History behind Urban Meyer's "Press Conference"
This afternoon, as our children were playing in a park, I brought up to my cousin the story about Urban Meyer's recent press conference in which he plans to refer to Michigan as "That Team Up North". My cousin is a journalist, formerly a full-fledged sports journalist, and he currently writes for a major South Florida paper. He is a UFlorida graduate, and he actually broke the Urban Meyer Utah-to-Florida story for the Palm Beach Post. There is some discussion whether it was them or the Florida Times-Union who broke the story first. Nevertheless, he was able to break the story because he had become close to the Meyer family during the preceding month of his arrival at Florida, often dining with them in their home. He broke the story because Urban Meyer's wife called my cousin directly to tell him.
My cousin, as someone who sees Meyer as a liar (b/c he was also intimately involved in the media coverage during his tenure at Florida), says that the name change of a rival is a common theme for Meyer. He says that Meyer did it at Bowling Green, at Utah, and then again at Florida. Apparently Meyer chose FSU as the rival-du-jour, and just designated them with just a crimson bar on their schedule. So he sees this as Meyer stirring the pot of a rivalry, which he says is his MO. However, he doesn't believe he called a press conference at any of his other stops. Also, he thinks (as most of us do) that Meyer saw the writing on the wall with Saban/Alabama dominating the next several years of the SEC and bolted.
I just thought this information, from someone who closely followed Meyer since his leaving Utah, would be interesting to the Board.
February 11th, 2012 at 5:00 PM ^
have your cousin call Meyer's wife and say "FUCK YOU".
February 11th, 2012 at 7:01 PM ^
Is that you, Bob?
February 11th, 2012 at 5:02 PM ^
As a Saturday without much sport to watch, I like to hear first or second stories on this topic.
February 11th, 2012 at 5:08 PM ^
Could care less about Meyer.
February 11th, 2012 at 5:10 PM ^
February 11th, 2012 at 6:35 PM ^
Maybe he really did mean "could care less." He cared enough to embed his cute little graphic.
February 11th, 2012 at 7:02 PM ^
Jeebus linguists.
I could care less ( it is theoretically possible) about Urban Meyer.
I cared just enough to embed the "cute little graphic".
February 11th, 2012 at 7:25 PM ^
February 11th, 2012 at 5:09 PM ^
February 11th, 2012 at 5:24 PM ^
utterly. So lame. In fact, in trying to demonstrate that he gets it, he proves the opposite. Because this rich rivalry, with all its complex lore, does not require or want empty gestures like his. Intellectually, morally, this guy is not up to much.
February 11th, 2012 at 5:27 PM ^
February 11th, 2012 at 7:25 PM ^
Hoke is from Ohio, his dad played for Woody Hayes and that's what he and his generation grew up calling Ohio State. It's like calling Berkeley Cal or Connecticut UConn. I don't recall seeing TSUN on our scoreboard, spelled out by our band before every game or YMCAed by alumni on top of a mountain.
February 11th, 2012 at 7:34 PM ^
February 11th, 2012 at 8:59 PM ^
These things make me sad.
February 11th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^
February 12th, 2012 at 7:43 AM ^
to announce this? Tomfool-ness. Football is often full of lame, but turning it into WWE wrestling? Enough, already.
Granted, most of America lives in a cartoon world and can't tell the difference, but we should be able to.
February 11th, 2012 at 6:46 PM ^
It is lame, but only because Woody did it over forty years ago, and it really shouldn't be news. A lot of Ohioans never really stopped calling Michigan "that school up north," so this should really be a non-story to the media.
It's a quaint element of a great rivalry, but Urban Meyer isn't exactly inventing the wheel here.
February 11th, 2012 at 5:10 PM ^
I am tired of reading about Urban Meyer. Take this to an OSU blog.
February 11th, 2012 at 5:52 PM ^
February 11th, 2012 at 5:16 PM ^
February 11th, 2012 at 5:23 PM ^
Thanks. That was a really interesting post, since your cousin knows him so well. Please disregard the people who don't care about hearing Meyer related content, but still decided to click on this post. I would be interested to hear more about Meyer and how he operates from the perspective of someone that closely covered his time at Florida.
February 11th, 2012 at 5:34 PM ^
Inidividuals that just want to put their two cents in about a topic they aren't interested in. Well then don't read it. I clearly designated what the thread was about.
February 11th, 2012 at 5:50 PM ^
February 11th, 2012 at 6:06 PM ^
February 11th, 2012 at 6:20 PM ^
No, I think you are too late. Isn't this race over?
February 11th, 2012 at 6:06 PM ^
Cool insight into Urban's "Hey everyone look at me!" presser. I'm glad Hoke gets attention by doing and accomplishing instead of looking for it...
February 11th, 2012 at 9:18 PM ^
What presser is everyone talking about? He never had a presser about any of this, or made any type of announcement about this.
I think the confusion stems from a Michigan radio show saying they were giving a story at 4:30pm on Meyer's treatment of Michigan's name -- and then that somehow got translated into Meyer holding a presser at 4:30pm.
As an OSU fan, I couldn't care less what Meyer chooses to call Michigan (just like I don't care what Hoke calls OSU) -- but I like that both coaches recognize the importance of the rivalry and signify that importance in any way they deem fit. RichRod and Cooper can fuck off.
February 11th, 2012 at 6:18 PM ^
Many HS coaches advised their players to pass on the Meyer visits and go to some other SEC schools, as he was losing good players to Alabama, LSU and others he had to leave.
February 11th, 2012 at 7:17 PM ^
Meyer is just pandering to the home crowd. If he was the Michigan coach, he would come up with a pajorative term for Ohio State.
Hoke on the other hand, is authentic. He refused to wear red - Ohio State's color - when he was at Ball State and SDSU, both schools with red as a main color! He did this when he had no idea that he would ever coach at Michigan. THAT'S authentic.
Meyer is just playing the crowd. Cynically, in my book. He has no real hate for Michigan. We were one of the three schools he had in his contract the he could leave for without penalty, fergodsakes.
February 11th, 2012 at 11:06 PM ^
Hoke on the other hand, is authentic.
Amen to that. The difference between Hoke and Meyer is actually pretty stark. My sense is Hoke's authenticity will appeal to a pretty broad base of recruits. Meyer's schtick is paper thin ... it's good only as long as he wins. A bad season or two and he'll have no reserves to draw from.
February 12th, 2012 at 5:42 PM ^
TBH I think Meyer's National Championships will probably be a bigger draw for people than Hoke's authenticity. Some kids just want to play for a hard core no nonsense person that has a known great track record regardless of how the rest of his personality is. As long as they know they have a chance to get to the NFL, they're good with whomever.
February 11th, 2012 at 6:58 PM ^
He talked about his Michigan stance in a radio interview in Ohio. I don't know how this board allowed this inaccurate report of a press conference to continue. You call people out for double posting stuff fergodsakes...c'mon men!!!
(Maybe the quotations around press conference shows you know it wasn't one, either way, just wanted to clear that up.)
http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2012/02/09/ohio-state-head-coach-urban-meyer-joins-bull-fox/
As always, Go Blue, Beat State!!
February 11th, 2012 at 8:25 PM ^
February 11th, 2012 at 11:07 PM ^
Well I decided I might be better off calling for my pipe, my bowl, and my fiddlers three. Crossing between the poles. Walking along with Tiresias.
Looking out at the militias and restless riot squads.
February 12th, 2012 at 2:05 PM ^
I don't think he actually called a press conference for this.