Florida coach Urban Meyer dressed down a newspaper reporter Tuesday during practice for an article that he thought was critical of one of his players. Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel wrote a piece Monday about the excitement of Gator receiver Deonte Thompson, who has been under-utilized his first two seasons, of playing with more of a pure-passing QB this season.. Fowler seemed to lay the blame at the feet of departed QB Tim Tebow, who ran as often as he threw, and one direct quote in the article from Thompson about new QB John Brantley seemed to do likewise:
"You never know with Tim (Tebow). You can bolt, you think he's running but he'll come up and pass it to you. you just have to be ready at all times. With Brantley, everything's with rhthym, with time. You know what I mean. A real quarterback.
At practice on Tuesday, Meyer decided to give Fowler his version of a Gundy moment, albeit not in the press room and a little bit more contolled with Lisinopril:
MEYER: "You did it. You do it one more time and the Orlando Sentinel is not welcome here ever again. Is that clear?"
FOWLER: "Okay..."
"IT'S YES OR NO!!!!!!!"
"Urban, come on. Don't make threats. I'll play by the rules."
"What's that?"
"I'll play by the rules, but all I was doing was quoting the guy, and I don't think I'm the only one and..."
"You're a bad guy!!"
"Thanks, Urban. I appreciate that."
"BAD GUY!!!!"
"I appreciate that." Meyer then starts to walk away, but then comes back:
"Maybe when you get a chance, call his family, help him out. The kid's never been in trouble one time, he's a great student, he's a great kid. If you're gonna do that--if that was MY son, we'd be going at it right now. Be very careful"
Now while it's obvious that Meyer was talking about Deonte Thompson, you have to wonder how much of that rant was really directed towards the inference (by Thompson, repeated by Fowler) that Tebow wasn't a *real* quarterback. Because if TEBOW was Meyer's son---wait. I thought he was...
Meyer is rapidly getting the reputation as being a bully with the media. Making threats and pointing fingers is no way for him to be acting unless he was up against Lane Kiffin. Florida AD Jeremy Foley, if he has the stones, probably needs to have a sit down with Meyer, if for no other reason to ensure that the guy doesn't keel over with a massive heart attack by this Fall.