Terry, I never take too much stock in articles of this nature. When on top or near the top, this type of of media presentation is to get attenntion and sell their product. It makes no difference for any top ten football school. You are always at risk and those who want to believe the print, will do so anyway. Time to move on.
Meyer is a ruthless recruiter.....and would say most anything within reason to steer a great player his way. It's the nature of the game. The "character" issues probably were highlighted by Muschamp at the end of last season....saying his team played "soft" and with no heart. He hasn't had any run of bad characters though.....and he's probably less tolerant than even Meyer was. The fact remains that there are still some very talented players there at Florida....and Muschamp keeps adding to the mix with his own great recruiting. I watched the spring game on Saturday and I liked what I saw a lot......there seemed to be significant improvement on both sides of the ball......more offensive cohesiveness ( good luck Kansas ) .. The defense could be a terror.....especially if they get help from the offense which they never got last year. I watched FSU beat Florida last November without the noles even gaining 100 yards of offense......and that was attributed to some pretty damned good defensive play by the Gators especially considering that the UF offense was very poor in that game. I think UF could be a top 12 team this year......but the SEC looks to be an absolute beast.....again.....so I wouldn't predict any SEC Championships. But I give em a shot at 9-3 based on what I saw in the spring game and based on returning players.
I have been a staunch defender of Meyer over the years; to the point that I left the Blue-Gold message board because everyday there was a lynch mob for Meyer. This article is not flattering by any stretch and touches on every rumor we have heard about him over the years. I consider the Sporting News a reputable source. Major college coaches are paid a fortune to do one thing: win. Teaching morals, a strong work ethic, character and education are lip service issues. Guy like us don't follow our respective teams because we like the SAT scores or are interested in their class loads. We want to be entertained. If a school is paying a coach millions then that coach must be returning a multiple of that in revenues and the only way to do that is to win. Meyer and all of them will do questionable things to guarantee their futures and schools will look the other way until it becomes impossible to ignore ( see Tressel ).
Janoris Jenkins.....mentioned in article.....was a critical loss for the UF secondary last season and Muschamp didn't give him any leeway....just told him to hit the road for his MJ incident. WM does seem a little tougher than Meyer but I always thought that Meyer wasn't that soft on his players.
I don't know what to think. Meyer's stay at Florida was great the first four years and I had the feeling he was running a clean program and had control of the players. The way the whole thing came down about quitting twice because of his health and to spend more time with his family then taking the job at ESPN then leaving that within a year and going to Ohio State left me baffled. And I have to admit not as much of a fan of him as I was. This article also leaves me baffled, in some ways it's a hit piece, but in others it hits home. What there is no doubt about is that the Gator program was not loaded with great players last year and it showed on the field. So far I am a fan of Muschamp and think he will put the Gator program on the map. Now catching up with Bama? That is a whole other story.
Not mentioned is that Jenkins has already fathered 4 children under 3. He could be a future All-American fathering a child in every state.
He's got a long way to go to catch all-time champ Sean Kemp of the Seattle Supersonics...he had something like 18 kids by 11 different mothers. Can you imagine the child support? :roll:
Not going to comment much on the article, except to say that it's a lot of criticism coming from pots who are calling the kettle black. It certainly looks like he got some of the wrong kids in there...and I certainly hope there is no repeat performance of that at OSU. He may have been too lax in checking on the quality of the individuals, or he may have just been burned by a couple of prima donnas. "Circle of Trust"....really?
Here's another article that I believe dovetails with Stu's thoughts. From the middle of the article. And I might add that every program has players who have had one or more kids by the time they get to college or while in college. It Goes On At Your School Too
Well, gee...there's another side to the story. Go figure. http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20120412/SPORTS/204120322/Meyer-outraged-by-allegations?odyssey=nav|head
I read the same article posted above by Stu in another publication. I'm on Meyer's side. In terms of character, I equate him to a junior Lou Holtz. I know from my son's first-hand observation that Lou Holtz had his favorites, based on the individuals' effort, leadership, and ability, in that order. Lou was a great coach and mentor, but he couldn't please everyone. Neither can Meyer.
There is usually another side to the story which a lot of us could look for more often. If Meyer's health holds up and he has learned with what happened to him at Florida, meaning the health and family issues that caused him to resign, they Ohio State have themselves a coach who has the potential to lead the Buckeye's where they want to go.
Meyer treated good actors well and bad actors badly. ( i.e. Cam Newton ) If the good guys were part of an elite circle they earned it with Meyer. Meyer used to say repeatedly how hard Harvin worked at being the player he could be. How hard he worked at rehabbing any injury he had and about his detrmination to succeed on the field. Ohio State is lucky that Meyer views his players that way and I don't see it changing because of a punk article like the one by SI..
Here's a perspective by one of Meyer's players while Meyer was at Florida. More in the article that I think you will find interesting. Terron Sanders on Urban Meyer
Exactly what Terron said......that's the Meyer I thought coached at Florida. Of course.....now that he coaches at Ohio State I'm sure that TSN has it nailed... :wink: :lol: