Urban Meyer says he has lost respect for Michigan
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
Fox Sports analyst Urban Meyer has several claims to fame as a multiple-time national championship coach in college football. But his most meaningful as coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes is his 7-0 record against arch rival Michigan.
When Meyer talks about the Wolverines, the Buckeyes, and the rivalry, people automatically listen. And that’s what makes his recent comments about the current state of the Michigan program so astonishing.
Through his time at Ohio State, Meyer was singularly focused on Michigan because of the respect he had for the program and the importance of the rivalry. But even though the Wolverines found more success on the football field in recent years, winning a national championship and turning around their fortunes against the Buckeyes, the drama around the program has reached insane levels.
Jim Harbaugh’s national championship victory was clouded by a show-cause penalty for recruiting violations. There was the Connor Stalions sign stealing fiasco. And then most recently, the shocking fall and arrest of Sherrone Moore. But that isn’t all. Multiple assistant coaches have been fired for appalling reasons. Former offensive coordinator Matt Weiss is facing identity theft charges for hacking into the university to steal private videos of student athletes. The Falcons recently fired assistant LaTroy Lewis for a sexual assault investigation from his time in Ann Arbor.
And in an appearance with two of his former Ohio State players in Cardale Jones and Chris “Beanie” Wells on their podcast, The Script, Urban Meyer twisted the knife in his former rivals by saying the most damaging thing he could – that he has lost respect for the Michigan program.
“I’ve said this many times, and I know Cardale knows this because I’ve said it to our players. Name another person who respects that school more than I do,” Meyer said. “And I’m including probably some people that have gone there. That’s how much I respect that school. That’s why we work so hard to beat them. I know their history. I was friends with Bo Schembechler. I was friends with Lloyd Carr, Gary Moeller. I know those great players. When someone says they have great players, I snap all over people and say, what are you talking about?”
“And so the the respect I have for that school academically, the school as a football program, I’ll tell you, it’s taken a little bit of a hit though. What’s gone on the last four or five years, I lost a little respect, Cardale. I know this is going to make some headlines, but the nonsense that has gone on up there, that’s not the Wolverine team or program that I mean, when I started hearing about all the violations and then the the most recent stuff, they hired the right guy to get them back.”
That right guy is former Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, who is now leading the Michigan program in the hopes of cleaning it up. The two are very close as Whittingham served as Meyer’s defensive coordinator during his own time in Utah as the head coach of the Utes. Whittingham has also spoken about their tight bond as former colleagues and longtime friends.
Of course, given the state of the rivalry, Michigan fans will be eager to comment on Urban Meyer’s glass house with the record of his programs. There was the staggering number of arrests during his time at Florida and the presence of one Aaron Hernandez. He then left Ohio State in disgrace after mishandling domestic abuse allegations against assistant coach Zach Smith. And the less said about his disastrous Jacksonville Jaguars tenure and his infamous night out in Columbus, the better.
But now that the rivalry has turned the page and it’s the era of Ryan Day and Kyle Whittingham, hopefully the focus can remain what happens on the field between the two programs and not so much what happens off of it.
The post Urban Meyer says he has lost respect for Michigan appeared first on Awful Announcing.
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos