National Media Screws Up Kiffin-Meyer Mess Again

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Gotta tell you… I’m getting a little tired of having to write Urban Meyer vs. Lane Kiffin updates everyday.  At least this one has more to do with the media than the coaches.

In case you missed one or all of ESPN’s string of gameshow-like argument shows (“First Take,” “Around The Horn,” “Pardon The Interruption,” etc), the war of words between the coaches was a hot topic yesterday.

Unfortunately, the talking heads were only 50% correct.  Just as they were only 50% correct last week.



As we wrote during the build-up to Florida-Tennessee, Kiffin was the national media’s whipping boy.  Two things were mentioned:

1)  He said UT players would be singing Rocky Top all night long after the Vols beat Florida.

2)  He said Meyer had cheated.

Well, the “Meyer cheated” comments deserved ridicule.  Those comments were made in a wide open setting with television cameras right in the coach’s face.  He knew his words would get out.  And his accusations were wrong.

BUT… his “sing Rocky Top” quote was taken out of context.  The coach followed the line up by saying that his athletic director told him to say that and even added, “okay Urban?” to make it obvious that he was joking.

National talking heads — who knew only a thumbnail’s worth of information on the story — never referenced that last line and their producers never aired the last part of that clip.  That was wrong.

But now the shoe’s on the other foot.



Two things were mentioned repeatedly by the national wonks yesterday, as they trashed Meyer for looking petty:

1)  Meyer was complaining about his team having the flu.

2)  He also said that Kiffin wasn’t playing to win.

The “they didn’t play to win” remark was a dumb thing to say.  Obviously, Meyer didn’t like the national spin that UT had surprised his Gators with a tough fight, so he complained that they didn’t attack enough.

But the people laughing about his comments regarding the flu don’t have a clue about what’s going on in the college football world.  From their chortles — “He’s talking about the flu!” — you can tell they have no idea that Joe Cox has looked like a different player since he recovered from the flu.  And they didn’t seem to know that Ole Miss was down 30 players at practice last week, either.



The problem with these national shows is that the people ON the shows can’t possibly know everything there is to know about 15 to 30 topics per day.  So when they argue so robustly with one another and pound home their points, they often bat about 50/50.

As they have the last two weeks with Kiffin and Meyer.

Kiffin was wrong to publicly accuse another coach of cheating.  That’s never acceptable.  Got a problem?  Call the league office. 

But Kiffin’s “Rocky Top” plans were very clearly a joke.

Meyer was wrong to whine about Tennessee trying to keep last Saturday’s game close.  That’s like a heavyweight champion complaining that his smaller opponent wouldn’t engage in a middle-of-the-ring slugfest.

But Meyer’s worries about the flu — and his admission that three key Gators had it on Saturday — were absolutely legitimate.  In fact, six Gators were held out of practice yesterday due to the bug.

Too bad the talking heads never know more than half the story.