The media is reporting Urban Meyer is most likely going to be the next Head Coach for The Ohio State Buckeyes next season. However, Meyer has been denying the reports and saying no such thing has happened. Do you think he is telling the truth or 

Brian Johnson

Since Coach Meyer has arrived at UF, he has brought 2 championships and a Hesiman trophy, but his players have also been arrested on 30 occasions. Has the coach let the Florida Gator program run out of control?

Brian Johnson

Urban Meyer has won at every school he has ever coached at in college football. He began his career as head coach at Bowling Green. He immediately turned the Falcons around by going to a bowl in both his two seasons and had a total record of 17-6. 

Brian Johnson

The Florida Gators were finally able to emerge from their offensive slump as Freshman Trey Burton took over their game against Kentucky and scored an SEC record of 6 Touchdowns over the passed weekend. The Gators had struggled offensively in their first three games of the season, something unprecedented and unexpected in the Urban Meyer Era. However, it seems as though they may have resolved their offensive struggles just in time as they go into Tuscaloosa to take on the Tide this Saturday. It will mark the first game the Gators enter as underdogs since 2007.

Alabama, on the otherhand, did not seem as dominant as they had in the first three weeks of the season against the Arkansas Razorbacks. If Ryan Mallett did not throw two ill-advised interceptions when the Hogs had the lead with less than six minutes to go, then Alabama may have lost its first regular season game in 3 years. Ironically, the last time they lost in the regular season was to Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators. Mallett seemed to be able to exploit Bama's young DB's for much of the game, but they were able to pull it together when it mattered the most.

Who will win this weekend? Will Trey Burton be able to take over the game against Alabama and go Touchdown Crazy, or will Mark Ingram and the Tide wear out the Florida D and continue their regular season winning streak?

Brian Johnson

After Coach Urban Meyer abruptly retired after the 2010 college football season, the Florida Gators hired coach Will Muschamp, the defensive coordinator for the Texas Longhorns, to replace him. Muschamp hired Charlie Weis to be the offensive coordinator and bring a pro-style offense to Florida. He hired Dan Quin to be the defensive coordinator.

Brian Johnson

Since going 13-1 and winning the Sugar Bowl in 2009, the Florida Gators have fallen off the national radar in college football. In 2010, the Gators were 8-5 under Coach Urban Meyer. Coach Meyer retired in the off-season and Florida hired Will Muschamp to replace him.

Brian Johnson

Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is a New Zealand-born Australian, country music singer, songwriter and guitarist whose commercial success has been mainly in the United States and Australia. Urban was born in New Zealand and began his career in Australia at an early age. In 1991, he released a self-titled debut album, and charted four singles in Australia before moving to the United States in 1992. Eventually, Urban found work as a session guitarist before starting a band known as The Ranch, which recorded one studio album on Capitol Records and charted two singles on the Billboard country charts.

WhatsYourVote .info

I get the reasons. I get the logic. I get the allure of suggesting that he would go to OSU and deal Gator fans a big blow to the ego that would make for great dramatic theater.

But it just isn’t going to happen. That movie requires the suspension of too much reasonable disbelief. Urban Meyer will go into the College Football Hall of Fame in a few years wearing Florida Gator gear.

Folks in the sports media, even close to home in the state papers, have already penciled him in as the opening day coach in Columbus in 2012. But they are ignoring so many factors that weigh in much heavier than the simple Ohio connection. I have six good reasons—one for every year he spent at UF—why he won’t be taking the Ohio State head coaching position in 2012 or any other year:

1) Coach, Heal Thyself: Urban’s health problem has not gone away, and it will not go away. He may feel a lot better absent the stress and pressure of the UF cooker, but he knows those are false positives. He knows because when he stepped away in the spring of 2010, and then stayed away physically and mentally for the first half of the 2010 season, he felt that big jump in health satisfaction.

Well when he had to reassert himself into the trenches after the MSU debacle last season, his health problems kicked right back up again, along with the stress and pressure levels. He can only coach one way, and that way will eventually kill him at a big time program like UF.

