – Southern Cal, UCLA, Stanford, Hawaii, UNLV. Fresno St

North – California, Oregon, Oregon St, Washington, Washington St, Boise St

Notes: The Pac 12 also finally conforms to the conference championship game model. They replace Arizona and Arizona St with Hawaii, UNLV, Fresno St, and Boise St. Remember, Arizona and Arizona St joined the Pac 8 to form the Pac 10 in the late 1970’s, so leaving won’t take away from much of the tradition they have built over the last 30 or so years. They belong with other Southwestern teams. Hawaii is about as Pacific as you can get, Fresno St and UNLV belong with the other California schools, and Boise St belong with the other northwestern schools. (not Northwestern Univ…). I’d be intrigued to see how Boise St fares with regular stiff competition, especially on the blue turf! The conference will split evenly into two divisions, north and south.

Big Kinda Northeast

Northeast – Syracuse, Connecticut, Rutgers, Maryland, Penn St, Boston College

Southwest – West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Kent St, Akron, Ohio, Marshall

Notes: This conference brings together five teams from the current Big East, as well as a past member in Boston College, a current ACC member, and four current members of the MAC to form the Big Kinda Northeast Conference. I chose to do this because regionally it makes sense. The current Big East has only eight members, yet they get a guaranteed spot in the BCS, yet the Big 12 and the SEC (considerably better from top to bottom) have 12 teams and only get one guaranteed spot. At the very least, this move allows for a more legit argument for their inclusion. The conference will split evenly into two divisions, northeast and southwest (heh).

Conference USA

North – Ball St, Central Michigan, Bowling Green Cincinnati, Toledo, Miami (OH)

South – UAB, Tulane, Southern Miss, Memphis, Louisiana Tech, Louisville

Notes: This conference brings together five teams from the current MAC, four from the current Conference USA, two from the current Big East (yet former members of Conference USA), and Louisiana Tech, who inexplicably plays in the WAC with the likes of Boise St, Fresno St, and even Hawaii! I figured that I would call them Conference USA, mainly because they are the most spread out of any of my new conferences. On another note, did you know that the MAC current has 13 teams, six in one division and seven in another? Me neither! The conference will split evenly into two divisions, north and south.

Southwestern (SWC?)

Lone Star – TCU, Rice, SMU, UTEP, Houston, Baylor

Four Corners – BYU, Air Force, Arizona St, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico

Notes: This conference brings together five teams from the current Mountain West conference, four from the current Conference USA, two from the current Pac 10, and Baylor, who leaves the Big 12. I will call this the Southwestern Conference, mainly because they are in the southwestern part of the United States of America (weird right?!). The conference will split evenly into two divisions, lone star (consisting of all Texan schools) and four corners (I think the name explains itself.

Non BCS Schools

Temple, Buffalo, Northern Illinois, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, FAU, FIU, Middle Tennessee, Arkansas St, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette, North Texas, Troy, New Mexico St, Utah St, Nevada, San Jose St, Idaho, Colorado St, Wyoming, San Diego St, Western Kentucky, Army, Navy

Notes: I chose to exclude these schools from the BCS for many reasons. But the one that kept sticking out in my mind was the fact that all of these schools have either not been relevant for a long, LONG time, or never all at all. When I think of these teams, they are the first to come to mind when a major school schedules a pancake. With that said, I feel that these teams will have the opportunity to still make it to the BCS playoff that I will discuss shortly. All they will have to do is schedule some tough games and try to build their program with big wins. Maybe in the future, I would even put in a clause that they could replace another failing team from a BCS conference if they have a string of consecutive winning seasons and upset, a la English Premier League soccer (I refuse to call it football!). But that is for another blog, on another day…maybe in another life.

Here is my BCS Playoff Proposal:

1) Each conference will have a championship game held after the completion of the regular season. The winner of each division in the conference will represent their division in the championship game. The winner of said game to gain an automatic spot into the BCS playoff, regardless of their position in the BCS standings.

2) The remaining eight (8) “at-large” slots will be determined by the eight highest teams in the BCS standings, not already guaranteed a spot in the playoff tournament.

3) At most, three (3) teams from one conference can be represented in the playoff tournament.

4) At most one (1) team from a non-BCS conference can participate in the playoff tournament.

5) The seeding of the tournament will be determined by the final BCS standings, which will be released shortly after all of the conference championship games.

6) First and Second round games would be played at the home stadium of the team with the higher seed.

Imagine the possibilities of having a championship tournament. Every conference can have their chance to shine. A true champion will be determined. Also, the bowl system will still stay mostly in tact. For example, every bowl will have the opportunity to select teams after they have been eliminated from the tournament. All teams not in the tournament that have a winning record will still have the same chance of playing in a bowl game. The first place game will be the BCS National Championship game, and the 3^rd place game can move to each of the current BCS bowl locations every four years, guaranteeing a premier matchup in that game.

Here is an example of what could happen:

Championship Game Results

SEC: Florida (2) defeats Alabama

Big 12: Oklahoma (1) defeats Missouri

Big 10 + 2: Ohio St (11) defeats Iowa

ACC: North Carolina (12) defeats Florida St

Pac 12: Southern Cal (4) defeats Boise St

Big Kinda Northeast: Penn St (8) defeats West Virginia

Conference USA: Ball St (13) defeats Louisville

Southwestern: Utah (5) defeats TCU

The remaining eight highest BCS teams could be:

Texas (3)

Alabama (6)

Texas Tech (7)

Georgia (9)

Boise St (10)

Michigan St (14)

Oregon (15)

West Virginia (16)

Guest Blog: Gators First

My friends at Gators First have been nice enough to contribute a great article regarding the special teams play of the almighty Gators this week. If you've seen even one quarter of a Florida game this season, you know how important this unit is to Urban Meyer's ball club.

