5 reasons why the UF will NOT repeat

The Florida Gators are the prohibitive favorites to win the national championship. The Gators return practically every player from a team that was dominant last year and lost by one point to an up and coming Ole Miss. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut they probably won’t win. There are 5 reasons below…

Reason #1

That being said, don't forget that the Florida Gators have never won a national championship without losing a game. They were 12-1 in 1996 and should NOT have played in the championship game as just a few weeks before their encounter with the dominant Florida State Seminoles in the championship game, they lost to the same Florida State team in the regular season finale. Then, in 2006 they demolished an outmatched Ohio State team that has built a reputation of being a slow Big Ten Team (Gator fans please don't forget that Chris Leak was the offensive MVP for the game and a major reason that Florida won this game...Tebow was on the team and contributed, but let's not forget Leak, plus Percy Harvin was the SEC's freshmen of the year), and finally last year the Gators beat the highest scoring team in college football history by 10 points. This was probably the most rewarding championship as they showed off their superior coaching, skill, talent, and game management against an exceedingly worthy opponent.

Reason #2

The Oklahoma Sooners last night reminded us just how fragile one's season is and how close yet so far away a national championship is. A BYU LB, in a routine, legal, clean, textbook tackle took the raining Heisman trophy winner out of the game last night at the end of the 1st half. An already challenging game quickly became an exceedingly unwinnable game. Despite having All-Americans at every position, the Sooners lost the game without their consensus #1 NFL draft pick and could be lose more games. Now, there is far too much uncertainty swirling around Bradford. What happens if Tebow is taken out of a game due to injury for an extended period of time? Perhaps a loss occurs or losses.



Reason #3

The Gators have a conference championship game in a relatively strong conference which means that they have one more opportunity to lose. That is, they have the “luck” of playing an additional game (against a good team of course) when most other teams across the nation do not have conference championship games, and if they do it probably won’t be against as quality of an opponent.

While this is undoubtedly a roadblock, the Gators benefit from a very reasonable schedule. Despite what the national media will lead you to believe, every SEC team does not have the hardest schedule in the nation or ever. To further clarify, each team in the SEC does not play the same schedule. And, the difficulty of schedule fluctuates tremendously. The 3 most difficult games that the Gators play are against an 0-1 Georgia Bulldog team, a perennially good LSU team, and an underrated Florida State team. This schedule is no better or worse than most any team in a power conference.



Reason #4

Karma!

Tim Tebow has been shoved down the nation’s throat repeatedly and been glorified from day one.

It all started during a game in "The Swamp" in 2006, the fans booed then starting quarterback Chris Leak. Leak at the time, was leading the Gators' charge to a national title (which they eventually won) and praising the freshman Tebow.

Last year, following Florida's lone loss last season to Ole Miss, Tebow made a post-game promise. During the press conference, a teary-eyed Tebow said, "''To the fans and everybody in Gator Nation, I'm sorry. I'm extremely sorry. We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida has never done here. ''I promise you one thing. A lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season. ''You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. ''God bless." This speech further solidified his place in the hearts of everyone and pushed his “situation” to epic unreasonable irrational ridiculousness.



Now there is a plaque outside of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium with this “speech”. Just 2 hours north, Bobby Bowden coached for 28 years and received a statue in front of Doak Campbell Stadium. It took Tebow a weekend to achieve this statue.

The media seems to be in love with Tim Tebow. On ESPN, Tebow has been called perhaps the greatest college football player ever. No matter what network Florida plays on any given Saturday, the announcers tend to slobber over this guy. In a Florida victory over arch-rival Florida State, CBS play-by-play announcer Verne Lundquist said of Tebow, "He's the kind of guy you would want your daughter to marry". Tebow's double-clutch jump-pass against LSU in 2006 is Fox Sports Net's ad for the SEC coming to its network. I can't count how many times I have watched Tebow's mission trip to his native Philippines shown on ESPN. During a Florida basketball game against Kentucky two years ago, ESPN used Tebow for a spoof of College Gameday. Tebow walked into a locker room and hyped up ESPN basketball analysts, Hubert Davis, Rece Davis, Digger Phelps and Jay Bilas as a promo for the show. During last season's BCS Championship Game, Fox's Thom Brennaman said, "If you're fortunate enough to spend five or twenty minutes around Tim Tebow, you're better for it."

Next, and probably most unfairly, you are only able to say exceedingly glorious things about Tebow. If you say anything other than praise, you are labeled as a hater, un-American, evil, unobjective, or a person with an agenda.

Earlier this month Florida State's Bobby Bowden made a comparison to a former Heisman winner. Bowden claimed that Tebow was not a good as former Seminole Charlie Ward. Ward led Florida State to the 1993 National Championship in football and the Elite Eight in basketball. He was labeled with the “unobjective” label.




After Tebow was awarded the 2007 Heisman Trophy, then Hawaii coach June Jones called Tebow a "System quarterback" after Tebow beat out Jones' quarterback Colt Brennan. He was labeled with the “hater” label. June Jones can’t have an opinion against common accepted belief. His quarterbacks or Mike Leach’s quarterbacks can be labeled as system quarterbacks, but Coach Urban Meyer’s QBs cannot be labeled in the same manner.

Oklahoma cornerback Dominique Franks once again took a shot at the Florida signal caller. Franks claimed that Tebow would be the fourth best quarterback in the Big XII. He was labeled with the “agenda” label. Franks, like Jones, can’t have an opinion that is different from the fawning national media’s opinion. Nevermind, that Bradford and McCoy beat him in Heisman Trophy voting.

LSU defensive lineman Ricky Jean-Francois told the press, "If we get a good shot on [Tebow], we're going to try our best to take him out of the game." He was labeled with the “un-American” label. Tim Tebow taunts the Oklahoma Sooners last year gets a penalty and national acclaim for his passion and an excuse that he was a young kid in the moment while Jean-Francois is labeled as having the typical 21st century thug life, hip hop mentality.

Steve Spurier chose Jevan Snead as his 1st team quarterback instead of Tim Tebow. He received the “agenda, hater, unobjective, un-American, evil” label. A national uproar soon emerged because Tebow was not a unanimous choice for preseason SEC 1st teamer. It’s not like Snead is a scrub. He is maybe a top 5 NFL draft pick and posses unquestioned skills. His team did beat UF last year. Why was there not the same outrage in the Big 12 with the returning Heisman trophy winner?

Reason #5

Lastly, over the past four years, the conference that has produced more first-round draft picks (30) than any other conference is the ACC and not the SEC. Ok ok ok…the last reason may not be the most compelling reason, but I’m just sayn’



Sportynation, UF is unquestionably the favorite to win the national championship, but there are many many reasonable reasons why they won’t win it. It’s gonna be a long season. Only time will tell us what will, indeed, happen. I know what I’m rooting for.

This is my Minority Report.