In the modern SEC, a 2-loss season for my Gators would never surprise me.  There might be a small level of disappointment if the team is good enough and the schedule is conducive to a one or zero loss season.  We all know how hard a one-loss season is to achieve even if your team is lights-out good.

My disappointment level starts with three losses.  In Meyer's first year the Gators lost three which was an improvement over Zook's horrible three-year 7-5 (EVERY year!) stretch.  The equivalent that you might understand, Catfan, is if Kentucky failed to win 20 games for the three consecutive years and also never made the NCAA tourney.  That is how horrible a 7-5 year is viewed by Gator fans.  Although Ron Zook is a fine person and a good recruiter, Gator Nation rejoiced when he departed Gainesville.  Those were dark times for us.

Anyway, as I was saying, Meyer lost three in his first year.  One of them was to South Carolina, which really hurt, especially since we should have won that game on talent alone.  Another was to LSU -- our offense was so out of sync that despite being +5 in turnover margin we still lost by a small amount.  In my view both of those games were winnable but Meyer had not yet changed the consititution of our team from the Zook mentality of being apologetic, excuse-making losers.  Of course we were also ambushed by Alabama, 31-3, in Tuscaloosa, and I think that game was destined to be an L no matter what Meyer did.

Overall, it was a good first year.  We beat all of our rivals (UT, FSU, Georgia) and were a gnat's hair away from going to the SEC CG.

In 2006, Meyer obviously turned on the afterburners.  No one, and I mean no one, thought the Gators would make it to Glendale.  Once they got there, I predicted a one-TD victory over the then-vaunted Buckeyes.  Instead we smashed them 41-14.

Meyer has built a tough team with a championship mentality.

We lost a lot of defensive starters.  What not a lot of people seem to remember is that we lost a ton of starters in 2005, also.  Almost our entire offensive line was a question mark, untested and inexperienced in 2006.

We had tons of questions in our secondary.  We had a starting CB who transfered from Utah, where he was sitting 3rd string!  Our secondary coaching staff turned him into an All-SEC player with 2nd-team All-American honors.  He went from thinking about a career in business to getting drafted in the NFL in one year.  Opposite him we had Reggie Lewis, who had never been more than a barely adequate CB under Ron Zook, and was turned into a very, very good player by Meyer.

Also don't forget our defensive line, widely considered to be the best in America last year.  Do you remember that the best player on that line -- the best player in our entire defense -- maybe the best player on the team, Marcus Thomas -- was kicked off the squad mid-season?  We lost our best defensive player and guys who had done squat before (Steven Harris, Jarvis Moss) stepped up and became champions. Moss became a first round draft pick.

The bottom line: we have the best coaches in America working with these guys.  They may make some mistakes early, but they will be a top-flight unit after a couple of SEC games are under their belts.

A five-loss season will not happen -- you can bank on it.

And if you call last year's championship a paper championship, in which the Gators were heavy underdogs and went ahead and destroyed the (fearsome! awesome! oh my!) Buckeyes, resulting in a BCS title and a unanimous #1 ranking by every poll out there, I'll take one every single year and love it.  That was an incredible ride from the SEC CG and one of the best sports memories in my lifetime.

I dont know about everyone else here but I agree with you about Catfan and I would appreciate it if you not resort to insulting my team because of his remarks.

Conversation can sometimes get a little heated.  The best way, in my opinion, is to always remember the cardinal rule:

"Comment on the post, not on the person making it".

That keeps the commentary from getting too personal.  If you think a commenter is over the top, say that about his/her comments, not about him/her in particular.  Works much better that way.

What I do like are people who, once someone points out that they are getting too personal, take the time to honestly evaluate their remarks and correct their behavior.  That is the essence of maturity, in my view.

A little spirited back-and-forth is fine, but it's best to try to avoid attaching labels to others.  That's the sort of thing that can create hard feelings and require intervention, which I prefer to avoid.

We welcome comments and readers from other schools and boards.  I feel that they are entitled to defend their schools/teams, and we aren't an echo chamber in here.  Other views and observations that add value to this place are always welcome.