Urban Meyer, fresh off of his 2nd National Championship in 4 years is rumored to be considering leaving the University of Florida for Touchdown Jesus after next season. Meyer was a graduate assistant coach at Notre Dame from 1996-2000 and previoulsy stated that his dream job would be to coach the Fighting Irish.
Alabama radio personality, Paul Finebaum, recently stoked the rumor fire earlier this month in his column for the Press-Register. Finebaum has been running his lips for years without really saying a word. For a Tennessee grad, Finebaum seems a little confused as to where his allegiances lie. After all, isn’t the Tennessee-Alabama rivalry just a notch below the Iron Bowl? Paul has been sucking up to the Crimson Tide for quite a while now and could barely contain his joy when the Tide hired Nick Saban in 2007. How proud the good folks that handed him his UT degree must be with him.
Urban Meyer is no fool. Meyer was initially approached about taking the Notre Dame job back in 2004 after leading Utah to the school’s first undefeated season thus making the Utes the first ever mid-major team to receive a BCS bowl bid. Meyer respectfully declined the position in South Bend in favor of becoming the head coach of the Florida Gators. Meyer realized early on that he would be in a better position to win, and win consistently, in the state of Florida. He took over a slumping Florida program that had just endured several seasons of the Ron Zook experiment and turned them into national champions in just two seasons. Much to the dismay of the detractors that said Meyer only got it done with Zook’s players, he turned around and did it again last year. I’m not debating the fact that Notre Dame might be Urban’s dream job but there is a difference between a dream and reality. The reality is that Florida has the best to offer him at this point in time.
I know that Finebaum would love nothing more than to see Meyer leave the SEC, removing a thorn in the side of Nick Saban. It’s not happening. Meyer addressed a group of golfers at a Gainesville, Fl charity event this past Monday and assured them that he was not leaving UF for Notre Dame. He has shown himself a man of integrity over the years and has not given me any reason to question that.What Finebaun really needs to worry about is Saban leaving the good folks of Tuscaloosa for a bigger pot of gold somewhere else……
