** This thread discusses the Content article: Urban Meyer Is Not Going to Notre Dame **

I really think it’s ridiculous that I still have to address this story line. But when columnist Paul Finebaum says Urban Meyer is “probably” leaving for Notre Dame, it’s apparent that some people just don’t get it.

I will link to the column only for completeness and with great reservation, as it seems to me that when you write a teaser for your column a day early, saying “a big storm is brewing in Gainesville," and proceed to follow it up with little or no facts, your column is written less to make a point and more to get the wrong kind of attention.

Don’t click this link. I’ll quote the relevant portions. In the course of this column, Finebaum uses inflammatory language and throws the best coach in the SEC under the bus. And by that, I’m referring to two different coaches!

For all the mainstream media piling on blogs for being off-base and traffic-whores, in this case, it is a newspaper columnist that is out of line. And I’m the blogger here to set the record straight.

I have many issues with this column. The first begins with the terrible accusation of dishonesty. Finebaum writes “So how do I know Meyer is not telling the truth? Easy. Meyer's lips moved when he denied the story.”

When, Mr. Finebaum, has Meyer shown himself to be worthy of such character assassination? You’re telling us the entire basis of your idea that Urban Meyer is headed to Notre Dame is that he has said he is not? Remember, your own headline said he was “probably” (my dictionary says this means “in all likelihood”) leaving Florida after the coming season. And you don’t “think” Urban Meyer is lying—you “know”.

Here, let’s discuss some facts about Urban Meyer and Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame job is not open. And it will not be open, as a "resurgent’"Notre Dame, with 10 scheduled wins, will get the hype-machine treatment and allow Charlie Weis to stick around for Jimmy Clausen’s senior season.

He’s already had the opportunity to take the Notre Dame job. Why, after landing one of the premier jobs in his sport, and earning lifetime job security at that job, would he then take the Notre Dame job, when he could have easily taken it in 2004? Don’t give me a talent argument—Weis’ most successful team had as much talent as the current crop, if not more so (no nine-loss seasons for that group).

Finebaum goes on to weigh in on internal Gator Nation matters of which he has little knowledge. Read a few “bottom lines” on ESPN, Mr. Finebaum?

Urban Meyer came into Florida and brought back many more of our older players than had been around the program before his arrival. He wants them in the locker room, on the sidelines, visible to the current players.

When he “strong-armed” Shane Matthews, he was taking a stand for his team. He was not casting out those with dissenting football perspectives—he was drawing a line between media types and the average Gator alum. You can rip our program, but the players in the locker room don’t need to have it shoved in their face. This is a story that has long since blown over to anyone who even casually follows the Gators.

Throughout the column, Mr. Finebaum sticks up for his boy Nick Saban, the head coach of the Crimson Tide. He states Urban Meyer helped Utah in the Sugar Bowl because Saban is “stockpiling warehouses loaded with blue-chip talent in Tuscaloosa.”

I have many issues with this statement, and the entire premise. Here are a few:

While the Tide have had great recruiting classes, Florida’s cupboard is more full, and a No. 1 recruiting class should be on the way. The thinking of Urban leaving after the season is that Tebow will be gone and the Florida program will be in for a downfall.His accepted premise is that Florida goes undefeated and wins the National Title, so that is why I will discuss such things, not because I think they are a certainty by any measure. In this premise, Florida will be the premier team of the last decade, so any 2010 season will probably be somewhat of a step backward. And this season’s depth chart is stacked with juniors. Johnny Brantley will have plenty of toys and plenty of help on D, hardly a reason to walk away from a contract extension and a raise. In a down economy, when Notre Dame is losing ground to SEC teams, no less.

Mr. Finebaum paints a picture of Urban Meyer developing the Utah gameplan for defeating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl for his own personal gain. Not only is the idea that a coach heading into a National Championship game will be game-planning for anyone other than his opponent (while losing a coordinator, even) absurd, Mr. Finebaum seems to actually believe it to be true.

The only evidence that any conversation between Kyle Whittingham and Urban Meyer took place are some comments made a month before the game by Mr. Whittingham, “We talk at least weekly throughout the course of the season, and it will be a situation where the familiarity they have with Alabama will obviously work to our favor, we hope. It will give us a head start on our game-planning and what we plan on doing. We share ideas all the time, so that’s not new to us”. It seems to me that Mr. Finebaum should look for fewer excuses for Mr. Saban, and instead be searching for the real reason Utah won the game: Utah’s dominance by their defensive line, some of the blame for which must fall on Alabama’s head coach. Alabama lost to a team it should have been able to beat, because it could not cope with the loss of Andre “Manboobs” Smith. Who should have been game-planning for the absence of that player?

