Urban Meyer says he might pull a "Jim Harbaugh" and hold spring practices in Florida next year

Submitted by Maizen on

Knew it was only a matter of time before Urban started copying the Steve Jobs of coaching Mr. James Joseph Harbaugh.

 

Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer says he might pull a "Jim Harbaugh" and hold spring practices in Florida next year pic.twitter.com/IoZkGN8Dw0

— Sara Perlman (@saraperlman) March 15, 2016

ElBictors

March 15th, 2016 at 5:54 PM ^

Probably not in the Gainesville area ...I know quite a few Gators who think Herbs is a lying douche bag and left their program in shambles.

Sort of the anti-Harbaugh in the way in which Coach Jim has left all his teams better than when he found them.

FrankMurphy

March 15th, 2016 at 6:44 PM ^

In fairness, any fan who thinks that a former coach who won 2 national championships and coached a Heisman Trophy winner in his five-year tenure left the program "in a shambles" might be a tad irrational.

I'm obviously no fan of Urban, but Florida fans who claim that he left that program in disarray are probably just bitter that he's no longer there.

ElBictors

March 15th, 2016 at 7:23 PM ^

Bitter that he's not there, yes. Bitter about the fake "health issues," yes. Bitter about the program now vs. then, yes. Attributing much of the UF success under Meyer to Tebow, yes. And many of the UF fans I know do not like osu (compared to respecting Michigan) so that adds to the dynamic.

39-25 since Herbs (.609) vs 65-15 (.813) isn't "shambles" per se, but things have been significantly worse since he left ...for health reasons, went to ESPNsucks a year and re-appeared in his "dream job."

Yeah ...bitter

jblaze

March 15th, 2016 at 5:57 PM ^

should have said this a few weeks ago and supported Jim. Now he just seems like he's waiting to say that he would have done so, if the NCAA didn't prohibit it.

RED DAWN

March 15th, 2016 at 6:04 PM ^

Thats the impression I received from his comments.  Same with Mike D'Antoni when he said he would do it.  They are both trying to get it shut down so they don't have to do it and we can't either.

evenyoubrutus

March 15th, 2016 at 6:06 PM ^

Interesting how if Harbaugh Tweets about the weather 11 Warriors will have a front page story on it within seconds, but there isn't a peep about this on their website right now.

Maizenblueball

March 15th, 2016 at 7:05 PM ^

To me, it sounds like he doesn't really want to do it, and just wants to draw more attention to it so that the NCAA freaks out and has to take action against it. He wants it to get banned just to irritate Harbaugh. Just my unfounded speculation.

Wolfman

March 15th, 2016 at 7:28 PM ^

because there are a few other reasons he could be doing it, but I'll give you a 90% confidence level in your reasoning. He wants to draw attention to Urban more so than to Harbaugh's spring trips. I say this because I feel that will be ruled on one way or the other with or without coaches calling attention to it. I agree, much like Jim, he will go out of his way to irritate another coach.

I think if he were serious, it would be to California, TX, GA any of the other hot beds. He is firmly entrenched in Florida and that is where your speculation is solid, imo. He really doesn't want a coach of Jim's caliber added to the list of SEC coaches along with Dabo and Jimbof that he has to compete with.

I really want to see us reestablish our identity in his home state once again and I can't think of a better starting point with the highly rated lber. He - Urb = setting pretty good as it is, knowing he can wait to see if a player possessing a higher ceiling opts for OSU and if not, he has been able to pull these OH players just before LOI day. I would like to see Jim throw a wrench into that plan and start seeing a lot of offers flood that state early. It would keep Urb home and at the same time a few would jump for us for the same reasons all the others, including Des, CW and Deirdorft just to name a few. Any OH kid interested in academics is now going to pull for UM, or give it strong consideration, having the knowledge they will receive great coaching and nice bowl games no matter which way they decide.

chortle

March 15th, 2016 at 7:10 PM ^

I saw the story about Urban planning to have a spring Florida football practice, I even replied to the story, but it has been completely deleted in favor of another version of the story.

A little touchy about following Coach Harbaugh, I guess.

Wolfman

March 15th, 2016 at 8:53 PM ^

If any program had, setting next to all their other important documents with a clearance level of at least Confidental, I would think it would be OSU with a copy of "accepted answers" covering any number of questions, all pertaining to acting outside NCAA bylaws. I don't know to what extent Urb engages in known infractions, Honestly, I hope he doesn't, but he is at OSU and he did come from SEC. I don't buy into Kiffen's remark, "If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying," but I would believe, "If you aren't cheating, you are in the second division."

I recall a member of the wolverine, when I was a subscriber to that dinosaur, had documentation on every "known" Tressel transgression. To say it was lengthy would have hinted at it possibly ending, but I know it was, at minimum, over a page long of merely the list, and that would be with standard 81/2 x 11" paper. When I wrote, "merely the list," it was just the name of violation, date of occurrence, etc., without detailing the entire incident. To do something of that nature would have required a ream of paper and a whole hell of a lot of hours.

This has oviously grown out of control in far too many conferences. When Gary Patterson was questioned about a possible violation at TCU, one would have thought a denial, or an explanation of the "misunderstanding" would have been the way to go. Without hesitation, he replied, "You should see the things that are going on down at Baylor.":  That is not a good answer, no matter how you try to explain it.

If any coach in the U.S. has a problem with Harbaugh ,and many of them do. If they aren't running a clean program, the last thing I would want to do is call attention to my program by even suggesting Jim is acting outside the rules. In no way is cheating by other programs near the top of Harbaugh's list of priorities. However, if you are bending those rules and attempt to paint Harbaugh with the same brush, don't start bitching when the NCAA comes a calling. He might, and probably is, aware of certain programs where cheating is a very real part of their overall strategy. Although he certainly doesn't condone or endorse it in any manner, he is not going to waste time by concentrating on another's porogram. However,  I don't think he would hesitate to blow the whistle on a program that he knew was dirty and suggested he was of the same character.

Harbaugh takes great pride in winning within the rules, and as we are all aware of by now, he really doesn't give a shit about what others - even his own fan base - might think of his unique approach. But if you are a coach of a program and are worried about Harbaugh closing the gap on you, I can think of no other way of motivating him to do it faster than knowingly accuse him of something you know has no merit. The man's character is only matched by his competive nature and pride.

gholt6633

March 16th, 2016 at 10:04 AM ^

He had better camp as far away from Gainesville as possible.  The Gator crowd down here hates him like poison.  Hard to imagine that a coach who led a school to two titles could ever be universally despised the way Meyer is.  Of course, maybe not considering the Snake Oil salesman that he was revealed to have been.....