Running off at the typewriter …
I’ve seen and heard it all now after watching Bill O’Reilly‘s interview with Urban Meyer on Fox News earlier this week.
Meyer was on O’Reilly’s show to promote his new book about — I swear I’m not making this up — instilling discipline and leadership in the locker room.
During the interview, O’Reilly broached the topic of FSU’s handling of Jameis Winston, and that’s when the buffoonery began.
O’Reilly: “Look at Jameis Winston down at Florida State. He steals some crab legs or something. But the guy’s a brilliant quarterback, so they let it go down there. I don’t think you would have let it go, right?”
Meyer: “It would have been hard to let that go.”
O’Reilly: “All right, so you would have gotten rid of him.”
Really?
Seriously?
I don’t know what was worse — Meyer’s hypocrisy or O’Reilly’s cluelessness. How could O’Reilly paint Meyer as the bastion of intercollegiate discipline when he had dozens and dozens of players arrested at Florida?
It’s laughable to think Meyer would have booted Winston when you consider he allowed Chris Rainey to stay on his UF team even after Rainey threatened to kill his girlfriend. Meyer also allowed Aaron Hernandez to stay on his team even after he so violently sucker-punched a bouncer in a Gainesville bar that he broke the poor guy’s ear drum and then became a suspect in a still-unsolved shooting in Gainesville.
Meyer and O’Reilly both owe Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher an apology for this nonsensical interview.
The name of Meyer’s book is called “Above the Line.”
It should be called “Below the Belt.”
SHORT STUFF: My daughter Jessica says she wants to go to her school Halloween party tonight as something really ghoulish and gruesome, so I told her to dress up as UCF’s offensive playbook. … Patriots 36, Dolphins 7: That sound you just heard was the Dan Campbell era crashing to the ground in Miami. Campbell matching wits with Bill Belichick is like a classic rock battle of the bands pitting the Monkees against the Beatles. … Man, it sure was nostalgic seeing former Magic coach Billy Donovan making his return to Orlando Friday night as coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Ah, the memories. If the Magic had a sense of humor, they would have done a video tribute of Donovan’s 17 hours as Orlando’s coach. … Florida State better hope Dalvin Cook is back next week against Clemson. If not, you’ll see this headline after a lopsided loss: “Without its Cook, Florida State’s offense serves cold pizza.” …
The Gators released their non-conference schedule for next year and it includes games with UMass, North Texas and Presbyterian. Coming in 2017 will be this non-conference schedule: Al’s Barber College, Pinky’s Cosmetology Institute and Fannie’s Cake Decorating School. … Did you see where ESPN is shutting down its high-overhead long-form journalism website Grantland, which was named after legendary sports writer Grantland Rice? If Rice were alive today, he would have written this lead on the site shutting down: “Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsem*n rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Page Views, Click Bait, BleacherReport and DeadSpin.”
MIKEY LIKES: Florida over Georgia by 3, FSU over Syracuse by 11, Cincinnati over UCF by just 17, Duke over Miami by 9, USF over Navy by 3 in Upset Special I, Temple over Notre Dame by 1 in Upset Special II, Falcons over Bucs by 9, Packers over Broncos by 2, Peanut Butter Cups over KitKats by 3 cavities on Halloween night. …
By the way, here are the four No. 1 seeds in my NCAA Halloween Candy Bracket: (1) Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, (2) KitKat, (3) Butterfinger and (4) Peanut M&Ms. Sorry, Snickers, you’ll have to settle for a No. 2 seed. As for Tootsie Rolls, Bit O’ Honey, Twizzlers and Candy Corn, you guys don’t even belong in the NIT. … Stat of the week: Jameis Winston is the first player in NFL history to throw for at least 200 yards in each of his first six games. Not too crabby, er, shabby. … A moment of silence, please, Flip Saunders has just gone to That Big Shootaround in the Sky. Saunders was the anti-Popovich; one of the coaching profession’s truly nice guys who was always affable even during his media sessions. Last season after playing the budding champion Golden State Warriors, Saunders compared it to a board game: “You ever play RISK? I feel like I’m Macedonia with two people and I’m surrounded by 50 people and have to roll 12s 49 straight times.” RIP, Flip. You will be missed. You already are.