People have been fond of repeating the Meyer admission that there were only three jobs over which Shelley Meyer (who loves it in Gainesville and is not at all fond of the weather up north) did not have veto power: Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State. Well he did not say that in 2010—he said that in 2004.

An awful lot has happened since then, from health issues to once-in-a-lifetime players passing through, to building a football dynasty to call his own. He chose Florida over the No. 1 school on that No-Veto list, and took it as far and as high as it could go. If he ever goes back to coaching, it will be in a low-pressure position at a lower division or small conference school.

2) Shiny, Happy People Holding Hands: Urban is happy where he is. He is having a ball at ESPN, he is doing a very good job and has no pressure or stress put upon him whatsoever. It isn’t even very hard—he just sits at the desk or visits his old coaching friends and peers and talks about stuff that is first nature to him.

His show prep is minimal as a matter of course. Not only that, but his broadcast peers largely have no pressure on them (relative to that which is put on a head football coach, that is) and are pretty happy with their jobs.

It's a stark contrast to the coaching profession, where everyone is under the microscope and everyone is fighting for their survival every day, on the field, in the media and in the ears of all the high school recruits. And there are no Lane Kiffin jackals or Mike Bianchi jokers bad mouthing him to or in the press every other day.

3) Ti-i-i-ime Is On My Side, Yes It Is: Despite sneers from his detractors – mostly inside GatorNation—his job at ESPN has afforded him a ton of new time to spend with his family. The time he spends on his job at ESPN is much, much smaller than the 24/7/365 job as head coach at one of the two or three biggest, highest-pressured and media-covered programs in all of college sports.

When he left in December, he said he wanted to spend more time with his family, not 24 hours a day of every day with them; he resigned—he didn’t retire.

4) The Only Way To Go Is Down: This takes “replacing the legend” to a whole new level. Tressel resigned in disgrace and he is still being held up by the OSU fans as an immortal. They blame the players for his demise—in fact, he gets even more clout with the fans for what they falsely think was his falling on his sword for his kids (as opposed to the truth of 10 years of calculated cheating).

The Ohio State job is one of those other two or three highest-pressure, media-covered jobs in all of college sports. What’s more, he’d be looked at as the prodigal son coming home to save the program. What’s even bigger than that is that he did at Florida what no coach has done in many decades without being busted later for massive cheating: bag two natties in three years.

This is much different than when Steve Spurrier came home to UF to save the UF program—he had “only” won an ACC title at Duke and done well in the USFL (and he wasn’t replacing a beloved legend who won the school’s first national title in 30 years).

In fact, because of the way Urban’s Gators thrashed OSU in the national title game after the 2006 season, from the Ohio State fan’s perspective, Urban owes them a national title just to get the scales back to even. Buckeye Nation HATES Meyer—he’s the home-grown kid from Cincy who started coaching at OSU but then left the family, only to return and crush them underfoot and stomp on their graves with another program.

While many would put the past aside on the chance that Urban can catch lightning in a bottle in Columbus, many will not forgive him and would just be waiting for him to fail so they could jump on him again. If Urban went to OSU and failed to rip off two titles in his first four years like at UF and maybe throw a Heisman Trophy in the mix, he will be annihilated by the fans.

5) You’re Going To Feel a Slight Sting…and Then a Nuclear Explosion: OSU is about to get blasted by the NCAA as hard as anyone has since Florida’s 1980s sanctions, and perhaps even worse. Bank on that.

The NCAA just pounded fellow bell cow USC, and the OSU scandals make the USC misdeeds look like J-walking. It's going to have to officially change its name to “An Ohio State University.”

Meyer is not going to put his health, family peace, reputation and good name on the line to step into a place where it is 100 percent guaranteed by scholarship restrictions alone that he can’t win big for at least three or four years. The only way he would take over at OSU is AFTER those sanctions were behind them and OSU’s version of Ron Zook or Lane Kiffin has run his course and been dismissed.

Urban will be in his 50s by then, and at least four years removed from the coaching profession on any level (and his last season was a complete disaster). He will be at least four years deep into his career as a media personality, and will probably expand his role to be a well-established and revered color commentator at all the big games every week in college football.

