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He arrived on Steve Spurrier's old stomping grounds as college football's version of Boy Wonder.

The fanfare surrounding Urban Meyer's hiring at Florida and the impact his spread-option offense might have on the Southeastern Conference was nothing short of stunning to many of the league's coaches.

Almost overnight, the national media helped to transform Meyer into a cult hero. He was innovative, keenly focused and said what was on his mind.

As a head coach, he revived a downtrodden Bowling Green program in his two years there and took Utah to its first BCS bowl in his two years there.

Only 41, Meyer was hailed as the savior at Florida -- and he still may very well be. But his first tour through the dog-eat-dog world of the SEC only further validates what the old-timers in this league have known for quite some time.

It ain't easy.

And the growing pains are enough to make you want to cry.

This much we know about Meyer: The jury is still out on whether his offensive system is going to fly in the SEC.

It sputtered, stalled and backfired for much of the season, while junior quarterback Chris Leak looked about as comfortable as Hillary Rodham Clinton would at a Republican fund-raiser.

Meyer faces a great dilemma this offseason.

Does he stick with Leak and tailor the offense to what Leak does best: drop back and throw the football?

Or does he stick with his spread-option system and insert a quarterback who has the multidimensional skills to run it?

Freshman Josh Portis has shown some flashes this season in limited duty. The Gators are also zeroing in on former Tennessee quarterback Brent Schaeffer, who's wreaking havoc (on the field) this season at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif., after running into trouble and parting ways with the Vols last year.

In the high school ranks, Florida is one of the finalists for the country's top dual-threat quarterback prospect in Tim Tebow of Jacksonville, Fla.

However it shakes out, it should be an interesting offseason in Gainesville.

It stands to be a much smoother one if Florida can take care of bitter rival Florida State Saturday at The Swamp.

"It's critical," Meyer says simply. "You talk about momentum of going into the offseason and momentum going to a bowl game. We were within one game of winning the SEC East. We failed to do it, and that's done.

"We've had two weeks to regroup from that and hopefully grow. We're a young team, a young program experiencing growth pains. But a victory over a team like this would be a lot like beating a team like Georgia. That did great things for our team."

The Gator Nation is still not over the loss to Spurrier and South Carolina two weeks ago. Granted, the Head Ball Coach might have toned it down some publicly, but he delighted in sticking it to his alma mater.

The added sting of blowing a chance to win the Eastern Division title made it that much worse for the Gators.

The Florida senior class that will be introduced Saturday prior to the game represents the first one since 1990 to leave without an SEC championship ring.

By contrast, the Gators won six SEC titles and made seven appearances in the SEC championship game from 1991-2000 under Spurrier. But they haven't been back to Atlanta since that 2000 season.

"This is the University of Florida," senior linebacker Todd McCullough said. "You're supposed to win championships."

It would be unfair to label Meyer's debut in the SEC as a complete failure. After all, he did beat Tennessee. He did beat Georgia, and the Gators have yet to lose at home this season.

But looking deeper, only two of Florida's seven wins have come against teams with winning records: Louisiana Tech and Georgia.

The Gators got a huge assist in their 14-10 win over the Bulldogs, who were playing without injured starting quarterback D.J. Shockley.

There was also the close call against Vanderbilt in double overtime when the defense went belly-up in surrendering 42 points and 361 passing yards.

The offense was so anemic in a 21-17 loss to LSU that Meyer's eyes welled up with tears in his postgame press conference. The offense was even worse a few weeks earlier in a 31-3 loss to Alabama.

All of which makes the Seminoles' visit Saturday that much more important.

The Gators, and Meyer, desperately need another quality win to put the right kind of stamp on this first season. A 7-4 record, any way you slice it, would not endear Meyer to anyone in Gainesville. Not only would it include losses to Spurrier and FSU, but it would ensure spending the holidays in lovely Shreveport, La., at the Independence Bowl.

For those with short memories, Ron Zook managed to win eight games in two of his three seasons at Florida.

It's up for debate whether expectations were too high this season for the Gators, who were picked by some to win the SEC.

What's not debatable is that Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley never envisioned taking a step back in the win-loss column when he fired Zook and brought in Meyer for $2 million. "I think everyone still does believe in coach Meyer," McCullough. "We didn't get done what we set out to do this year. That's the reality of it and something we have to deal with.

"I really believe in this team and what these guys are going to do under coach Meyer."

Who knows? Maybe next year, Meyer will be shedding a few tears of joy.

Chris Low covers the SEC for The (Nashville) Tennessean.