Give Meyer all the raspberries you want, but don't send Shula roses just yet. He may have outcoached Meyer, but he was coaching with half his brain -- and none of his ego -- behind his back.
Shula unnecessarily had his most dangerous offensive weapon, Prothro, on the field midway through the fourth quarter with the score already 31-3. Result? A gruesome-looking broken leg. It happened with nine minutes left and the Crimson Tide facing fourth-and-five on the Florida 27-yard line. After leaping for a pass into the end zone, Prothro landed awkwardly, breaking two bones. He's done for the season.
Ugly as it was, here's something uglier about Prothro's injury: It might have happened because Shula was seeking retribution for something Meyer had said. Asked this week why he had pulled his starters so early in the second half last week against Kentucky, Meyer cited a needless season-ending injury suffered late in the third quarter of an SEC blowout last season -- Alabama's 52-0 rout of Western Carolina in Week 3, when Croyle suffered a torn ACL.
Asked earlier this week how he felt about Florida's coach bringing up Croyle's injury, Shula brusquely declined to discuss it. Heaven forbid he should admit his mistake of a year ago. But is it too much to ask that he actually learn from it?
