Can Urban Meyer and Florida Repeat?

After shocking the college football world last January, the Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators began defense of the national championship Sept. 1 against Western Kentucky. With teams like Ohio State, Michigan, USC, and SEC foe Tennessee revved up one has to wonder if Urban Meyer can pull a repeat national championship out of his magic hat.

When Urban Meyer arrived in Gainesville, FL a couple of seasons ago to replace Ron Zook, the faithful believed it would take more than two seasons to return the Gators to national prominence. What Coach Meyer found when he arrived was a team heavy in talent but short on a system that fully utilized the abundance of talent and speed that is so plentiful, in talent rich Florida.

What Ohio State found out in the BCS title game was that if you give Urban Meyer time he can come up with a system to beat anybody on any field. Ohio State came into the game undefeated with Troy Smith, the Heisman Trophy winner as its quarterback. The vaunted Ohio State Buckeye team had gone through the season basically unchallenged and untested and everyone believed that the Ohio State team would do what it had done all season long, run roughshod over the quick, but undersized Florida Gators.

We now know, both Ohio State and the analysts were wrong as the Chris Leak led Florida Gators ran, threw, and jumped all over the Ohio State team so fast and so quick, it seemed like men playing against boys. But now that Chris Leak and defensive quarterback Reggie Nelson have departed for the National Football League the lingering question is, can Urban Meyer and Florida do it again.

While not always the most beloved person on campus, Chris Leak started four straight seasons for the Gators and brought consistency and leadership to a team laden with talent and often oversized egos. The Charlotte product always seemed to rise above the tide of frustration and fandom that is GatorNation during his time that culminated in him leading the Gators onto the field and destroying that Ohio State team. The question now is, can Tim Tebow, the supersophomore turn in an equally dynamic season as Leak's successor? With Tebow last year, Urban Meyer used him as a change of pace guy. Against Leak's great arm, Tebow would barrel himself into the meat of the opponent's defense and run over someone. While that worked for two to three plays at a time last year to spell Leak and get Tebow some experience, Meyer knows that in order for Tebow to remain healthy and Florida to have a legitimate chance at repeating, Tebow will have to throw more and run less. This could become a question. Make no mistake about it, Tebow is a tremendously talented young quarterback but in today's SEC, he will have to answer the bell sixty-five times a game, and each time, he will be a hunted man.

If Tebow is the number one question in Gainesville the second one has to be if the defense will be rebuilding or reloading. It is not a stretch to say that the Gator defense won three or four games on its own last season. Reggie Nelson, the hard hitting, hard charging safety who led the defense has taken his skills to the next level, being a first round draft pick in April's NFL draft. But Nelson was not alone. In fact, the Gators only return two starters on the defensive side of the ball. With Nelson, Urban Meyer had someone who saw the field but more importantly, when the Gators needed a big play last season, they turned to Reggie Nelson over and over and over again. The question now is who will Urban Meyer turn to, to make big plays and to big the quarterback on the field for the Gator defense.

The Gators have a favorable schedule before them with their toughest games coming at home in Ben Hill Stadium against Tennessee, Florida State and Auburn. Their toughest road test will come in the middle of the season against Les Miles and his Louisiana State University Tigers in Tiger Stadium. If the Gators can win at LSU watch out because there is no other realistic game on the schedule outside of the finale against Florida State where the Gators will be seriously threatened.

It will be interesting to see how much Tim Tebow improves as a quarterback. He had a quality spring and a productive spring game. But that is not Saturday afternoon in the SEC. Without a doubt, Urban Meyer will do everything he can to put Tebow in a position to be successful. It will be up to Tebow and the Gator offense this year like it was for Reggie Nelson and the Gator defense last year to carry this team if winning a second straight national championship is to be realized.