Some love him, some hate him, some envy him, but you can’t argue with the fact that Urban Meyer is one heck of a program builder.
Florida was crowned BCS national champion last night with their 24-14 victory over Oklahoma, and as expected, the Gators finished #1 in the AP poll today, getting 48 first-place votes to top the poll.
But, he’s got to feel pretty good about the fact that his old school is right below him at #2, as Utah capped off their 13-0 season by getting 16 first-place votes and beating out USC and Texas for the #2 spot. Meyer’s imprints were very much on this year’s Utah team,
I won’t go as far as saying that Utah should’ve been #1 in the AP poll, but for all the people who want to berate the AP writers for voting Utah #2 and giving them as many first-place votes as they did, they’re a lot more worthy than you may think.
USC did have that impressive win over Penn State in the Rose Bowl, and Texas rallied to beat Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, but if you want to grade impressive wins, Utah’s Sugar Bowl win over Alabama was the most impressive of all, by far.
We expected nothing less of USC than what they gave, given their stranglehold over Big Ten opponents in recent seasons, and Texas made it a lot closer against Ohio State than expected. But Utah’s win over Alabama? Surprise, surprise, especially in the fashion it happened.
How do their resumes stack up? USC beat three top teams in the final AP top 10 (#8 Penn State, #9 Ohio State, #10 Oregon), and Utah beat just as many teams that were in the final AP top 10 (2 - #6 Alabama and #7 TCU) that Texas (#5 Oklahoma and #9 Ohio State) beat.
Utah beat as many teams that are the final Top 25 (4 - Alabama, TCU, #18 Oregon State, and #25 BYU) that Texas beat (Oklahoma, Ohio State, #16 Oklahoma State, and #19 Missouri), while the three top-10 teams USC beat accounted for their wins against ranked teams.
USC might be the best team in the country, and though they did dominate the three ranked teams they beat, and that’s but their lone loss was to someone Utah beat the following week. Close game, yes, come-from-behind win, yes, but they did what USC didn’t do against the Beavers.
Texas, unfortunately, didn’t get their spot in the Big 12 title game or the national title game, and they finished #3 in both the AP and coaches’ poll. But their best chance to finish #2 or to have a chance at a split national title was to beat Ohio State like Utah beat Alabama, and that didn’t happen.
In the end, each team had their own argument about being #2, and USC and Texas fans will feel hard done by that Utah got the lion’s share of the first-place votes Florida didn’t get.
But hey, don’t get mad because the writers did their research.
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