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The Univ. of Florida released a statement today in which Urban Meyer confirmed that he is stepping down as head football coach at the school.
Florida-based college football reporter Brett McMurphy of AOL FANHOUSE was first to report the news on Twitter Wednesday
From the Florida official release: Read more…
Florida Coach Urban Meyer Saturday night:
What? Don’t act like you’ve never seen an esophageal spasm before.
They say that one is the loneliest number you can ever know.
Actually, last night at Florida Field it was three.
On Sept. 14, University of Florida running back Chris Rainey was arrested and charged with felony aggravated stalking. Police reported that Rainey texted his girlfriend, “Time to Die (expletive),” while also threatening to break into her home.
Two weeks later, Rainey accepted deferred prosecution on a reduced charge of misdemeanor stalking. The charges will be dropped in six months if Rainey completes 10 hours of community service and participates in domestic violence counseling.
Jason Lieser of the PALM BEACH POST reported that one of the reasons Rainey’s felony charge was reduced was the victim, “issued a statement Sept. 27 saying she was never fearful of Rainey hurting her.”
Rainey, who was the 25th player to be arrested or face charges during coach Urban Meyer’s tenure, was “dismissed” from the team by the coach after the arrest and felony charge.
That dismissal lasted less than a month, as Meyer announced this week that Rainey, who remains on scholarship, has been reinstated to the team. Meyer said of the reinstatement, “I’m disappointed that he violated a core value of our program, but he continues to pay a price for his actions.”
Meyer added that one of those “core values” was for Florida football players to “respect women.”
The willingness to take Rainey back so quickly is all the more ironic considering what Meyer said in 2006 to Stewart Mandel of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED while touting his method of recruiting high school players. Read more…
For those wondering what is wrong with Georgia football, I’m not sure Mark Richt is the problem.
(What It’s Come To: SEC Champs or 1st Down @ Mississippi St?)
When Richt was coaching the Bulldogs without Urban Meyer at Florida, Nick Saban at Alabama and Les Miles at LSU, Georgia was stellar in the Southeastern Conference from 2001-04. In those four seasons, Richt won two SEC Championships while losing in the SEC title game another year.
He was an impressive 42-10 over and 22-8 in the league and it looked like UGA was finally on the brink of breaking through the glass ceiling that’s forever plagued the Bulldog program.
Then Florida hired Meyer.
Since Meyer took over the Gators, Richt is 26-17 in the SEC and 49-20 overall. Above average numbers until you find out the Dogs have gone 2-7 in their last nine conference games and 0-3 in the SEC to start the 2010 season. (Longest losing streak since 1990 - my senior year at UGA. Yay.)
Richt is 1-4 against Meyer with Georgia now 3-17(!) in the past two decades against the Gators. But wait, there’s always the most recent two meetings between Georgia and Florida, in which the Dogs were outscored 90-27 in two losses.
Despite that appallingly lopsided 20-game segment, Georgia still holds a 46-39-2 edge in the series. In other words, Florida has no absolute right to football dominance over its biggest rival. Georgia has had equally impressive runs over the Gators the past century, but thanks to Steve Spurrier and Meyer, the balance of power has shifted dramatically - for now.
Last Saturday, which Richt called, “obviously” the lowest point in his decade-long tenure at Georgia, the Bulldogs were embarrassed 24-12 by an also-ran Mississippi State team led by Meyer protege Dan Mullen.
Worst than the result though, at least to me, was Richt’s hollow comments about Georgia’s offensive strategy against the MSU defense after the game. Read more…
For the first time in his Florida football coaching career, Urban Meyer recently announced that he was closing practice to the media for a full season.
That decision led to massive confusion the last 48 hours regarding the status of highly-touted freshman Gator football players Ronald Powell and Dominique Easley after they apparently boycotted practice Tuesday.
Late Wednesday, the GAINESVILLE SUN reported:
Starting quarterback John Brantley was the only UF player made available to the media Wednesday. He said he’d heard the rumor about Powell and Easley (skipping practice) earlier in the morning.
When asked if he knew whether Powell and Easley had practiced Tuesday, Brantley said, “I do not. I’ve heard those rumors from people, but that’s the coaches’ deal. They take care of that behind closed doors.”
So the team’s starting quarterback doesn’t know if two players weren’t at practice the day before?
It took the student INDEPENDENT FLORIDA ALLIGATOR to get to the bottom of what was actually going on, reporting that Powell and Easley boycotted practice on Tuesday to protest their treatment at the hands of Gator coaches:
Hours after senior Mike Pouncey told the media the freshman class needs to “just shut their mouth and come play,” Ronald Powell and Dominique Easley didn’t come to play at all.
