Poor Corch. That’s seems to be the theme of Stewart Mandel’s sensitive look at why Urban Meyer is taking so much crap from the media these days.
The scrutiny is expected. There’s no avoiding it when you’ve won two national titles. But it sure seems he’s being held to a harsher standard than some of his peers.
“Some of his peers” turn out to be two: Les Miles and Mark Richt. Of course. Although Mandel manages to pull his punches when it comes to Georgia’s coach.
Georgia coach Mark Richt’s program has had rashes of offseason arrests and suspensions, though less so this year. He and the Bulldogs have taken heat for it. But Richt, widely regarded as one of the classiest coaches in the profession, is largely praised — rightfully so — for his firm disciplinary stances (some of it mandated by a rigid school drug-testing policy).
So what exactly is his point? Beats me – if Richt’s getting credit that Meyer isn’t because Richt is perceived as doing a better job of holding his players accountable when they misbehave, isn’t that how things should work?
Get The Picture 
Speaking of crime and punishment, I would have swore this was Athens and not Auburn.
http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/07/24/how-quotas-pervert-police-priorities-fir
LikeLike
These ticketing quotas in Auburn seem especially unfair considering that a particular number of special Auburn residents are off-the-market, so to speak. Perhaps this is what the “warnings” quota takes into consideration.
LikeLike
Anyone else sick of this nonsense? I’m tired of Richt and UGA coming up when they speak of the Urban Meyer types. These infractions at UGA are no where near the level of the kind of stuff Meyer’s players have done. It’s comparing scooter violations & smoking a little pot to domestic violence, bar brawls and weapons violations.
LikeLike
We have the worst of both worlds, an over-eager local police that jumps to arrest every kid they can, and an awful athletic association drug/suspension policy. Somebody needs to get their head out of their ass and realize they’re doing much more harm than good by labeling our University as a haven for the problems that some other schools have and deserve.
LikeLike
Mandel does have a point that Urban Meyer being lax on Aaron Hernandez’s pot habit isn’t what made him into a murderer. He’s a psycopath (Hernandez, not Mandel… Mandel is just a moron). One should note that Hernandez has not been charged with the other shooting incidents that happened in Gainesville. He was asked to interview about one of them and declined and apparently that was the end of it which tells me the police had nothing on him other than a hope he’d self-incriminate. As far as Urban Meyer goes, he knew about the incident with the bar fight, and he should have done something about it. But I don’t know that he even knew about the gun stuff. So he is getting a bit of unfair attention here.
I do believe that Coach Richt and his staff do a good job of learning about players before we bring them in. The arrests that happen at Georgia are generally ticky-tack stuff that cops in other college towns most likely look past. But when players step out of line, they are dealt with. Usually, they lose playing time though there are exceptions like last year’s Branden Smith adventure. They are always held to account, though, and in cases where the offense is serious they are almost universally docked heavy playing time or more often asked to leave. One of our quarterbacks plays for LSU now as a result. THAT is the difference between Urban Meyer and Mark Richt. Meyer didn’t look the other way while someone was killing people at Florida. He simply didn’t look for warning signs that the kid was a gangster in high school and he didn’t stay on top of his discipline at Florida. Could it happen at Georgia? Yes. Could it happen at Ohio State? Yes. All I know is that between the two coaches, Mark Richt is tough on discipline. Urban Meyer is not. That’s what Stewart Mandel needs to figure out.
LikeLike
Nice post.
[“… the kid was a gangster in high school”
That is the key thing that just about everybody is overlooking. If Meyer didn’t know about his gangster activity when he signed Herndez, he certainly should have. It’s hard to believe he didn’t know.
And that underscores the fact the Meyer looked the other way when that activity first showed up in Gainesville. I’m very comfortable saying that Richt wouldn’t have signed a kid with that kind of background. Even if he had, he would’ve been dismissed from the team rather early on.
So, in that sense, I don’t think this could have happened in Athens. Not at all. As long as Mark Richt is there.
~~~
LikeLike
Urban Meyer is a gigantic douche. Possibly the douchiest coach to ever lead an SEC team.
LikeLike
Ward, I dont usually agree with you, but I have to salute you when you nail one.
LikeLike
Like 81Dog above, I must give credit where credit is due. What you say about Meyer is true, but I still thing this feeding frenzy by the press is a bit overdone. Corch isn’t responsible for whatever crimes Hernandez committed, but you couldn’t determine that by examining some of the press coverage lately.
