theboneman21

Very simple. Meyer walked in, inherited a bunch of Zook players who were talented but miscreants. Herman walked into a team that was talented but Charlie Strong purged a lot of the miscreants his first year and did his best to keep them off the team.

Schematically, Tom Herman's offense is much closer to the system and recruits put in place by Sterlin Gilbert than the Florida team Meyer took over from Zook team.

Remember, when Meyer got to Florida, the spread was a "gimmick" that small school teams had to use to compete. There was no talent pipeline of players coming in; Meyer largely had convert players. He and Tebow changed the pipeline.

At Texas, the Air Raid has been going on for decades and the 7 on 7s forever. That pipeline has been in place for a long time.

Very very different first year scenarios.

Another thing to consider is psycho Gators fans. Nikki Meyer was getting bombarded with messages like "your father sucks why can't he fix the offense"

Nikki Meyer expressed her hatred of Gainesville. Few years later Shelley Meyer mentioned how hostile sec fans are.

He wanted Cam Newton. The $$ guys wanted Brantley because he's a 4th generation Gator and his relatives are boosters. So yeah, he was forced to take someone who was the exact opposite of what he wanted to do

He left Florida because despite all he did for them, the money men wanted him to ditch the spread and use a traditional pocket passer. Hence shafting cam Newtown and taking on John Brantley.