Mr. Finebaum, once again, brings up another tired storyline: The number of arrests in Urban Meyer’s tenure at Florida. Yes, we should hold our Gators to a higher standard. Yes, some of the arrests are utterly indefensible (it should be noted those players committing the heinous acts had their Gator careers ended prematurely—and at least one of them has found his way into the SEC West.)

But, I would really like to see the list for all the other programs. Has Alabama had much fewer than 24 arrests in the last 5 years (the only number I found was eight under Saban, a similar pace)?

The Gainesville Sun (whether it was a good move or not) told us Tennessee and Georgia had numbers comparable to UF over the same time period. Should anyone be pointing a finger at Urban Meyer before they point it at their own coach? Mr. Finebaum, I suggest you worry about the cleanliness your own program, which is currently losing wins to the NCAA.

I feel sick defending any sort of arrest, but when a sports columnist—remember, supposedly the "responsible arm" of sports coverage, at least compared to we bloggers—compares the UF program to the TV show “Cops” and references the police blotter, he at least better be addressing a program that is far and above in worse shape than the others, and especially the one he is supposed to be covering.

I’ll only dispute one more “fact” Mr. Finebaum states about Urban Meyer. He takes issue with UF President Bernie Machen’s push for a raise for the Gators head football coach. Finebaum states, “He works at a school that recently cut $40 million from its general budget.”

Mr. Finebaum, even you have to realize Urban Meyer isn’t paid from the general budget—he’s paid from the UAA budget. And that UAA budget is donating an extra $6 million to the University. Urban Meyer is making a lot of people money; he might as well be earning some of it.

The end of the column borders on lunacy, which is saying something after the way it began. Mr. Finebaum takes several unfounded shots at Billy Donovan, and states he “is no longer even considered the best coach in his division”. Uh, he’s the best coach in the SEC. By a long shot.

I have my issues with Calhoun and Boeheim, but those are the types of names he’s competing with, legacy-wise. Not Horn, Fox, Stallings, Calipari, and Pearl. And my opinion is that, before his career is over, we’ll be talking about him with the all-time greats.

Pauls article was just baseline idiocy at its best. It was horribly written and he was comparing apples to oranges with regards to Billy Donovan.

Football and Basketball are two very different games and Basketball especially has recruiting problems and very little player impact now that players can forego school completely or leave after playing a year.

Great job!

Now try and convince some of these media blowhards who keep stirring the pot and those who failed to listen when Mommy told them that it's not nice to gossip about anybody or anything.

I also wrote a rebuttal, but because of how vile and disgusting Finebaum was in his delivery I was a little more scathing and even surly in my retort: http://www.gatorenvy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9807

Not just Buddy Martin, but Pat Dooley has also alluded to the fact that Coach Meyer and his family feel AT HOME in Gainesville; if any of you purchased the Gainesville Sun's book commemorating the 2008 season there's an article Dooley wrote about Urban stating just that.

Another thought to ponder: If Coach Meyer's heart was anywhere else but Florida, there's no way in HELL that we would have won two National Championships within these past four years that he's been the Gators' head coach. At an event last fall I attended sponsored by my Gator Club, "Hollywood" Bob Redman also stressed Meyer's dedication to the Gators and UF football when this never-ending question was posed to him as well. As I see it, that doesn't sound like anybody ready to bail on us anytime soon! Besides, I don't think that Shelley's willing to uproot her family anytime soon; all the constant moving was getting tiresome to her and now that she and her family are settled in Gainesville, she wants to keep things that way for some time to come.

And about the arrests: Most of them have been for petty misdemeanors such as fighting, and have more or less been acts of stupidity on the part of the players involved, but with the way some of our fanbase and the media's been blowing it all out of proportion you'd think these kids had committed capital murder.

As far as Urban getting a raise, I say SHOW HIM THE MONEY - and if I were Dr. Machen, I'd throw in either a (1) lifetime contract as an extender, or (2) similar to what Bobby Stoops received at Oklahoma, generous "stay" bonuses as an incentive to remain with the Gators for many more years to come.
(Since Meyer's birthday is tomorrow - July 10, that in itself would make a nice birthday present!)

As far as Finebaum goes, he ought to be served up a nice cup of STFU.

Well played OTown, well played...

I had to laugh at that last smacky comment some pedantic jackass wrote over at BR - as if he and Finebaum have an intimate relationship or something.

When I talked to James about it last night, he said "it wasn't worth the effort to log in to respond to him, i'll let our fans abuse him".

The guy obviously is an Alabama homer. I don't understand the hatred that others have for Meyer. Besides winning too much, what has he done wrong? How is he perceived as this "megalomaniac"? Do you see him going on TV and saying "our team is the best in the world" or "i want to dominate and rule the world"? The answer is no. All he wants to do is put his team in the best position to succeed. Isn't that what all coaches should strive to do?