LikeLike
And yet, who doesn’t take a little schadenfreude when the world finally gets that Corch is who he is, even if what they wake up to is the wrong reason?
Along with the revelation that Tim Tebow actually sucks, I’m enjoying FU’s post-natty hangover, even if a little late. It’s not quite worth what we had to put up with in the GPOOE/Mind of Urban Meyer era, but it’s better than if we were still deifying those two assholes.
LikeLike
Holding Irvin Meyers accountable for Hernandez is just karma, given the pass that he got in the past for all the other stuff.
LikeLike
“Possibly the douchiest coach to ever lead an SEC team.”
Jackie Sherrill would be pissed to hear that.
LikeLike
“Possibly the douchiest coach to ever lead an SEC team.”,
Orgeron just took his shirt off.
LikeLike
Somewhere, the Ole Ball Coach is naked sipping a beer on a golf course.
LikeLike
Lane Kiffin on Line #2
LikeLike
Coach Petrino? Thank you for holding, I’ll place you into the conference call now…
LikeLike
HIs point is, Senator, that it is still the off season, and his column isn’t going to write itself. He has to fill that space SOMEHOW… although he would have been better off writing about the royal baby. Oh yeah, and he isn’t very bright.
LikeLike
For all the frenzied media shills suffering from Irvin-sanity over the unfairness of Corch being “held to a higher standard” over player discipline: When you parade yourself for years as someone who demands the best, the highest, the top 1% of the top 1%, it’s not unfair when people point out you aren’t living up to your OWN standards. Irvin (sorta like his mentor, Lou Holthhhhhhhhhhh) got plenty of credit for his righteousness on the front end. Is it unfair tp criticize him now, when it appears all was not as it seemed in Shangri-La, errrrr, Gainseville?
Richt is the Anti-Corch. He doesn’t go around proclaiming his righteousness, he just holds guys accountable for their screwups. Stars don’t get a pass in Athens. One can argue whether the ACCPD engages in overkill, or whether Czar Mike overdid the penalty schedule, or whether kids in Athens get hammered for stuff that wouldn’t create a ripple anywhere else, but you can’t say UGA sweeps stuff under the rug. You also can’t say Richt is a relentless self promoter of his own righteousness. He just does what he’s supposed to do. It’s manifestly unfair to CMR for the media shills to use him as a shield for Irvin.
LikeLike
Correct, 81. But that’s what happens when you set up a ridiculously strict disciplinary system. You get screwed both ways–you lose the player for important games and the press just points and says,”See, look how bad Georgia players are!” This disciplinary system is a disadvantage in recruiting (who wants to go someplace where if you do what the other students do openly you get in a lot of trouble because you play football) and also seems to cost the Dawgs an important player at the worst possible time. That the system was set up by Mike Adams for his own self-promotion is just another reason to get rid of it. Now that we have a new President I hope that the system gets changed to internal discipline like running steps, etc. rather than mandatory game suspensions.
LikeLike
Well stated, 81. The current treatment of Meyer might seem harsh because it is in the context of sports journalism–where glorification and sainthood is the standard treatment for any coach with a modicum of success. This is one of the reasons that the revelations about coaches like Tressel and Paterno were supposedly so “shocking.” Although you can argue that sometimes these guys are just products of the build-you-up, tear-you-down nature of our culture, I have a lot less sympathy for egomaniacs like Corch–guys who lead the way in promoting their own greatness as men off the field.
Perhaps Corch just needs to hand out a few more copies of “Urban’s Way” to the national press corps to remind everyone of how wonderful he is.
LikeLike
“One can argue whether the ACCPD engages in overkill, or whether Czar Mike overdid the penalty schedule, or whether kids in Athens get hammered for stuff that wouldn’t create a ripple anywhere else, but you can’t say UGA sweeps stuff under the rug.”
Bingo. Well said, sir.
LikeLike
Oops. this comment was intended for 81Dog above.
LikeLike
My wife and I live in Montana and we love CMR and the GEORGIA BULLDAWGS!!!!!!!!!!!!
LikeLike
Go Grizz & Go Saints!
LikeLike
Mandel is just channelling his inner Fox Butterfield.
LikeLike
Anyone know if Richt ever faked a heart attack to get out of a contract because his team started losing games with a tougher schedule?
