Urban Meyer wades back into Florida-Georgia rivalry with message for Gators
Urban Meyer is staying active in college football even though he’s stepped away from the sidelines this season. The former Ohio State and Florida coach is an analyst on FOX Sports, and has already made national championship picks for Clemson and Alabama at different points this season.
But this week offers a game Meyer is well aware of as the big game in Jacksonville is set to kick off between top 10 teams.
“Go Gators, beat those Dawgs,” Meyer said in an Instagram video, which also tagged TIAA Stadium.
Meyer has had the rivalry on his mind a lot lately, as he shared some memories on The Buddy Martin Show.
He recalled the so-called “payback game” in 2008, when Florida won 49-10.
“We had two (timeouts); I wish I had three, but we had two,” Meyer told said. “The one thing I want to add is that we came down in the pre-game meal. I’ll never forget. Usually I come in and I speak to the team before we get on the bus and go. I came down, and as I walk into the room, all the players stand up and start going (wild). You could tell that team was on fire to play that game.”
Meyer said he never discussed the 2007 game with Mark Richt when Georgia sent its entire team to the end zone to celebrate a touchdown, and was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. But Meyer admitted he obsessed about it for a long time.
“My biggest fear was that when your manhood gets challenged like that, are you going to do something to retaliate?,” he said. “The biggest thing was … I talked to our players non-stop about ‘Do not get involved.’ Every reporter was asking our players ‘What was going to be the payback?’”
He’s trying so hard.
Glad the dude’s gone, unhappy that it took the program a long time to recover.
I’ll never forget the red half of that stadium going almost empty. It was beautiful.
Like the opposite of 2017 then? Neat
“Neat” lol
You dog fans have a Ohio state mouth with a Vanderbilt trophy case….Neat
Lol. Perfect description.
All that talk and all them wins in the 90s and you still have a losing record to UGA.
We’d rather have more national titles than a measly 8 game lead in the overall series, which you hilariously feel is worthy of bragging about.
You know what’s neat? The second play from scrimmage in 2008 when Spikes absolutely destroyed Marino about 5 yards deep in the backfield. I don’t think anybody in that stadium had any doubt the ass whipping Florida was about to put on Georgia that afternoon for the classless display from the year before. The next 59 minutes was better than one long pass that UGA lives for every year. Remember both those teams were ranked in the top ten yet it looked like boys trying to compete against men in the payback 49-10 pasting. However, I don’t hold that display against UGA but rather the coach who demanded such a display which shouldn’t be any surprise given his Miami/FSU pedigree. It’s a shame he left that mark on the rich ( pun intended) Georgia program. Although Urban did many things with our program that I dislike his measured response to the UGA end zone celebration the following year was one of which we can be proud. Hopefully the payback resumes on Saturday!
That long post and you actually bashed Coach Richt for 1 incident to fire up his players? Before you bash coaches and their pedigree, you need to look at some of your past coaches!
@ 1080 I don’t need to bash Richt as the Georgia faithful did enough of that during his time as their coach. In fact if the Gators win this weekend and UGA loses to AU later this season they will start in with “Not So” Smart in short order. I’m not oblivious to the fact that we’ve had some poor coaches at UF but usually not ones who had to resort to what Richt did to fire their players up. Pitiful coaching tactic no matter the reason dawgbreath!
@PC you forgot about the 2000’s. 8-2. Haha. We are even batting .500 against you guys lately and we have done that with McElwain and Muschump. But I guess your used to Muschump beating y’all! lol. To soon? Go Gators!
Please fire Keith Farner.
No thanks Liar Meyer
You Urban haters are idiots. Go root for a different team please
He won a lot of games.
He left the program worse than he found it.
I am free to be unhappy about the issues he left the program with, and still be a card-carrying, to-the-core Gator alum.
Left the program worse than he found it. Perhaps. The locker room was definitely divided in how he left.
What he did leave behind were 2 national championships and more importantly, 2 SEC championships.
Don’t blame 2 HORRIBLE coaching hires on Urban though. It should have taken a competent coach 1 or 2 seasons at best to sort that situation out. Not the 7 straight years of garbage football we have seen since.
Give the man credit where credit is due. Spurrier put us on the map. Urban Meyer proved that UF is not a one trick pony of a program that can only win the big one behind Spurrier.
I get your point that the Nattys and SEC championships were great for the post-SOS pedigree of UF as a top notch program, and I agree that better post-UM hires should have righted the ship much sooner. That’s not on him.
