Urban Meyer’s ploy?
I apologize for bringing up an old topic but Detroit News just published an article linked below, suggesting that Meyer's alleged return to UF seems to be a ploy.
I too pray that Meyer fully recovers. However, the Detroit News article raises some real issues. Personally, I recall hearing that Meyer:
1.was said during his hospitalization to be dehydrated, which can lead to a heart attack
2.reported crushing chest pain, although I do not recall any report of the duration and location
3.had a strong family history of heart problems
4.initially was said to have “no chance” of returning to Florida as Head Coach by none other than his wife (see link)
Although Meyer has not been forthcoming about his circumstances and has given only spotty information-- also although there are many possible causes of chest pain--my best guess as a doctor is that Meyer had a heart attack. Even if one discounts the clinical information provided, if the diagnosis was less ominous, I cannot imagine why he would initially resign and why his wife would react so strongly.
If the news article is right and his retraction of his initial statement about resigning as HC is just a recruiting ploy, it is neither clever or wise IMO. You might be able to fool a 17-year old kid but you can't fool Mother Nature. Although his doctor may have encouraged physical activity, too much stress can be a problem, and recruiting can be pretty stressful. For sake of himself and his family, I hope and pray he is following his doctor's orders. Otherwise,he may not just be gone from UF but gone (period).
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20100111/SPORTS0203/1110322/1133/spo…
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college_uf/2009/12/urbans-famil…
January 11th, 2010 at 2:37 PM ^
He'll reap what he sows. Either he'll figure out how to balance the job & stress or he won't. If he doesn't, he will pay the ultimate price. If that's what college coaching is all about, to him, then he has to do what's right, for him.
Personally, I think he's being a little short-sighted with respect to his health versus his career. But, I have no idea what he and his physician have discussed, let alone what he and his wife have talked about.
January 11th, 2010 at 2:37 PM ^
McNulty's article seems to be steeped in way too much paranoia and conspiracy theory, so I take it with a grain of salt. Urban Meyer has demonstrated that he can be quite slick with recruiting, but is he sick enough to actually do this? I don't think he would sacrifice his health and family to secure additional recruits.
January 11th, 2010 at 2:43 PM ^
True, but he might be slick enough to tell them he was staying and then leave anyway, to secure one final paycheck.
January 12th, 2010 at 12:01 AM ^
Every conspiracy theory article about another coach means less room in their pathetic rags for the requisite RR-bashing.
January 11th, 2010 at 2:37 PM ^
Florida may have offered Meyer a Paterno-like situation where he remains HC, but isn't responsible for many of the stressful day-to-day functions of a typical HC. In terms of creating stability within a program, this would allow Florida to remain elite for many years.
January 11th, 2010 at 2:44 PM ^
He's a huge publicity whore, he and his team were out of everything and he missed hearing about himself on tv.
January 11th, 2010 at 2:47 PM ^
That's a little harsh. Saying someone faked a serious illness for recruits is taking a really big leap. I'm not saying its entirely impossible for people like that to exist in this world, but accusing someone of being one of them is harsh is all I am saying.
January 11th, 2010 at 4:46 PM ^
Charlie Weis has dedicated himself to eating copious amounts in order to be able to successfully claim to have had heart attacks for the sake of recruiting. how that will help him in kansas city is still up in the air.
January 11th, 2010 at 11:53 PM ^
...of Corpulent Charlie jokes.
January 11th, 2010 at 4:54 PM ^
I would say it's probable...if not for the fact that it happened mid-season and he waited until after the regular season (but before the bowl game so UF could bein a coaching search if necessary) to announce it.
Look, I don't like the guy either, but at least try to look at the facts before judging someone.
Look, I don't like the guy either, but at least try to look at the facts before judging someone.
January 11th, 2010 at 2:48 PM ^
... and he kept on coaching. If it's what the man loves to do, let him do it. Did he botch up from a PR perspective, yes. But in the grand scheme of things, with such a serious personal decision, I can understand a few errors in communication strategy/tactics.
January 11th, 2010 at 4:40 PM ^
And after the 42nd time, he finally understood life, the universe, and everything, what it would take to make Michigan win every single NC between now and the end of time. Unfortunately, the realization killed him.
What was it? The ultimate plans for a cloning machine, and the location of a vial of distilled DNA from Tom Harmon.
January 11th, 2010 at 4:57 PM ^
You'd have to have DNA from Charles Woodson in there too.
