CM TO ESPN

Gator Gridiron

Roger Franklin Williams

ESPN announced last week that the network has hired a new college football analyst. The new talking head will be a familiar face to Gator fans….It’s Coach Urban Meyer. The prospect of Coach Meyer as television personality posed an interesting question; how will CM do as a television analyst? As Head Gator, Meyer’s interviews were often tedious, close to the vest, regurgitations of “coach-speak”. (Which was fine with me, the last thing I want my Head Ball Coach to do is play to the media, take time away from coaching the team to indulge media geeks or, worse yet, reveal important information to the public.) On the other hand, Meyer has a tremendous reservoir of experience in the trenches of college football from which to provide interesting insights, if he is so inclined. Plus, he’s a handsome guy with great hair.

This Gator will be looking for insights into Meyer’s personality; one of the ironic aspects of the Meyer era in Gainesville is that he was so buttoned-up, intense and relentlessly hard driving that, unlike Steve Spurrier, most Gators feel they never got to know who Urban Meyer really is.

Shortly after the announcement UF announced that the university was “severing financial ties with Coach Meyer” due to the inherent potential conflicts that his role with dual employers---ESPN and UF---might pose with NCAA regulations, especially in regards to recruiting. This announcement has raised questions for many Gators. For instance, why did UF athletics continue to have financial ties with Urban Meyer? (Apparently, Meyer was maintaining an office on campus with a healthy salary for some loosely defined role with Gator athletics.) We thought he resigned because he was “burned out” and dealing with “health issues”.  How many people can go into see their boss, quit their job because they are “burned out”, then say, “and by the way, I want to you to continue to provide me with an office and salary for what will be essentially a “no-show” job”?

No wonder there are so many persistent Meyer “conspiracy theories” continuing to hover over Gator Nation.