Urban Should Let Sleeping Gators Lie

by mlmintampa on May 13, 2009 1:28 PM EDT in Football Comment 13 comments

When I wrote about Shane Matthews criticizing the Gators (and Urban Meyer specifically) in January, I wasn't sure about noting it because I kept thinking it was much ado about nothing. After all, the 2008 Gators are the best team in school history and were playing for a National Championship. Matthews is a former player with a microphone. The only difference between him and a student at WRUF radio (which I once was) is athleticism. I shouldn't really care what Matthews says and that is especially true of anyone within Florida Football. But Urban, about nine months after Matthews original comments and five after restating them, goes after Matthews.

"If you want to be critical of a player on our team or a coach on our team you can buy a ticket for seat 37F, you're not welcome back in the football office. You're either a Gator or you're not a Gator."

Of course, Matthews is now shocked that Meyer is paying attention to him. Which is what he wanted in the first place. Now that Matthews' gig with the All-American Football League is epic fail, all he has is a radio show. If you're hosting a radio show, wouldn't you want a coach with two National Championship rings talking about you? My thing was that Matthews made his comments as if he was just a concerned alum, not a radio host who also wants to influence the program. There is a huge difference if Jesse Palmer made the same statements versus Matthews.

Also, note how Meyer makes a point of saying "football office." Do you think any regular person can just walk in there and protest? Or someone who is an alum?

I don't like Meyer's line, which is like Gee-Dub's, "You're either with us or against us." I tend to look at Lane Kiffin as building a terrorist network in Knoxville, but I'd hate for Meyer say I'm not a Gator because I like watching LSU and Utah. There are always gray areas, and football coaches and politicians have to understand that. Criticism is necessary.

But Meyer should have never said anything. He has every right to defend his players, but no right to say who is a Gator and who isn't. (Does degrees or rings determine Gator Nation citizenship?) Not only that, it's not worth it responding to something like this. Let it go and worry only about winning another title.

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Well said...

Matthews analyzing football on his radio show. He was doing just that, analyzing a team. It just so happened that team was his former one. In a perfect world, every former Gator would have nothing but positive things to say about the program. But it’s not a perfect world and we all had some negative things to say after the Ole Miss game. Matthews voiced his opinion. Simple as that. Urban (as much as we love the guy) should’ve just let sleeping dogs lie.

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by The Bull Gator on May 13, 2009 2:31 PM EDT reply actions

You think I could've found a different saying to end with...

…being that you titled your story as such, but I’m having one of those days that I think my brain is rejecting the normal effects coffee has on it.

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by The Bull Gator on May 13, 2009 2:32 PM EDT up reply actions

Really??

I don’t like Meyer’s line, which is like Gee-Dub’s, "You’re either with us or against us.

It’s not very comforting that the writer of this blog doesn’t even support one of our favorite cheers: “If you ain’t a Gator, you must be Gator bait.”

Lawrence Wright is not happy with you.

by tbcook on May 13, 2009 4:47 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah - Lawrence Wright is one of the greatest Gators ever

and I love his motto.

As long as Coach Irving Meyers continues to win championships, I’ll give him some leeway as to whom he allows in the Gator offices. He kind of is the king right now and UF is his kingdom. That being said, Shane didn’t really say anything worse than any of us do when things aren’t going right for us. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing your team, so long as you stand behind it. Who hasn’t said things like “why won’t we run a play from under center?” or “Why do we continue to try to pound Demps and Rainey into the middle instead of getting them to the edge?”

I think Shane is also one of the greatest Gators ever. He was the first Gator QB to ever lead us to a SEC Championship. That makes him much greater than the average WUFT radio announcer.

As a side note, I also find it interesting that he is now a radio guy. I was in school at the same time he was and although I didn’t really know him, I worked at his girlfriend’s sorority and he sometimes came to dinner. He was very very shy and quiet….sort of a backwoods country kid from Nowhere, Mississippi.

by skigator93 on May 13, 2009 11:08 PM EDT up reply actions

If Its Ture, It Doesn't Matter ....

