December 03, 2004
Meyer accepts Florida job
Having met with both Florida and Notre Dame, The Jacksonville Times-Union has two sources confirming that Florida has offered the Head Coach position to Urban Meyer and that Meyer has accepted the job at $2+ million/year. Florida has scheduled a press conference for this afternoon.
UPDATE: ESPN's Pat Forde has confirmed the report.
UPDATE: Meyer will sign a contract this afternoon and a press conference will follow.
UPDATE: Meyer in Gainesville?? Meyer met with Florida officials yesterday in Salt Lake, and with Notre Dame officials last night after the Utes practice. Late last night, a plane left Gainesville for a 3am arrival today in Salt Lake City. The same plane returned to Gainsville today around 8am.
UPDATE: Meyer will address the Utah players at a team meeting on Saturday morning.
UPDATE: Brendan Loy notes that IrishToday is quoting ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit who spoke with Urban Meyer this afternoon and Meyer confirmed that he would be accepting the University of Florida head coaching position. Herbstreit said Meyer characterized the difficult choice as a "family decision."
UPDATE 12/4/04: Urban Meyer will be announced as head coach today and introduced at a press conference in Gainesville on Tuesday.
UPDATE 12/4/04: 7 years, $14 million plus incentives
UPDATE: 12/4/04: Florida officially announces Urban Meyer as Head Coach.
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Comments & Trackbacks
Josh McClain says:
posted on December 3, 2004 01:49 PM — linkWow - good for Florida - Bad for Notre Dame.
Hippster in KC says:
posted on December 3, 2004 02:21 PM — linkNever underestimate the ineptitude of the clowns running Notre Dame.
Derek says:
posted on December 3, 2004 02:26 PM — linkThe Palm Beach Post has a great quote from Meyer's father: "The climate's better down in Florida. The tradition is better at Notre Dame," Bud said. "I told him, if he wants to win, go to Florida."
Bob says:
posted on December 3, 2004 02:29 PM — linkND better wake up and get itself into the Big 10 while it can.
Sean says:
posted on December 3, 2004 02:40 PM — linkAlso to be considered, Meyer (or someone else) has to pay a penalty to get out of his contract to go to Florida, something he would not have to do to go to Notre Dame.
Rob Knodell says:
posted on December 3, 2004 02:48 PM — linkLet's keep things in perspective here. Meyer is the hottest coach on the market this season, based on what he's done in lesser conferences and lower-pressure environments, in addition to his "potential" for being a great coach of a big-time program. This is no guarantee of huge success.
Remember when Gary Crowton was the hot name everyone was drooling over out of LA Tech? Fired at BYU. What about Tommy Bowden, who went unbeaten at Tulane (back BEFORE an unbeaten mid-major have any prayer of getting BCS love)? Not exactly setting the woods on fire at Clemson. Go back further and remember Warren Powers who went to Mizzou? He's a car salesman now.
Jim Donnan was a championship coach at Marshall. Fired at Georgia. The list goes on.
Meyer may be a great one. He may be a bust. Just don't start lumping him in with Carroll, Saban, and Stoops quite yet.
Maurice says:
posted on December 3, 2004 03:01 PM — linkIf this is true this is a sad day in Utah and MWC
Kevin Donahue says:
posted on December 3, 2004 03:07 PM — linkI'm surprised really. Great for the Gators. Huge beat down to Notre Dame. Utah can cry, but they it couldn't last.
Ed Lammers says:
posted on December 3, 2004 04:03 PM — linkAny Coach who wants to play big time football has to consider leading a team in the SEC. Traditonal the SEC fields some of the most competitive teams in the nation. The State of Florida is rich in football talent. Look at the skill position players on teams around the nation and most likely they have some Florida boys playing for them. Meyers would hit pay dirt in talent that excedes anything that he experienced including ND. There are more pro players from Florida than any other State. Not matter where Urban goes or if he stays in Utah he is a class act, like that of most MWC coaches bring to their schools.
boifromtroy says:
posted on December 3, 2004 04:42 PM — linkI remember four years ago when people were asking for Mike Garrett's head for hiring Pete Carroll...you never know with these things.
