Urban Meyer: He gone ... sort of

That would have been a fine response 24 hours ago. Not anymore. Meyer lost any benefit of the doubt.

 

He doesn't lose beneift of the doubt until he actually comes back in 2010. If he decides in March that he's done, he's done nothing worse than Brett Favre does every year just to feed his ego.

 

Billy Donovan has led Florida to two sterling NIT appearances since pulling his stunt with Orlando. The Gators look well on their way to a third straight NCAA miss this year.

Just FWIW.

 

has meyer ever talked about the nfl? maybe holmgren called him and asked if he'd be interested in coming back to ohio.

is he bored right now? 45 and rules the world in college football. he has moved so high so fast. and now what? 45 and now what?

i think that some of what's going on is mental.

this is all fascinating.

 

Urban is the best there's no question about that. However, there is more to life than a freaking football game. Right now, he could stop working and should be set for life.
I wish I had a job that would give me a leave of absence with pay.

 

Not that easy for these guys. The job defines them. Not everyone can be Jimmy Johnson or Ara Parseghian and retire to the studio or broadcast booth. I wish they would be able to step away, too, but there are a lot of people who are "set for life" who don't walk away from a grinding lifestyle. In fact, we'd be angry if they did, including every major movie star acting in Hollywood and every pro athlete with a long-term contract.

Also, I notice a repeat of a lot of the arguments made on the Brian Kelly thread creeping into this one. The argument boils down to this, though it is worded differently - "Carpenters and union laborers have to finish their contracts - so should spoiled brat football coaches who get paid lots of money to do nothing!"

Again, every one of these contracts are written with the full awareness of the contingency that the coach might step away before it is fulfilled. And, on the flip side, the school can end the contract before it is over, as well. The payouts are set and accepted on both sides. Should Notre Dame have kept Charlie Weis for the 57 years or whatever ungodly number of years he had left? Out of some warped sense of blue-collar honor?

 

Notice too how some college coaches routinely "test the waters" every offseason? Once AD's find out their coach is in demand at five or six schools out comes the contract extension.

Next thing you know, the boosters want your coach gone and you have to buy him out for 30 million dollars. Oh wait, that already happened...

 

Wrong again. Talked to the compliance guy at a D-1 football school in our area. Dead period means dead period. No one contact per week this week or any dead week. There are none allowed. So if a kid is saying schools contacted him after Meyer's announcement, I'm sure the NCAA would want to have a chat with him.

 

It should be kept in mind that this is a business, and a rather large one at that:

UF football alone is among the country's top grossing programs with revenues in 2008, before last season's championship, exceeding $66 million for a program that cost $19 million to operate, records filed with the NCAA show.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/fl-college-football-money-1228-20091227,0,5570327.story

 

Donovan ruined the hoops program with his Orlando stunt.

Meyer is going to do the same thing with his indecision here. Right now, the best thing that could happen to Florida is that Meyer take 2010 off, they go 8-4. Meyer goes to the NFL in 2011 and Stoops comes to UF and technically doesn't have to follow Meyer.

 

If Meyer's having stress-related health problems at UF, he has no business whatsoever going to the NFL.

 

I dunno. In college football, every single game is important because of no playoff. In the NFL, you can coast once you have your playoff seed clinched.

/crosswitheveryfootballthreadever