Start Up The Wambulance, Urban Meyer Has Been Acquitted

That's right, Florida Gators Coach Urban Meyer has been found not guilty of murder...armed robbery...arson...making impermissible phone calls to a recruit and his girlfriend. Whew, with all of the hatred bubbling around the Interwebs regarding Coach Meyer it was difficult to track down exactly what he had done.

Yesterday, Coach Meyer was "cleared of any wrongdoing in the recruitment of junior college receiver Carl Moore and gymnast Maranda Smith". There had been allegations that Meyer helped recruit Smith, Carl Moore's girlfriend, to be a gymnast at Florida so that Moore would also want to head to Gainesville.

There was also speculation that Meyer had made improper contact through a phone call(though, not in the Chris Hansen sense) to Moore during Tim Tebow's acceptance of the Heisman Trophy. You know, something like "Hey Carl, don't worry about racking up stats, you're a receiver. Everyone knows that I always get the receivers the ball. Running backs are for blocking, and carrying Tebow's jockstrap(little known fact, it takes three of them and an offensive lineman to do it)."

While it is nice to see Meyer exonerated, I'm sure it will just increase the level of hostility from rival fanbases. I'm not sure of the exact moment when he became such a lightning rod for spite, though the perceived BCS title game lobbying and comments about seniors after the Michigan loss surely didn't detract from it. However, I think it mostly has to do with the success that he's achieved in the relatively short amount of time that he's been in Gainesville. People hated Steve Spurrier because he was successful, and didn't mind reminding you. They didn't hate Ron Zook, well because he just wasn't all that successful. They do hate Urban Meyer because he's brought Florida back to the top, and stirred up all those feelings of jealousy and malevolence that Spurrier gave to them years ago.

Oh well, he's turned into one of those "you love him when he's on your sideline, and hate him if he's on the other guy's" type of coach, and that doesn't really bother me. Hopefully there's enough room in that wambulance for all the whiners that are sure to come out of the woodwork following this ruling.