NCAA Football

Spurrier's Jab Turns Up Heat on Weis

Posted May 15, 2009 5:21PM By Greg Couch (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Florida, Notre Dame, South Carolina

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So this is how it's going to be for Charlie Weis from now on. Urban Meyer here, Urban Meyer there. The dark cloud that is Meyer has been hovering over Weis since he first started failing as Notre Dame's coach. Now, with Weis on his last chance, Meyer keeps looming even more than ever as a reminder.

Steve Spurrier was probably just trying to do his usual, sticking him thumb in someone's eye, in this case his former employer. Meyer has taken over his spot not only as Florida's coach, but also as the nation's top name. So Spurrier, now the South Carolina coach, was on the radio the other day, when he just so happened to bring up Florida and Meyer.

"They've still got that rumor going down there ... that if he has about one more big year he might be the Notre Dame coach," Spurrier said on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"It'd be surprising if he left, but who knows? He's accomplished so much. I mean, I left after 12 years because I just said, 'Hey, I've done enough. Try something else.' He may get to the point where he needs to try something else. Who knows?''

If that was meant as a shot at Florida AD Jeremy Foley, an occasional Spurrier target, I don't see it. If it was at Meyer in some way, well, it was a swing and a miss. Most coaches get upset when people spread rumors that they might be leaving. It hurts recruiting.

But nothing hurts Meyer, and he clearly loves it when people connect him with Notre Dame. He has called it his dream job, even though he turned down the Irish in 2004 to come to Florida. And in his authorized biography, he also said, "I wanted to go to Notre Dame, but my family wanted to talk about going to Florida.''

Well, like Spurrier said, Meyer has accomplished all he can, really, and he's probably going to win the national championship again this year. It would be his third in four years.

Weis on the other hand? He's an accidental casualty of Spurrier's mouth. The assumption from Spurrier seems to be that the Notre Dame job will be open. You wonder how widespread the feeling is among coaches. And whenever anyone asks Meyer about it, he keeps repeating that dream-job thing.

Weis is running out of options here. A few years ago when he was failing, rumor was that two NFL teams wanted him to be the head coach.

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It sure sounded like a rumor that Weis had started to get Notre Dame people to say how much they still wanted him. This offseason, he tried to make you feel for him when he said that his son was the subject of taunts last year and had to stay home from school instead of hearing the abuse. In the 15 minutes that Weis did a good job at Notre Dame, he managed to parlay that into a 10-year contract.

But what does he have now? Winning. He might want to try that because Meyer appears ready to make the move, and Notre Dame is going to jump if it has the chance.

Remember that when Notre Dame fired Ty Willingham, it wanted Meyer.

Meyer was the hot coach from Utah, and Notre Dame was, well, Notre Dame. Back then, when the Fighting Irish program still had confidence in itself, it thought it could snap its fingers and get anyone it wanted.

It snapped. Meyer went to Florida. And the Irish ended up settling on Weis, the last credible guy they could get. Now, Weis is trying to hang on. He has most of his offense back from last year, has quarterback Jimmy Clausen, the recruit Weis connected his career to, and has about as easy a schedule as imaginable.

It's now or never. And Weis knows that. But he also knows that when Meyer keeps mentioning how Weis' job is his dream job, Notre Dame fans are crossing their fingers, toes and anything else they can think of, wishing to make Meyer come.

Just another little shot for Weis to deal with all year.

All an accident from a little harmless thumb in the eye.

Tags: charlie+weis, jermey+foley, notre+dame, steve+spurrier, urban+meyer

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