Maybe, MCG, but the emotional ties to home are pretty strong, especially for Ohioans. Meyer has moved around a lot and people with his level of intensity and hyper competitiveness tend not to stay in one place for a long time. Florida is an ideal place for him but how many talented, ambitious, driven personalities have you meet in your life who left ideal places of employment for a new challenge. My guess, however, is that if he leaves, it would be to the NFL rather than to another college.
Good points Bobda. One thing I agree with 100% is his Ohio ties. Last year I stayed at the team hotel when UF went to play Kentucky and I literally ran into not only Urban and his wife Shelly ( at different times) but also I chatted with his sister in the lobby before the game and she was saying how he had many relatives and friends from Ohio that were there for the game. However....I may feel differently than some about his length of stay potential than some because the last friend of Meyer I ran into was at the bar that night and it was his agent.....a man on the board of regents at BGSU. This guy announced with conviction and without provocation that us Gators were lucky because Urban was at Florida to stay. I believe him.
I believe him...a phrase heard from Dolphin fans recently and from Alabama fans when Franchionne was their coach.
I saw that article, it's nuts to write something like that. Fla vs ND WAR...give me a break. I hated losing Trattou and think he made a big mistake, but over all ND has had good success in Fla with Sam Young, Dan Wegner, Armando Allen, Maurice Crum Jr, Ray Herring, Richard Jackson, Dwight Stephenson, Ian Williams. Urban reminds me a lot of Bob Stoops, both were 7-5 their first year, then won the NC championship and recruited lights out after the NC. Since then Stoops has not won another NC, been embarassed in the 2 he played for has had trouble with highly recruited QB's, lost a couple of years in a row to his instate rival OSU when he was highly favored, and basically made his bones by beating Mack Brown 5 times in a row. Lost to Boise State!! Stoops talks discipline, but the deal with his QB taking money shows it was just lip service. Stoops is on the decline I think. His recruiting has tapered off quite a bit recently.
And I thought Urban Meyer HC'd UF to a 9-3 record in 2005? Seems I just read something that indicated Meyer's never lost more than 3 games in a season as HC and is averaging two losses per year over the last 6 seasons. Believ he has an .835 win rate. MCG, did you see Tom Lemmings comments about UM continuing to recruit guys who were "committed" to other schools?
Interesting numbers about players in the NFL. Notre Dame has a rich history of players in the NFL, we have more NFL HOF members than anybody (well we are tied with USC for 10). But Since the 93 season the Notre Dame program has declined somewhat, at that same time the Fla program (whose only NFL HOF member is Jack Youngblood) has been on the rise with the great Spurrier years, tremendous athletes recruited by Zook and now Meyer. So you would figure that ND NFL'er would be declining and UF NFL'ers would be increasing since the Gator program has been so successfull. Yet ND has maintained a pretty good contingent, and the Gator contingent isn't really much different. Which again is surprising to me. Here's the current numbers from last season: Only reason I post this is that supposedly Meyer told Trattou that he'd have a better shot at the NFL comming to Florida. Maybe so in the future, I don't have a crystal ball. But if the Gators during their arguably their best period (after Spurrier revieved the program)) couldn't do any better than this vs Notre Dame during a down period....then I think that wasn't really the truth.
"supposedly ..... told Trattou"?????? Where did Meyer learn to coach and recruit? Seems I recall he spent most of his years as an assistant at programs in the mid-west with his last 5 years at Notre Dame. Terry, in your comparison of Meyer to Stoops (plus the comment about Stoops and discipline) and then in your statement that Meyer "supposedly" made representations to Trattou that were something less than truthful, you seem to be a little "negative" on Meyer as a headcoach. Is it your opinion that ND's pursuit of Meyer to be its new head coach was a mistake?
Some humorous quotes from Justin Trattou... All the coaches there were really excited when I told them and coach Weis said that I'm a good fit for the program and he can't wait for me to be apart of it." ""Obviously Charlie Weis is already a great head coach that has succeeded on every level in football," he said. "I also was very close with coach Oliver and Latina. They were both upfront guys that were straight forward and told me how it is. I felt like I got along with them really well too."" "Actually I committed to Notre Dame a couple weeks back," he said. "All the coaches there were really excited when I told them and coach Weis said that I'm a good fit for the program and he can't wait for me to be apart of it. "Notre Dame stood out to me because of the overall atmosphere. Every trip to the school was great, but the spring game was special because of all the fans there and the football tradition really stood out on that day. I knew from that experience I wanted to be a part of it. I also felt like I got along really well with the coaches and players. Notre Dame looks to be the best fit for me to succeed in football and academically." "Obviously Charlie Weis is already a great head coach that has succeeded on every level in football," he said. "I also was very close with coach Oliver and Latina. They were both upfront guys that were straight forward and told me how it is. I felt like I got along with them really well too." "The coaches have told me there is a shortage of defensive ends after this season," he said. "This season I'm looking to work on every aspect of my game every day, speed, strength and more so that I can compete for the job." "Tell them I'm going to do my best to make Notre Dame as good as they'll be. They don't have to worry about me not giving my all for the team." Yada. Yada. Yada. Perhaps as part of his freshmen studies program an ethics course may be helpful :lol:
George, I don't feel as strongly as you about the kid. He's only 18-19 years old and regardless of his initial recruit-speak he's only looking out for himself. If he decided to change, it's because he saw a better opportunity for himself at the other school. From what I've read, my guess is that he saw the possibility of ND going to a 3-4 defense which would cause the coaches to want to bulk him up to DT and that's not what he wanted. It's likely that he contacted FL to see if they were still interested, which if true would nullify the "poaching" talk about Meyer. My feeling is, if he wasn't that serious about being a team player to begin with, we're better off without him. Can you say Olsen? Maybe he'll be a great player for FL. Maybe not. Four years (beyond the recruiting hoop-la) is a long time to make or break one's college career no matter how highly touted he is after HS or where he goes to college. The one thing I take from this episode is that regardless of what a kid says when he declares, nothing is final until the ink is dry in February.
