The Urbanization of Gainesville

Gainesville, Florida. Saturday night. 90,716 people wanted to see history made. Instead, 90,716 made history themselves, marking the largest crowd ever in the University of Florida's school history and the largest crowd ever to watch a football game in the state. What could have possibly been so interesting to these people?

Perhaps it was the potential battle for the SEC East Championship — No. 5 Tennessee taking on No. 6 Florida under the lights. Perhaps it was the 16-7 Gator victory, its first over the Volunteers in three years. Perhaps it was the stifling Florida defense getting their hands on everything. Perhaps it was head coach Urban Meyer.

The hype was there surrounding the whole Florida team. However, Meyer was the one with the highest expectations, expectations that started piling up when Meyer was first introduced as Florida's 21st head coach in January. Yet with any new coach, the expectations are always set high, either to fill the shoes of a legendary coach who retired or to reinvent a consistently unsuccessful program.

Meyer's case was the latter, as he took over for the infamous Ron Zook who had at least four losses every season for three years and lost two lower-rated bowl games in an embarrassing manner. One thing's for sure, after signing a seven-year deal with Florida for $14 million, Meyer had better not drown in The Swamp.

Three games and three wins into the 2005 college football season, Meyer has already completed his first set of tests to improve the school's football program, but that was work completed before he was even Florida's official coach.

Growing up in northeast Ohio, Meyer was an athletic teenager. He was drafted in the 13th round of the Major League Baseball June Amateur Draft in 1982 as a shortstop and played two years of ball in the Atlanta Braves organization. He then attended the University of Cincinnati, where he lettered as a defensive back in football and earned a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1986. After graduating, he studied at Ohio State for two years for a master's degree in sports administration.

Now, the 41-year-old Meyer is riding one of the fastest waves to the top tier of college coaches. He served as an assistant at Ohio State, Colorado State, Illinois State, and Notre Dame before becoming the head coach at Bowling Green and most recently, Utah, totaling 19 years of coaching experience for first-rate programs. However, it was his two years in Utah that Meyer earned most of his fame, coaching the Utes to the school's first perfect record in 75 years in 2004. In fact, his current 19-game winning streak dating back to 2003 trails only USC's Pete Carroll's 24 wins in a row for the nation's longest.

But all Meyer knows is hard work and winning. When he was coaching the Utes, his teams not only played opponents well, but they flat-out mangled them, including a 35-7 route of Pittsburgh in the 2004 Fiesta Bowl. Meyer's teams are 24-2 at home, and his 21-2 record at Utah earned him back-to-back Mountain West Conference titles. His Utes, known for their spread option attack, ranked third in the nation in total offense last year. The spread offense typically featured a quarterback (Heisman Trophy finalist Alex Smith) in shotgun formation. In order for it to work, it relied on a successful running game and many option and shovel passes, reverses, misdirections, or deep passes.

Meyer has brought this style of offense to Florida, and right away, there were questions as to whether or not the players could adapt to it. In Saturday's game against Tennessee, evidence of its presence came early in the game when quarterback Chris Leak faked the option left, pitched to receiver Andre Caldwell who was going right, and when Dallas Baker provided a key block, Caldwell scurried 18 yards for a touchdown to take a 7-0 lead. Yet despite that early score, the offense struggled with other tasks, including blocking and protecting Leak, who was sacked five times in the game. Though Leak finished connecting on 17-of-26 attempts for 179 yards, the offense only put together two long drives the whole game.

The real fireworks came from the other side of the ball, where the defense blanketed Tennessee (1-1), which started Rick Clausen at quarterback and then replaced him with Erik Ainge after the first two series. The Gators D put constant pressure on Ainge with two sacks and held Tennessee running back Gerald Riggs to 13 yards in the second half. But the most important second half statistic was the zero points allowed by the Gators D in the second half.

The question has to be asked — what in the world is Meyer telling his players to prepare them so well?

With images of recent last-second defensive flops resulting in losses still fresh in Gator fans' minds, Zook haters were thrilled to see that this new Gator's D looked sharp.

"That was a great win by a great defense, pretty good special teams, and an inadequate offense," said Meyer.

Though the offense was mostly unproductive, one has to remember that the Gators were playing one of the toughest defenses in the nation. But Meyer is one to believe in his players and put his confidence in them. On several fourth downs, Meyer chose to go for it, including a fourth-and-inches try that ended in Leak getting sacked by DT Jesse Mahelona.

