After Miami's "horsing around" incident that resulted in player injury, Urban Meyer was asked how he treats team fighting on the field and in the locker room.
Meyer's answer transcended team policies or judgment calls on the subject. He sounded truly disheartened by the team culture he inherited from former Gators coach Ron Zook.
Meyer remembers arriving to campus only to find separate locker rooms for freshmen who weren't allowed to walk into the veteran's locker room.
"This is a big-time college football program, and we had fights and stuff because they’d treat the freshmen like they were non people, ‘Don’t walk through here, we’ll kick your tail, we’ll shave your eyebrows,'" Meyer said. "It took us awhile to break this great culture we had here. That was tremendous."
The sarcasm was noted, but then Meyer expressed his true distaste.
"You don’t win many games, but you feed off freshman and shaved eyebrows…Unbelievable," Meyer said. "Now I have a freshman who’s really going through some hard times, and he says – stood up in front of the team, tears falling down his eyes, he said I really want to thank the older guys for taking care of me.
"It’s called a team, not some silly nonsense. That was five years ago, let’s go beat up freshmen. Let’s get our brains kicked in against our rival, but let’s go beat up a freshman.”
Ouch. Sounds like a pretty direct shot at Zook. It's hard to complain that Meyer's welcoming ways for all his players works better. The SEC Rocks!
Meyer's answer transcended team policies or judgment calls on the subject. He sounded truly disheartened by the team culture he inherited from former Gators coach Ron Zook.
Meyer remembers arriving to campus only to find separate locker rooms for freshmen who weren't allowed to walk into the veteran's locker room.
"This is a big-time college football program, and we had fights and stuff because they’d treat the freshmen like they were non people, ‘Don’t walk through here, we’ll kick your tail, we’ll shave your eyebrows,'" Meyer said. "It took us awhile to break this great culture we had here. That was tremendous."
The sarcasm was noted, but then Meyer expressed his true distaste.
"You don’t win many games, but you feed off freshman and shaved eyebrows…Unbelievable," Meyer said. "Now I have a freshman who’s really going through some hard times, and he says – stood up in front of the team, tears falling down his eyes, he said I really want to thank the older guys for taking care of me.
"It’s called a team, not some silly nonsense. That was five years ago, let’s go beat up freshmen. Let’s get our brains kicked in against our rival, but let’s go beat up a freshman.”
Ouch. Sounds like a pretty direct shot at Zook. It's hard to complain that Meyer's welcoming ways for all his players works better. The SEC Rocks!
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