According to a source close to the team, the two freshmen were upset with the way the coaches came down on them during special teams practice Monday and didn’t show up for Tuesday’s practice, as a result.
According to the source, both players threatened to transfer, but nothing has come of that so far.
Powell was the top high school football recruit in the nation last season according to Rivals.com and Easley was a highly-prized defensive tackle recruit. The boycott, which Florida coaches, players and public relations staff are still refusing to confirm, was by no means a surprise to Meyer & Co. Read more…
Earlier today I reported that Florida fans and media were perplexed, and in some cases upset, that Emmitt Smith failed to mention the University of Florida during his Hall of Fame speech in Canton on Saturday.
Sources subsequently indicated to me that Smith’s falling out with former Florida football coach Steve Spurrier contributed to the apparent snub. I was also told that that lingering feud resulted in Smith not attending the ceremony for his induction into the Univ. of Florida football’s Ring of Honor in 2006 at Florida Field.
In the aftermath of the public reaction to his Hall of Fame speech, Smith apologized today on his official Twitter.com account. Smith sent out three Tweets to that effect: Read more…
University of Florida fans and media are mystified over Emmitt Smith failing to make a single reference to his three years in Gainesville during his Hall of Fame speech yesterday in Canton - despite current Gators coach Urban Meyer being in attendance.
(Ask Steve Spurrier, he knows)
GAINESVILLE (FL) SUN reporter Pat Dooley, who covered Smith at Florida, wasn’t subtle in his reaction to Smith’s snub:
“Apparently Emmitt went from Escambia directly to the Cowboys. Wow, I wasted my time covering some other guy wearing 22 from 87-89.”
That comment prompted UF alumna Erin Andrews to wonder to Dooley:
“@pat_dooley do u think it was intentional?? I can’t figure it out..”
Dooley’s reply to Andrews and others:
@ErinAndrews Hard to fathom. He’s run hot and cold with UF since he left. But when he retired he mentioned everyone down to SID secretary … Emmitt and UF have had a rocky relationship but I thought it was patched up by Urban. Maybe he just forgot. Or maybe not. … it’s been a shaky deal ever since he left and spurrier didn’t beg him to play senior year.
Florida fan reaction was far less subtle, bordering on outrage.
Ethan Skolnick of the SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL presented another theory:
The snub made news on Twitter, with UF students and alumni expressing their disappointment and confusion. Smith, after all, is in the Gators’ Ring of Honor, though he didn’t show up for that ceremony. And current Gators coach Urban Meyer was in attendance Saturday night.
I don’t have many inside connections at Florida, but a few media friends of mine do. And their strong suspicion, based on some recent circumstances, is that the snub was due to Smith’s strained relationship with Florida AD Jeremy Foley.
Smith missed that Ring of Honor ceremony because of what he claimed at the time was a practice commitment to Dancing with the Stars.
But in talking to multiple sources today, including Florida athletic dept. officials, I have no doubt that Smith purposefully snubbed Florida and that Ring of Honor ceremony for one reason. Read more…
Turns out heart problems apparently weren’t the cause of chest pains that hospitalized Urban Meyer on Dec. 6 and eventually contributed to him scaling back his schedule as Florida football coach.
At the Southeastern Conference annual meetings in Sandestin, Fla., today, Meyer told reporters that the cause of his chest pains was, “esophageal spasms.” The affliction was also the reason for the coach’s significant weight loss at the end of the 2009 football season.
The condition is likened to an acute form of heartburn and is described by MayoClinic.com as:
Esophageal spasms are an uncoordinated series of muscle contractions that prevent food from traveling properly from your esophagus to your stomach. These spasms can be very painful. Chest pain is a common symptom of esophageal spasm.
Stress is cited as a contributing cause of the malady, which can be controlled by altered eating habits and medication.
Read more…
HBO’s Real Sports profiles Lane Kiffin on Tuesday and in the piece reporter Andrea Kremer claims the 35-year-old’s new contract with the school will pay him $4 million annually. Kiffin’s decorated predecessor Pete Carroll made $4.4M his last year in L.A., qualifying the coach as the highest-paid employee of any private school in the America at the time.
(Credit)
Of course, Carroll won seven consecutive Pac-10 titles and two BCS Championships before he reached that level of compensation. Lane’s claim to fame is having won the friendship of Carroll, who was largely responsible for getting him the NFL Oakland and Tennessee head coaching jobs.
The $4M number pegs Kiffin as the fourth-highest paid coach in the nation, behind Bob Stoops, Mack Brown and Nick Saban. Saban was raised to nearly $5m per season after winning the BCS Title at ‘Bama earlier this year. Brown also was bumped up to $5.1M after 2009. Urban Meyer currently draws $4M per season, equal to Kiffin’s compensation. Read more…