If you ever need any kind of Gator news, I suggest you check out Gators First. They have a forum with a wide variety of topics revolving around all that is Gator Nation. There is also a daily blog that provides way more insight and intellect than I could ever hope to bring to the table.

So go check them out, and witness the thrashing I put on them in their weekly picks section.

The article this week was provided by James, a founding member of Gators First.

Enjoy!

Spectacular Teams

When thinking of this year's Gators, one unit in particular stands out above all others: special teams. The offense's yardage stats are down, but points are up. Kentucky was out of the game after just two possessions. Phil Fulmer's downfall may have begun with Brandon James. There are many other examples of our 'spectacular teams'…

Much has been made in the media about the fact that Urban Meyer coaches the special teams himself. And how he makes it desirable for players to be on the special teams unit- notably because they get to eat first at team meals. Special teams have become a proving ground to earn more playing time, with all these hot shot recruits coming in. I've already told you about Will Hill's recent emergence that began with special teams. This isn't always the case. Highly recruited guys generally do not want to be on special teams- punt protection team was for the backups and walk-ons, not the stars.

Look at what Urban Meyer has accomplished in getting players to buy into special teams. On punt blocks, Matt Patchan, Justin Trattou, and Carlos Dunlap make a big push up the middle. That's 14 stars between the three of them, according to Rivals.com recruiting rankings. On the ends, you have Deonte Thompson, Chris Rainey, and Jeff Demps for opposing teams to block. Those may be the fastest three college football players, period. Those guys are hard to run down, let alone keep from turning the corner and getting to the punter. And if you worry too much about getting outside, Vanderbilt knows what sort of problems Carlos Dunlap can cause up the middle. Want to go into max protect? The most dangerous return man in the nation- Brandon James- is ready, willing, and able to make you pay.

Our offense has been scary efficient, even when not getting excellent field position from the special teams quandary I just described. But when the offense stalls, our punt coverage team is capable of the big play. When I first saw the 'new' punt formation that we run, I did not like it. How could making a shorter distance for someone to come off the corner (and block the kick) be a good thing? Turns out, the formation involves more than just players standing in goofy places. The underappreciated long snapper, James Smith, is often the first man down the field, due to the differences in blocking schemes this formation allows. He is often down the field more quickly than many players would be in a more traditional punt coverage scheme. This is advantageous not just because he is able to make the tackle more quickly, but also because several times throughout a season, the ball is not fielded cleanly by the punt return man. Off the top of my head, I can think of twice where this has happened, and resulted in a big play for the Gators. Both of them are against Arkansas, but I'm sure there are other instances; I'm just going to pick on the Hogs for now. Everyone remembers Wondy Pierre-Louis recovering that fumble in the end zone against Arkansas. Yes, we were lucky Reggie Fish made a stupid play- but our ability to play such a speedy guy (Wondy describes himself as "fast as hell") puts us in position to be lucky in those situations. The Arkansas game this year had a similar play, though the fumble wasn't returned for a TD. Who recovered the fumble? Mr. Brandon James. The fact that the speedy return man would also play such a typically non-prestigious role on the punt coverage team is all you need to know about Urban Meyer getting guys to buy into special teams.

In the Georgia game, we saw special teams again make a momentum-shifting play. And I mean beyond the fact that I think our field goal team is at least partially responsible for one of the two missed field goals. Georgia had finally gotten a field goal to go through. Momentum was turning their way, at least a little. Every coach in America must have nightmares about kicking to Brandon James in a big spot; kickoff returns for TDs are always a big momentum shifter. So what does Mark Richt do? Try to gain some more momentum on his side by a trick play, an onside kick. The Gators easily recovered and Tim Tebow and Co. were given a short field… Advantage Urban Meyer. Richt basically admitted he was terrified of this aspect of our team, and it made him change his game plan and do something wild- something probably out of his normal comfort zone.

The dedication and emphasis on special teams, which is attributable to the attitude Urban Meyer has given this team, are a big advantage Florida holds over any opponent. I've already told you how the personnel (and, to a degree, the schemes) tilt the playing field in Florida's favor. Another by-product of our coaching staff getting so much out of special teams is what it does to other teams in game-planning. And I mean this beyond the obvious "What do we do, kick to Brandon James? Let's just go for 4^th-and-10" discussion that undoubtedly takes place each week. College football coaches are forced to spend a limited number of hours with their players each week. When more of these hours must be devoted to our incredible special teams, it takes away from the two 'more important' units. Another benefit I've already touched on a few times- great special teams give us great field position, give us more points more easily. The converse is also true- giving the opponent bad field position makes things easier on our defense- for the most part we have not been putting the defense in tough situations and allowing opponents to score easy points.

This last point, on the synergy of our three units (offense, defense, special teams), is the point that explains why we deserve, at this juncture, to be in the 'Greatest Team in the Nation' discussions held by all the talking heads this time of year. Each unit is not only doing its job, but also avoiding putting the others in a tough spot. Those around the nation may argue for their squad, but I'll take Florida as the best all-around team.

James is a founder of GatorsFirst.com