Both Meyer and OSU would be reaching deep to think that his value as a head coach would be worth coming out of retirement. Especially to rebuild another program. Urban would only come back then (or now) to a situation where he would have low pressure and could win right away.

At OSU, that’s not possible in 2012, and it won’t be possible in 2014/2015 when he would take over for whoever is hired to be the Timothy Dalton of the Buckeye coaching chain (consider Luke Fickell its George Lazenby).

6) …And I Can’t Stands No More!: He is flat-out fed up with the cheating in college football. The SEC is no doubt the worst conference in the country for cheating, but going to the Big 10+2 is no cure for lawlessness.

It wore him down just as the stress, pressure and grind of the big fishbowl program did. When he talks about it on ESPN, you can hear the disgust dripping from his tongue as he discusses it. And he knows that it does not just go for football, but all sports, especially men’s basketball.

I get the distinct feeling that if he ever goes back to a major college program, I firmly believe it will be as Athletics Director, where he can work to have a big impact not only on all the sports at his school, but also across the entire conference and the NCAA overall, which is the kind of reach and influence the big ADs have.

So as I said, write it down. I'm on record. If I'm wrong, you can say you told me so. But as Don Henley sang on "Victim of Love," I could be wrong, but I'm not....no I'm not.

PD is a principle writer at GatorGurus.com

Read more Florida Gators Football news on BleacherReport.com

Jeff Evans

Luke Fickell is my guy. He should be your guy, too, Bucknuts. Ohio State's post-Tressel, Hazmat expert -- you can also call him interim coach -- scored the program's first points of the season this week when he admitted to not taking Terrelle Pryor's calls.

After watching Fickell's presser on Monday, I'm all in. You want discipline? You start by shunning the entitled rogue who put the program in this bind.

You want a proven coach? That's going to be a problem. Fickell didn't get the gig because of his experience. He was a gutty nose guard who started 50 career games for the Buckeyes. In nine seasons on the staff -- all on defense -- he has been a solid, loyal soldier, a co-defensive coordinator since 2005.

Fickell, 37, got the job because of his youth and his upside. Unless there are some incriminating emails somewhere we don't know about, Fickell should be able to get Ohio State to 9-3. At least.

That's where it gets interesting. Fickell will get the permanent position because few of substance will want it. At least it's trending that way. If, as expected, the NCAA brings the hammer, it just won't be that good of a job. Certainly not good enough for Urban Meyer, or Gary Patterson or Bo Pelini or most of the other go-to names who have surfaced.

Hold onto your coolers, Horseshoers. That's not to say Ohio State isn't a good job. During times of NCAA peace, it is one of the top five in the country. But there is the Ohio State of today and the Ohio State of a few months from now, when the NCAA issues its verdict.

"I will take the shot," Fickell said, "any way I can."

This is more reasoned analysis than prediction: He'll get the job because Ohio State needs stability. He'll get it because he's not likely to run the program into the ground. The support system surrounding him is still excellent.

Fickell will get it because he is willing to become the next Ron Zook, the Florida version who followed Steve Spurrier. He'll get it because the other guys won't want it. They are accomplished coaches who want to win, not fix.

Put in terms that Pryor could understand, the current Ohio State is a late model Nissan 350Z -- a few nicks but capable of high speeds -- the future Ohio State is a beat-up, high-mileage Hyundai Sonata leaking oil.

Which would you want to drive off the lot?

Ask yourself: Does Meyer want to re-enter the game facing a postseason ban and the loss of multiple scholarships? Does Patterson want to leave a comfortable cocoon in Fort Worth where he can chase BCS bowls and rule the Big East the same way he did the Mountain West?

Even Pelini, a Youngstown guy, would have to think twice about leaving Nebraska. Mark Dantonio? Maybe. Jon Gruden? Probably. But what job isn't Gruden interested in after three years out of the NFL and 20 years removed from a college job?

The answers will emerge from a less-than-amused NCAA infractions committee, possibly as soon as the 2011 season. Forget about limiting the wrongdoing to the Buckeye Five having their hands out. Recent developments suggest a culture of cheating going back years.