LAST WORD: “On Monday, former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson endorsed Donald Trump. Tyson joins Trump’s biggest group of supporters: ‘People Who Have Been Hit in the Head a Lot.’ ” — Conan O’Brien
Open Mike
Don’t forget, you can click on OrlandoSentinel.com and read the wildly popular Open Mike blog and interactive extravaganza to get my freshest takes on what’s happening in the world of sports. Here’s a blog about UCF’s coaching contracts:
Please, people, will you stop complaining about the contracts of retired UCF head coach George O’Leary and his much-maligned offensive coordinator Brent Key?
Watching UCF fans and local media express their disdain about some of the financial perks in the contracts of the just-retired O’Leary and Key, his top assistant, just goes to show how many people in this town simply don’t comprehend the inner workings of big-time college football.
Let’s start with the critics who are lambasting UCF’s administration and blasting O’Leary for the $1 million O’Leary is scheduled to make for the next five years as a “special liaison” to the athletics department, according to a copy of his contract he agreed to release to the public after his retirement.
O’Leary’s attorney, Jack Reale, told me this week the $1 million is simply a deferred payment for the substantial raise O’Leary received after he agreed to return as coach following the Fiesta Bowl victory two years ago. It was then that O’Leary cut a deal to coach for two more seasons with a salary increase of $500,000 per year.
“After 2013, George was going to retire,” Reale said. “They [UCF] asked him to remain on and offered to increase his compensation package so that he would be willing to do so. However, because of cash flow issues, UCF did not have the money to pay George at that time. It was supposed to be a $500,000 per year raise for 2014 and 2015 as a reward for all that George had done for the program.
“George understood the financial constraints of the university and graciously agreed to spread the payments out [$200,000 per year for the next five years] after he retired. He also agreed that he would be available to consult with UCF and do whatever he could to help the program.”
For fans and media to now complain about the extra $1 million is simply mindless hindsight. Nobody would have dared complain after the Fiesta Bowl season if UCF had given O’Leary a two-year $500,000 raise. In fact, we all would have applauded it. The same goes for the clause the school put in Key’s contract after the Fiesta Bowl in which UCF agreed to pay Key $700,000 if he ultimately was not named the next head coach.
At the time, Key was one of the hot assistant coaches in the country and reportedly had the chance to interview for jobs at places like LSU, Alabama, USC and Florida. The plan was for him to succeed O’Leary at UCF, and the $700,000 was essentially reimbursem*nt for Key turning down the chance to acquire higher-paying jobs at Power 5 programs.
Obviously, that plan went awry when the bottom fell out of the program this season, but two years ago it seemed like a good idea to keep O’Leary and his top young assistant in the fold. The fact is, UCF is no different than many other schools — except their buyouts and bonuses are smaller. When Jimbo Fisher was an assistant at FSU, he had a $5 million buyout if he ultimately wasn’t named to succeed Bobby Bowden as head coach. The University of Florida had to pay head coach Will Muschamp $6.3 million when they fired him last season.
You might not like it, but that’s just the price of doing business in today’s world of big-time college football.
Mail bonding
Most interesting reader retorts, tangy tweets and message-board mockery of the week:
* On George O’Leary‘s retirement: “Has there ever been a more underappreciated coach then GOL at UCF?”
* On what type of coach UCF should hire to replace O’Leary: “Someone who can win games AND excite the fan base.”
* On whether Scott Skiles has enough talent to take the Magic to the playoffs in his first year: “Just because he coaches the Magic doesn’t make him a Magician!”
Notable quotables
Three of my favorite quotes about Halloween:
* “I’d dress up as a Siri for Halloween if my life didn’t already entail being asked stupid questions all day.” — Anonymous
* “Forget love — I’d rather fall in chocolate!” — Sandra J. Dykes
* “The scariest part of Halloween is knowing your rent is due the next day.” — Anonymous
mbianchi@tribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @BianchiWrites. Listen to his radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on FM 96.9 The Game.
