Urban Meyer stepping down as Florida coach

[traderumor]

I'm glad ESPN or TMZ isn't around when I change my mind about a career move. How does such a high level decision get revised in such a short period of time, or was it just good old misreporting?

[bucksfan2]

I have never been a big fan of Urban Meyer's. I think for the most part he has run a "winning is the only thing that matters" program and Tebow has masked multiple arrests and the beginnings of a rogue program. It is even more disturbing that Dunlap (I believe) is allowed to play in the bowl game after what he did. But back to the major issue.

What makes most successful college coaches great is their ability to flip the switch on and off. It sounds as if Urban can't do that. He has sacrificed his health and his family in order to become a prime time coach. What really struck me is is daughter saying something to the effect of "now I get my daddy back" and then Tebow saying "he was like a second father to me". Its shocking, but not all that unexpected, that Urban would have a better relationship with his QB than his own family.

I fully respected his decision to move away from the game and become a better father and more healthy. I do see this flip flopping as Urban being a "drama queen" which isn't all that unprecedented with him. I hope he makes the right decision for himself and his family first. The UF football program isn't going anywhere and will survive if they have to hire another football coach.

[Boston Red]

Originally Posted by dabvu2498

This has a Coach K-Pete Gaudet feel to it.

How about Lute Olsen/Kevin O'Neill?

[Mario-Rijo]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

Could actually be better -- they can sell recruits that Meyer is only going away for the offseason and will probably be back in the fall.

In fact, the cynic in me almost wants to believe that Meyer "changed his mind" to protect the recruiting class and will make the decision to really resign after national signing day.

That's where I'd lay my money. This guy is gonna be gone from coaching quite some time. And I applaud him for the move but not so much the way he went about it.

[Chip R]

Sounds like he's taking career advice from Brett Favre.

[Captain Hook]

Originally Posted by Chip R

Sounds like he's taking career advice from Brett Favre.

[Hoosier Red]

Originally Posted by KoryMac5

Dungy has no interest in coaching at this time. He loves what he is doing for NBC and has stated so. Florida definitely is stuck between a rock and a hard place on what they should do. Do you hire a long term replacement (Big name) or promote from within and watch recruiting possibly suffer. Should be an interesting off season in college football.

One other thing to consider, pro football coaches have a lot less on their plate than college coaches. In pro football, winning is all that matters. You have to spend all your time getting your 53 players to be in position to win as many of the 16 games and then playoffs as possible.
In College Football, you're dealing with a roster of 80+ players who you need to develop, hundreds of high school players you have to recruit, and then you have to market the program to boosters, the community at large, and in some cases some state government relations to round things out.


If someone has never worked in a college program(and I thought Dungy went straight to the Steelers or Vikings but could be wrong) it would really be difficult to do the job correctly.

[OnBaseMachine]

I can't stand Urban Meyer.

A video making the rounds this morning shows Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer confronting Jeremy Fowler, a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, after Fowler wrote an article about how the SEC powerhouse was moving on after Tim Tebow.

In the video, Meyer threatens Fowler's access because he -- wait for it -- correctly quoted one of Meyer's players.

He didn't stop there, threatening hypothetical violence.

"If that was my son, we'd be going rounds,'' Meyer said.

Video of Urban acting like he's a tough guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPQ1j...layer_embedded


http://blogs.suntimes.com/sportspros...eyer_thre.html

[KronoRed]

I'm sure this forum will have a fair take on what took place

[paintmered]

Meyer apologized to the reporter.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5033522

[texasdave]

Urban Meyer said he would be fighting the reporter if it was his kid? Is he serious?

[macro]

Originally Posted by KronoRed

I'm sure this forum will have a fair take on what took place

In fairness to this forum, the national media has been pretty rough on Meyer the past couple of days. I'm not sure there's really any defending what he did.

[MWM]

Meh, this is typical making a mountain out of a molehill. Sports reporters of this day an age are barely a step above the sewer. The guy took some pretty innocent quotes by a player and turned them into controversy over Saint Tim. He's just a kid and doesn't fully understand how his comments will be used. These reporters don't give two craps about them and Urban has a little of the mother bear mentality.

[Chip R]

Originally Posted by MWM

Meh, this is typical making a mountain out of a molehill. Sports reporters of this day an age are barely a step above the sewer. The guy took some pretty innocent quotes by a player and turned them into controversy over Saint Tim. He's just a kid and doesn't fully understand how his comments will be used. These reporters don't give two craps about them and Urban has a little of the mother bear mentality.

I agree somewhat. The thing I find a little odd is Meyer "mother bearing" Tebow even though he's no longer one of his players. I think it's admirable he takes an interest in one of his players after he's out of the program but this is somewhat extreme. Tebow's a man now and really doesn't need Meyer standing up for him. I see what Meyer's doing, though. Tebow's draft status is so shaky that a comment like that could really knock it down some. However, I'm somewhat skeptical that a comment like that could cost Tebow a great deal of money.

As for the reporter, I don't think he had to quote the kid verbatim. What the reporter could have wrote was that the kid said that this new QB is a better pure passer than Tebow. That's pretty innocuous. I don't think anyone would argue that point.

[MWM]

Originally Posted by Chip R

I agree somewhat. The thing I find a little odd is Meyer "mother bearing" Tebow even though he's no longer one of his players. I think it's admirable he takes an interest in one of his players after he's out of the program but this is somewhat extreme. Tebow's a man now and really doesn't need Meyer standing up for him. I see what Meyer's doing, though. Tebow's draft status is so shaky that a comment like that could really knock it down some. However, I'm somewhat skeptical that a comment like that could cost Tebow a great deal of money.

As for the reporter, I don't think he had to quote the kid verbatim. What the reporter could have wrote was that the kid said that this new QB is a better pure passer than Tebow. That's pretty innocuous. I don't think anyone would argue that point.

Your bolded point is what I was getting at. I don't think Urban was protecting Tim, I think he was "mother bearing" the kid who made the comment who had it completely twisted by the reporter who knew that any criticism of the the Omnipotent Tebow (even if it was unintended) would be controversial. The reporter knew what the kid meant, but didn't care. He had something that would garner attention to himself and didn't care that he was manipulating some kid in the process. THAT is what Meyer's outburst was about from what I can tell. And I can't say that I blame him. He might have gone overboard, but I don't have a problem with his overall hostility towards the reporter.

I have such little respect for the overall state of the sports media these days. There are certainly exceptions out there, but for the most part the once proud profession has become much closer to the National Enquirer than the New York Times. I think this is why guys like Meyer feel the need to constantly be guarding against predatorial reporters shopping for dirt. They bring it on themselves by writing stories like this guy wrote.