When you have a story that starts out with this…
The uproar and controversy of Urban Meyer’s stunning recruiting coup at Ohio State settled in and Stefon Diggs, still on the Buckeyes’ wish list, was debating his future.
Diggs, the second-highest rated wide receiver in the country, had narrowed his list of potential schools to Maryland, Florida and Ohio State. For more than a week following National Signing Day on Feb. 1, and before Diggs eventually signed with Maryland, Meyer relentlessly pursued Diggs.
Multiple sources told Sporting News that Meyer—who won two national championships in six years at Florida and cemented his legacy as one of the game’s greatest coaches—told the Diggs family that he wouldn’t let his son go to Florida because of significant character issues in the locker room. [Emphasis added.]
… and goes downhill from there:
But multiple former players and others close to the program say the timing of his departure was also tied to the roster he left behind. Remember it was Meyer who hinted the program that won 13 games in 2006, 2008 and 2009—and lost only 10 games from 2005-09—was flawed beyond the unsuspecting eye.
Now those issues have surfaced for all to see. Left in the wake of Meyer’s resignation were problems that can destroy a coaching career: drug use among players, a philosophy of preferential treatment for certain players, a sense of entitlement among all players and roster management by scholarship manipulation.
The coach who holds himself above the seedy underbelly of the game; who as an ESPN television analyst in 2011 publicly berated the ills of college football; left a program mired in the very things he has criticized.
“The program,” former Florida safety Bryan Thomas said, “was out of control.”
… all you can say is wow. (Meyer is probably saying something much stronger.)
I don’t know what the Ohio State equivalent of Seat 37F is, but this piece is so damaging that I think Matt Hayes should consider himself extremely fortunate if that’s as far as Corch banishes him. In the meantime, I expect to hear that this article is being handed out to parents on the recruiting trail like candy. It’s brutal.
Get The Picture 
Circle of trust!
http://goo.gl/x02WO
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Just makes you wish FU could have gotten a couple of more years out of his sorry ass. We owed him a couple.
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Eh, I could see some nice UGA vs. OSU games in the not so distant future.
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my second favorite team is Michigan now.
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I was born in Michigan, had family play football for UofM, and was raised to hate Ohio State. Then I moved to Georgia at 12, began following UGA, had friends play football for UGA, and developed a deep and abiding hatred for Florida. I … hate … Urban Meyer.
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You’re a bad guy man.
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Urban Meyer? Gentleman’s agreement? My sides split from laughter. I’m with you, IrishDawg. Gonna be pulling HARD for Meeeshigan this year.
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The dude did exactly what florida paid him millions of dollars to do:win and win big at florida.Not be a role model, not be an honest guy, not develop QBs for the nfl, just win football games. He didn’t do anything that we know of that was illegal or violated ncaa rules certainly not to the point where the ncaa would drop the hammer. I’d take that at Georgia in a heartbeat, even if he was a lying disingenous scumbag who left the cupboard bare on the way out. God awful human being does not equal bad football coach.
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To the extent that successful recruiting is a big part of coaching at the college level, I’m not sure Meyer’s recruiting failures quailfy him as a bad coach but they don’t make him a good coach either.
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No, the recruiting “failures” don’t make him a good coach. The two national championships and three 13-1 seasons do that (feel free to throw in the undefeated Utah team he had as well).
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Wow, I’ll bet you’re a pleasure to be around.
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I think you need to find another team. UGA has not been and nor will ever be a “win at all costs” program. You are wasting your time. Go to the mall and buy a roll tide shirt and move on. They do things the way you like them done.
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Florida’s not a “win at all costs” program either. Get over yourself.
I’ll never understand why some of our fans want us to be like Vanderbilt, Notre Dame and Stanford. Unbelievable.
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You don’t have any pride in your University? Means to me that you didn’t go there or didn’t finish.
Their own players are calling it “win at all costs”. Where have you been?
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I graduated from UGA in 2002. Nice ASSumption.
It’s great that you so willingly accept the analysis of a Florida football player. These posts of yours really make you out to be a smart, discerning individual.
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You’re saying that a Florida player doesn’t understand the Florida program? Interesting.
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So you would have ruin the reputation of your favorite team for a national championship or two? Then may Mark Richt continue to disappoint you.
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And this mentality is the problem with college football in general.
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I suspect the minimalization of conference championships for national championships during the BCS era has created this mentality and a playoff will only make it worse.
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Playoffs are da debil. Just ask every other sport known to man.
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May you never have a child to play for a scum bag like that! For the child’s sake, not yours.
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“Urban Meyer’s Circle of Trust”
Is that the same thing as an elephant walk?
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Gross.
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Myers would be the ringleader of the most appropriate Circle Jerk ever conceived.
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“Let me make one thing very clear,” Meyer said. “There are no issues with Urban Meyer and the NCAA.”
“If there were issues, it would be a very big thing, and Urban Meyer would have to say that it will be a very big thing for Urban Meyer in the future. And if I were my dad, me and Bert Bielema would be going ’round right now. But I only recruit the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent. And the top 1 percent of those I allow into my circle of trust. As for the rest, there are issues with those guys, but you have those kinds of issues on every program in the country.”
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It’s too bad this article didn’t come out when tOSU had dual coaching staffs. It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of SOBs and the most pretentious prick the SEC has ever seen.
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I think you may have made Steve Spurrier cry.
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As excited as I want to get about this piece, I would have a hard time arguing with anyone who calls this a hatchet job.
Hayes got one disgruntled player with a clear axe to grind to open up and then has a couple of unnamed sources nodding their heads. Everyone else quoted disputes the story. If you assume the truth is somewhere in between, how different is this from any time a coach leaves?
To be sure, there’s some damning stuff in here. But none of it’s new, unless Percy Harvin lighting up is a revelation to you. In musical terms, this is a greatest hits package, not a new album.
Understand, I’m not defending Meyer. Just noting that Hayes sets this piece up to be a bombshell, and the actual impact is a thud.
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The only other person quoted in the story is Meyer… so you can say it’s Thomas’s word vs. Meyer’s word. But one of those involved has been accused of being lying to cover up the drug use of his players… which was later admitted to or discovered by the NFL. So, I’m not sure Meyer’s word is the most believable, even considering Thomas’s dull ax.
Is it a bombshell? No. Most of us already had an inkling that this crap was going on. Then, when you see a coach literally walk off the job, players get dumped by the dozen when a new coach comes in, etc., you can piece the story back together to see what seems plausible. The arrests, the rampant drug use, the transfers, etc. all seem to corroborate the story to me.
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We had an inkling and didn’t know what influenced belief ( by our genuine dislike for that swamp group?), but to have it confirmed is quite a bombshell to me. Those things I judged him harshly on was his spoken hypocrisy without having to later parse his words, the flambouyant ego of “No one does that to me in all my finery” for the endzone stomping and his taking his act to timeouts to ensure pain to a team and fans in defeat; almost like a child’s complex of omniscient belief.
Confirmation is a sweet bombshell, but with the media push on it, surpasses anything I had imagined he might answer for. Now that they are in the mood, maybe we can see a little light sewn among the horseshit south of us. Remember, Mike Bianchi has yet to lay into him.
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It’s a significant story because Urban likes to pretend he’s above everything in the article. He wants to do it one way behind the curtain and get credit for doing it another way when the camera’s rolling.
Somehow, Urban wants to pretend that every program has dozens of players arrested and sees its biggest stars run afoul of the NFL’s testing program. It’s all beyond his control. But, really, he’s a saint.
Take Tebow’s aw-shucks demeanor away from that program, and Meyer looks a heck of a lot more like Switzer than a saint.
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Stop the presses. Urban Meyer is a scumbag. In a related matter, water is wet.
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Mr.Mayor, that is funny.Thank you for a good laugh.
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” He wants to do it one way behind the curtain and get credit for doing it another way when the camera’s rolling.” That sounds real similar to Ohio’s last Head Coach.
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Does, doesn’t it? Hopefully, the NCAA/press is paying attention this time around.
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Like compatible slime oozing together.
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Let this be a lesson. If you aren’t honest about your players failed drug tests, you’re a dick and everyone will hate you.
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Sheesh. To think that we lost to those schtick drecks in 08 and 10. The article is a hatchet job, and the comment to the Diggs family the only new thing, but Corch is so richly deserving.
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Why is that a surprise? In both years, Florida had the better team
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To be “better” in that 2010 battle of craptaculars is like saying “you don’t sweat much for a fat girl”.
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Good point, Normaltown. The battle of the tallest midget, as it were.
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Actually Mike, UGA clearly had the better team in ’10. All the statistics prove it. The Dawgs ended up with a worse won-loss record than the Gators in ’10 for the same reason that the Dawgs lost to Florida that season–bad coaching decisions during games, particularly at the end.
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The top 1% of 1%
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The article reminded me of UGA’s little problem during the Jim Donnan era. Jim lost the team for the same reasons Carter was injured, yea right. He kicked the Greer to the curb but let Carter and Shanks snort the goal line.
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Didn’t the University of Florida’s mouthpiece, EDSBS come up with the Fulmer Cup? No wonder they have never won it. 😉
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Yes we won a couple of MNC, but look at all the bullshit that is cost us. I know you guys feel that BOOM is a turncoat, I just hope he brings us back to respectablility like you all have with CMR!
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Al, there is always some bullshit when there is a coaching change. It’s called “rebuilding.” I would gladly have the 2 BCSNC Trophies and have some bullshit to put up with now. Hell, we had a 6-7 season in ’10 without ever winning the BCSNC. Now that’s putting up with “bullshit.”
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