Ohio State coach Urban Meyer responded during yesterday’s Big Ten media conference call to Sporting News columnist Matt Hayes’ look behind the curtain at his tenure with the Florida Gators. He could have saved everyone some time by simply circulating a four-sentence statement:
“No NCAA violations. Players graduated. We won games. I love my players.”
Meyer undoubtedly made his media consultants happy by using the tried-and-true “it’s the economy, stupid” strategy to respond to the allegations that his preferential treatment of star players and lax attitude towards discipline had left the UF program in ruins when he stepped down after the 2010 season. He hammered his message repeatedly. The money quote:
“We were hired to graduate players. We did that. We were Top 3 every year in the SEC in graduating and APR (Academic Progress Rating). We were hired to win games. We did that. We (were hired to and) followed the rules. We did that. We recruited great classes. We finished in the Top 5 every year.”
Here’s another classic P.R. tactic, smearing the accuser:
“Throwing great players – not good players but great players – under the bus like that, I don’t get the intent. I’ll fight for those guys. Those guys did a lot of great things for the University of Florida, to call those guys out 4-5 years later, I’m not sure of the intent. But I’ll always fight for those guys.”
Per usual with Meyer, everything coming out of his mouth sounds pretty – education, winning, following the rules, loyalty. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t throw “faith” into the mix. It reminds me of the multiple times he took to the airwaves during his 11-month sabbatical away from the sidelines to decry the seedy “garbage” that is ruining college football.
He got up on that high horse a whole nine months before he decided to hop back into the action at a program that hasn’t exactly been a stranger to scandal.
The problem with Meyer is that all the lofty rhetoric in front of microphones about “living right” – whatever that means – rarely squares with the situation. If his philosophy of leniency in perpetuity for rulebreakers “because it’s the right thing to do” was supposed to help keep his players “committed to the right thing,” those arrests his players racked up would suggest he re-evaluate it. Of course, that might mean taking his peak performers off the field.
For me personally, the ironic part in all of this is that I don’t really give a damn about failed drug tests and off-the-field issues. I find nothing shocking about college kids smoking pot and getting into scrapes with the law.
What I do find galling is Meyer’s indignation and blatant hypocrisy.