But heck, as long as they keep racking up Ws, who really cares how they do it?

And confidence is what Meyer should have in this team, as it returns four senior offensive linemen and a third-year starter at quarterback in Leak. Before Zook's final season, the Gators had lost 17 players who had started at least one game, but this year, only eight had moved on. Meyer isn't the only one with experience.

Meyer's teams are also notable for their excellent play on special teams in both coverage and returns, and he got a great showing on several occasions including cornerback Dee Webb's blocked field goal in the second quarter that would have been a 37-yarder. Florida also excelled in getting great field position, as it averaged out on the 40-yard-line against the Volunteers.

Special teams also saw a bright light in kicker Chris Hetland, who made three field goals (20, 25, 39) after coming back from being benched two games ago for missing an extra point. Hetland is a walk-on junior who joined the team prior to the 2002 season.

Florida could very well be unstoppable under Meyer. Once they cross into the red zone, Meyer's teams are more than dangerous. In 2004, Utah led all teams in red zone efficiency, and in his five years as a head coach, his teams had an 89.1% red zone percentage, scoring all but two times.

A father of three kids ages six to 14, Meyer also knows how to take care of others. However, his team knows how to take care of the football. Saturday's offense never turned the ball over, and his teams haven't had an interception in 84 attempts for the second longest streak in the nation.

Still, we must ask, what is he telling his players?

Criticize the offense all you want, but the final scores haven't been entirely indicative of the entire picture. This year, Florida's offense averaged about nine more minutes of possession time than its opponents, 103 more passing yards, 76 more rushing yards, and 179 more total yards. But that's not all. The nation's fifth-ranked Gators lead the SEC in scoring defense, passing defense, total defense, third down defense, and field goals.

Not to overstate the importance of Saturday's defeat of Tennessee, but it's hard to overlook the fact that since the SEC adopted a 12-team, two-division format in 1992, the winner of the Tennessee-Florida game has won the East Division nine times and advanced to the championship game.

The defeat of Tennessee was just another step for Meyer's program revival and his first test in the SEC. With the huge win coming in his 50th game as a head coach, he's already proven he can hang with the big guns as his 42-8 record and .840 winning percentage in those games, is the best record through 50 games of any of the current SEC coaches, including Florida State's Bobby Bowden.

Tennessee was by far the highest-ranked team Meyer had ever coached against, but it didn't appear that way. In comparison, Zook's first big game was against the University of Miami in 2002, but it wasn't so favorable for him. Zook and the Gators got destroyed 41-16, and it was more than an omen of what was to come for the man now coaching at Illinois. Meyer, on the other hand, has clearly started out on the right foot.

Not only has Meyer won over his players, but he's won over the notoriously highly-critical Florida fans. While still being respectful of the Gator's tradition, Meyer has instituted other new game-day features. The Swamp Things is the new Meyer-endorsed name of the student section at Florida Field, and the team participates in the Gator Walk every home game, two hours before kickoff. It involves the team taking a walk from the busses down the sidewalk and through a gate while the cheerleaders, pep band, and students wish them well as they go. Meyer even partook in the singing of the fight song after the game, which made many fans ecstatic because that is not something Zook would do. There is clearly just something special about Meyer's presence and fan relations that is incomparable to anyone else.

Never mind if Florida's offense doesn't exactly resemble that of the 2004 Utes. Never mind if the Gators have the youngest offensive coordinator in the SEC (Dan Mullen, 33). Never mind if Florida lost Caldwell for the season after he broke his right leg against Tennessee. Never mind if they lost DE Ray McDonald to an ACL injury. Never mind if Florida is playing in one of the toughest football conferences with games against Alabama, Louisiana State, Georgia, and Florida State, on the horizon.

They've got Leak in a Heisman race and Meyer in a Coach of the Year race (though he won multiple honors in 2003). They're fifth in the nation in the polls. They're undefeated, tied with Georgia in the East Division, trailing only Vanderbilt. They've got a proven winner in Meyer, who will face his first road game as Florida's coach this weekend against Kentucky.

Bernie Machen used to be the president at Utah. He knew what he was doing when he hired Meyer as head coach then. Machen, who now has the same job at Florida, knew what he was doing hiring Meyer this time around, as well.

After Tennessee's game, UR-BAN MEY-ER echoed throughout the stands and miles away.

And don't expect to see any “FIRE MEYER” t-shirts or websites anytime soon...