ESPN College Football

Urban Meyer says he will stay at Florida as long as they will have him.

The order at the top of the SEC power rankings stays the same this week, with Alabama checking in at No. 1 and Florida at No. 2.

After that, it’s a jumbled mess. We could sit here for hours and argue who deserves to be where.

The reality is that there’s not much difference in the No. 3 team and the No. 9 team. In fact, if you'll notice, the No. 9 team beat the No. 3 team on the field earlier this season in Columbia.

Here’s what the pecking order looks like heading into the final weekend of the regular season:

1. Alabama: Nobody expected the Crimson Tide (11-0, 7-0) to break a sweat against Chattanooga, and they didn’t in romping to a 45-0 win. Now it’s on to the Iron Bowl and Auburn. Alabama looks to make it two in a row in this rivalry after snapping a six-game losing streak to the Tigers last season. The Crimson Tide enter the game ranked first nationally in total defense and have given up just three touchdowns in their last six games.

2. Florida: If there’s a defense better in the country than Alabama’s, it might be Florida’s. The Gators (11-0, 8-0) are ranked first nationally in scoring defense after routing Florida International 62-3 last week. They also have to get by a longtime rival, Florida State, to make it to Atlanta unscathed. Playing their fourth game in the last five weeks in the state of Florida, the Gators have never lost to the Seminoles under Urban Meyer.

3. Ole Miss: Here come the streaking Rebels (8-3, 4-3) after back-to-back wins at home over LSU and Tennessee. The latest was a 25-23 thriller over then No. 8 LSU last Saturday, giving Ole Miss at least eight wins in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1989 and 1990. The Rebels can lock up their first trip to play in a Florida bowl in nearly two decades by closing out the regular season with a win over Mississippi State.

4. LSU: This is where it gets impossible to rank the SEC teams this season. The Tigers (8-3, 4-3) have lost two of their last three games, but are still one of the best four or five teams in the league. Their three losses were all close and all decided in the fourth quarter against the three best teams in the league. This can still be a 10-win season for the Tigers if they can take care of business at home this weekend against Arkansas and stay away from another late-game clock management debacle.

5. Arkansas: The Hogs (7-4, 3-4) get a chance to show that they’re for real this Saturday against LSU. They’ve looked the part the last four weeks with four straight wins, and quarterback Ryan Mallett is throwing the ball like a season veteran. The only thing that’s holding this team back right now is a defense that’s been shredded through the air and on the ground. Mississippi State rushed for 231 yards in the second half against the Hogs.

6. Kentucky: The Wildcats (7-4, 3-4) make the biggest jump this week, and why not? They’ve won five of their last six games, including road wins at Georgia and Auburn, and have done so despite a rash of injuries. This has been a team long on resolve and short on excuses this season. It’s already been a solid season in the Bluegrass, but it becomes a memorable season if Kentucky can end a 24-year drought and beat Tennessee at home this Saturday.

7. Tennessee: The Vols (6-5, 3-4) are teetering right now between having a pretty good season and a disappointing season. It all hinges on the game at Kentucky this weekend. The injuries are mounting, but they managed a 31-16 win over Vanderbilt last week. The highlight for Tennessee so far has been playing well in closer than expected losses at Florida and Alabama. The Vols need a quality win on the road to punctuate this season the way they want to.

8. Auburn: The Tigers (7-4, 3-4) were off last week and hold steady at the No. 8 position. Their loss to Georgia two weeks ago looks worse every time the Bulldogs take the field. Auburn has also lost four of its last five SEC games, which explains why the Tigers aren’t ranked a little higher. Of course, they could shoot up into the upper half of the rankings by knocking off Alabama at home on Friday in the Iron Bowl.

9. South Carolina: The Gamecocks (6-5, 3-5) had a week off to get ready for their regular-season finale against Clemson. It’s a chance to stop the bleeding this season and in this series. South Carolina has lost three in a row and is trying to avoid its third straight season-ending collapse. The Gamecocks have also lost 10 of their last 12 meetings with the Tigers, who have turned this rivalry into their own little party.

