Lane Kiffin, Urban Meyer Round Two
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Read the full column here.
Just when you thought Saturday's Florida-Tennessee game would end the Urban Meyer-Lane Kiffin feud for a few months, the coaches couldn't leave well-enough alone.
Asked about Tennessee's game plan, Meyer responded: "When I saw them start handing the ball off, you didn't feel like they were going after the win. They wanted to shorten the game. I remember looking out there and there's 10 minutes left in the game and there's no no-huddle, they are down, I think it was 23-6, and [there's no] urgency."
Meyer then said that his team didn't play as well as anticipated because several players had the flu.
Cue Lane Kiffin.
"This offseason the commissioner made a big deal of renewing vows in terms of what we say about other teams and other players," the Tennesee coach said. "Obviously Urban feels he doesn't need to follow that. We won't say anything else."
After saying he would say nothing else, Kiffin couldn't help himself when asked about whether he was concerned about his team catching the flu. "We'll wait and see, and after we're not excited about our performance we'll tell you that everybody was sick."
Somewhere SEC commissioner Mike Slive is treating himself with the vapors. I picture Slive, who looks vaguely like a vampire who has been out in the daylight too long, lying with cold compresses placed on his face and hands while an underling waves an oversized fan, probably a giant peacock feather, as he rests on a settee.
"Are they at it again?" Slive asks tremulously.
"Yes, commissioner, this time it's about the flu."
"Dear Lord, the flu? Has neither man no decency? Fetch me my quill and ink."
Nope, commissioner, no matter what you do, the trash talk is not ending anytime soon. Meyer went on to suggest that his team wasn't trying to win the game by an impressive margin, and Kiffin said he'd never accuse one team of trying not to to win and that he wished both teams played more than once a year because he'd like another crack at the Gators.
But here's the real surprise that's underlying all of these stories from Saturday. Kiffin had a smarter gameplan than Urban Meyer and I think that surprised Meyer. For all his bluster and big talk, Kiffin's game plan was remarkably conservative -- run the ball on offense and take away Florida's potential for big plays on defense. In so doing, Kiffin limited his team's weaknesses while restricting the other team's strengths. The only real way Tennessee could win this game was by scoring off Gator mistakes. And what's the best way to create mistakes? Make the opposing team run as many plays as possible against the best unit of your team, the Vol defense. If this game was a shoot-out, only one team would have been firing their weapon. And that team wouldn't have been Tennessee.
This brings up an interesting dichotomy, Kiffin's undisciplined off-field comments belie a team that is actually very disciplined and focused on game details. The upshot of Kiffin's gameplan was that Tennessee controlled how Saturday's game was played for the first time in five years.
I think that surprised Meyer. I really do.
And ultimately all the continued media attention has a rattled Meyer embracing a desert island fantasy. Meyer actually said this:
"If there's a way to do this, let's go move the Florida Gators to a deserted island somewhere and let's go play football and not worry about all this nonsense and just go play the game," Meyer said. "I've never seen anything like it this past week. You just try to shelter them and make sure they focus on what's important and not this silly nonsense."
This might be my favorite Meyer quote ever. Let's deconstruct this quote. What Urban wants:
A.) His team on a deserted island somewhere
B.) Where they can play football -- presumably against themselves since the island is deserted
C.) On the island they would not have to "worry about this nonsense," and ...
D.) Could just go play the game. Off the deserted island or on the deserted island?
Fantasy quotes like this confirm that if nothing else, Kiffin is in Meyer's head. How so? You've got a two-time defending national champion coach with the No. 1 team in the country, the best player in the country at quarterback, and he's wishing his team would get less attention.
And who's frustrating him? A guy with a lifetime head coaching record of 6-17.
Seriously, how ridiculous is this?
Somehow Kiffin has hit at Meyer's vulnerability: He doesn't like to be questioned about anything. We've seen this before. Remember when Shane Matthews questioned Meyer's play-calling and the Florida threatened to banish him from all things Gator? Now Meyer's just beaten Tennessee by 10 points and Papa Smirk Kiffin has got him all flustered again. You get the feeling that Meyer's just one step away from publicly announcing that he will never mention Kiffin's name again.
Read the rest here, including Urban's 9 excuses for poor performances in later games. Labels: lane kiffin urban meyer part two claynation
Posted by Clay Travis at 9:52 PM
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