Honest question: Urban Meyer hate?

For me, it is not a strong hate, but I dislike the way he handled leaving Utah. We all knew he was going to bolt, so it wasn’t the disappointment that he left. It was the constant denial by him and Shelly literally right up until it was announced that p**sed me off. IOW’s, the complete lack of integrity. Otherwise, I think he is a hell of a coach who understands the game as well as anyone.

It seems like the hate really started when he had an assistant coach’s wife call him and tell him she was abused by him. She said he said all of the right things, but he didn’t fire him right away. My thinking was the man hadn’t been convicted of anything, so you’d have to wait to fire him right away. Once that broke, he was fired, and it seems people really started hating him from there.

I didn’t really have any reason to hate him, and I still don’t. I’m kind of disgusted with him, though, from when he went to the restaurant in Ohio while he was coaching the Jaguars and was rubbing up on that young woman while his wife was at home. Just my two cents.

I fully appreciate what Urban did for Utah while he was here. His contribution to Utah athletics can never be understated.

However, the dude is an absolute dumpster fire. Just a garbage person all around.

A story:

My wife was the Director of Student Employment at the U during Meyer’s tenure. She decided to hold an employment fair one February, but in the past they had traditionally been poorly attended by students. We brainstormed how to get more students out, and she finally decided to invite all the athletic teams out to sign autographs in the hopes it would draw more students.

She emailed every head coach of every Utah team. Only three even responded. One said no, Rich Manning (women’s soccer) said yes. And Urban Meyer responded: “We’ll be there.”

The day of the fair came around. The women’s soccer team was signing posters. About an hour after it started, in comes Urban Meyer and about 15 football players. “Sorry we’re late – it’s kind of a busy day for the football program.” That’s when it hit me: It was National Signing Day, one of the busiest days of the year for any college coach. My wife had inadvertently scheduled the career fair on Signing Day, which might explain why so few teams showed up. And yet, Urban Meyer (and 15 players) showed up at a lowly job fair on Signing Day because he said he would.

I get the dislike of UM given the circumstances of his departure, but I promise you: While he was here, he was a Utah Man through and through.

One thing I will always appreciate is Urban lit a fire under a once mostly apathetic student body and motivate them to pack the student section at Rice-Eccles. (Now if only someone could do that for basketball)

Yup, it has to do with his last few weeks at Utah and how he handled that situation. He flat out lied several times.

Im not sure why any Utah fan would dislike him, he left a job and went to another job to make significantly more money. He then won a national championship at his new job, which wouldn’t have happened at Utah.

Florida fans do not like him because they feel like he faked health problems to quit and then go coach at Ohio state.

He frankly sucked at coaching while at Ohio. There was also that scandal with him caught on video dancing with some girl (not his wife) at a bar after a game.

and then he sucked and had a lot of controversy coaching in Jacksonville.

So when you are looking for a new job or you are being recruited to another company, and you current manager ask you “are leaving”? Are you going to say yes? Of course not. You only give your notice once you have a signed contract. UM did the same thing but he is just on a bigger stage.

I think he also gets accused of running interference with various legal issues for Aaron Hernandez, some of which were pretty criminal.

Don’t dislike UM at all….Actually, I’m grateful to him for what he accomplished for our program & the impact he had on KW, which continues to benefit us & hopefully that is getting passed down to MS.

I doubt UM will ever consider coaching at Utah. But, if he does, we should definitely listen. That being said, I am all in on Scalley being our next head coach. He has learned from the best.

I’ve got nothin’ but LOVE for Urban Meyer!

I can not understand how mad people are at the way he left. I was 24 years old, and even I understood it when it happened. Of course I was hopeful he would stay, but why would he say he’s leaving or even not say he’s not leaving? Be serious. Everyone else would do the same thing and he wasn’t in the wrong for it.

imagine that you get to go into the way-back machine to 2002. Your football program has traditionally been below average in a below average conference. You’ve just fired a long-time coach who showed promise early but the program has stagnated under his watch. As far as national exposure, the only mention is when your school is mistaken for another one 45 minutes south or something scandalous happens.

then imagine that the football genie tells you that you can hire a guy who will only lose two games in the next two years before leaving to win 3 National titles elsewhere. Under his leadership, your football program will turn the world of college football on it’s ear by forcing itself into the conversations previously reserved for the traditional powers and media darlings. He will leave behind the structure that allows his replacement to have 20 years of unprecedented success including, but not limited to, moving up a level in conference affiliation, a National title (as recognized by multiple outlets), and recognition as one of the top programs in the country.

Every one of you jumps on that in December 2002. The state of the Utah football program in 2024 bears no resemblance to it’s current form without 2 years of Urban Meyer at the helm. So if you are happy with where it’s currently at, why lament the steps necessary to get it to this point?

We have sometimes had an assistant coach that is in the sunset phase of career, like Pease, that is less than full time. Dennis Erickson, I think, ended his career at Utah as an assistant coach with the RBs. I would love to see Meyer come to Utah to be a QB coach with whatever limits he would like on off season work. If we could get him to just be involved in recruiting QBs and WRs and mostly only work as he wanted. It would not give him the money that media would pay but it could give him access to the locker room and sidelines that he may miss. Likely he has the money he needs already and a part year job might attract him. 30% of Meyer’s time is greater than 100% of most any offensive coaches. Dial up a custom job for him and do the same for Andre Miller…

It’s really hard to be upset about his tenure at Utah. He brought so much not just to the football team, or just the school, he had a gigantic impact on the community’s relationship with the school. (I do think he benefitted that both Majerus and Mac primed the pump too)

In terms of some of the more personal traits, over time those demons have been exposed and so it’s not as much about hating that it’s finding it sad for him and his family.