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Meyer Takes Time To Hold Title Talk

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 10, 2008

NASHVIILLE, Tenn. - It's time to talk.

Urban Meyer might not be ready to take the blinders off the Gators and announce a national championship game countdown, but the tunnel-vision obsessive Florida football coach admits his team's post-season aspirations can no longer be a subject ignored.

Coupled with previously undefeated Penn State's loss to Iowa, the Gators' easy win Saturday night against Vanderbilt pushed them to No. 4 in this week's BCS rankings.

They trail No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Texas Tech and No. 3 Texas.

Interesting, the top four teams in the country are two from the SEC and two from the Big 12.

That translates into Florida needing simply to hold serve for a shot to the national championship game - two teams from the same conference are not going to play in the national championship game.

At least, that's the conventional wisdom of this week's college football's talking points, and Meyer, who last week said all championship talk was off limits, is ready to acknowledge the possibilities.

Sunday afternoon before a late-evening practice, Meyer addressed the team with what he called "my state of the union address."

"I learned this back at Utah," Meyer said. "I'll go through that all with them because they're going to hear it. And instead of from Uncle Jim or someone like that, they're going to hear it from exactly what's going on with the BCS.

"For us to just avoid that, I learned that's not the right way to do it. Let's talk about it, and then it's over, done. You've got a pretty good team coming that just beat Arkansas; obviously Coach Spurrier coming in town so we have to be ready."

Meyer, no doubt, is stressing this week's home meeting with South Carolina (3:30, WTSP, Channel 10), led by former Florida coach Steve Spurrier. After Citadel, the regular-season finale at improving Florida State could be the ultimate trapdoor.

"I think it's a great accomplishment for our team, but we still have to play South Carolina next week, so we're just trying to focus on one game at a time," LB Brandon Spikes said. "We're not going to overlook anybody."

WHAT WENT RIGHT: Florida won with all guns blazing. Its offense moved the ball with ease, rolling up more than 400 yards in three quarters. The defense did not allow Vanderbilt a first down into the second quarter and got an interception by Ahmad Black (his fifth of the year). And special teams got two blocked punts from Carlos Dunlap and continually produced good field position for the offense.

WHAT WENT WRONG: Very little, although if you must find something, Percy Harvin lost a fumble in the end zone on a 1-yard run. The turnover ended a UF streak of 28 consecutive scores inside the red zone.

Mick Elliott

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