10. Georgia: When did you ever think you’d see Georgia sliding all the way down to the 10^th spot in this conference? The Bulldogs (6-5, 4-4) self-destructed in the second half against Kentucky, turning the ball over four times and losing 34-27 at home. This is by far the most turbulent storm of Mark Richt’s coaching career at Georgia. The fans want major changes, and they want them now.

11. Mississippi State: The Bulldogs (4-7, 2-5) were eliminated from bowl contention with last week’s 42-21 loss at Arkansas. They can help ease some of the pain by knocking off arch-rival Ole Miss at home this coming weekend in the Egg Bowl. Close losses had tormented Mississippi State for much of this season, but the Bulldogs have lost their last two games by a 73-24 margin.

12. Vanderbilt: It’s all over for Vanderbilt in 2009, and after making so many strides last season with the seven wins and bowl victory, the Commodores (2-10, 0-8) finished winless in the league for the first time since 2002, Bobby Johnson’s first season at Vanderbilt. Injuries and an ineffective offense doomed the Commodores. Only five players started all 12 games.

The lack of big plays in Florida’s offense this season has been pinned primarily on the Gators’ receivers.

But the running backs certainly don’t get a pass.

Jeffery Demps and Chris Rainey don’t have a run of longer than 25 yards in SEC play this season.

Compare that to last season when five of Demps’ seven touchdowns were 36 yards or longer and three of the seven were 40 yards or longer.

Rainey had a 75-yard touchdown run last season against Arkansas.

A year later, the Gators can’t seem to buy a big play, which Florida coach Urban Meyer was worried about after losing Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy to the NFL.

But he also thought others would step up quicker than they have.

“Deonte Thompson got hurt, and that sort of set him back,” Meyer said. “I was expecting a few more hits out of our tailbacks than we’ve gotten. But we still have some big games left. I know we’re down, but we’re also up in other areas. Whenever you lose good players, you anticipate a little bit of a drop-off. But I still think we can, maybe not catch (the big-play numbers from a year ago), but still be very productive the last part of the season.”

There was a bit of a breakthrough against South Carolina last week. Senior receiver Riley Cooper caught a shorter ball over the middle early in the game and turned it into a 68-yard touchdown.

It’s that type of catch-and-run play that has been missing this season from the Florida offense.

“I remember Bubba Caldwell catching a bubble screen and taking it 60 yards (a couple of years ago),” Meyer said. “We haven’t had that yet this year.

“Once again, there’s still plenty of time.”

I was 7-0 last week and 8-0 the week before. For those mathematically challenged (and I’m one of them), that’s 15 in a row without a miss.

For the season, I’m now 70-13 (.843). At this rate, I might catch Urban Meyer, who’s a robust 54-9 (.857) at Florida.

I’ve done some research, and finishing .850 or better would shatter all sorts of records at ESPN.com.

I mean, I’m so hot right now that I might even let my ACC cohort, Heather Dinich, pick for me next week.

OK, maybe that’s getting a bit carried away. She’s not used to this SEC stuff.

Enough with the chatter. Here we go with my picks this week:

Alabama 48, Chattanooga 0: The only drama in this one is whether Chattanooga will score a touchdown. Alabama hasn’t given up many of those to SEC teams, so it stands to reason that the Mocs, led by former Tennessee quarterback B.J. Coleman, will have a difficult time finding the end zone in Bryant-Denny Stadium. This is also a chance for Mark Ingram to spruce up his Heisman Trophy resume with one of those stat-stuffer games.

Florida 55, Florida International 0: Florida coach Urban Meyer says he respects South Florida athletes, and he should. They’re some of the best in the country. The Gators have a few on their roster. The only problem is that the best South Florida athletes aren’t playing at Florida International, which lost 40-14 earlier this season to Alabama. This one won’t be that close.

Tennessee 23, Vanderbilt 10: Mercifully, the season ends for the Commodores this weekend. It’s been one injury-marred nightmare after another coming off such a memorable season last year. Bobby Johnson and his guys will be back, just not this week. The Vols have had their own injury problems and off-the-field issues, meaning they may be down to bare bones at some positions on defense. They’re still smarting from last week’s beatdown at Ole Miss, but will rebound and get their sixth win to become bowl eligible.

