So after reading all the stuff about Jay Cutler and his critics, saying he lacks toughness and what not, all I can think about is the twitter comment tying Urban Meyer into all of this. If you don't know, Jacksonville Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew took a stab not only at Cutler, but former coach at the University of Florida Urban Meyer by tweeting ""Hey I think the urban meyer rule is effect right now... When the going gets tough........QUIT." In response, he received death threats from hoards of Chicago Bears fans (they root for a Chicago based team - can't blame them for being bitter...) .
Yes, that's right. Death threats. Because Cutler was compared to Urban Meyer.
Hey, if my QB was put in the same category as Urban Meyer, I'd be pissed too.
Thus begins my rant against Urban Meyer and the SEC. Hey, I waited until my second blog post. That's an accomplishment.
Maybe I'm just bitter because Urban Meyer is responsible for the fucking train wreck that is Alex Smith, or the fact that he's an integral part of the SEC aka most overrated conference in college football. But I will gladly swallow my bitter pill. The SEC is overrated, pure and simple. Urban Meyer is an overrated coach, pure and simple. He's a nice guy, a family man, well-liked in the college football Universe blah blah blah. And yes, he supposedly quit in light of the physical stress coaching a top-ranked program - the guy lost 25 pounds because of it. Still, there's got to be some tough-love here, I mean, this is the game of FOOTBALL we're talking about.
Where was this stress coming from? While at the University of Florida, Meyer won BCS championships in both 2006 and 2008. He coached superb athletes such as Heisman trophy candidate Tim Tebow, was heralded in the media as one of the greatest college football coaches of all-time, and was the darling of the BCS rankings computer. But like his prodigy Tim Tebow, Meyer probably suffered from vaulted expectations and an overexposed, overrated image given to him by the media. It's no wonder bitter USC fans like myself don't like him: we have to hear about how GREAT he is 24/7. How PERFECT and WONDERFUL and GENIUS and BRILLIANT he is. I used to blame Meyer, but it's not entirely his fault. The guy could literally do no wrong: even when he pussied out of ever playing USC and instead scheduled such blistering opponents as Central Florida High School (a slight exaggeration - emphasis on the slight), his team still enjoyed the lofty #1 ranking in the country. Sorry Boise State, your schedule just wasn't as tough as the University of Florida's was - you're not in the SEC. Tough break.
So my theory? Meyer was crushed under the weight of the world. Sometimes being placed on a pedestal that's too high creates the inevitable fall back to earth. Unfortunately for Meyer, his Gators had a disappointing season only made brighter by a BCS win against Joe Paterno and his old school (albeit irrelevant) Penn State Nittany Lions. It was a sight to see - the octogenarian Paterno wishing the far younger Urban Meyer a healthy retirement.
You see, that's really what sepearates the good coaches from the mythological ones, and why Paterno's legacy will live on while Meyer's hype will eventually fade. Paterno slogs it out on the field day in and day out. he will probably die before he retires from the game he has given his entire life to. Meanwhile, Urban Meyer will not watch on the sidelines, from from the comfort of his living room couch.
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