Call him a little -- or a lot -- biased, but Urban Meyer has an idea about which team is the greatest in the history of college football. And, in the process, gave us a topic to discuss and/or debate and/or bitch about in the midst of a slow offseason news cycle.
“I’ve been a part of a couple great teams, I think the best team to ever play the game in ’08 (at Florida). And that was (because) animal instincts took over on the field. They protected each other,” the Ohio State head coach said as he was speaking at a football camp recently. “What he said is, ‘Have you ever tried to reason with a wild animal?’ Think about that. Think about what I just said. You try to reason with a wild animal ... you can’t reason with a wild animal. They protect each other. Have you ever tried to negotiate, evaluate, take a play off? If you’re a wild animal, that doesn’t happen.”
That 2008 team, led by Tim Tebow, went 13-1 and won the BCS title. Just a couple of things about Meyer’s proclamation, however.
One, any team that loses to a Houston Nutt-coached Ole Miss team that went 9-4 -- UF lost to the Rebels in The Swamp, no less -- doesn’t deserve to be in any type of GOAT discussion.
And, two, off the top of my head and without even thinking too hard, I can name three teams just in my lifetime that were head and shoulders above that ’08 UF team -- with two of them coming from the Gators’ own state: the 2001 Miami Hurricanes, the 1999 Florida State Seminoles and any of the nineties Nebraska teams quarterbacked by Tommy Frazier (33-3 when the Hall of Famer started). Hell. since I’m here, I’ll throw the 1976 Pittsburgh Panthers and the great Tony Dorsett into the discussion as well.
All four of those teams mentionedwent undefeated -- the Cornhuskers in 1994 and 1995 -- which means there wasn’t a home loss to a slightly above average squad to mar their title-winning seasons.
The 2008 Florida Gators were a very good football team. GOAT? Get that weak stuff out of here, coach.
(Tip O’ the Cap: NFL.com)