Georgia 31, Kentucky 27: This was a classic game a year ago with Randall Cobb dissecting Georgia’s defense and the Wildcats nearly pulling off the upset. Both teams are looking to improve their bowl position, and both teams are dealing with injuries. A.J. Green won’t play for Georgia, and Cobb is questionable for Kentucky. The difference will be Georgia’s ability to run the ball and make enough plays to keep the Wildcats at bay, but it won’t be easy.

Arkansas 38, Mississippi State 24: With Ryan Mallett slinging it all over the field, the Hogs are one of those teams you want to be sure you watch play. They’re highly entertaining, and the talent around Mallett on offense is equally impressive. Look at how many different players have scored touchdowns this season for Arkansas (18), and all but a couple of those were offensive touchdowns. The Bulldogs have improved under Dan Mullen and been a tough out for just about everybody they’ve played, but they won’t be able to score enough points to win this one.

Ole Miss 21, LSU 17: The home version of the Rebels has been pretty impressive this season. They’ve outscored their opponents 213-89 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The lone loss came to Alabama back on Oct. 10. There’s also a guy named Dexter McCluster who’s a bit more involved in the Ole Miss offense than he was back in September and the first part of October. LSU hasn’t given up a lot of points to anybody this season and won’t again Saturday. But the Rebels are equally stout on defense, maybe one of the more underrated defenses in the league, and will set the tone for Ole Miss’ second straight big win at home.

Checking out what's making headlines around the SEC:

• Gene Chizik's first season at Auburn mirrors Nick Saban's first season at Alabama, writes Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News.
• Florida coach Urban Meyer says the Gators have seven players who are "NFL quality players" and will have a decision to make after the season.
• Georgia's offensive line is starting to come into its own, which explains why the Bulldogs are running the ball better.
• Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin emphasizes that freshman Nyshier Oliver wasn't arrested during the shoplifting incident earlier this month.
• Mississippi State's defense prepares for one of its toughest tests of the season against the pass in Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett.
• Arkansas defensive coordinator Willy Robinson returns to practice after last week's health scare.
• There won't be any holding back for South Carolina defensive end Cliff Matthews in two weeks against Clemson.
• This season resembles Bobby Johnson's first season at Vanderbilt when the Commodores were winless in the SEC, writes Jeff Lockridge of The Tennessean.

Florida's current secondary might be the best in the country.

The Gators are also building a pretty formidable secondary for the future.

Joshua Shaw, the country's No. 3-rated cornerback prospect by Scouts Inc., committed to the Gators on Tuesday during a news conference. Florida now has seven defensive back prospects for the 2010 class.

Shaw, who's from Palmdale, Calif., is expected to enroll early and be on campus in time for spring practice in March. He picked Florida among a group of finalists that also included Southern California, LSU and Ohio State.

An Under Armor All-American, the 6-foot-2, 181-pound Shaw is rated as the No. 33 prospect overall in the ESPNU 150.

The Gators have an SEC-high 10 commitments now that are members of the ESPNU 150, and all 10 are ranked in the top 71. Seven of those 10 are ranked among the top 33 prospects nationally.

So while most teams are recruiting, Urban Meyer's Gators are selecting.

It was a record-setting Saturday in the SEC, which means there were a bunch of worthy candidates for helmet stickers.

Let’s pass out a few:

Ole Miss running back Dexter McCluster: You could watch football for a long time and not see a performance as good as what McCluster put on Saturday in Ole Miss’ 42-17 rout of Tennessee. McCluster set Ole Miss records with 282 rushing yards and 324 all-purpose yards and scored four touchdowns, including a 71-yard gem where he made a couple of Tennessee defenders look silly with ankle-breaking moves. The 170-pound McCluster has few peers when it comes to pure excitement. In the open field, he's the most difficult player in this league to tackle.

Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett: For a debut season in the SEC, Mallett has been better than anybody could have anticipated. He finished with 405 yards passing in the 56-20 win over Troy to break Arkansas’ single-season record and also threw five touchdown passes to five different receivers. For the season, he now has 2,882 yards, 23 touchdowns and only four interceptions. Granted, there’s a guy named Tim Tebow in the league, but Mallett is making a strong bid for first-team All-SEC honors at quarterback.

