Urban Meyer is a straight out liar - evidence showing Circle of Trust existed at Florida

Submitted by Leaders And Best on

On a conference call today, Urban Meyer denied many of the accusations in the SN report by Matt Hayes (http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2012-04-09/urban-meyer-florida-ohio-state-ncaa-violation-recruiting-drugs-program-will-musc) especially accusations of preferential treatement with a "Circle of Trust."  Well in less than 4 hours, Sports By Brooks has found not only one BUT TWO citations where Urban Meyer was quoted using a Circle of Trust.  Here is a screen capture of the evidence from the Gainesville Sun & SI:

http://twitter.com/#!/SPORTSbyBROOKS/status/190157224046370817/photo/1

Urban Meyer is a filthy liar.  Perfect for Ohio.

Michigan J. Frog

April 11th, 2012 at 3:59 PM ^

This isn’t necessarily true. First of all, his 2012 class was better than ours. Recruiting for the 2013 class is nowhere near finished, so who knows where that’ll lead for the two programs. Second, the gap between recruiting will likely not be very large so as to guarantee one team being better than the other. Third, the relation between stars on the field and wins on the field is not as concrete as you make it seem.

Geary_maize

April 11th, 2012 at 3:55 PM ^

I want to beat Meyer and his team into the turf every year, but the word 'circle of trust' is pretty common. Don't know if Meyer meant it that way, as in do whatever you want.

RakeFight

April 11th, 2012 at 4:03 PM ^

Especially when you actually click on that link and look at the articles.  Nowhere does Meyer use the phrase "Circle of Trust."  The times the phrase is used, it's used by the journalist who wrote the headline/story.  Meyer simply talks about players earning his trust with their play... While, I'm not one to defend the guy, that's hardly a smoking gun.

(hence my downvote)

Tater

April 11th, 2012 at 4:28 PM ^

While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with having a "circle of trust," the fact that Meyer continues to lie about it indicates that there is a problem.   

That is the same logic that was just used to leap from motorcycle ride to mistress, and to fire Petrino at Arkansas, and about 90 percent of the posters here seemed to agree with it when it was used on Petrino.  

Am I saying Meyer should be fired?  Of course not.  But anytime Ohio State is put under the microscope of suspicion, it makes me happy.  

Bottom line: I don't know what Ohio did to piss off the Sports by Brooks dude, but I sure am glad it happened.

neyvit

April 11th, 2012 at 5:32 PM ^

No, the bottom line is that SportsByBrooks is an idiot.

Meyer didn't lie about anything - nowhere is this "Circle of Trust" credited to him.  It was the analogy used by both those journalists as a pop culture reference.  And as Brooks is wont to do, he distorts reality to try to get a "Gotcha!" journalism moment. 

One of the authors, Austin Murphy, even took to Twitter now to point out Brooks idiocy, and made it clear that Meyer never said it.

It's disappointing that after reading the first 50 posts in this thread, not a single person [Edit: my mistake, 2 people pointed it out above this] has pointed out this blatant error (although calling it an error would be giving too much credit to Brooks, since he obviously did it on purpose).

Ron Utah

April 11th, 2012 at 5:28 PM ^

Who cares if he calls it/called it the "Circle of Trust"?  The point is, did he do it?  Nixon didn't call it "Watergate," but it was still wrong and still brought his presidency down.  It's clear that Meyer used the term "trust" for his star players...did he also use that term as code for players who got preferential treatment?  I hope they keep digging...where's there's smoke...

 

wolverine1987

April 11th, 2012 at 5:44 PM ^

There is no "do" to do!. There is no comparison to any scandal because prefential treatment isn't a scandal! There is nothing wrong with having a circle of trust, or any group of players having preferential treatment. Call it anything you want, there is nothing wrong with it. It may not be a good way to run your team, but who cares if he did it? There isn't anything wrong in the first place. Guh...

wolverine1987

April 12th, 2012 at 9:11 AM ^

And once again I'll state--there is not one single thing against either the NCAA rules or any workplace rules in the alleged "offenses." Take off your anti-Ohio blinders. I don't like him either, but even if everything in the article is true, he showed bad judgement and management, nothing more. 

RollDamnTide

April 11th, 2012 at 3:56 PM ^

His troubles will follow him to Ohio State. Like we are fond of saying in the south, if you put a fox in the hen house, you'll have chicken for dinner every night. He hasn't, nor will he ever change who he is.

denardogasm

April 11th, 2012 at 3:57 PM ^

Not saying Urban isn't a liar, since we all know that's a foregone conclusion, but that tweet is bullshit.  Nowhere in those old articles is Urban quoted as saying he has a circle of trust.  The reporters said that.  All he says in those quotes is "I trust ___" and "We trust ___ to make a play."  I'm surprised the guy actually tweeted that as evidence.  It's pretty weak.