Sports Illustrated asserted that at least 28 players received extra benefits from one tattoo dealer or another. Nine of those, the magazine said, were players on the current team. CBSSports.com's Bryan Fischer reported that the Big Ten and Ohio State can't get their stories straight. ESPN quoted an anonymous former friend of the quarterback that Pryor received between $20,000 and $40,000 in return for gear and his signature.

The NCAA could put off that Aug. 12 infractions committee hearing to consider these new allegations, extending the agony. Already in line for enhanced penalties due to its status as a repeat violator, Ohio State could also have the dreaded "lack of institutional control" label slapped on it.

WWUMD -- What would Urban Meyer want to do with all that?

Or Gary Patterson?

Or Bo Pelini?

Ohio State football isn't going away. In fact, it is among the few hit with major penalties that could rebound relatively quickly. It's just not likely to get its man.

That makes Fickell the man.

Jeff Evans

Last December, Urban Meyer resigned from Florida, this time for good, the victim of apparent burnout.

On Memorial Day, the Ohio State scandal finally pierced Jim Tressel. He was forced to resign.

All national championship coaches. All seemingly made men. Yet uneasy lie the heads who have worn the crown.

“I think the business of college sports has been tough for a long time,” said Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione.

Joe C. is lucky. No, not lucky. Castiglione made his own luck. He hired Bob Stoops in December 1998. Castiglione still has his football coach. Still has his national-title winning coach.

Only six coaches remain at schools where they have won titles: Stoops, Texas' Mack Brown, Penn State's ageless Joe Paterno and three Southeastern Conference coaches who have won in the last four years: Auburn's Gene Chizik, Alabama's Nick Saban and LSU's Les Miles.

Only seven current major-college coaches were hired for their post in the 1900s: Stoops, Brown, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz (1999), Fresno State's Pat Hill (1997), Troy's Larry Blakeney (1991), Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer (1987) and Paterno (1966).

College football coaching provides power, fame and untold riches. It also will spit you up and chew you out.

“I don't know what to say about that,” Stoops said when asked about the demise of some of his championship colleagues. “Other than I think it's fair to say, how difficult it is to manage everything that comes our way.

“To manage it the right way, to manage it successfully, to manage it whatever way you want to put it.”

Coaches have to win at a high level, or they're out the door, as elite coaches like Phil Fulmer, Larry Coker and Tommy Tuberville learned. Plus, coaches must stay one step ahead of scandal that can descend like locusts. Cast out the plague quickly, or at least don't cover it up. Such failures eventually cost Carroll and Tressel.

“It's just become more and more challenging,” Castiglione said. “The idea that this is a tough business is correct. Becoming more difficult all the time. It's a challenge for all involved. It's really tough right now.”

More parity among teams. More scrutiny, with the Internet and social networking providing a labyrinth of information that can derail a program. More outside influences as the money associated with college and pro football grows and grows.

“It's hard,” Stoops said of running a program. “And there are a lot of obstacles in your way to have success, to manage it appropriately, to keep it going.”

Stoops has kept it going. Seven Big 12 championships in 12 years. One NCAA rules skirmish, which was dealt with promptly (Rhett Bomar) and looking back was but a blip on Sooner radar.

Stoops stands now with Saban as college football's most successful coaches. Two years ago, they comprised a top five along with Tressel, Meyer and Carroll.

Now only Stoops and Saban are left.

“Any individual, each may have their own story, their own approach that leads to longevity,” Castiglione said. “I can't think of anybody I know gets caught up in assuming too much. As much as trying to have longevity, doing the right thing, we know we're in a very volatile business.”

Nothing is assured this side of Penn State's Happy Valley. Slumps and scandal can come. Coaches grow restless. Fan bases do the same. Breaking up is hard to do but not impossible.

No assurances that Stoops will be at the Sooner helm another dozen years. But he's there now, standing atop his profession.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@opubco.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.

Jeff Evans

Posted by Adam Jacobi

(Lest this all comes across as purely a defense of Rich Rodriguez on the grounds that he too is now part of the CBS Sports family, the scenario of former Florida coach Urban Meyer being hired by ESPN fits Mushnick's argument quite nicely too, so feel free to replace "Rich Rodriguez" with "Urban Meyer" and "West Virginia" with "Florida" when necessary.)

Permit me, if you will, to not take Phil Mushnick's latest diatribe seriously. In it, Mushnick (a columnist for the New York Post, which, yeah) excoriates the CBS Sports Network for hiring former Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez, noting that Rich Rodriguez recruited Adam Jones and Chris Henry at West Virginia. If that seems like a peculiarly weak argument, well, let's have Mushnick make it himself:

The same Rich Rodriguez who regularly recruited and indulged criminals and assorted bad boys as the head coach at West Virginia and then Michigan?

Yeah, that one.

Pacman Jones and the late Chris Henry, for example, starred for Rodriguez at WVU. Both would accumulate rap sheets as thick as playbooks. But such players helped land Rodriguez the gig at Michigan, where the stadium they call "The Big House," began to take on the other meaning.

For one, Michigan's three years under Rich Rodriguez weren't characterized at all by excessive crime, so while the "Big House" crack would seem clever to someone operating with no knowledge of the situation, it's so transparently false that it doesn't even make sense. Lame jokes aside, Chris Henry and Adam Jones did accumulate substantial criminal records... as NFL players. While at WVU, Jones received probation for one fight, and Henry's worst transgressions were limited to unsportsmanlike behavior on the field. Hardly the stuff of rap sheet legend.

As for the other "criminals and assorted bad boys" that Rodriguez "regularly recruited," what is Mushnick even talking about? Sure, what Pat White and Steve Slaton did to Georgia's defense in the 2006 Sugar Bowl ought to be illegal, but this notion that Rodriguez turned Morgantown into Compton, West Virginia is basically a figment of Mushnick's imagination and nothing more.

Mushnick then bizarrely claims that -- again, this is a quote -- "few college presidents, ADs or head coaches could beat racketeering indictments," then offers no evidence before moving on. As Wikipedia would say, [citation needed].

The rest of his argument is spent on basically making the case that there should be no such thing as college athletics at all; it's the only conclusion possible when Mushnick conjures up the bogeyman specter of big-time athletes having "no other business enrolled in the college" while ignoring the 939 APR (essentially, a student-athlete retention rate of at least 94%; here's how it's calculated) Rodriguez left West Virginia with in the spring of 2008. That's essentially the average across the NCAA, and it's considerably higher than the general student retention rate in higher education, where over 40% of incoming students fail to graduate. Now, there's a difference between remaining academically eligible year-by-year and actually graduating, but by and large, NCAA student-athletes seem to be outperforming their fellow students in the classroom. Not bad for a bunch of thugs.

Mushnick's column is a perfect encapsulation of low-information stereotypes of NCAA athletics. It is drive-by, tabloid moralizing. It has all the permanence, importance, and elegance of last night's dinner floating by in the sewer. It is, in the words of William Faulkner Shakespeare, a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.  

Jeff Evans

We’re urged to buy organic, all natural, and locally.  We do what we can, or we just do what we want.  My question is this.  Our world is changing.  This economy is changing (and it doesn’t seem for the better).  Do you believe that growing our own food - in any way each individual is capable of - can help better our country, our economy, and our plant?  Yes or no?  Could gardens, plant boxes, green houses, urban gardens, etc help us?

Megan Boyer

A well-established then 15-year-old supermodel sat for pics with a photographer infamous for his sexy style and has now brought litigation against him for a widely distributed spread-eagle shot of her, printed on tees sold by hipster-chic store Urban Outfitters. Get the skinny (model humor!) and decide who's right!

Casandra Armour

I recently posted a poll asking if individual gardening could actually help our country and our ecomony.  So far, every vote has been yes.  So I ask you this, will YOU have your own garden this year?  Do you have a garden every year?  Living in an apartment is no excuse either.  Plenty of city dwellers have their own miniature urban gardens on a window sill or by using a few indoor growing lights.  Please be honest.  This is all anonomous.  Will you have a garden this year?

Feel free to leave any comments.

Megan Boyer