Is one thing Shane said false? I don’t agree or like you inferring that Shane is doing this for publicity. I don’t think he is — I think he just called them how he saw them — which is his job. After Urban decided to run Tebow up the gut on that fourth down, he lost some respect with a lot of Gator fans (which he promptly gained back). There is a fine line between arrogance and confidence — and that play smacked of the former. Urban comes across as a little of a brat here. But, its tough to say the 2008 season ends up the same if we don’t take that stinging loss to Houston Nutt in the Swamp.

by Taurean KGB on May 14, 2009 11:20 AM EDT reply actions

I agree Urban is being a brat. The man remembers every insult and responds like a he’s killing a mosquito with an axe. (Although, I wanted them to throw when he was calling timeouts vs. UGA.)
There is a difference between Matthews being a critic and Jesse Palmer being one. Matthews wants to be involved in the program and host a radio show, Palmer just wants the media stuff. (I didn’t do a good job of saying that in the piece.) If you want to be involved in the program, Urban wants you to be a good soldier.
It’s interesting to compare this to Peter Tom Willis, who was fired for being too critical of FSU as a color guy. FSU obviously was looking more at a homer crew. (The best homer crew is the Yankees’ YES Network. It’s like a baseball al-Jazeera.) But Willis was employed by FSU, Matthews is just another former jock hosting a radio show. He’s qualified for it by being a former Gator QB, but to Urban, that means he should follow the company line. Matthews benefits from all of this, because people are paying attention to him now. Which is what he wanted in the first place. He needs to sell ads and get an audience.

mlmintampa
UF C/O 06

by mlmintampa on May 14, 2009 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions

+1...

…on Matthews benefiting from this. He’s suddenly relevant again (at least for a few minutes). Not that I won’t always love the guy (he was the first Gators I remember truly being my favorite when I was growing up), but anyone outside of the Florida family had forgotten all about him until this.

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by The Bull Gator on May 14, 2009 7:50 PM EDT up reply actions

An opposing fan's two cents

I’ve commented here before so I hope that I’m welcomed as a reasonable observer. Frankly this comes across as being just as silly as Mark Richt’s recent comments regarding Jacksonville that “it’s hotter for us and cooler for them” (which I really hope he was just making a comment tongue-in-cheek about). While I acknowledge that a little bit of arrogance and ego is a good thing in the machismo world that is football, but I think Coach Meyer is letting his ego get the better of him here at the risk of alienating those who support him.

There is nothing wrong with healthy criticism. I sincerely believe that Matthews only made the comments he did because he cares about the football program and wants to see it do well. How many times have you as a fan sat there at the game or watching the TV and said to your friends “what the heck was he thinking?”?

Maybe you are right in your point that Matthews is just trying to create some attention in order to sell ads, but I don’t believe that’s the whole truth. I think the guy just said what he truly thought because he cares about the program, but the difference between him and you or I is that he has a microphone in front of him.

As great a coach as Meyer is, he’s certainly getting his panties in a wad over something pretty minute and if nothing else just reflects poorly on his ability to handle criticism. You can’t reasonably take a job as high profile as the head coach at Florida and expect everyone to fall in line with you and never question what you’re doing no matter how good you’ve been. People are always going to find faults with something.

Anyways, that’s my two cents on the matter. He really just needs to get over it and get back to coaching football and realize that no one is impervious to criticism. Just because you get criticized doesn’t make you any less a fan. I can’t count how many times over the last 8 years I’ve taken shots at Mark Richt for something that happened in a game, but I still consider myself a Bulldog.

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by AuditDawg on May 14, 2009 6:10 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Most of us agree that Urban has a little ego problem

but I’ll take his faults so long as he maintains the integrity of the program and win championships. I also don’t think this is news if it was said in August, but since we’re so starved for football news, we’ll jump on anything and analyze it for days!

Your comments are alway welcome Audit – just as yall respect our opinions over at DawgSports

by skigator93 on May 14, 2009 10:21 PM EDT up reply actions