College Football Bowl Games: Florida Has More Than Pride on the Line vs Ohio St

The Florida Gators need to send a message to Urban Meyer.

Their former hero turned villain bailed on the university and dropped excuse after excuse to make it sound like he wasn't sick of coaching in the SEC.

Now the 6-6 Gators will get their chance to embarrass Meyer's new team, the 6-6 Ohio State Buckeyes, January 2nd at the Gator Bowl.

The last time these two teams met it was Meyer's Gators that utterly spanked the Buckeyes 41-14 in the 2006 National Championship Game. The speed differential was stunning and it left plenty of skeptics wondering if the Big 10 could ever consistent compete against the best conference in college football.

Life was good in Gainesville at the time as the Gators thought they had their head coach for the next two decades. Instead, he claimed to have serious health problems and wanted to spend more time with his family after last season. It was an odd way to go out, especially when you consider he's only 47 years old and one of the biggest names in the sport.

Secretly I think he knew his recruiting efforts were beginning to erode and he didn't want to sit through the type of season Will Muschamp is currently enduring. His decision sounded noble on the surface, but secretly it was quite selfish....especially when you consider how much travel time he had to endure as an ESPN analyst this past season.

Now is the chance for all of Meyer's Florida recruits to prove him wrong. They can remind him that he gave up on a bunch of supremely talented players for a team that can't keep up.

The ultimate payback is a blowout.

Meyer is letting interim coach Luke Fickell finish what he started this season, but you know Meyer will be shown on camera a good 10-to-15 times.

If you're a Florida fan, how great would it be to see his look of disbelief and disgust as he realizes the awful mistake that has been made.

There's no going back, Meyer is now officially a Buckeye, but there isn't a better way to send him into the long offseason than with a big sense of doubt in the back of his mind.

If you want to see Meyer fail, watching his new team get stomped by his old one is a great way to start. For that reason alone, the Gator Bowl is going to be one of the most intriguing bowl games of the entire season.