For Meyer, Florida, a title run in 2006 is more realistic

	Urban Meyer's Gators mustered just three points in a loss to Alabama on Saturday. Bob Rosato/SI

During a visit to Gainesville, Fla., last spring for a story that ran in SI's college football preview issue, Urban Meyer helped me to understand his spread-option offense by showing cut-ups of Alex Smith from Utah last season. Watching play after play of Smith taking the snap, reading the defensive end and either handing off to the running back for a first down, pitching to the motion receiver for a big gain or tucking it and running for a touchdown, Meyer got more and more animated. "I get excited just watching this stuff," he said.

Florida fans were even more excited by the possibilities of Meyer's hybrid invention when put in the hands of heralded quarterback Chris Leak, himself surrounded by much faster skill players than Meyer had at Utah. Last Saturday, however, Alabama delivered Meyer, his offense and all of Gator Nation a painful buzz-kill, leading Sean of Jacksonville, Fla., to ask:

Do you think Florida was overrated coming into the season with its new coach? Also, do you think Florida can rebound from this loss and still earn a trip to the SEC title game?

If by overrated you're referring to the Gators' preseason AP ranking of No. 10, I'd say no, that seemed about right at the time and could still prove to be accurate. If you're referring, however, to the many who felt Meyer would roll into town and immediately take Florida to the national championship game, that, I felt from the beginning, was unrealistic.

Meyer's pattern, both at Bowling Green and Utah, has been that his offense takes a year to fully jell, going from surprisingly average the first season (No. 55 nationally at BG, No. 64 at Utah) to stupendous the second (No. 9 and No. 3). No matter how talented the personnel waiting in Gainesville, you had to expect there would be a similar learning curve.

I don't think even Meyer, however, would have guessed it would be this rough. Even after early-season blowouts over Wyoming and Louisiana Tech, he emphasized that the offense "isn't where it needs to be." That fact became clear against Tennessee, then, after a one-week reprieve against Kentucky, was hammered home in a big way last weekend.

Meyer's problems right now are three-fold: 1) Florida's offensive line continues to make technical mistakes and blow assignments. 2) None of the Gators' running backs has emerged as a breakaway threat (it sounds like he might give freshman Markus Manson a shot this week). And 3) As many cynics predicted, Leak is struggling as a runner, preventing Meyer from implementing his preferred style of offense. "It's not a spread offense right now," Meyer said Monday. "We're throwing the ball down the field more than we ever have because that's kind of how we're making plays."

Many in Gainesville believe that Leak is the wrong quarterback for Meyer's offense, some even suggesting the coach should go with more mobile freshman Josh Portis. That, of course, is ridiculous. Meyer is not going to sit one of the best passers in the country. The fact is, it may take the entire season -- perhaps into next spring, even -- for Leak and his teammates to truly become comfortable in the offense, but it will happen eventually. In the meantime, things could continue to be an adventure, but the Gators still have as good as shot a anybody of winning the SEC East, particularly since they already hold a tiebreaker over Tennessee. (A Vols win over undefeated Georgia this weekend would certainly help.)

I said before the season Florida would go about 9-2, then make a run at the national title in '06, assuming everyone who's supposed to come back does. I'm sticking to that.

Calling Mike Shula's decision to leave the starters in the game in the fourth quarter Saturday an act of "stupidity" is out of line. It's Florida, for heaven's sake. Sure, the game was in the bag, but with the hype surrounding the Urban Meyer system, who knew what could have happened at the end of that game?
--Jason, Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Sometimes, as a writer, you hastily put something out there you later wish you could have back. Upon learning about Tyrone Prothro's devastating and avoidable season-ending injury, I instinctively lumped it together with Brodie Croyle's season-ending injury last year under similar circumstances, and let Shula have it. In reality, as many, many 'Bama fans pointed out to me, nearly every other coach in America would have done the same thing. In hindsight it was just one of those freaky things that no coach could have predicted. So, to Shula and the Tide faithful, I apologize.

The only statement more erroneous in college football than "USC is the No. 1 team" is "Matt Leinart is a great player." With the Trojans' offensive line and receivers, the statue of David could throw for 250 yards and two touchdowns every game. Whenever USC is in trouble (and the Trojans are a lot), they stop passing and turn exclusively to the ground game. Then when they've built up a lead, they pad Leinart's stats by running the score up in the fourth quarter of games that are already over.
--Matt Hilditch, Kent, Wash.

Buried amidst what are largely ridiculous statements (Saturday marked the first time all season Leinart was even in a game late in the fourth quarter, and it was hardly over), Matt does manage to hit on a legitimate subject. Leaving Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday, after a USC victory in which the running game did indeed bail out the Trojans, I said to a colleague, "I wonder if Leinart made a mistake coming back."

I say this not because I think he should have taken the money and run. I admire anyone who appreciates just how special an opportunity college football is. But as a society we love to knock people down when they're on top, and I wonder if NFL scouts are going to start doing just that with Leinart. We've already seen the trend in basketball, where the longer a player stays in college, the more faults he seems to develop in scouts' eyes. Will that happen with Leinart? Will the NFL start to put stock in the argument that it's more about the talent around him? Will they start focusing more on the bad throws (which any QB makes at some point over a season) and less on the good ones? Will they ultimately end up getting blown away by some other, more physically intriguing prospect?

I certainly hope not. Yes, Leinart has more to work with than any other quarterback in the country, but he's still the trigger man, and ultimately the offense's success hinges on his decision-making. Nine times out of 10, Leinart makes the right decision. Even in the midst of his "bad" game against ASU, a simple act like repeatedly dumping off to fullback David Kirtman shows a level of maturity 99 percent of college quarterbacks lack (see his talented but less-experienced counterpart, Sam Keller, who often tried to force things against the Trojans and wound up with five interceptions). There will inevitably be other times this year where LenDale White and Reggie Bush carry the day, but I'm sure there will also be no shortage of games, like the one against Oklahoma, in which Leinart gets in a zone and simply dominates.

When will Les Miles realize that either he or defensive coordinator Bo Pelini is going?
--Eric Coulberson, Monroe, La.

This is why I love college football fans so. This e-mail was sent TWO GAMES into the Miles/Pelini regime at LSU.