Okay… we’re not beyond there being no chance Urban Meyer is the next head coach at Michigan State. This still incredibly early speculation is stemming from FOX Sports Radio host Bernie Fratto reporting that Meyer was in East Lansing this past week interviewing for the Spartans’ vacant head coaching job.
Fratto even doubled down when Brady Quinn gave a little pushback to the rumor…
What potentially makes this rumor even more intriguing is the fact that other reporters are picking up on this, notably Graham Couch of the Lansing State Journal.
Is Urban Meyer a dirtbag? Yeah, he absolutely is. But I hesitate to offer up any credibility to someone who’s going to automatically bring up Larry Nassar or Mel Tucker when it comes to any rumor or notion that Urban Meyer will become the next head coach of Michigan State. First off, Larry Nassar had nothing to do with the football program and quite frankly, the gymnastics program should’ve been nuked into oblivion for its handling of it. And as far as Mel Tucker goes, by all indications Michigan State actually did the right thing and followed the correct protocol when it came to handling that situation.
Then you have guys like Carron Phillips over at Deadspin writing this…
For one, Michigan State isn’t a “football school,” which is where Meyer has spent the majority of his collegiate career coaching i.e. Utah, Florida, and Ohio State. Two, Michigan State isn’t good enough for Meyer to consider them. Despite his morals, he’s a legendary college coach, and there has never been anything legendary about Michigan State football. And lastly — without getting into how laughable his short stint as an NFL coach was — let’s not forget what happened the last time Meyer was employed on a college campus. He was suspended and then fired retired due to “health reasons” as being a longtime domestic abuser protector is what ended his collegiate career — which is the last thing Michigan State needs in an overpaid coach immediately following an overpaid coach who was fired, with cause, for sexual harassment allegations against a rape survivor.
There’s no defending what Urban did at Ohio State when it comes to the allegations that he was protecting a domestic abuser on his staff. But the idea that Michigan State isn’t or at least can’t be a football school is laughable. I mean, Carron referenced Utah and Florida as being “Football Schools” in a way that puts them on another level that Michigan State will never be on. The school recently forked over $73M for a new football facility and has high-dollar boosters who handed over $80M to Mel Tucker.
Also don’t throw stones if you live in glass houses Carron. Not to mention, this isn’t a PR battle Michigan State was ever going to win or will never win under any circumstance. The media is always going to work the double standard between Michigan State and a school like Michigan which simply plays by a different set of rules that the local media fails to hold them accountable to.
