And frankly, had Ron Zook been fired at season's end rather than weeks earlier, we still would have had a decent shot. Florida fired Zook and started reaching out to potential replacements. Meyer was actually a few spots down the list of their desired choices, but they'd been in touch with his agent. Once their top choices had balked (primarily Shanahan), they started focusing more with Meyer, and made the formal, serious offer at virtually the same time N.D. did.

All of this gave Meyer time to consider the specifics of where Florida was as a program. Had Zook not been fired (or at least fired when Willingham was), Meyer would have been at Notre Dame. There is zero doubt.