Yes I never thought Urban would be a good fit at ND. He would have ruined Brady Quinn, could you imagine Brady running the Spread/Option??? Yikes. Plus at ND he wouldn't have been the benificary of a motherload of talent left by the previous coach.
I agree with Sid here. We really need players at that position and Trattou looks like a good one, but how much could he have helped us if he changed his mind over something so trivial? A better explanation seems to be that he just didn't want to go to Notre Dame. He'd met everybody and toured the campus and talked to the coaches. In fact, he stood an even better chance of starting in the 3-4 than he did the old 4-3, which is why the coaches told him about it. He just didn't want to go to school there. You can't win with guys like that. You need to find the guys who want to be a part of your program. Motivation is more than half the battle. Look at Boise State. Ian Johnson went there, because that was his only scholarship offer! He's very motivated to help that school and now he's a Heisman candidate. Troy Smith was the last player offered by Ohio State. Nobody wanted him either and he won the darned Heisman! It all begins with motivation. They all have some talent. The trick is to find the players who can help your program; not just the ones that Lemming likes and BTW- Trattou wasn't in Lemming's Top 100... .......JO'Co
Hindsight shows this ND fan that Terry is correct about both Charlie's good fit at ND and UM's good fit at Florida. Meyer knew he had much more talent at Florida. That could have been the clincher. At the very least it had to be a factor. Charlie has done as well (or better) as could have been hoped for with the lack of talent depth at ND when he came on board. Figuratively speaking, Charlie's job is a hike up the mountain, made easier by a topnotch QB who benefitted greatly from Charlie's tutelage, and Meyer's task is more of a helicopter ride to the peak. I'm not suggesting that Meyer's job is easier, just that he had plenty talent on hand to supplement his great coaching skills.
A couple of comments; First, both Florida and Notre Dame got winners for coaches. In my opinion it was a win - win. Also my opinion is that had we lost out with Meyer the Gators may not have made out as well as Notre Dame did with Weis. Secondly, George, I'm an Ohio boy also and no way I leave Gainesville for Columbus. Just my opinion. And if the Ohio State job opens up this is one Gator who is not going to be worried. Not that I don't think Ohio State is not a wonderful job, it is! However leaving Florida for Ohio State makes no sense in my opinion. And I would go further to say it would make no sense for a coach who is successful at Ohio State to leave for Florida either. I just think there are several college coaching jobs that fit that bill, Notre Dame, Michigan, Texas, S. Cal being some, but not necessairly all, others. Just my humble opinion.
I would agree that there a jobs that once a coach gets there and is successful that he's not going to leave for another job. My List. Fla Georgia FSU Miami USC Ohio State Michigan Notre Dame Alabama (Franchionne was an abberation) Texas Oklahoma Nebraska Texas A&M Penn State Tenn I think those programs have so much going for them when they are successfull in terms of money, recruiting, facilites, fan support that no coach is going to leave them for another college job. I think there are a number of other programs that when successfull are hard to get the coach away but not impossible. Programs like Iowa, Wisconsin, Washington, Colorado, Orgeon, LSU, Auburn to name a few. For example I think if Lloyd Carr retired, and LSU continues to do well under Les Miles...Michigan could lure him away from LSU, esp since he is a UM grad.
hmm <t>maybe its just me, but I don't care about him one way or the other. I wish the kid well. However, I want the guys who will be there from signing day onward to the future.<br/> <br/> I don't see this as a huge loss because obviously his heart was elsewhere. I think/hope the new DC works out. There's a lot to be said for coaching at this level. ND does have its talent/depth issues but as the NFL stat pointed out, the difference between bad ND years and UF's glory years wasn't made by talent differences. It was made by the man who utilized that talent.<br/> <br/> I love the Wake Forest story this year because it shows what coaching can do. Does anyone believe that Wake Forest has more than 2 guys that would start at ND? I don't and I watched damn near every game Wake played this year. Their defense, however, was much better than ours. If the Irish had Wake's defense, the story of our season is much different.<br/> <br/> Find the guys who want to be there, who buy into the system and perform. That's all we can ask for.... As we saw with our offense, a coach can make all the difference in the world.</t>