Meyer is one of the greatest football coaches of all time when it comes to putting together teams that can win football games.
There's also this....
- During the 2008 National Championship season Meyer had a so-called "Circle of Trust" that could do no wrong and was routinely given preferential treatment. For example, wide receiver Percy Harvin, linebacker Brandon Spikes, and tight end Aaron Hernandez all sat out the season opener due to "injuries" when they were actually being disciplined for failed drug tests.
- Prior to the 2007 season, the whole team was running stadium steps until Harvin complained, telling coaches, “This s--- ends now.†The next day conditioning drills turned into basketball games.
- Harvin, the key trouble maker in the expose, attacked his wide receivers coach in 2008. Harvin had to be pulled away by coaches and players. He was never disciplined.
- Meyer never penalized cornerback Janoris Jenkins for numerous team violations like being arrested for drug possession or getting into a bar fight. The problem was left for current Florida head coach Will Muschamp to deal with when Jenkins was finally kicked off the team for yet more run-ins with the law. Jenkins even admitted that had Meyer still been around, he wouldn't have been dismissed from the football team.
- Safety Bryan Thomas suffered from injuries during his time at Florida, but when he was healthy and ready to return in 2009 he was told to "move on" because he wasn't in the team's plans. The coaching staff needed his roster spot for a new recruit. Thomas refused because he was completely healthy and on-track to graduate. The next day he was put on medical hardship, which let Thomas keep his scholarship but made him unavailable for the following year. Thomas eventually transferred to North Alabama.
- The problems with the rosters Meyer assembled came to a head once Muschamp took over. Too many of the players Meyer recruited to Florida refused to "buy in" to Muschamp's way of doing things, a.k.a. no preferential treatment, so 13 scholarship players were let go last year.
- The drug problems at UF during Meyer's tenure were so rampant that New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick spoke to current Gators about how the poor decisions of their predecessors severely affected their NFL futures.
And of course let's not forget......
"The uproar and controversy of Urban Meyer’s stunning recruiting coup at Ohio State settled in and Stefon Diggs, still on the Buckeyes' wish list, was debating his future.
Diggs, the second-highest rated wide receiver in the country, had narrowed his list of potential schools to Maryland, Florida and Ohio State. For more than a week following National Signing Day on Feb. 1, and before Diggs eventually signed with Maryland, Meyer relentlessly pursued Diggs.
Multiple sources told Sporting News that Meyer—who won two national championships in six years at Florida and cemented his legacy as one of the game’s greatest coaches—told the Diggs family that he wouldn’t let his son go to Florida because of significant character issues in the locker room.
Character issues that we now know were fueled by a culture Meyer created. Character issues that gutted what was four years earlier the most powerful program in college football."
Maybe Meyer learned in his time at Florida the right and wrong way to build a championship team that will stand the test of time and rap sheets. For his esophagus' sake let's hope so. :rolleyes:
