Even though they’re a ways down the road from Gainesville, the Orlando Sentinel is supposed to be more or less pro-Gators.

And they are, more or less.

But the last few days have brought a couple of stinging columns from Sentinel sportswriters. To say they aren’t exactly flattering towards the Sunshine State’s most successful football team is putting it mildly. What do they mean? Nothing really. But they’re fun to read, in the same sense that Gators and Bammers enjoy reading a good article in the Chattanooga press that lashes out at UT (I would’ve said Memphis, but it makes me feel better to pretend they’re part of Arkansas).

First, there was Mike Thomas’s column criticizing UF president Bernie Machen for ranking Florida higher than the rest of the state’s universities (academically speaking):

There’s just something about donning the orange and blue that turns people into obnoxious, arrogant Gators — as my readers well know.

We saw the transformation take place with Urban Meyer, a nice young man from the Midwest who now is even more annoying than Steve Spurrier.

And now we welcome Bernie Machen into the fold.

That was followed by this zinger from popular Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi:

And now we know why Tim Tebow is so skillful when he goes to prisons and preaches to inmates during the offseason. He gets plenty of practice — in UF’s own huddle.

I believe that qualifies as what this guy calls an OUCH.

Adds Bianchi:

And one reason Meyer wins is because — like the other top programs in college football — UF takes chances on kids with questionable character.

Now, Mike. You obviously haven’t gotten Urban’s “top 1% of 1%” memo.

Are all of Florida’s arrests over the last four years serious crimes? Not at all. There is the usual array of alcohol-related collegiate antics. But there are also nine felonies. That’s unfathomable, especially for a coach who came to Florida and bragged that UF would recruit “only the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent.” Who knew Meyer was talking about the top 1 percent of America’s Most Wanted.

Yeah, that one.