I'm not sure Bianchi should ever be taken seriously. I'm also pretty sure that he is disliked by all the major college football programs in the state and their fans. Even Miami.
How much stock can be placed about the results of one season? Before you go ahead and answer that, just read what Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel wrote about the rise of Jimbo (Florida State) and the fall of Florida (Urban Meyer) and Miami. Apparently, once you are the Grand Marshal of NASCAR's Coke Zero 400 race at Daytona (which is pretty much the little sister to the 500), the waters part for you and everyone under the sun trembles with fear when you show up in public.
If you thought that was bad, I've got news for you, that's just the first tenth of the Bianchi article.
Up in Gainesville, the decline happened more drastically and more dramatically under Urban Meyer. Of course, everything is more dramatic when Meyer is involved. He quickly puts fire in the gut of dormant programs, but just as quickly the fire burns out. Essentially, that's what happened to the Gators during Meyer's tenure. They were atop college football for six years, but then Meyer lost his steely-eyed focus and — boom — the Gators went 7-5 last year and may be even worse this year.
Dormant program? Bowling Green and Utah sure, but there is no way, no how, that Florida was a dormant program in 2005. They really (aside from NCAA trouble) haven't been dormant since the early 1980's. Charlie Pell got the bowl rolling in the early 80's, Galen Hall continued it for a little bit, the program went through a couple of Ron Zook-esque seasons, Spurrier showed up and the Gators have been college football's winningest program since.
Sure the flame went out quickly, but that is how it was meant to be. Remember our conversation about whether Urban Meyer was a mercenary or not? Well, that is usually how a mercenary conducts business. In and out. Kicks butt and doesn't worry about taking names. That's Urban Meyer.
As for losing focus, if that is alluding to his unbreakable bond with Addazio, than I agree.
UF athletic director Jeremy Foley quickly went about remedying the situation by accepting Meyer's resignation and then going out and hiring one of Jimbo's best buddies — young, fiery Will Muschamp — to rebuild the Gators.
Why does everyone continue to hound on the irrelevant fact that Muschamp and Fisher are friends? Who the heck cares? I don't care if Muschamp is best friends with every single coach in the country if he gets the job done. It doesn't matter. That topic is about as worn out as the Geico cavemen commercials.
Are the Gators really rebuilding? I don't buy it. Programs like Florida, unless they allow a decade of mediocrity (like FSU did) don't rebuild, they reload.
The programs at Florida and Miami have coughed, sputtered and stalled out.
Are you kidding me? The Florida program has coughed, sputtered and stalled out? After one 8-5 season? That comment ranks up there as one of the dumbest comments I've ever seen. If Bianchi truly thinks that the program has stalled out, he doesn't understand the world of college football and programs like Florida.