But leaving a widely acknowledged toxic culture IS on him. That’s my main beef.
Not to mention the Buckeye issues he has wrought on them, albeit along with their own Natty.
The man just comes with a price tag.
He also won that first Natty based on Ron Zook’s recruits.
You can hate Zook all you want, but he build a solid foundation of players for Urban.
Also, take note that the Offense went down hill pretty quickly after Mullen left and Urban. We still had Tebow and some quality players, but overall offense took a dive.
I am a rare Dawgs fan who loves Spurrier and Tebow but respectfully dislikes the Gators. Coach Meyer took the respectful dislike to HATE. With all that said, Gator fans, how did Trask not beat out Franks in seasons past? If Franks was still QB1, I would have no doubt this would be another double digit Dawgs win. Franks and Jake Bentley are long on potential but short on consistent progress to be 3 year starters. Trask makes your offense much, much, better than Franks. Now all I will say is based on overall talent we should win but if Trask get going, I wouldn’t be stunned if we lose. Does Trask suck in practice and Franks looks like the number one overall pick? I am stunned that Trask has played as well as he has and it took an injury to get him on the field. What can you share about this Gator fans?
That’s the million dollar question. No one knows the exact answer but what I can tell you is that Franks has all the measurables even NFL guys drool about such as size and arm strength. He is also more vocal and all the players really really like him and the coaches see that as leadership.
Count me in the crowd that feels we are better with Trask though.
I think Mullen stuck it out with Franks because of his Alpha personality and how the players loved him.
Franks also had a much better upside IF he was to ever get it and everything began to fire on all cylinders. He has more athleticism running and passing, but I think he just can’t read and adjust to defenses as well as Trask does.
I think it’s everything CO and 96 said plus I think one of the biggest factors in that decision was the fact that Franks has the ability to run the ball effectively. Mullen’s offense is at its best when there’s a dual threat QB running it. If Jones were ready and more accurate with his passes and decision making, I have no doubt Mullen would be starting him over Trask too. Thankfully this is a team that was recruited to run a pro style offense and Mullen is a great offensive coach that can adapt his playbook to his players strengths. Having to call plays for Chris Leak in 2006 probably made that transition much easier. With the weapons this team has right now, a pro-style accurate QB is thriving, but it certainly isn’t the typical offense Mullen likes to run.
There is no denying Urban Meyer’s coaching ability. NC’s at two different schools. His ethics are a different story. He left us in disarray but part of that was the hires we made following. We are on the way up now and have a coach I hope will be here for some time.
Urban also phoned in his last two years and that had a direct impact on the recruits we got and their development.
He should have just stepped aside after the “illness” and maybe we are a different team.
The hire of a coach in waiting was a terrible decision and I still can’t understand why we didn’t try and go after Mullen who had started to make an impact at MSU.
Actually that’s not true. Those last 2 recruiting classes he brought in were pretty ridiculous. Those 2 classes combined had 9-5* players and 24-4* players. The 2010 #1 overall class at the time was one of the highest rated in history with 28 total players and 5 of them were 5* players and 17 were 4* players. It had guys like Powell, Easley, Floyd, and Elam just to name a few. That class was the main reason Muschamp had the second year he had. The biggest issue with how Meyer left the program, was the culture he left behind. All the players had massive egos and thought they were bigger than the program. They basically ran wild with no fear of repercussions cause Meyer pretty much covered up all the indiscretions while he was there. I think even Mullen would tell you after only 2 seasons of head coaching experience, that he wouldn’t have been ready to run a top tier stress filled program like UF. It probably would’ve wound up like another deer in the headlights McElwain situation. I think he needed the time he had at MSU to learn how to build a program like that before he was ready to take on this big of a job.
Urban is an amazing recruiter and maintainer of a program, but I truly believe he’s only as good as his offensive coordinators allow him to be. Florida basically returned the entire championship team in 2009 and the offense wasn’t nearly the same after Mullen left. That team probably would’ve won back to back titles if Mullen stayed. Same thing with OSU. They basically returned everyone in 2015 and many believed they were a stronger team and a clear favorite to repeat, the only problem was Tom Herman left to coach Houston and they weren’t nearly the same on offense.
Some of you guys need to get over it. You love to brag about the # of titles over UGA but cuss the coach who brought 2/3’s of them. Just let it go for Christ sake. Meyer is flawed …but so is every coach. Move on