Not gonna hear the end of this for a while…

Your 2006 National Champions? The Florida Gators. Gross, I know.

Not just a win, but a 41-14 pasting of #1 Ohio State. All this while Miami was watching from home after an abysmal 7-6 season. Someone put me out of my misery. There’s no worse college football scenario than Florida as reigning champs.

Or is there?

What if the Buckeyes rolled tonight? We’d have to hear their crap for another year? Uh, no thanks. I still can’t stomach the bile I’ve had to digest since their faux 2002 title. I wasn’t ready for another half decade of arrogance.

This was a lose-lose any way you sliced or diced it, but I took pleasure in seeing the team that stole our title go down in absolute flames before a national audience.

Ohio State did a faceplant for all of college football to see. Heisman jinx and all, as if it had been scripted. They even made it more dramatic by returning the opening kickoff for a 7-0. Four minutes, seven plays and 46-yards later, Florida answered, kept answering and never looked back.

All that “the Big Ten has just as much speed” crap was nullified as well. Florida was faster on both sides of the ball. No contest. Especially with their top skills player Ted Ginn on the sidelines most of the game. Word is he rolled and ankle celebrating. If that’s true, file it under “karma” for taking out our workhorse, Willis McHeisman on what looked like a dirty play in 2002.

As a lifelong Cane, I’m sick the Gators won. But I’ll still kick back and soak up the disappointment Ohio State’s feeling tonight. I’m a hater that way. (Who wouldn’t be bitter at 7-6?)

Welcome to our hell. Leaving one on the table when you thought you were the better team? That stings for a loooong time. You won’t get over 2006 the same way Miami won’t even get over 2002, 1992 and 1986. The “what If” seasons.

You go in a big time favorite, riding a double-digit win streak and the Heisman winner is your team leader. Eerily reminiscent to Miami 2002, except we “only” had two Heisman candidates on that loaded squad.

Feel our pain. You thought you had tonight wrapped up the minute you landed at PHX and now you’ll stumble home dazed, wondering what the hell just happened. It’s a bitter pill to swallow when every part of you thought your Buckeyes were gonna roll heads tonight. In both cases, the underdog pulled the rug out from beneath.

Only difference?

We got screwed. You got pounded.

Tonight showed why Florida, Florida State or Miami have played in ten of the past fifteen National Championship games. Fast, solid, Sunshine State defenses and innovative offensive playcalling can best anybody in the nation. Jimmy and Howard proved that in the 80s. Bobby and Steve did it in the 90s. Traditional powers were getting blown away by faster, more athletic kids from Florida.

Toss in the standard “playing up/down to the level of the competition” which is par for the course for the Florida schools. The big three state powers always got up for the big games during their dominant runs, but would occasionally look average against middle of the road teams. Florida took on that trait this year. They weren’t always the best, but they were always a few plans better than the other guy. Tonight, they blew the doors off the thing.

The Gators are the “perfect storm” right now with Urban Meyer, as much as it pains me to say. Right time. Right place. Looks like the right everything.

Senior quarterback on the way out but a potentially better one ready to take the reigns. Freshman playmakers. Fast defense. Fiery, up and coming flavor of the year coach? 2006 Florida sounds a whole lot like 2002 USC.

This could be a nice 2-3 year run for the Gators, unless Meyer bails for the NFL. Oh God, wouldn’t that just be the greatest news in the history of life. Meyer gets and offer to coach the Raiders and to spend their #1 pick in the Draft? I hope Al Davis just telepathically felt me think that. Lure Urban far away. This guy will remain a thorn in our sides until he leaves Gainesville.

If Meyer stays, which he should, Florida rolls forward with Miami and Florida State in the rearview mirror. The Canes and Noles can catch up, but both have their work cut out for them. Identical 7-6 records cost offensive coordinators and other assistants their jobs. UM and FSU aren’t going to just roll over. Not with those defenses. But those offenses need tremendous overhauls to complete with the upper echelon.

Could the Chris Weinke/Ken Dorsey era feel any more distant right now?

Jimbo Fisher is headed to Florida State via LSU. A good pick up for the Noles. He will get that offense on track, proving just how incompetent Jeff Bowden was. Hopefully Randy Shannon will have that same impact on the head coaching gig year one.

Still, he needs to counter with a strong offensive hire. I mentioned earlier that it doesn’t have to be a big name guy. Get me someone hungry who’s an up and comer. Shannon knows the importance of this hire. His defense has carried the Canes too many years in a row. If anyone wants an offensive guru to match what he’s done on the other side of the ball, it’s Shannon.

On that note, back to our arch-rivals in Gainesville. A big win tonight. I hate it, but I respect it. They came to play and absolutely smacked up a program which broke some Miami hearts four years back.

It sucked to see Florida win, but it was cathartic to see Ohio State lose.

I hope coach Shannon gathered his kids to watch the National Championship. Remind them how big this event is and what it takes to get there.

When Miami and Florida met in 2002, Ron Zook pointed across the field and told his team someday they would be like Miami. Lest not forget the majority of this current team are Zook’s recruits and these redshirt seniors caught that 41-16 beatdown in person as true freshman.

Four years later, how times have changed. Florida just won it all and it’s Miami who has to climb back atop the mountain. Time to sit back and see where Shannon takes this. One thing for sure, he doesn’t have to look far for motivation.

Make his kids rewatch tonight’s drubbing. Let ’em go to bed knowing that just up the Turnpike and I-75, their most hated rivals are the best in the state and the nation tonight.

If that doesn’t light a fire and stir up Hurricane Faithful, nothing will.

.:Canes305:.. still a Gator hater for life.

Fix this thing, Randy.

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