Urban Meyer’s wife on SEC, Florida fans: More hostile and meaner
By Kevin Duffey
Published:
The wife of Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer recently did an interview with 247Sports.com about whether OSU fans were more boisterous than Florida fans. Her response included not only Florida, but the entire SEC.
“No, I would say it’s equal,” Shelley Meyer told 247Sports. “I just didn’t know it was this rabid here. But it’s less hostile here than at Florida. I mean, the SEC as a whole is a more hostile feeling to me. I thought that ever since we went down there. It’s just meaner.
“Now, I know ‘The Team Up North’ [Michigan] versus Ohio State game is pretty mean; everybody is pretty mean when that game rolls around. It’s extremely competitive, but it’s just not as mean (as the SEC). Not as dirty and mean. I hate to say that, but that’s just how it is in the South. College football is everything down there.”
Meyer is also perplexed as to why some Florida fans hate her husband, even after winning two national championships, and her perception is that Gator fans feel like they were left at the altar.
“Well, what I learned was that Florida fans, there’s a lot of them and people want to brag on their team,” she told 247Sports. “They want to be able to brag on their team. Now, when we first went down there and we were winning and we were winning those national championships, Urban was the best thing ever.
“But when it’s not going good or something doesn’t go the way they want, they will turn in a second. Now, to be fair, there’s a lot of fans across the country that are like that — and I’m sure there’s some Ohio State people that could do that, too.
“But here is my perception (about Florida fans): I think they feel like they were kind of left at the altar. They feel a betrayal, even though they were so mad at him about how our last season (2010) went. You can’t please them. You can’t please all fans anywhere; you can’t. And I’ve just accepted that, and I love when our fans are behind us and support us and I love that they love their team, but we can’t take it personally.
“Because, not one person that is close to us (from their time in Florida) has ever come up and said anything bad. ‘Why did you leave? You faked it. You weren’t sick. You had this Ohio State thing lined up the entire time.’ I would hear that all the time, and I was like ‘Uh, no.’ Because I was not coming here. So, trust me, that was not planned. So, the people who are critical of us, it’s not the people who know us. It’s the people who aren’t even around the program. They just want their team to win, and whoever can get their team to win, that’s who they’re for. And if you can’t do it or if you left them, then they’ll hate you.”
Meyer also noted the difference between SEC fans and Big Ten fans.
“The Big Ten isn’t like that,” she told The Gainesville Sun. “That’s just my opinion. There is not that feel here. The intensity in the competition (in the SEC) is incredible.”
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
