I stumbled across a story about Meyer's Big 10 teleconference this week discussing Mike Bianchi (of the Orlando Sentinel) acting very unprofessional and calling in to proclaim to Meyer that UF fans are fervorously rooting against the Bucks this weekend. Having read his column before, I find it difficult to actually give one ounce of care about his opinion, but I am a bit annoyed at his action. When Meyer took the OSU job, naturally there were countless publications and interviews about how Florida fans feel about his sudden (although not surprising) ressurgence. As a considerable time has passed since then, I was under the impression that writers like Bianchi would have gotten over this whole thing by now and worried less about Meyer and more about Florida football.
Bianchi, and others like him, remind me a lot of JJ. For those who dont know who JJ is, I direct your attention to here:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/hgrant/this-is-what-crazy-looks-like-via-text-messaging
If you want to hear a couple of Kiwi-speaking New Zealand radio hosts reenacting it (worth it):
http://soundcloud.com/vaughan-1-1/this-is-what-crazy-looks-like
But in all seriousness, I wonder, how do you feel about Bianchi trying to troll Meyer's teleconference?
its a free country and urban is a big boy, i am sure he can handle this idiot.
Those New Zealanders are hilarious!
97.1 The Fan's website had an audio clip of Bianchi and Urban's response. Urban stayed very calm and replied very well.
http://www.971thefan.com/content/blogs/locker-room/2012/09/zing.html
Bianchi tweeted that Florida fans wouldn't take Urban back. I think they're just upset because their current team and staff is still struggling.
Mike Bianchi is another hater. He is not a journalist, if you read any articles he writes they are not professional.
Pretty apparent which one lost his cool....bianchi hung up....coward!!!
They were discussing this on the Big Show yesterday, seems like Bianchi's mistake was that he referred to Urban "Leaving one school for another," to which Urban replied, "Well, unsurprisingly, you've got your facts wrong. I didn't leave Florida for Ohio State, and still have a lot of friends there. I'll always be a Gator etc."
Bianchi did later clarify over Twitter that he meant to ask Urban how he felt that some UF fans feel scorned by his quick retirement and subsequent hiring at Ohio State, and if it bothered him that said fans might be rooting against him and for UCF this week.
I tell my Florida Gator friend each and everytime "Ohio rented Urban out to you! He was always property of Ohio! Your lease ended and we decided we wanted him to come home! Plain and simple!"
Bianchi needs to get over it and start worrying about Florida's current coaches! The fact that he and all those nutball fans down there are still harboring resentment 2 years later is just sad!
Even if he was able to ask his question correctly, he still has no point being in on that conversation and asking dumb questions like that! I would be surprised Urban gives a flying crap what they think!
if ppl are hating you are prolly doin something right
mark may wins douchebag of the year... again
If UF wouldn't take Meyer back, that's their problem not ours
Here's one of Elika's tweets from yesterday.
How can they really be that mad at him? The guy won them TWO national titles. These are probably the same people that are Miami Heat fans now and don't understand why Ohioans had disdain for LeBron. At least Urban won something for them.
"Waaaaaaah, Urban broke up with me and life is over....." - Mike Bianchi
Get a life you tool. This guy is a tabloid journalist at best.
"if irony were made of strawberries, we' d all be drinking a lot of smoothies right now."
Bianchi is nothing more than a bitter Florida grad.
I could understand how Bianchi might be in on the news conference since UCF is in Orlando, and Urban was at UF, maybe. A big maybe. However, he went over the whiney line when he made the question more about him/the past, and less about the upcoming game. Let it go buddy, and move on.
I honestly can't blame UF fans for being bitter. Urban gave them the best six years their program's ever experienced, then he retired (after coming back once and having a middling year) and left a depleted team for a new guy who went into rebuilding mode by installing a pro-style offense with players hand-picked for the spread.
Meyer made UF an elite school--their fans grew as accustomed to success as we had under Tressel--and when he left, UF ceased to be an elite school, eduring a Michigan-esque revitilization campaign while the jury's still out on their long-term viability. Yet, whilst they've been mired in mediocrity, Urban decided one year away was enough, and jumped back into coaching in the Big Ten--for the same team that Urban exposed as "unworthy" in 2006, nonetheless!