LikeLike
Mandel’s point is that if he ties everything in football back to the SEC, the rabid fan bases of the schools he mentions will read/comment on his article; thus making him relevant. “Let’s see, who can I compare the Urb to in order to guarantee page views? I know, two of the most successful coaches with huge fan bases in the country’s best conference.” Comparing the trouble Meyer’s players have gotten into with emerging from an alley and suspended license arrests is laughable at best.
LikeLike
Comparing Hernandez to any of Richt’s past players is ridiculous. To be clear, Hernandez is being accused of being a serial killer, articles like that make Mandel look like an idiot.
LikeLike
To be fair, most *articles* that Mandel writes make look like an idiot.
LikeLike
Win a national title. Think that would shut up all the sports reporters with an agenda. What is common place in America is the irresponsible reporting, opining, and journalism in the news media. ESPN, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, SI, AJC,and so on. Journalism majors. I hated them when I was on campus…and still do. Born liars and wimps. All liberal, progressive blow hards with an agenda…always attacking what is good and outside of how they look at life. I have three words for them all … last two are in this sentence and the first word starts with a letter in Dawgs.
LikeLike
“Journalism majors. I hated them when I was on campus…and still do. Born liars and wimps. All liberal, progressive blow hards with an agenda…always attacking what is good and outside of how they look at life.”
Sure, the born liars, wimps, sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickhead liberal progressive blowhards with an agenda should be exterminated but you keep that up and you’re going to deprive the Fox News College of Communications and Disinformation* of its J-student inventory. Next thing you know, Ailes is going to have his people issue orders that your ass be renditioned out of AH-1 SuperCobra over the Pacific off Pendleton
* “An elite opportunity for any serious J-student who wants to be a reporter, anchor, producer, writer, booker or news executive. You will be guided by TV, radio and web news professionals on all levels and exposed to top talent.”
http://www.foxnews.com/fncu/admissions/communications
LikeLike
Will…that would probably qualify as an incredibly idiotic statement, if I could only figure out what it meant.
CHOPDAWG, UGA ABJ ’75 cum laude & fairly damn proud of it
LikeLike
The NYT is also still on the Corch-As-Enabler beat, with this story posted last night, Meyers Strikes Somber Tone Over Players Troubles.
His current QB calls the problems with the current team “college kid mistakes;” an assault charge and a battery charge do not fall into that category.
(Though, to be fair, who knew emerging from an alley did, either?)
LikeLike
Every time an Irwin or a Belichik prefaces their remarks about A-a-ron with,
“Your thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victims,” it makes me wonder where theirs (if any) are; how do they know where ours are; and as recompense they should get an extra dose of Bret ‘Royale with Cheese!’ Mushburger and his wingman Herbie
LikeLike
Awesome skit…D-nice!
LikeLike
I am suspicious of anyone who attacks the character and goodness of Mark Richt, and it doesn’t have anything to do with what team you love the most. You just have to wonder what qualities they really like/dislike in people on the planet. You can not approve of his choices of on the field decisions, or staff hires, etc., but seriously, Mark Richt as a human being? What those people don’t like would probably put them on a list of people I don’t like. I can say that the public comments/attacks of folks like FBomb, Jim Rome, and Corch have made me not trust, or respect, them. Yes, you can label people by what they endorse, admire, and support. That is not only fair, it is logical. May not be PC, but that is not a platform I support anyway.
LikeLike
“a list of people I don’t like”
Is that a long list or a short list?
LikeLike
Long, and growing. Current crisis situation requires identifying those who are with you, and agin you. Not enough time for explaining the obvious and educating the slow. Not very southernly of me but the time for niceties is past, didn’t work anyway.
LikeLike
“Not enough time for explaining the obvious and educating the slow”
Rats! Now, nothing is left…
LikeLike
Stewart Mandel is a consummate blowhard. A guy who is impressed with himself and his platform working at a major news outlet. Never mind that he is hopelessly emotional and repressed in a number of ways. Hiding behind an imagined veil of “objective journalism” Mandel’s reporting is always colored by his own clear bias. This would be tolerable if it weren’t for the fact that he is not blessed with great understanding or insight on the sport he covers. He is unable to recognize talent, poor at breaking down matchups and relies too much on stats. Most of all, he is a mass media apologist who runs to the safety of the consensus on almost every issue. In Mandel’s world, if it isn’t reported by a “credible and esteemed journalist” it can’t possibly have merit. Guy’s coverage is weak sauce and not worthy of this great blog’s attention.
LikeLike