Alabama safety Mark Barron: One of the unsung stories surrounding Alabama’s defense this season has been the job Barron has done stepping in for Rashad Johnson at safety. Barron had two more interceptions in the 31-3 whipping of Mississippi State on Saturday to raise his league-leading total to six. The Crimson Tide’s defense has now held five different teams to single digits this season and hasn’t allowed more than 15 points in its last five games.

Georgia safety Bacarri Rambo: The best news regarding Rambo is that it looks like he’s going to be OK. He briefly lost consciousness and had to be immobilized following his crushing hit on Mario Fannin near the goal line in the final minutes of Georgia’s 31-24 win over Auburn. It looked like Fannin was going to score and tie the game on the pass from Chris Todd until Rambo came flying in to knock the ball loose, and in doing so, knocking himself out and suffering a concussion. The game was delayed for nearly 15 minutes while medical personnel tended to Rambo and stabilized his neck. Georgia coach Mark Richt said afterward that Rambo was showing movement in all of his extremities and didn’t appear to have any serious injuries. He can take solace in the fact that his hit might have saved the game for the Bulldogs.

Florida coach Urban Meyer: The Gators had just extended their winning streak to 20 straight games with their 24-14 victory over South Carolina, and Meyer was asked about all the different distractions his team has faced going back to the offseason. He offered a proud smile and complimented his team for keeping its focus. But Meyer deserves some props, too, for keeping this team together and keeping its eyes on the prize despite some obvious shortcomings on offense. There hasn’t been any hint of division on this team. Meanwhile, the Gators just keep winning, and they're getting everybody's best shot. Meyer is now 32-8 in SEC games (.800), making him the all-time winningest coach in conference play among coaches with a minimum of five years experience.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The last time Florida coach Urban Meyer turned on his computer was sometime before the Tennessee game back in September.

It was his way of getting away from the distractions, or as he calls it, the outside stuff.

There’s been plenty of it, too, going all the way back to January.

Concussions. Fines. Verbal jousting with Lane Kiffin. Players caught on tape trying to eye-gouge opponents.

“If I want to know what’s going on in the world, I ask my wife, ‘How’s it going?’” Meyer said. “I do not turn my computer on. I think some of our players have taken that from our staff, too. We’ve got our face pointed right in the right direction.

“We have plenty to work on. We don’t have time to be worrying about what else is going on.”

What’s going on, to quote the late, great Marvin Gaye, is that the No. 1 Gators are inching, plodding, grinding (whatever you want to call it) toward a chance to play for their second straight national championship.

Every team has an identity, a personality.

This team’s identity, quite simply, is just getting it done.

“We always want to play our greatest game,” Florida defensive end Carlos Dunlap said. “We struggled a little bit today. But when one side of the ball struggles, the other side steps it up.

“That’s how a team works; at least this team.”

Florida got it done in the fourth quarter Saturday thanks to defensive end Justin Trattou’s game-changing interception and navigated its way out of Williams-Brice Stadium with a 24-14 win over South Carolina, which fought its guts out defensively, but met an all-too-familiar fate this time of the year.

The Gamecocks have now lost three in a row and are in danger of a third consecutive late-season collapse unless they can knock off Clemson in two weeks.

As for the Gators, their work in the SEC is done. They’re 8-0, only the 12^th team in SEC history to go 8-0.

And while even the Gators are the first to admit they’re not playing pristine football, they’re playing winning football.

When you’re No. 1 in the BCS standings at this point in the season, that’s all that matters.

“We did not play perfect,” Meyer said. “I’m not sure we have played perfect in quite a while, but I think that’s 20 [wins] in a row, and I’m awful proud of those young guys in there.”

All that’s left now for Florida before its showdown with Alabama in the SEC championship game is Florida International at home next week and then Florida State at home in the regular-season finale on Nov. 28.

Barring anything unforeseen these last couple of weeks, the Alabama-Florida game on Dec. 5 in Atlanta will be a play-in game for a berth in the BCS National Championship Game for the second year in a row.

