UF to change name to Florida Football Correctionial Facility and University

[sarge87]

Continuing the University of Florida football team's long tradition of thuggery since the days the "Ole Football Coach" Steve Spurrier paced the sidelines, through the scandals of the Ron Zook years, Urban Meyer is not going to be outdone.

 

GAINESVILLE - Florida redshirt freshman defensive tackle Gary Brown, considered the nation's No. 2 recruit at his position by ESPN and Scout.com last February, was released from Alachua County jail on Monday morning on his own recognizance after being arrested Sunday for an incident at a party.

 

According to the arrest report, Brown struck one woman in the face and scratched a second. It is the 27th arrest involving a Florida football player since Urban Meyer became UF's head coach in 2005.

 

Meyer is currently taking a leave from his coaching duties to concentrate on his health but Florida spokesman Steve McClain confirmed that the former Greensboro West Gadsden star has been suspended from team activities. Spring practice begins on March 17.

 

Brown, who did not play last season, was one of the nation's top recruits a year ago. He turned down Florida State, Miami and Notre Dame among others to sign with the Gators.

 

The party took place at The Crossing at Santa Fe apartments on NW 83rd Street in Gainesville. Neither woman required medical attention, according to the police report.

 

Florida defensive end Carlos Dunlap recently pleaded guilty to a DUI charge from an arrest in December and defensive back Wondy Pierre-Louis was also arrested in January for an incident involving his girlfriend. Pierre-Louis, however, may not face charges from the state following its current investigation.

 

Source: Tampa Bay Online

This from CBS.com columnist Gregg Doyel who is a UF graduate.....from last summer....

Something like this happens at Penn State or Florida State, and I laugh. This happens at Tennessee, and I laugh. At Southern California, and I laugh.

 

But this happens at the University of Florida, not just a school, but my school, and I don't laugh. I seethe.

 

Because this isn't funny. This is infuriating, bordering on insanity. This is a football program that has had 24 players arrested -- that's an entire recruiting class -- in Urban Meyer's four years as coach. This week cornerback Janoris Jenkins became No. 24 with a flourish, getting Tasered and then showing enormous heart and toughness and criminality by rising from the Taser's electric current and running away from cops.

 

This has to stop. And it has to stop now. Florida has won two national championships in four years under Meyer, but that's not enough to justify 24 arrests in those same four years. Four titles in four years wouldn't justify 24 arrests. Five titles in four years wouldn't do it. It can't be done. There is no justifying something like this.

 

And for me, for a change, this is personal. The typical reader e-mail, after a story like the above link on Tennessee's Lane Kiffin, says something like this:

 

Dude, what did Lane Kiffin do to you? You write like it's personal or something.

 

Wrong. Kiffin did nothing to me, and that wasn't personal. Some of the things he has done, like some of the things at Penn State or Florida State or USC, are outrageous -- and so I write with outrage. But it's not personal. It's never personal.

 

But this story? About Florida? This is personal.

 

My school.

 

Even as a Florida graduate, class of 1992, I don't ask much of the Gators on the field. Win a national title or not, I don't care. Really. Don't care. Recruit All-Americans or don't. Go to bowl games or not. That stuff doesn't reflect on me. I can't contribute to it, so I don't get worked up.

 

But this stuff reflects on me. Twenty-four arrests in four years? That reflects on me, and on every Florida alumnus out there. I'm getting worked up for a change, because -- stupidly -- I think I can contribute to this. To stopping this. Maybe.

 

Looking the other way won't do it. Urban Meyer has already tried that. Meyer has come down harder on Auburn and Tennessee this offseason than he has on his own rogue program. Florida fans will tell you he hasn't looked the other way. They'll say Meyer has brought in guest speakers to talk to his team, and that he himself has talked to his team. He has probably made them run extra wind sprints, that animal.

 

But he hasn't really done anything. He certainly hasn't done enough to stop this nonsense. And if Meyer won't take care of business on his own, maybe the sound of angry voices -- like mine, and more people like me -- will shake him up.

 

More....

 

Questions as to why the national media haven't picked up on this.......from last summer....

 

There is no question Urban Meyer made the right decision when he spurned Notre Dame, his self-professed "dream job," four years ago to become football coach at Florida.

 

Better weather, better access to better players, better chance to win. Meyer's Gators have won two of the last three BCS national titles. Notre Dame hasn't won a title since 1988.

 

But ask yourself this: Had Meyer taken the Notre Dame job, would he still be there if 24 Irish players had been arrested under his watch?

 

These are curious times in Gainesville. The glow of last January's national title win over Oklahoma still glistens. The inspiring post-game speech quarterback Tim Tebow made after last year's lone loss to Mississippi has become to Florida lore almost what Rockne's "Win One for the Gipper" yarn is to Notre Dame. Tebow's words have been immortalized on a plaque that now hangs outside the football complex.

 

Florida will enter the 2009 season as prohibitive favorites to repeat as national champions.

 

Yet the program's reputation has taken a serious hit in the vacuum of this off-season. Some would say: It's about time. Fans in South Florida wonder how come Sports Illustrated wanted the "bandit" Miami football program shut down in the 1980s but no one makes nary a peep about Florida.

 

Has Meyer gotten a free pass? If so, he may be approaching the toll booth. Florida's 24th football arrest in four years -- cornerback Janoris Jenkins was the latest, complete with police Taser -- has set off a media blowback. Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com, a Florida graduate, eviscerated his alma mater in a recent online column -- a must-read for all Florida State and Miami fans.

 

"There is no justifying something like this," Doyel wrote.

 

Doyel says Meyer and Tebow, the leaders of this franchise, need to take immediate action.

 

Other outlets are weighing in, too. Bleacher Report wants to know if Florida is the new Thug U.

 

"Where's the public outcry?" Bleacher Report wrote. "Where is the media outrage?"

 

Dave Hyde, sports columnist for the Sun-Sentinel, even suggested that Meyer turn to Miami Coach Randy Shannon for advice on how to clean up the program. Florida ask Miami for help? Ouch. Now there's some role reversal.

 

A lot of championship teams go through this. Fact: winners are scrutinized more than losers. And maybe, until now, Meyer has gotten off too easy..

 

Source: LA Timesblogs

Media darlings such as Mack Brown, Urban Meyer, and Pete Carroll will never get the scrutiny they deserve by the major networks, when they are so heavily invested in TV contracts. The PR disaster of something like this played over and over would not reflect well on the bottom line, when said networks use those teams as an anchor for their football packages.

[Manhattan]

What a bunch of gays.