Urban Meyer isn’t a happy man today. Lane Kiffin doesn’t care.

It’s inevitable when you have a young, loaded team:  a few recruits are going to take a good look at your depth chart (or, more likely, be invited by some other coach to take a good look at your depth chart) and decide that yours isn’t the best program for them to commit to.

Welcome to Florida, 2009, where Urban Meyer suffered the indignity of having a few recruits redirected away from Gainesville to rival locations like Knoxville (yeah, that’s gotta sting a little) and Tallahassee.  Shit happens, right?

Not to Urban Meyer it doesn’t.  Or at least it shouldn’t.

On the difficulty of recruiting after so much success:

“We see it here all of the time. One thing you find out is when every school is comparing themselves to you [Florida], they take a shot at your academics, at your coaching staff, win and loss record, offense, defense and that we don’t run the ball. We certainly do run the ball and we do it very well. You hear things and just kind of sit back and say ‘Wow.’ It is a good place to be, though, a place that people are trying to catch right now. The problem is and the thing we can’t let happen is to let them go out there and catch us. They are out there trying, and there are a bunch of guys working their tails off with a bull’s eye on the Orange and Blue. It was really bad this year. I don’t want to say it is all negative. It is just that guys are trying to steal our guys and I’m convinced a couple of guys were recruited by some schools just because they said yes to Florida…

Those last minute decommits are so frustrating.  And it’s the NCAA’s fault.

On the amount of decommitments in the past month and his position on early signing period:

“What it also makes me rethink is they have basically taken the head coach out of recruiting. I always like to recruit the back half because I knew the players through text messages from spring recruiting. Basically a head coach, now, is not allowed to spring recruit and not allowed to text message and basically gets one phone call a week. It’s hard to develop relationships that way. I am going to fight like crazy to get them on campus even more so in the spring. You don’t get that relationship with a high school coach and you certainly don’t get it with a player. When a head coach goes out, you’re seeing seven schools and you never get to just sit down like an area coach does. I have thought about that early signing, I’m not as opposed to it as I used to be.”

What Urban doesn’t understand is that if the NCAA were to abolish the new texting rules tomorrow, Junior would just go out and hire himself the best damned texter on the planet for a couple of hundred grand a year.  Because that’s the way they roll in Knoxville these days.

********************************************************************

UPDATE: Junior either has the biggest pair in the conference or is flat out certifiable.  Check out this post from ESPN’s Chris Low, who notes that Junior publicly accused Urban Meyer of a blatant recruiting violation with regard to UT signee Nu’Keese Richardson, took a shot at Richardson’s high school  (from where presumably he might want to recruit again someday) and then went on to bait Nick Saban like this:

… Kiffin also took aim at Alabama coach Nick Saban and suggested that Saban should “thank” new Tennessee assistant Lance Thompson for the Crimson Tide’s No. 2-ranked class. Thompson was one of Saban’s best recruiters at Alabama before leaving to join the Tennessee staff in January.

Thompson even got into the act and assured the crowd that Saban wasn’t going to get another one of his players.

SEC Media Days will be awesome this year.

********************************************************************

UPDATE #2: According to UF AD Jeremy Foley, Junior doesn’t know what he’s blathering about.

University of Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley responded to Kiffin’s accusations saying, “There was no rule violation and we have confirmed this with Southeastern Conference.

“It is obvious that Coach Kiffin doesn’t know that there is not a rule precluding phone contact with a prospect during an official visit on another campus during a contact period. His allegations are inappropriate, out of line and, most importantly, totally false. It is completely unfair to Urban Meyer, our coaching staff, our football program and our institution. The appropriate action at this time in my opinion is for Coach Kiffin to make a public apology. His comments not only slandered our coach, but he violated SEC rules by publicly criticizing another coach and institution.”

This is getting more enjoyable by the hour.  (h/t Saurian Sagacity)

********************************************************************

UPDATE #3: The SEC weighs in.

In a statement, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said the following:

“Coach Kiffin has violated the Southeastern Conference Code of Ethics,” Slive said. “SEC Bylaw 10.5.1 clearly states that coaches and administrators shall refrain from directed public criticism of other member institutions, their staffs or players.

“The phone call to which Coach Kiffin referred to in his public comments is not a violation of SEC or NCAA rules. We expect our coaches to have an understanding and knowledge of conference and NCAA rules.”

Junior better hope his staff is squeaky clean on the recruiting trail, because he’ll never hear the end of it otherwise.

I’m looking forward to that apology.

********************************************************************

UPDATE #4: Ask and ye shall receive.  Here’s Junior’s apology in all its humble glory.

“At an energetic breakfast with some of our donors and alumni I made a statement that was solely meant to excite the crowd,” Kiffin said in a statement.

“If I offended anyone at the University of Florida, including Mr. Foley and Urban Meyer, I sincerely apologize. That was not my intention.”

Well, gosh, I guess that’s settled now.  Sure it is.