Shut up Urban!

[sdgukhsdgl]

goodness this is guy is a real jackass... as if people needed another reason to hate UF, Urban has provided many.  was he this big of a jackass at Utah, BG, etc??

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orl-sptbianchi22052205may22,0,2458386,print.column?coll=orl-sports-headlines

Fans feel the force with Meyer at UF

Mike Bianchi

Sports Commentary

May 22, 2005

It just wasn't the same around here when those lovably overbearing University of Florida football fans slinked silently away and holed up in their houses -- timid, withdrawn, submissive.

Their braggadocio was gone and they had become abnormally docile and boringly irrelevant. College football in these parts had become mundane, like the sport of boxing would become if Don King ran away to join a monastery.

But go outside now and take a big whiff.

You smell it?

Ah, the blustery air of arrogance is back in Gainesville.

It's a beautiful bouquet, isn't it?

"I'll tell you," new UF Coach Urban Meyer told a packed house at a Gator gathering in Belle Glade, "when you get 58,500 at your spring game, that's something else. Miami, and that team out west, and that team up in Knoxville, and that team in Athens, Ga., all combined didn't get 58,500 for their spring games. That shows the power of Florida football."

It also shows the power of Meyer's magnificent mouth. That quote, which first appeared in the Palm Beach Post, along with other booster club bravado has Internet chat rooms across the state buzzing with banter.

"I didn't know everything you said at these clubs showed up on the Internet," Meyer said in a telephone interview Friday.

Welcome to Florida, Coach, where everything you say and do will be analyzed and scrutinized, inspected and interpreted, hashed out and chewed over like President Bush's judicial nominees. And right now, Miami fans have the floor and are filibustering against Meyer's nomination as the state's new crown prince of pigskin.

According to Gatorcountry.com -- a Web site that covers UF sports -- Meyer was at a Gator Club meeting in Coral Gables earlier this week when he saw a group of Miami fans sitting in the crowd. The UM fans, it seems, were guests of a Florida alum who was also in attendance.

Trying to have a little fun, Meyer gigged the UM fans by calling them "Gator fan wannabes" and went on to boast about how UF's fan support and academic standards are vastly superior to some schools Florida competes against.

"We're going after the best football players," Meyer said. "We're going after the best students. If you're not a real good student, then save your 25 bucks and see if you can get in school someplace else."

"I'm not surprised at the enthusiasm and support from Gator Nation," Meyer went on to say before pausing again to address the UM fans. "I mean it's not like that at your place . . . it's just not."

According to Franz Beard, the Gatorcountry.com writer who wrote the story, UM fans in attendance took Meyer's ribbing good-naturedly, but other fans certainly haven't. Once Meyer's quotes sped into cyberspace, the fun began.

"GATOR WANNABE?" screamed Dan Sileo, the acid-tongued sports radio host and former UM player. "Why would I wannabe 7-5 every year?"

If you click on FSU and UM message boards, you will see that Meyer and the Gators are being discussed as much, if not more, than the teams' own coaches and players.

Wrote one annoyed UM fan on Canesport.com: "Meyer being a jerk is one thing 'Canes and 'Noles can agree upon."

Wrote a perplexed Seminole on Warchant.com: "There are more threads over here referring to Meyer than there is on Gatorcountry . . . Why?"

Because that great and grating Gator arrogance is back. It became famous in the 1960s when legendary sports writer Dan Jenkins wrote about Florida fans, "They have the tradition of Wake Forest and the arrogance of Notre Dame."

Florida fans, by nature, are pompous. Even though Miami and FSU have had much more football success over the past two decades, UF fans are still convinced they are the premier program in the state. They need and feed upon that feeling of superiority.

In 1990, the audacious Steve Spurrier finally gave them a reason to be smug, but then the swagger went into hibernation during three years of Ron Zook, whose tenure was punctuated by mediocre play and tedious speeches.

"Us Gators have always been a little cocky, and Coach Meyer brings that attitude back," said former UF receiver Chris Doering. "Coach Meyer is like Coach Spurrier. He doesn't just want to beat teams, he wants to bury them."

It seems only fitting, right? As the rest of the galaxy clamors about the opening of the new Star Wars movie, our college football universe is being consumed by the antics of the newest Dark Lord of Gainesville.

To his followers, he is known as Urban Meyer -- a young and vibrant Jedi warrior.

To others, he is simply Darth Gator.

[Bull Matrix]

Hey USFBull83,

I will never forget that game when USF embarrassed Urban Meyer's Bowling Green team at RJS. The game was a slaughter and the top 25 ranked Bowling Green Falcons had no answer for USF's offense or defense. ****, we need a QB fast.  Anyway, I was not a big fan of Meyer's attitude leading up and after that game against USF, so I am not the least surprised on how arrogant he is presenting himself at GVille. Leavitt is still 1-0 over the so called great Urban Legend.

[ucfknights04]

In fairness, didn't BGSU have to hold open tryouts for their team towards the end of the season due to the number of injuries they had?  

[GarySJ]

This sort of adulation of Urban Meyer will come to a screaming halt if Florida loses to Tennessee. Or Georgia. Or South Carolina. Or anyone else. Gator fans have NO patience.

[sdgukhsdgl]

     

                 

NFL

Another UF crowd gets fever

   New football coach Urban Meyer brings his infectious personality, message to Spring Hill.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH, Times Staff Writer

Published May 24, 2005

SPRING HILL - Urban Meyer stepped to the podium in front of a sold-out crowd Monday night and received a rousing standing ovation.

Just for entering the room.

The man hasn't coached a single Florida football game, but his appearances are drawing record crowds to Gator Club functions everywhere, what Meyer affectionately referred to Monday as "the traveling circus."

More than 10,000 Gator fans have packed venues around the state and in Georgia to get up close with Meyer and hear his thoughts on the upcoming season.

Monday night was no exception with 535 members of the Hernando, Citrus and Pasco County Gator Clubs packed inside a grand ballroom at the Palace Grand. With a larger venue, organizers said they could have taken in more.

In 1990, approximately 200 showed up for former coach Steve Spurrier.

"It's been unbelievable the numbers of Gators that have turned out," Randy Talbot, executive director of the UF Alumni Association, said. "I didn't know we had that many Gators in the state."

Fans stood in line for more than an hour to have Meyer autograph everything from footballs and hats to surfboards. As they waited, they expressed excitement and cautious optimism.

"I guess you look at what he's done in his really quite short career," Jenine Wimer said. "He made a big turnaround at Utah.... I don't think we're going to come out this year and win a national championship, but I don't think it's going to be that long before we see some real progress. I have to learn a little bit more about him, but it looks like he's got a brilliant football mind. He really seems to know the game back and front."

Meyer is scheduled to speak at another sold-out function tonight in St. Petersburg, where 1,100 are expected at the St. Petersburg Coliseum.

His talk Monday night was a combination sales pitch, sermon, motivational speech, infomercial (he bragged of Florida being the No.1 public institution in National Merit Scholars) is this true? hard to believe and cheerleading. He didn't make promises about a Southeastern Conference title, an undefeated season or a national championship. He couldn't say exactly what type of team Florida will be; he said it will depend on how disciplined the players are by the Sept.3 season opener against Wyoming, saying he'd like them to become "the New England Patriots of college football."   well he is doing a great job simulating bill belicheck by being an arrogant jackass /sarcasm

What Meyer did assure the crowd was that he plans to have a team filled with student athletes, who obey the law and university rules or find someplace else to play. He also promised to bring pride back to the program.

"When I grew up in Ohio, if you were blessed enough, fast enough and a good enough athlete, you were going to suit up and play for Ohio State," Meyer said. "What we've got to get back at Florida is this: If you're talented enough, blessed enough and a student-athlete - and you have any sense at all - you're going to the University of Florida."   excuse me while i throw up

Another rousing ovation.

Cliff Manuel has been attending Gator gatherings for the past 25 years and said he can't remember when Florida fans were more excited about a coach "that hasn't proven himself yet.

"When he came, he said we're going to win and he spoke his mind honestly," Manuel said. "He said it's going to be tough, we're going to come in and we're going to win so he challenged himself right off the bat. I think the Gators love that challenge. We know it's hard to win and we know it's hard to win in the SEC, but when a coach steps to the platform and says we're going to win, everybody steps in line with him."

With 14 down and six more gatherings to attend, Meyer is understandably weary. He refuses to complain.

"What's madness is the schedule, but what I don't want to do is come across as unappreciative," Meyer said Monday afternoon. "Because I've done it before in front of 12 people; actually I've done it in front of five people, and that's true. But I'm not surprised. This is what I expected and I'm awfully appreciative of it."

[TripleB]

     

                 

NFL

Another UF crowd gets fever

   New football coach Urban Meyer brings his infectious personality, message to Spring Hill.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH, Times Staff Writer

Published May 24, 2005

SPRING HILL - Urban Meyer stepped to the podium in front of a sold-out crowd Monday night and received a rousing standing ovation.

Just for entering the room.

The man hasn't coached a single Florida football game, but his appearances are drawing record crowds to Gator Club functions everywhere, what Meyer affectionately referred to Monday as "the traveling circus."

More than 10,000 Gator fans have packed venues around the state and in Georgia to get up close with Meyer and hear his thoughts on the upcoming season.

Monday night was no exception with 535 members of the Hernando, Citrus and Pasco County Gator Clubs packed inside a grand ballroom at the Palace Grand. With a larger venue, organizers said they could have taken in more.

In 1990, approximately 200 showed up for former coach Steve Spurrier.

"It's been unbelievable the numbers of Gators that have turned out," Randy Talbot, executive director of the UF Alumni Association, said. "I didn't know we had that many Gators in the state."

Fans stood in line for more than an hour to have Meyer autograph everything from footballs and hats to surfboards. As they waited, they expressed excitement and cautious optimism.

"I guess you look at what he's done in his really quite short career," Jenine Wimer said. "He made a big turnaround at Utah.... I don't think we're going to come out this year and win a national championship, but I don't think it's going to be that long before we see some real progress. I have to learn a little bit more about him, but it looks like he's got a brilliant football mind. He really seems to know the game back and front."

Meyer is scheduled to speak at another sold-out function tonight in St. Petersburg, where 1,100 are expected at the St. Petersburg Coliseum.

His talk Monday night was a combination sales pitch, sermon, motivational speech, infomercial (he bragged of Florida being the No.1 public institution in National Merit Scholars) is this true? hard to believe and cheerleading. He didn't make promises about a Southeastern Conference title, an undefeated season or a national championship. He couldn't say exactly what type of team Florida will be; he said it will depend on how disciplined the players are by the Sept.3 season opener against Wyoming, saying he'd like them to become "the New England Patriots of college football."   well he is doing a great job simulating bill belicheck by being an arrogant jackass /sarcasm

What Meyer did assure the crowd was that he plans to have a team filled with student athletes, who obey the law and university rules or find someplace else to play. He also promised to bring pride back to the program.

"When I grew up in Ohio, if you were blessed enough, fast enough and a good enough athlete, you were going to suit up and play for Ohio State," Meyer said. "What we've got to get back at Florida is this: If you're talented enough, blessed enough and a student-athlete - and you have any sense at all - you're going to the University of Florida."   excuse me while i throw up

Another rousing ovation.

Cliff Manuel has been attending Gator gatherings for the past 25 years and said he can't remember when Florida fans were more excited about a coach "that hasn't proven himself yet.

"When he came, he said we're going to win and he spoke his mind honestly," Manuel said. "He said it's going to be tough, we're going to come in and we're going to win so he challenged himself right off the bat. I think the Gators love that challenge. We know it's hard to win and we know it's hard to win in the SEC, but when a coach steps to the platform and says we're going to win, everybody steps in line with him."

With 14 down and six more gatherings to attend, Meyer is understandably weary. He refuses to complain.

"What's madness is the schedule, but what I don't want to do is come across as unappreciative," Meyer said Monday afternoon. "Because I've done it before in front of 12 people; actually I've done it in front of five people, and that's true. But I'm not surprised. This is what I expected and I'm awfully appreciative of it."

::sick::

[Guest Toolio]

USFbull83,

Why is it hard to believe that Florida does so well with Merit Scholars?

[Bullpride08]

In fairness, didn't BGSU have to hold open tryouts for their team towards the end of the season due to the number of injuries they had?  

No.  Their #1 QB, WR, RB, and defense was playing when USF played them.  SO, in USF's defense it was a fair fight.

[sdgukhsdgl]

USFbull83,

Why is it hard to believe that Florida does so well with Merit Scholars?

i know they do very well with them, but it is hard to believe they are the #1 public school in the country....  it isnt that good of a school

schools like Berkley, Michigan, Virginia, etc are all much better schools

[Bullpride08]

i know they do very well with them, but it is hard to believe they are the #1 public school in the country....  it isnt that good of a school

schools like Berkley, Michigan, Virginia, etc are all much better schools

Yeah those schools are better, but not by that wide of a margin.  Also, some of those schools have better programs or schools, but may not be better overall as a University.