Urban Meyer still thinks 2008 Florida is greatest team ever
I’ve seen a lot of great college football teams in my lifetime. The 2008 Florida Gators are one of them.
Greatest ever, though? That’s a stretch.
Yet here we find Urban Meyer just spewin’ propaganda at high school kids at the Sound Mind Sound Body football camp in Detroit this week.
Here's the video (go to 6:08 mark):
I don’t know about this one. The Gators lost to Ole Miss in the middle of the season, but to be fair, it did set up one of the most dominant 10-game stretches in the history of the college football and, of course, this.
There are a handful of teams that belong in the “Greatest Team Ever” discussion. Since I was born two years after Barry Sanders won the Heisman, I wasn’t around for many of them. But I’ve seen enough to come up with the top five teams in the last 25 years.
1) 2001 Miami Hurricanes
We will never see a team more stacked with NFL talent than this Hurricanes team. Najeh Davenport was a senior on that team, was picked in the fourth round of the NFL Draft that spring and he was FOURTH string at running back. A ridiculous 38 players from that team were eventually NFL Draft picks.
Let me get one thing straight: A college football team could NEVER beat an NFL team. Period. But a few weeks ago, my buddies and I decided if this Miami team could play the ’08 Detroit Lions in the Orange Bowl, the Lions would be at most a 10-point favorite. Oh, and just imagine how good the ‘Canes would have been if they had anyone but Ken Dorsey playing QB.
2) 2004 USC Trojans
This is the only team in NCAA history to start two eventual Heisman Trophy winners at the same time. Are you ready for this stat? FIFTY THREE players on that team made an NFL roster, including somebody named Ryan Powdrell. Welp, that’s all you need to know about this team. They had a guy who rushed for nine yards on three carries in his career at USC and went on to play professional football.
More importantly, they had Reggie Bush, who for my money is the best college football player of the last 25 years. You can vacate this team from the record books, but not from my brain.
3) 2011 Alabama Crimson Tide
This is the best team in college football history to ever lose a game. If Cade Foster doesn’t get the yips and actually makes more than one of his four field goal attempts against LSU, Alabama goes unbeaten and doesn’t have to embarrass the Tigers in a national championship rematch to prove the first game was a total fluke.
Only ’01 Miami had a better defense than that Alabama team. Six of the back seven of that defense (Barron, Milliner, Kirkpatrick, Hightower, Mosley, Upshaw) went in the first round. For the love of God, Saban, have some mercy. Excuse me while I go pray for Jordan Rodgers' safety again.
4) 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers
The Cornhuskers scored 53 points per game when nobody scored 53 points per game. Oh, and they did it while running the triple option. Think about it this way: last year’s Baylor team, which passed the ball 448 times and led the nation in scoring, did not score as many points per game as that Nebraska team. The 'Huskers beat four top 10 teams by an average of 33 points. What? With all due respect to Eddie George, the fact that Tommie Frazier doesn’t have a Heisman Trophy on his mantle is a sham.
5) 2008 Florida Gators
This team epitomized #SECSpeed. Tebow got most of the glory, so it’s too easy to forget how filthy the rest of that team really was. Surround Tebow was Percy Harvin, Aaron Hernandez, Riley Cooper, Louis Murphy, Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps. The defense might have been even faster with Joe Haden, Janoris Jenkins, Carlos Dunlap, Brandon Spikes and Major Wright flying around. This is the fastest team in college football history. They definitely lose points for having John Brantley ahead of Cam Newton on the depth chart, though. This team was undoubtedly spectacular.
Greatest ever, though? Not a chance.
Sorry Urban, but you’re wrong this time.
I have a feeling just a couple of y’all are gonna disagree with my order, so tweet me your top five @JoshParcell.