Robert Knodell says:
posted on December 3, 2004 06:09 PM — linkIn the SEC, some much of your success or failure depends upon the staff you have in place. On every gameday, your coordinators are matching wits with some the greatest OC's and DC's in America. The SEC is home to the most intense recruiting trail in America (and the most dirty, if you believe some folks).
Meyer will probably bring a lot of coaches with him from Utah. Some will be up to the challenge of coaching at Florida and in the SEC; some will not. It will be interesting to see who he adds to the staff (he's probably going to need a recruiter or two with Southeast connections and coordinators, if his get hired away).
Robert Knodell says:
posted on December 3, 2004 07:00 PM — linkPer a CNN/Sports Illustrated report as of 5:41pm CT:
Officials at Florida refused to confirm the reports and said there was no immediate plans for a news conference.
"It looks like we're not going to know anything until next week," UF spokesman Steve Orlando said. "The coaching search goes on."
Kevin Donahue says:
posted on December 3, 2004 07:13 PM — linkDon't fall for spin, Robert. The UF spokesman is just doing his job - deflect until the announcement deatils (time/place/etc) are final. Herbstriet confirmed that he spoke to Meyer and it's official.
Robert Knodell says:
posted on December 3, 2004 07:46 PM — linkPerhaps this is the reason for the delay.
Kevin Donahue says:
posted on December 3, 2004 07:54 PM — linkI would say that the delay in an announcement is out of respect to Meyer and his Utes. He is addressing his team tomorrow morning. I'd look for an announcement once he can get to Gainesville.
Robert Knodell says:
posted on December 3, 2004 08:31 PM — linkI do think there's credence to the notion that Utah with a "lame duck" coaching situation (and possibly minus a coordinator) may be less appealing to some poll voters, by the logic that they will be less focused, perhaps less disciplined, etc. We all remember lame duck Mike Price's WSU team getting blown out of the Rose Bowl a couple years back. Or Lou Holtz's Carolina team a couple of weeks ago.
I know it will affect the betting lines somewhat. I think it's good for Utah that the announcement get delayed as much as possible, because I think will indeed affect fewer poll voters.
Gaffney says:
posted on December 4, 2004 03:33 AM — linkRegardless of whether Urban is a success at Florida or not, as of yesterday he was the hottest commodity in the coaching market - and he ended up at UF, not Notre Dame. This has to be considered a huge coup. Not just because UF has to buy out the rest of Urban's contract when ND would not have had to (which should not have given ND a big edge in the bidding war). Not just because for the first time in Notre Dame's history they reneged on a coach's contract (clearly with the specific intent of acquiring coach Meyer). But for these reasons plus because Urban Meyer specifically had an out-clause in his contract for just 3 schools, one of which was ND, none of which was FL. All in all this means that ND had the edge from a financial standpoint, clearly was willing to go above and beyond what ND had ever done before to get a coach, and should have already been higher on Urban's personal list of desired destinations. There must be an amazing untold story of how Notre Dame botched this one...and I would love to hear more details about it. A new AD should be in order.
Ben Prather says:
posted on December 4, 2004 08:09 PM — linkAnother good link from Salt Lake City, a city more independent on the Notre Dame-Florida front, but still very interested in the outcome.
Florida offered Meyer a reported 2 million a year. Notre Dame was not willing/able to match. I think it was that simple. A 7 year deal is a long contract for a team that just fired a coach after two, is it not?
As for Utah, lets not forget Bowling Green's top 25 performance the year after Meyers left them.
Utah will promote one of their coordinators to head coach, and the other will be a head coach elsewhere. With several key players leaving as well next year will be a rebuilding year with low expectations.
Their goes my hopes of a PAC 10 expansion this year.
From knodell.blog-city.com
pinged on Dec 10, 2004 10:45 AMNo matter how "official" it is, it certainly makes sense to hold off on an announcement until Monday (or at least until all of the human poll votes are taken). Think about it. Had Meyer-to-UF been announced today, speculation immediatel