Florida's fans thought their school was a destination job, the likes of which only matched by Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Alabama, and USC (and previously Penn State and Notre Dame). They're coping with the reality that they really aren't there yet, and might never be (Hell, even LSU isn't--Saban bolted for the NFL, and Miles wanted to come home to UM), while their former coach seems destined to bring the SEC's successes to the very conference they all once mocked.
For what it's worth, UF fans would be a lot more okay with this if Muschamp were a proven commodity, or had a measure of success last year. All signs point to UF's hire being a relative strikeout--at least at the moment. Remember, LSU fans forgot about Saban once Miles brought them a title, as did UF fans with Spurrier once Urban did the same.
I'd be bitter too. Fortunately, my alma mater is a destination school, and we got the best guy available for the job to come home. Let the haters hate. It's therapeutic after what we endured aftre tatgate.
Hodge: good comment, as usual. However, FLA made a calculated decision in hiring a HC that would have to rebuild to install a pro-style offense. They (over)reacted to what Bama was/is doing (including what Bama did, and is doing, to them). FLA could have hired a power-spread coach and maybe would have had a better transition (at least in the short-term).
As for Meyer:
A). He wasn't doing well there toward the end - physically, psychologically. How was that ever going to work out for them? I guess he was supposed to be happy and healthy there or else . . .
B). Why do they feel entitled to the services of a coach who was born & raised in Slohio? Look, I can appreciate that they have a great per capita h.s. talent base down there and that it's hot and sticky enough to attract a lot of skantily-clad ladies and mosquitoes, but why do they feel that Slohio-born coaches are duty bound to be indentured servants to SEC dominance? If Slohio is the craddle of slowdom and suckiness, why do they so covet and claim ownership over Slohio coaches? Given their cfball crazy culture down there, can't they develop a few coaches from the southeast?
Not saying that they had a right to be entitled, but they were. UF was the best of the best, and it's hard for fans to accept that their beloved coach had aspirations to coach elsewhere. Not to mention, I'm sure it reminded them of how hometown-hero Steve Spurrier flew the coop. All I'm saying is that I understand their frustrations, and that it's not a situation that Ohio State fans have been in since Paul Brown opted to not return in the '40s.
Hodge, I agree with much of what you've said.
Truth be told, if you look at the history of Florida football, they only had minimal success and were never considered a national power prior to 1990, when Spurrier became their head coach. Their success and place in the national discussion has been a recent development of only the last 22 years.
I still don't see how some can loathe a man that provided them the best years in program histoy. I'd be sad and disappointed with a coach leaving but I wouldn't try to crucify him in the media. If Urban Meyer won 2 nat'l titles and six years and then bolted I'd be extremely pleased with the success he brought us.
Edit: That meaning if he won us two titles at OSU and bolted I'd be more than pleased.
I'd agree that they would have a right to be bitter if Meyer simply left Florida because he wanted to coach at Ohio State. It makes them look pretty douchey, though, that they're bitter because he needed time off to get his health straight. I suppose they can question how bad his health really was. However, they aren't Urban, his family, or anyone else close to him who knew what he was going through. He might very well have been on the path to killing himself. Would they be bitter if he had?
Somehow, I think if Urban left Florida to come to Ohio State, he'd have taken the job before last season. Think about it. Would he chance the interim coach doing enough to win the job full-time? Besides, didn't he retire before it was revealed that Tressel committed NCAA violations? As far as we knew at that time, Tressel's job was not in jeopardy.
Florida fans need to get over it. Urban took their program to heights that they had never before seen. Between 2006 and 2008, my goodness - between football and basketball, Florida athletics were on top of the world. That football program was never more relevant than it was when Urban was there, and may never be that relevant again. To me, it just makes their fanbase look every bit as douchey as I think it is.
Class of 2010.
Let's be honest here, if the roles were reversed, we'd all be pissed too. Also, let's be real here, Florida when they were rolling was Meyer's dream job. We were lucky that the situation played itself out like it did, otherwise we could be looking at a 2012 season with Fickell leading the squad again, or they could of went out and hired a DickRod to lead the program. We were fortunate to have our unfortunate circumstances line up correctly with Meyers unfortunate circumstances.
I understand how the UF fans feel...I'm still pissed that RichRod left scUM for Arizona!