Mav, I perceive part of it as being jealousy; after we fired Zook back in 2004 it so happened that we were in the right place at the right time, and in the face of competition from the Golden Dome, Jeremy Foley persevered in the end and got Meyer to take the Florida job.

I don't see Meyer as a "megalomaniac", either. He's much more fan-friendly than SOS was, has a definite plan to win games, and has his priorities in order. As I see it, UF is lucky to have the Meyer family in Gainesville as the "first family of Florida football"; they're just plain good people.

On the rare occasions that Meyer does talk a little smack, he's still mindful of not wanting to ruffle any feathers or make himself look ridiculous. It's more-or-less just done to encourage fan spirit and the rivalries we have right now.

And if that doesn't sit well with the media or rival fans, then too bad.

And BTW, Ben Volin also refutes that little puke up there in Birmingham: http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/gatorbytes/2009/07/12/for-the-last-time-urban-meyer-has-no-intention-of-leaving-florida-for-notre-dame/

Not to mention, Urban himself!

Good for Urban - I'm glad he finally said what he did.

He knows that Finebaum's trying to sabotage our recruiting efforts as well as instigate trouble, and if he thinks Meyer's not tuned in to his scheming, he's sadly mistaken. Gross immaturity and total bad form where Finebaum is concerned.

Guys, here's another chance to make your opinions known about Finebaum's drivel: http://www.espngo1.com/2009/07/15/mark-mcleod-with-paul-finebaum/

Mark McLeod appeared to be very Milquetoast in his responses to Finebaum in my opinion; he should have stood his ground and backed both Meyer and the Gator media in general up instead of showing Finebaum his belly.

Seems Finebaum can dish it out, but can't stand it when it's thrown back in his face and gets all defensive, based on how he attacked "Urban's Way" author Buddy Martin, and pointed an accusatory finger at him claiming that he started all the controversy in the first place, which is a crock.

And yet he accuses Meyer of lying? Does Finebaum even know the meaning of the word HYPOCRITE? He better, because that's exactly what he is - as well as a hack who, along with others of his type, continue the regression of sports journalism to the level of tabloid trash one reads in publications like the National Enquirer.

Shady hacks like Finebaum need to be taken off the air; as far as I'm concerned they have no informative NOR entertainment value whatsoever.

Thanks for the link, Otown.

I normally don't care if people write stupid things on the internet- at least I don't care enough to dispute all of it this strongly.

But when a newspaper columnist who a lot of people are going to read and take seriously (vs we bloggers, who usually get dismissed) is just making things up... well, that can't be good.

No telling how many people didn't hear the audio attached, didn't read the many people who came out to defend Meyer, etc. What they'll remember is "Urban Meyer is a lying coach, and he's just waiting to go to ND first chance he gets".

Sort of the reason I reacted strongly when Lane Kiffin wrongly accused him of cheating. The accusation will stick, even if there is no truth.

What we bloggers have to do is build credibility by being correct, honest, and fair- or extremely entertaining. The majority of the internet is a meritocracy. Sure, if I printed something nuts about someone else's coach, it might give me traffic for a day or two. But I'd also get the reputation for straight making things up. If I'm not doing a good job calling things as they are, or not giving you entertaining or new, interesting viewpoints on sports topics, don't read me. I removed Finebaum from my RSS feeds, but that sort of move will not dent his power, as many more eyeballs will see his garbage than my refutation.

I think Mr. Finebaum has a higher obligation to be accurate and truthful in what he writes. And this column in particular was written with such strong language it's borderline defamation of character.

Agreed, Goose. Rather than turn the other cheek and allow creeps like Finebaum to assail Urban Meyer's character and undermine his efforts to continue to make Gator football successful, fans as well as respectable journalists and bloggers need to stand their ground and not allow "schlock" types like him to escape unscathed.

I wouldn't really call it "defamation of character"; Finebaum deserves that level of response, based on the tone of his delivery and his attitude in response to the feedback he's received. It's so easy for Finebaum to point an accusatory finger at Meyer and call him a "liar", but then he turns around and does the same thing. That's hypocrisy, and Mark McLeod should have been brave enough to confront him with those distortions of fact.

I'd just love to see somebody from the Gator beat have the courage to counter-attack Finebaum in such a ruthless matter it puts him to embarrassment in a huge way. He deserves to get back what he has coming to him, and it's high time for one of these yellow journalists to be taken down.

I'm sorry if I was unclear, I meant Finebaum is defaming Meyer.

He provides no evidence for his being a "liar" (here's where the child says 'Everyone lies' or 'nobody is perfect' and writes an entire column where his wild conclusion is given as fact.