Urban Meyer: Buckeyes Coach Responds to Reports of Preferential Treatment

Urban Meyer has always been a controversial figure in college football, so it didn't help when a Sporting News article detailed alleged preferential treatment of star players when Meyer was head coach at Florida.

Meyer addressed the report on Wednesday, via the Orlando Sentinel, referring to a player who was interviewed by Sporting News:

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So, I’m not sure other than he said preferential treatment from the players. That’s probably a correct statement. We did do that...If you go to class, if you are a warrior, you do thing the right way off and on the field and you are completely committed to helping us win, you are going to get treated really good.

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Meyer went on to say that stars would get better gear and be allowed to move off campus, and that he could see how it would be difficult for "guys that don’t go real hard and aren’t committed."

The report detailed a lack of punishment for Florida's stars during Meyer's tenure with the Gators. Allegedly, former receiver Percy Harvin attacked former position coach Billy Gonzales in 2008 and refused to participate in an offseason conditioning drill in 2007, which prompted coaches to let the team play pick-up basketball as part of conditioning. Also, former cornerback Janoris Jenkins allegedly failed two drug tests at Florida and wasn't punished by Meyer.

In the 2008 national championship season, Harvin, linebacker Brandon Spikes and tight end Aaron Hernandez all allegedly missed the season opener against Hawaii because they failed drug tests for marijuana and were sitting out as part of standing university procedure, according to Sporting News. Meyer allegedly listed them on the injury report to avoid disciplining the players.

When Jenkins was dismissed from the team by new head coach Will Muschamp for his marijuana arrests, he said, “If (Meyer) was still the coach at Florida, I’d still be there.”

Former Florida safety Bryan Thomas said:

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“(Meyer) lost the team’s respect. That kind of stuff spreads through the players. They see what they can get away with, and they push it. Even the star players; they liked him because they were in the Circle of Trust. But it backfired on him. They didn’t respect him.”

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One former player said, via Sporting News, “Over the last two years he was there, the players had taken complete control of the team."

The concern is that Meyer lost control of the Gators in his final two seasons at Florida and that it may happen again at Ohio State, which is coming off of numerous NCAA violations.

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