What the Gators have tried to do, at least ever since the Mississippi State game three weeks ago, is enjoy the ride a little more.

That’s been Meyer’s message to his team: Play hard. Play together. Don’t worry about pleasing anyone outside that locker room.

“There’s no point in being 10-0 if you don’t take the opportunity to live in the moment and enjoy it,” Dunlap said. “You only get to live it once.”

Florida junior cornerback Joe Haden said this team has done a better job of keeping everything in perspective after a clear-the-air meeting following the Mississippi State game.

“You could tell in the locker room today,” Haden said. “Even though we didn’t win by as much as we thought we should, this was the best locker room after a win so far this season. We just have that confidence about us.

“It doesn’t matter if the other team has it on the 1-yard line, the 2-yard line, wherever. We feel like the next play is our play.”

And, yet, the perfectionist in Meyer grimaces when he thinks about what the Gators aren’t doing.

In short, they’re still not getting much in the way of a downfield passing game, at least not consistently. There were two deep balls, in particular, that just missed to Riley Cooper. That’s after he opened the game Saturday with a 68-yard touchdown catch.

“I’m so tired of seeing balls go off fingertips,” Meyer said. “We all know what’s coming down the road, and we have to make those.”

Still, there’s something to be said for the plays the Gators are making.

“We found a way to win that game as opposed to not finding a way to win that game,” said Meyer, who in moving to 32-8 in SEC games (.800) became the winningest coach in SEC history among coaches with a minimum of five years experience.

“In '07, we found a way to lose a couple of those games. In '08, we found a way to win them, and in '09, we’re finding a way to win them.”

And enjoying the ride, too.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- This time, it wasn’t Tim Tebow, Brandon Spikes, Aaron Hernandez or even Joe Haden.

Nope, the guy who turned this game in Florida’s favor -- in what’s becoming vintage Gator football 2009 -- was a guy that some weren’t even sure would be able to make it through the season.

Junior defensive end Justin Trattou had his biceps tendon ripped off the bone in his left shoulder in the Arkansas game back on Oct. 17.

There was some concern that he might be done for the season, and if he did come back, there was no guarantee that he would be able to tolerate the pain.

“He had an injury that many people, when it happened, said was a four, five or six-week injury,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said. “But he called me and said, ‘I’m going to play (two weeks later) against Georgia.

“We have some guys on our team who have that kind of mentality. Obviously, Tim (Tebow) gets a lot of recognition, but we have a bunch of guys on our team who are fighting through injuries and playing very well.

Trattou’s prognosis was right.

He ended up missing just one game, and it’s a good thing for the Gators that he was on the field Saturday. His interception and 53-yard return on the first play of the fourth quarter changed the entire complexion of the game and sent the Gators on their way to a 24-14 win over South Carolina at Williams-Brice Stadium.

“It was a tremendous play. It will go down in history and should go in some book somewhere,” Meyer said.

And, really, it’s the kind of play championship teams make. The Gators were clinging to a 17-14 lead to open the fourth quarter. The Gamecocks were threatening with a third-and-3 at the 22, and the crowd was sensing upset.

The Gators, though, were sensing that it was time to make a play.

“That’s what we do,” Trattou said. “We put it on each other to make a play. We expect to make those plays. It’s usually somebody different every week. We’ve been doing it all year, and we’ve got to continue doing it.”

The pain associated with his injury isn’t nearly as bad as it once was, but even right after it happened, Trattou never once considered taking any lengthy time away from the game for it to fully heal.

“The only thing that was going to keep me out was surgery,” Trattou said. “If it was a matter of dealing with a little pain here and there, that wasn’t going to keep me out.”

When the ball was thrown Saturday, Trattou was actually on the ground. He’d been cut block by one of the Gamecocks’ offensive linemen, but saw the ball bounce off South Carolina receiver Moe Brown’s hands up into the air.

It looked like it was in slow motion.

“I got back up, and there it was,” Trattou said. “I thought I was going to score, but I stumbled.”

He was finally tackled at the South Carolina 26, and four plays later, Tebow vaulted in for the touchdown to make it a 10-point lead.

At that point, it might as well have been 40 points.

