I know, I know, Urban Meyer’s the first coach in the SEC to join the $4 million per year salary club – no doubt he deserves it, by the way – which will be taken as a sign from the gods by every Gator fan in existence that he’s staying in Gainesville forever and a day.
But if I can be that little nagging thought that resides in the back of their reptilian brains just for a minute, consider one thing: if Notre Dame is paying Charlie Weis over $4 million per year right now, how much would it pay for a real coach?
Get The Picture 
Excellent point. The Domers would back the truck up. If I were Meyer, I wouldn’t go, but coaches have something in their DNA make-up that forces them to seek challenges.
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Doesn’t it seem a bit premeditated that this would happen/be released after all the Notre Dame questions and evasions instead of immediately after the man won his second MNC?
Me thinks he doth protest too much.
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Apparently his buyout has remained at $500,000. If Meyer really had no intentions of leaving (which, at this point, I don’t see why he would leave for anywhere but the NFL), why wouldn’t he and UF want to put an insanely high buyout clause in the contract and shut all of the rumors up once and for all?
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In Red Stick City, a smile, a change from the usual frown, appears under The Hat as his agent calls to tell him Jeremy Foley just gave him a pay raise http://www.dixiefriedsports.com/images/p1_miles.jpg
In South Bend, the beginning of a smile or maybe just a licking the lips in anticipation of its next meal appears with The Hoodie down
Nick don’t give a damn http://blog.al.com/rapsheet/2008/03/saban_on_les_miles_raise_i_cou.htm
With the end of the Tebow era coming upon the football world as we presently know it and the statement from the ND Athletic Director, the planets could be slowly coming into alignment for the Resurrection of Pope Urban at the NBC Vatican of Holy College Football http://www.und.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/120308aaa.html
Kind of just like The Hat was going to be the next coach at Meechigan http://www.freep.com/article/20071130/SPORTS06/311300001/1054/rss19
http://ann-arbor-michigan-real-estate.com/blog/labels/Les%20Miles%20coming%20to%20Ann%20Arbor%20buying%20a%20home.html
So South Bend should double down and offer Urban $8M/year and his own primetime Must See TV sitcom, ‘Urban Points and Stares at Lane and Mark’ on NBC in the time slot between the ‘Office’ and ’30 Rock’. The show’s plot will be somewhat along the line of ‘Three’s Company’ with Urban playing the role of Mr. Roper, Layla One and Layla Two playing the roles of the two hot girls and Lane and Mark combining for the John Ritter role. Nick can play the role of an outside repairman like Joe the Plumber, but he will first have to have Jimmy issue a press release to all of Nick’s admirers in Alabama (everyone except Chizik’s staff) not to worry because this TV role just like his LSU movie role does not mean that Nick is going to abandon them like he has done to so many others. That offer should be enough to lure Urban to save college football as he says adios to Hogtown, packs up his Escalade, with his wife, his kids, his dog and heads up I-75 to South Bend.
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You have not earned the reputation that you carry if you think UF would ever lose a coach due to money.
Fish, UF coaches have always had very low buyouts under Foley. The idea is to make them want to stay. Not force them too.
He may leave. No one knows but him. But I really can’t see him leaving for ND.
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Seriously, there’s no rational reason he should leave for South Bend. Florida at this point is clearly the better gig.
But if Meyer’s heart tells him differently, I don’t think there’s any question ND would make it worth his while.
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As a UF fan, I worry about Ohio State. That’s a good enough of a job and where he grew up that that’s the only college program I worry about losing him to. If his heart tells him ND I think he would have taken it instead of going to UF.
So, I’m very thankful for Tressel continuing to do well.
Btw, I’ve read a report that indicates Meyer has agreed to donate 1 million a year back to the school.
Also, I don’t think the timing is weird. They normally do the deals after the Spring, June ish, but this year there were a lot of budget cuts announced right then. That’s not good timing. Waiting until after that’s died down a bit and waiting until after the athletic association announced it’s donating six million back to the school is good timing.
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I understand that, and I completely understand Foley’s stance on buyouts. It fits with the overall attitude in Gainesville over the past 15 years or so (“we’re better than any of the rest of you, so we don’t really need to worry about any of you”). If I were Foley, I would probably have the exact same opinion.
It just seems that the timing of this announcement was eerily convenient as the Notre Dame rumors were flaring up again and we’re approaching the stretch run of everyone’s recruiting class. Seems to me like a large buyout would shut the rumors up once and for all. But good luck explaining to recruits why Jeremy Foley’s stance is a noble one.
I don’t see any reason why Urban would leave Gainesville, personally (fwiw, I’m a grad student at UF and am trying to get the hell out as fast as I can). I also don’t think UF is going to bother getting into a bidding war with Notre Dame if Urban starts entertaining offers. They’ll do what they can to sweeten the pot but if he starts playing games they’ll wish him luck in South Bend.
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No UF coach that I know of has a buy-out clause. Foley doesn’t believe in them as a matter of principle. Donovan could have similarly opted for UK without any sort of penalty. Also, without getting into a pissing match over what job is better, from a compensation standpoint, Florida has no income tax and the flip side to Charlie’s contract is that with a lot of years and a lot of money due, the buyout is pretty steep. And armed with all that tv money, it’s difficult to envision Meyer leaving on account of UF not being able to pony up.
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I don’t think anybody thinks that Florida has any chance of losing Meyer due to money issues. There, that’s the final word on that, UF fans.
Now that that’s settled, the question revolves around the truth of the assertion that Meyer’s dream job is Notre Dame. No offense (I grew up a UF fan, relatives in Island Grove, north of Ocala), but UF is not in the same class (still) nationally perception-wise that Notre Dame is. Otherwise, Florida would have it’s own TV contract and bowl tie ins, and Notre Dame would be in the Big 10/Big East like it belongs. If Meyer, like Saban from LSU, thinks that he can be the guy at the 2nd biggest historical football school in the country, then that’s his thing. He’d be stupid to leave Florida, since he’s going to be recruiting there anyways no matter where else he goes, but if he does it, that’s why.
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after Treebow leaves.
If he is indeed the GPOOE then regardless of the recruiting and returning roster, UF could easily take a few steps back.
Oh I know, we went 10-1 after 34 left, but that was one year. Anyone see what happened over the next several? Not nearly as good.
And I do recall a good stable of backs in ’85.
So we’ll see what happens without an Alex Smith or Treebow.
Good for sure – but not this good.
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Doesn’t Saban make over $4 million a year as well?
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I think it’s us Georgia fans that protest too much. We want him out so bad it’s making us see things, and we project that desire onto him. If he left I’d be shocked and happy.
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Personally, I don’t really want him gone necessarily. I’d much rather he stay and us beat him. He’s a great coach, no doubt, but I think any good coach is going to be a formidable opponent at Florida (after all, we lost 2 of 3 to the Zooker somehow).
He’s such a dick that I don’t want him to leave as another Spurrier that completely owned us his entire time at UF. I’d love seeing us turn things around and send his career back to the median. I’ve enjoyed every bit of Spurrier fading into Bolivia but would have enjoyed it a lot more if it had happened at UF. Watching Meyer fail would be incredibly enjoyable (the 2007 season was fantastic in that respect).
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Soooo.. does Les Miles now make $4,000,001 per year?
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you guys are flying on a wish and a prayer, you just want to see him leave, thinking that will solve your problems. Urban has his dream job and we will keep winning championships …. period.
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