Maybe with a side of Lamarr Woodley or Brandon Graham for good measure. Or both.
Maybe with a side of Lamarr Woodley or Brandon Graham for good measure. Or both.
January 12th, 2010 at 12:13 PM ^
a vial of distilled DNA from Tom Harmon.Couldn't you just pull it from NCIS's special agent Gibbs? woo Michigan trivia
January 11th, 2010 at 2:58 PM ^
All of them universally consider the entire Gator athletic department to be some of the most disingenuous people they do business with. They said it has become a running joke. A couple of these guys are national network folks who have some pull.
Their lack of surprise at how this played out has been quite telling.
January 11th, 2010 at 3:05 PM ^
If you can't look at your wife and kids and immediately think "Football isn't worth the risk" then theire is something wrong with you. Urban isn't going to get it until he's lying on the field clutching his chest for the last time.
January 11th, 2010 at 3:27 PM ^
Would you say the same thing about Bo? These men are doing the thing they love, and they are great at it, the best in the world. To take that away from them for fear of losing them could also be perceived as selfish.
January 11th, 2010 at 3:21 PM ^
there was no heart attack. Urban Meyer has been having these chest pains for years and he has been evaluated by numerous doctors and they haven't found evidence of a heart attack. I haven't heard anyone come out and say he had a series of negative troponins, clean arteries on a cath, or negative stress test, but that sort of thing was implied when he said he was retiring. It sounded to me like he has an extreme anxiety/stress problem that manifests itself in physical symptoms and it is killing his marriage and home life. I don't think he is risking anything more than a divorce.
January 11th, 2010 at 4:59 PM ^
1. Below is a link saying that he was dehydrated. If so, what his symptoms were and why he was dehydrated are unclear.
2. An article I just found does say the university claimed that he didn’t have a heart attack and Meyer said: “no heart damage.” I cannot find a more reassuring statement from his doctor, though, and the cause of his condition apparently was never stated. Also, how long he was he the hospital was said to be unclear. Regarding the important questions you raise, I see no statement about laboratory evidence ruling out a heart attack. Also, it is interesting to parse the statement by UF about his health: “A Florida spokesman said reports of Meyer being diagnosed with muscle-heart-valve defect and having a heart attack during the season” were not true. Note that they do not mention whether he was diagnosed with such problems after the season-ending bowl game, which is when he was hospitalized.
3. According to the links below, he did have a previous history of chest pains. The stress-related cause is certainly plausible, given that he had just coached a bowl game. However, the diagnosis initially provided was dehydration, not stress-related chest pains. If, as you suggest, his symptoms were stress-related, however, I do not see how that would have provoked the immediate, seemingly urgent reaction of Urban and his wife to quit his job at UF. Certainly, if stress was the cause of serious psychiatric symptoms, he might quit. But those that would cause chest pain, like panic attacks are very treatable and certainly he does not appear to have a major mental illness. Something just doesn’t add up, IMO.
4. FWIW, it is mentioned that he has a subarachnoid cyst that causes headaches when he is under pressure. But I do not see that headaches were the stated cause of his admission. Likewise, it is unclear if any neurosurgical treatment was recommended or contemplated for the cyst. What is interesting is that some of the symptoms of dehydration--headaches, nausea, vomiting and loss of balance--also can occur with a subarachnoid cyst. So, a perhaps remote possibility—notwithstanding the contrary conclusion in the journalist’s statements below-- might be that he went into the hospital because of symptoms related to the cyst, not because of dehydration (the latter being an admitting but not a discharge diagnosis perhaps?). Also, his headache could have been exacerbated by stress. However, since stress does not directly affect the cyst itself, I am skeptical that the doctor would have required him to quit his job. Absent a strong statement from the doctor, I doubt that Urban and his wife would be so strident in their initial statements about his resignation.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4719127
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4772952
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/health/arachnoid-cysts-like-urban-meyer-s-…
January 11th, 2010 at 3:24 PM ^
I think he was convinced to close out recruiting first, and then step down. They'll clean up the coaching situation between February 4th and Spring practice.
January 11th, 2010 at 3:30 PM ^
Yeap. I think the university begged him to do that, figuring that once they get the kids into the school, they're less likely to transfer than they are to just sign somewhere else in the first place.
My god... can you imagine the pipeline of talent if whoever they get to replace him sucks? Pahokee will become known as "Little Ann Arbor".
January 11th, 2010 at 5:08 PM ^
really shitty if it ends up being true. I feel sorry for all the guys that are committing under false pretenses.