I'm sorry but if any coach came and won my school 2 national championships He could retire, unretire, do whatever the hell he wants as far as I care. I'd feel the same way about LeBron, if that guy came into Cleveland and won 2 championships for the city of Cleveland and bolted I'd be disappointed but I'd be cool about the guy (it's also different because LeBron flat out chose Miami over Cleveland with both sitting there on his plate...it's not like Meyer had a choice to go BACK to Florida)...he'd be the guy that finally delivered a championship to my starved pro sports city.
Look, most people around the nation mocked and ridiculed Urban for what transpired, even most here. If he went to another school we'd join in the hate just as quickly as anyone else. I didn't, I thought people were just being jerks, but most people here can't act like they didn't hate on him. (I was on Bucknuts so I can't speak individually during that time who, but generally yes.)
This sounds like the pinings of a jilted teenage girl.
~Because we couldn't go for three~
I have to laugh at Florida fans. They didn't have a problem with Urban leaving Utah after 2 years to take their offer. And their current coach left the Texas head coaching job (yes in an undefined Mack Brownless future, but still the job had been promised to him) to take their job. Urban left their job to take a TV job. Heck, he had already retired once a year earlier, a year before Tatgate became national news and any speculation about the OSU job being available had started. To carry on like this is not only pathetic, but it is extremely unsupportive of their current coach and current players. They need to move on and throw their energy behind their current team.
Bianchi is just trying to make his name a household one. Let him rant and fade into oblivion. If he's still holding onto this non-story, he has nothing else to talk about and will be writing classified ads soon(no offense if anyone here does that).
I'm late to the discussion, but I wanted to add this: Whenever I've spoken to Florida or SEC fans, about UFM coming back to Ohio I just tell them what Bear Bryant said to his detractors when they asked why he would leave the powerhouse he was building at Texas A&M for Alabama - "Momma called." Seems to shut them up very nicely.
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx
@BUCKEYEVET - You have no idea how many times I've used that exact same analogy to my Gator-worshipping mother haha.
Who cares what Florida fans think. Urban Meyer was born in Toledo, raised in Ashtabula, & grew up idolizing Woody Hayes. He even has a degree from Ohio State. Urban brought Florida 2 National Championships, a Heisman Trophy Winner, & a whole lot of NFL draft picks. It's not like he pulled a LeBron & left without bringing them anything, so many schools would love to have as much sucess as Florida did during that time period. The bottom line is that Urban Meyer was born in Ohio, raised in Ohio, & had a chance to take the Ohio State job. Going back to the LeBron references, it's not like Urban Meyer was from the state of Florida & left to coach in another state's powerhouse program, he's from Ohio & he decided to come home. There's nothing wrong with that. He also didn't specifically leave Florida to coach here, certain things just happened in a certain way & now he's our coach. It's a beautiful thing actually, the guy who beat us so bad in 2006 comes home to coach us, & now Florida fans can't get over it. I sure hope Florida fans enjoyed their OHIO born & raised coach why they were so busy talking about how bad the quality of football in Ohio is. (Yes, I saw the Youtube comments from the 2006 NC Game highlights) It almost seems like Karma.. At the end of the day, things happen. And Urban Meyer to Ohio State just makes too much sense, they need to drop it & show their current coach & team that they support them fully.
It's 5 o'clock somewhere, & Michigan still sucks
UF just isn't a destination job. Ask Spurrier. Or Billy Donavan. Billy wouldn't have shopped around if he was completely content. They have an excellent athletic department and a wealth of talent in the area for recruiting, but its just not quite on par with the big boys.
theDuke
In fact Spencer, EDSBS, called the head coaching job at florida "a thankless position." Probably because of losers like thie Bianchi person.
theDuke
I've read several of Bianchi's articles on Meyer and all I can say is Bianchi is, what do the kids say these days - a "douche."
Actually - even his (Bianchi's) readers here in Florida have told him to let it go...it's getting old - the guys obsessed. Hopefully Urban's sees this as a compliment. This guy hates him so much...it must be love.
The world is full of kings & queens who'll blind your eyes & steal your dreams - it's heaven & hell - Ronnie James Dio.
I never heard of JJ but damn, that was insane!
"Because the rules won't let you go for three." - Woody Hayes
THE Ohio State University