The Brain tries to defend his boy Pope Urban

My The Official Visit, presented by Score Atlanta (which can be heard on Sports Radio 790 The Zone) co-host Scott "The Brain" Janovitz and I go round and round on Urban Meyer quite often, seeing as how he is a Florida grad and I'm a Georgia grad. Last Tuesday we got into an argument during one of the commercial breaks that spilled onto the air on the fact that Alabama Coach Nick Saban is CLEARLY the better coach than Urban and CMR comes in at No.3 or 4 in the pecking order.
Scott took issue with my saying this and he tried to break down the merits of Pope Urban...

On Saturday, Florida football coach Urban Meyer turns 46.

Already, the man has accomplished quite a bit.

In fact, you could say he's a legend.

Not an urban one, but a real one.

To date, Meyer is 96-18 as a head coach and has produced five 10-win seasons, two Southeastern Conference titles and, of course, two national championships. Meyer's .851 winning percentage in Gainesville is the best in school history and his .800 winning percent in the SEC tops everyone who spent five or more years in the league.


Last December, the Sporting News and Sports Illustrated named Meyer college football's coach of the decade.

And here's what is scary: Because he's still relatively young in his profession, Meyer just might only be getting started.

How does he stack up against other noteworthy coaches?

Well, at age 46 …

-Robert Cleckler "Bobby" Bowden was coaching West Virginia to a 9-3 record and spot in the Peach Bowl. He began a legendary stint at Florida State a season later (1976) and had his only losing season in Tallahassee that fall.

-Paul "Bear" Bryant was in his second season (1959) at Alabama. He had one SEC title to his credit, but that had come at Kentucky in 1950. His 1956 Texas A&M squad went 9-0-1, but no team of his had finished ranked higher than fifth.

-Doug Dickey completed his ninth and final season as Gators coach. He went 4-7, moving his UF record to 58-43-2. Dickey had won two SEC titles -- but both occurred while he was head coach at Tennessee.

-Legendary Georgia coach Vince Dooley had won three SEC titles (1966, '68 and' 76). His first and only national title didn't come until 1980, when he was 48. Before turning 46, he was 8-6-1 against Florida.

-Lou Holtz had yet to win a national title and was in his last of seven seasons at Arkansas (1983). A few days before his 46th birthday, he defeated Florida in the now-defunct Bluebonnet Bowl.

-Eddie Robinson, the king of historically black college football, was in his 23rd season as coach at Grambling (1965). He led the program until 1997 and won 408 games.

-Joe Paterno was in his seventh season (1972) at the helm of the Penn State Nittany Lions. Although he already had two unbeaten and untied teams, both finished No. 2 in the AP rankings. Paterno would not win his first national title until he was 56.

-Nick Saban was in his third season as head coach at Michigan State (1997). The Spartans went 7-5 that fall. Up to then, Saban's best season was at Toledo in 1990, when he went 9-2. He also had spent time as defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns.

-Steve Spurrier had completed only one season (1990) as Gators coach. He went 9-2.

I told him that he forgot....

-at the age of 45 he faked a heart attack-ish situation in order to secure ESPN sympathy after Saban took his butt to school in the SEC Championship game. The fake heart attack (which turned out to be acid reflux) also helped in recruiting.


-at the age of 45 he threatened to get a beat writer fired because the beat writer had the audacity to do his job


-at the age of 44 he railed on and on about sportsmanship and how Georgia had zero and then kicked a field goal with under one minute to play when his team was ALREADY leading by 20. He also called a few timeouts against Georgia as time wound down, but HEY, he DOES love sportsmanship.


-at the age of 45 he retired...for two days, then went back on his word to his children by returning to work.


REAL GREAT GUY. A VERY STRONG LEADER OF YOUNG MEN.
If things are going great, rub it in. If someone beats you, come up with an excuse and then do whatever you need to do to get back into the news, even faking a life-threatening illness if need be!