Les Miles Not Sleeping On Florida

There is unrest in Gator Nation. It mostly surrounds the offense, an entity that Gator fans have rarely if ever been satisfied with in the post-Spurrier era. Whether it is nitpicking or outright disdain, some folks are pretty upset.

To all those who are not happy: Les Miles thinks you're crazy.

"If you find any weaknesses, tell me," Miles said at his weekly media luncheon Monday. "They don't have any weaknesses. Being ranked (No. 11) is underselling them some. It will be our strengths against their strengths."

Maybe this is just gamesmanship garbage, some token respect to keep the bulletin boards clear in Gainesville. Oops, too late for that. Hmm, or maybe it's just a coach talking in vague platitudes about an opponent he's not looked closely at.

"Tim Tebow plays pretty darn well," Miles said. "It doesn't seem like he's struggling to me. When something doesn't go well, somebody has to take the blame. Usually, it's the quarterback. Tebow is more well-rounded than last year. He understands the game more. He's better when the chips are down. He's making better decisions."

Oh, well now I don't know about that one either. It sounds like he's looked at a bit of Florida game tape and seen that Tebow is well on his way to becoming a game manager, even if he is a work in progress sometimes.

There is a caricature in the public domain of Les Miles being a reckless, empty hat who gets by on sheer force of will, testosterone, and dumb luck. After observing him for more than three seasons in Baton Rouge, however, I know that's not true. He's not an idiot skating by on his predecessor's talent harvest; he's a great football coach, plain and simple.

Great football coaches know the dangers of underestimating a big road opponent the week of the game. I believe he meant what he said because Florida still has a high capacity for playing well, even if the Gators have not put it all together for parts of the season.

So no, Les Miles is not listening to the perpetual complaining from Gator fans that Urban Meyer calls the Florida Nonsense, Ron Zook called the Noise in the System, and what Steve Spurrier cited as one of the reasons he chose to leave when he did. He plans on preparing for this one as though it's a battle of two top ten teams.

We'll find out in Gainesville just how well prepared both teams are for this matchup, one of the best annual SEC games of the past few seasons.