Urban Meyer makes it clear: No Notre Dame
To all you Notre Dame fans out there who still fantasize about Florida’s Urban Meyer coming to save your football program – and he did recently admit it would be a dream job, fueling speculation – you can forget it.
Meyer, who has led the Gators to two national titles in the past three years and whose team is the WagerWeb.com favorite this year again, said Saturday at a golf event that “I’m not going to Notre Dame. Ever,” according to reports.
It’s thought Meyer was likely responding to a column written by radio personality/columnist Paul Finebaum in the Mobile (Ala.) Press-Register that Meyer would leave for Notre Dame after the 2009 season.
Meyer also said in May he’s not interested in Charlie Weis’ job after South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier refueled the Urban-to-Notre-Dame rumors on Finebaum’s radio show.
“I’m going to be the coach at Florida for a long time, as long as they want me,” Meyer told the golfers on Saturday.
Notre Dame was hoping to lure Meyer, a former Irish assistant, from Utah before the Gators won his services, prompting the Irish to hire Charlie Weis, who probably faces a make-or-break season after the team went 6-6 last year, although Notre Dame finally ended that record bowl losing streak.
Rival recruiters in the SEC reportedly are often telling kids that Meyer is headed to Notre Dame eventually, but negative recruiting is nothing new.
Frankly, Meyer would be crazy to leave Gainesville, where he has one of the three best jobs in college football right now (I would argue Texas and Southern Cal are the others). Meyer has an incredible pool of talent from which to recruit in Florida, excellent facilities, great weather and probably will soon be getting a raise to be the highest-paid coach in the SEC if not the country.
At Notre Dame, you have ridiculous expectations, lousy weather, not many girls on campus (something recruits definitely care about) and stricter admission standards.
Of course, Meyer also works in a conference where Alabama coach Nick Saban once said “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach!” So take everything with a grain of salt.
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