BlueZoo

April 11th, 2012 at 4:06 PM ^

BUT THEY BOTH HAVE THE WORD TRUST!!!

This is a big yawn.  Urban's a dick.  He wins games.  Doesn't seem to cheat.  If you want to hate him, there are plenty of reasons to do so.  If you want to love him, there are plenty of reasons to do so. 

He treats star players differently.  Big deal.  That happens every where in the big boy world.

When does the season start?  I hate the offseason because it means we have to read crap from people like SportsByBrooks.

 

 

Leaders And Best

April 11th, 2012 at 4:09 PM ^

Matt Hayes SN expose has a player detail the use of a "Circle of Trust."

Headline from Sept 2009: Gators Auditioning for "Circle of Trust"

SI writer from Jan 2009: Refers to "Circle of Trust"

I think it is a more than a coincidence.

Today from Meyer: "The Circle of Trust?  That didn't happen."

denardogasm

April 11th, 2012 at 4:16 PM ^

Are you reading the same thing I wrote?  I didn't say he didn't have a circle of trust (which isn't a crime anyway).  I said that tweet and those articles do not come close to proving that he had a circle of trust, nor does your post, because the phrase "Circle of Trust" never comes out of his mouth.  The reporter in one of the articles even says it REMINDS him of a movie involving a circle of trust.  You're making whales out of fishes.

Leaders And Best

April 11th, 2012 at 4:36 PM ^

along with an article from the local Gainesville Sun that uses it in its headline along with the opening line "But after Saturday, Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow will know who belongs in the Circle of Trust" is some pretty strong evidence

Having a Circle of Trust may not be a big deal, but the question I have is why deny and cover it up, unless the accusations of preferential treatment made by the player are true?

Ron Utah

April 11th, 2012 at 5:33 PM ^

Did you read the Sporting News article?  This isn't about the name "Circle of Trust"...it's about the practice of covering up crime, lying to players and the athletic department, illegally manipulating scholarships, and taking down the Florida program as he went.

The evidence SbS tweeted definetly corroborates the statements of the Florida players who talked about people Meyer "trusted," whether or not there was something called the "Circle of Trust."

denardogasm

April 11th, 2012 at 7:51 PM ^

False.  I did read the Sporting News article, and I believe the player in it because I think Meyer is completely sleezy.  That's beside the point.  The point is that Brooks tweeted this after Meyer denied he had a circle of trust, as proof that he did in fact have a circle of trust.  This definitely does NOT corroborate those statements, though it doesn't prove them wrong either. All it proves is that a columnist made a comparison, and he viewed it that way.  Who knows, maybe the player in the SN article read those articles when they came out and that's where he got the idea to use this term in talking about the Florida team.  It does nothing to prove that Meyer had an elite club at the top by quoting him saying he trusted the Pounceys, and he trusted certain other guys to provide quality depth on the line, because we don't know the context.  That statement by itself is no different than Hoke saying there's an expectation for the position, or Matteson saying he let the Dline last year make their own reads.  A coach will play the guys he "trusts" to play mistake free football.  Again, I think Meyer is a sleeze and I do believe that he favored guys like Harvin.  The point of my posts on the matter is that this is bad reporting by Brookes and that he was manipulating what was previously written in what was not even a convincing way.  He has since redacted the statement.

Ron Utah

April 12th, 2012 at 1:21 AM ^

There's a difference between evidence and proof.  This is not proof of anything; it's just more evidence that Meyer may have, in fact, used the word "trust" to describe the players he favored.  That's all I'm saying.  Clearly, the former players believed "trust" was the code word, and this reporting just shows some evidence of that.

Newk

April 11th, 2012 at 3:58 PM ^

As I understood Hayes' story, the "circle of trust" meant players who could get away with bending the rules. In those screen caps, Urban appears to use it to refer to players he can rely on to perform on the field. So, even if he did use the phrase "circle of trust" that does not itself corroborate the accustations Hayes reported.

In other words, this is nothing. Not that I have any love for Urban or OSU. It is interesting that the media is starting to get after him.

no joke its hoke

April 11th, 2012 at 4:03 PM ^

Why are people surprised that Ohio hired a good coach thats a scum bag? That is all their program has ever known. If you are not fired for A)punching a kid or B) cheating then don't bother coaching that program.

LSAClassOf2000

April 11th, 2012 at 4:07 PM ^

I was curious as to what one might look like, so Google provides this:

I could see an Urban Meyer staff meeting devolving into this, once the outer circle had been dismissed and sent to the field for warmups...