“That was the dagger,” Florida defensive end Carlos Dunlap said. “The interception was one thing, but the return helped the most. He was running like he was getting chased by a dog.”

Torn biceps tendon and all.

Florida coach Urban Meyer says Joe Haden would be a great player no matter what position he was playing.

Haden, easily one of the best all-around athletes in the SEC, came to Florida thinking he was going to be scoring touchdowns rather than preventing people from scoring touchdowns.

As a high school senior in Fort Washington, Md., he passed for 38 touchdowns and ran for 13 touchdowns and set a Maryland public school record with 7,371 career passing yards.

But when he got to Florida, the spot he was best suited for on offense was occupied by a guy named Percy Harvin.

The Gators needed help at defensive back in the worst way, so Haden said, “Why not?”

It’s one of the best decisions he’s ever made and hasn’t turned out too bad for Florida, either, when you look at the Gators’ secondary. It’s been one of the best in college football over the last two seasons, and Haden has developed into one of the best cornerbacks in the college game.

After becoming the first true freshman to start at cornerback on opening day in Florida history, he’s been there ever since and will make his 36th consecutive start Saturday against South Carolina.

He’s third on Florida’s team this season with 44 tackles, is good enough in coverage that very few teams challenge him and is also a mainstay on special teams.

How many All-SEC cornerbacks play on the punt block team, the kickoff team and the punt team?

“At Florida, it’s a privilege to play on special teams,” Haden said.

I caught up with Haden earlier this week to get his thoughts on the Gators’ pursuit of a second straight national championship and his development into one of the top players in the league:

How much do you think back to your growing pains as a freshman when teams were throwing the ball all over the field against your secondary?

Joe Haden:That’s just something we had to go through. We had so many young guys back there and really didn’t know what we were doing. It’s the first time I’d ever really played cornerback and I was going up against all these great players. But it made me better. It made us all better. You learn to forget about the last play and concentrate on the next play in a hurry.

How much has this defense evolved this season from where you guys were back in September?

JH: I think at the beginning of the season were we like, ‘OK, everybody’s back. We’re going to be a good defense.’ We’ve always had confidence, but we weren’t doing the little things like we were doing last year, like running to the ball and going all-out on every play. I think we are now. We’re flying to the ball, getting a lot of three-and-outs and forcing turnovers.

Do you feel like the defense is finally back to full strength now with Brandon Spikes returning to the lineup this week and the fact that some of those defensive linemen are now healthy?

JH: There haven’t been many games this year where we had all our top guys out there. But I think we’re starting to get there now, and that’s going to give us a push these last few weeks.

Urban Meyer says you could be an All-SEC performer on offense if you were playing on that side of the ball. What kind of offensive player do you think you would be, and where would you play?

JH:I’d probably be playing slot receiver. When I first came to Florida, I was going to be playing the same position as Percy (Harvin), so I would have been his backup. I like Percy, and he’s a great player. But I didn’t want to sit and watch him play.

Do you miss offense much?

JH: Of course I do. When we go team against our second-team defense in practice, I try to get on the scout team offense. I just have to prove to everybody that I’ve still got it.

You sort of went through this last year where you already knew you were in the SEC championship game but still had some games to play. Does it have a different feel going through that this time?

JH: The big difference is that we don’t have a loss. We haven’t tasted a loss this year. We’d tasted one last year, but are undefeated this time. That’s the way we want to keep it. That’s one of our goals, to get through this season unbeaten and become the first Florida team to do that.

Is it hard not to want to see what Alabama is doing every Saturday, knowing that you guys are going to be playing them here in a couple of weeks?

JH:Oh yeah. The LSU game, we were trying to watch as much of the game as we could before our game, and the coaches were cutting all the TVs off and all that. But you definitely watch them, especially if you’re a fan of the game. You want to see how good they are, who you’re going to be guarding and stuff like that.

Do you get the feel that the rest of the country is rooting against the SEC, hoping that both you and Alabama go down?

JH: Yeah a little bit. But if you watch Alabama, they find a way to win their games, and we do the same thing. I’ve also got my boy on that team, (Javier) Arenas, and I hope for the best for him. I just want it all to be settled in the SEC championship. That’s the way it should be.