January 11th, 2010 at 3:32 PM ^
Lets just say it wouldn't be the first time he lied to recruits on who their coach was going to be.
Let me tell you about Omar Hunter. Omar was a highly ranked DT prospect that ND gained a verbal from on his official visit, it was huge news at the time as no one gave ND a chance in landing him. His verbal held until taking an official to UF many months later, he wanted to play for UF's Dline coach and switched to UF, ok no problem happens to everyone. As NSD neared it was very apparent that the DLine coach was not going to be with the team the following season, Omar reached out to both the coach and Meyer for reassurance that he was still going to be there, both told him repeatedly that the Dline coach wasn't going anywhere, this went on for the entire month of January. On NSD Omar signs his LOI and faxes it in at the end of the day the Dline coach had cleaned out his office.
And there is always that great quote from the book Meat Market, I remember seeing a topic on it a few months ago, do you remember what Meyer told QB Jevon Snead when he visited? "oh don't worry about Tebow I recruited him to play LINEBACKER!"
The truth will come out after NSD
January 11th, 2010 at 6:43 PM ^
I'd be interested to know if this is referenced anywhere. I definitely think this goes on all over the place, but it just seems that all these recruiting stories never seem to become anything other than speculation, and when they do the offending school is punished severely but the coach just leaves before the "house" collapses on him. I don't mean to appear cynical in any way, just wondering where this story originates.
January 11th, 2010 at 11:45 PM ^
I am not sure exactly what your asking but this might help,
http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2008/02/08/omar-hunter-snaked-swindled…
January 12th, 2010 at 12:56 PM ^
If that link is where this story originates, then I wouldn't necessarily call a blog post (and an Irish one at that) damning evidence against Urban Meyer. As I said, these stories never seem to get past message boards or blog posts where the author of said blog has a bias in the matter. While I think this type of recruiting goes on often it's impossible to sift through the crap to get to the truth.
January 11th, 2010 at 10:14 PM ^
...and why did Omar Hunter commit to ND in the first place?
January 11th, 2010 at 11:39 PM ^
he loved it
January 12th, 2010 at 1:15 AM ^
IIRC, he was a heavy Michigan lean until that visit (which wasn't planned and occurred on the way to Michigan). He goes home and then declares for ND. I sense some funny business from ND.
January 11th, 2010 at 4:30 PM ^
If putting off his resignation/leave of absence is just a ploy to keep recruits, it would appear to be working. One need only look at the Army All American game where Florida still landed a number of blue chip recruits at a program where the coach had literally retired two weeks earlier. On the flip side, Pete Carroll was still just rumored to be leaving at the time and you had a complete media shitstorm going on with respect to all the SC commits and targets playing in the game.
I hope for the sake of the kids signing up to play for Meyer that he isn't going to flip-flop again right after NSD.
January 11th, 2010 at 8:22 PM ^
sorry
January 11th, 2010 at 5:12 PM ^
if he planned to retire anyway.
I am not saying that's his plan, but if it were, the normal checks and balances on a coach's honesty would be in doubt.
In any case, where a 17 year old goes to school is much less important than Urban's life.
January 11th, 2010 at 4:37 PM ^
You don't resign from coaching as a ploy. That is a stupid theory.
January 11th, 2010 at 4:43 PM ^
Maybe you meant to put this under one of the comments below, not under my description of the Det News article. The ploy referred to by Det News was not the resignation but the later retraction of the resignation.
I am not saying I agree with the article but there are some interesting questions raised in the article and the discussion below.
January 11th, 2010 at 6:12 PM ^
that they better come to UF now because he may not be the coach in the near future and this would be their only chance. Obviously it's their only chance anyway because they can only do it once, but it's an interesting twist on the "I may or may not be here in a few years" argument. Usually that works against a coach or staff, in this case it seems to be drawing the kids in.
January 11th, 2010 at 7:05 PM ^
but stepping back. The hiring of good coaches and closing out the present recruiting class will make the step back an easier one.
January 11th, 2010 at 7:13 PM ^
I can't see Meyer doing that. He seems like a real Type A, hands-on guy. I don't think he'd like being a figurehead.
January 12th, 2010 at 7:34 AM ^
And the fact he "seems" that way makes it true for sure.
January 12th, 2010 at 11:57 AM ^
He doesn't just "seem" like a Type A personality. He is. He's not a CEO type - he's a coach.