Six, 6, 14, 11 and 3.
Those are the preseason rankings slotted to UF by the nation's leading prognosticators, Athlon, the Associated Press, Phil Steele, Lindy's and the USA Today Board of Coaches.
Let me give you some more numbers.
5, 3, 2, 1.
The Gators lost five defensive lineman, three linebackers, two cornerbacks and one safety to the NFL.
12, 21, 81, 79.
They lost their starting quarterback (No. 12 Chris Leak), starting running back (No. 21 DeShawn Wynn), No. 1 wide receiver (No. 81 Dallas Baker) and starting center (No. 79 Steve Rissler) to the NFL.
Those lofty rankings are for a team that those same voters said didn't deserve to play for the national championship last year, and some thought wasn't even the best team from its own conference.
Hey coaches, still think the baby Gators are No. 3?
Urban Meyer will tell you rankings œ especially preseason ones œ are as insignificant as Michael Vick's traffic ticket earlier this week.
But they are significant for at least one reason.
The Gators are back, baby. Even ESPN Gator Hater Mark May has to admit that by now.
Their average rank in the preseason AP and Coaches' polls is the highest it has been since that guy who wore a visor left.
Meyer has fulfilled his vision.
On day No. 1, after being introduced as UF's 21st head coach at a
press conference on Dec. 7, 2004, he made his intentions
auspiciously clear.
"I'm anxious to put together a staff and a team that the
Gainesville community and the University of Florida will be very
proud of in the near future," Meyer said to close out his opening
statement.
Day No. 999 of his service, Sept. 1 against Western Kentucky,
might as well be day No. 1 all over again.
He must prove to Gator Nation, and himself, that he can win with his own players.
After cleaning up the Ron Zook mess, that's supposed to be easy, right?
Just ask former Miami coach Larry Coker, who won a national title with Butch Davis' players and is now working for another U, ESPNU.
Oh, and Bill Callahan, who led Jon Gruden's Oakland Raiders to the Super Bowl before losing control of his team, too.
So, what makes Meyer a special case?
The little things.
Everything from freshman helmet stripes to the Circle of Life to Hit City, Meyer's coaching tactics could very well be second to none in the country.
UF routed Ohio State because Meyer outcoached Jim Tressel and made his players believe they were the underdogs by ingraining negative comments œ some fake œ from analysts picking the Gators to lose.
Now, Meyer is far from perfect.
Fans forgive and forget the drug and legal troubles associated with this team as long as it wins.
It's the media's job to continue to stay on top of that, but just as reporters earned no brownie points for dissing Michael Jordan for gambling in his hey-day, you will get dirty looks around Gainesville for critiquing Meyer?s team's off-the-field escapades.
That's apparent as Meyer has his own Web site, a role in Nike commercials and the hard-earned respect of The Gator Nation.
Heck, all he had to do was win a national championship.
In two years, he erased the pain of the Zook era and silenced those who would reminisce of the good old days with the Ol' Ball Coach while Zook's teams floundered in the fourth quarter.
There's nowhere to go but up for Meyer, who bolted for brighter skies after two years in his previous two head coaching stints at Bowling Green and Utah.
From UF, the only floor higher is the NFL, or maybe South Carolina. Just ask Steve Spurrier.
In his opening statement at his Dec. 7, 2004, press conference Meyer made it clear he would not follow suit.
"A lot of times people say, 'Do you have any ambition to go to the NFL?'" he said. "I have none whatsoever. It's all about the pageantry and tradition of college football, which in my opinion, is second to none."
Meyer brought a winning tradition back to Gainesville.
That?s where it belongs.
