Wednesdays (er…Fridays) with Willy: the SEC, Urban Meyer’s Legacy, and South Carolina
I know what you’re thinking. “Oh look, another weekly column that doesn’t come close to actually being weekly.” But I tried with this one. I REALLY DID!!! And so did Willy. But the technology gods were against us. I sent Willy questions two weeks ago. And he responded two weeks ago. But I never got his responses. And I never got his further responses to my emails asking him where the hell his answers were. Apparently, despite the fact that we email each other no less than 100 times a month, these particular responses were deemed junk mail and placed in the dark recesses of the quarantine folder. Said quarantine folder finally decided that today would be as good a day as any to let me know there were items in it. THANKS! So here you go. Another episode of Wednesday’s with Willy. On a Friday.
After winning the last three national titles (and four of the last six) and getting a ridiculous television deal, is the SEC truly college football’s best conference?
Yes, the SEC is college football’s best conference, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the TV deal. That is merely a by-product of being the best, most highly watched conference in the nation. When you combine what we have done on the field as a conference over the past couple of years with the fan base that the SEC teams have, I think it is fairly easy to see that we are #1. I think from top-to-bottom, the SEC has the most talent and depth of any conference. Each and every year there is a fairly good chance that
UF
,
LSU
,
Tennessee
,
Georgia
, and
Alabama
will be in the top 25. Throw in the occasional successful seasons of
Auburn
,
South Carolina
, and
Ole Miss
and you have yourself a very consistent and powerful group of teams. Like you said, the SEC has won 4 of the last 6 BCS Championships and 5 of the 11 BCS Championship games that have ever been played. The only other conference that has even won 2 championships is the Big 12. All-in-all, if I had to rank the big 6 conferences right now it would go in this order: SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10, ACC, and finally the Big East.
24 (or whatever the number is now) Florida players have been arrested since Urban Meyer became the head coach. On the other hand, the Gators qualification rate for admittance is off the charts and the team had 37 players named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll this year – tying a conference record. Which way is Meyer’s legacy going to lean? Meyer’s legacy is not going to lean towards either of these two ends. When push comes to shove, fans and critics don’t care about things like graduation rate or discipline rate. They care about wins and trophies. And Meyer has plenty of each. Meyer is 44-9 while at UF and has 2 national championships. There is honestly not a coach in the country, including Pete Carroll that I would want to coach the Gators right now over Urban Meyer. So, what is Meyer’s legacy going to be when he leaves? He will be the best coach that ever put on the headset at the University of Florida and quite possibly one of the top 10 coaches ever in the history of college football. Period.
If you were forced to cheer for a school other than the ones represented in the name of this site, which one would it be and why? And none of that “I’m only a Gator and hate everyone else” crap. If I were forced to cheer for a school other than the University of Florida and the University of South Florida (my two alma maters), I would have to choose the University of South Carolina. There is something about the Gamecocks that I have always liked, even before Spurrier became their coach. But once the Ol’ Ball Coach decided to go to USC(east), I became an even bigger fan of them. Their campus is supposed to be amazing, their fans seem pretty cool, and I even like their mascot. What can I say; I am a sucker for cocks (as in Gamecocks people)!!! After South Carolina it would be Auburn who I have pledged my likings for previously on this website. If I had to pick a non-SEC school since I traditionally root for the SEC even when the Gators aren’t involved, I would probably go with Texas. Texas seems like a school that I would love to go to. And they helped us win our very first national championship, so I will always like them for that reason. Of course, Ohio State also helped us win that 1996 championship and I don’t have the same fondness for them that’s for sure!