Urban Meyer has taken a fair amount of heat the last few days for leaving quarterback Tim Tebow in a game with a 31-7 lead.
Of course, Superman suffered The Concussion Heard ‘Round the World at that point of the eventual win and the criticism started almost immediately.
His fellow SEC coaches, however, have rushed to Meyer’s defense. Well, not exactly “rushed”. It was more like walking into an answer when asked the question.
“I certainly wouldn’t have any issue with the way that was managed at Florida,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said.
“You can’t be worried about injuries all the time,” South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier said. “You’ve got to let your guys play. But we always made sure that it was well in control before we started taking them out.”
LSU’s Les Miles said it’s always a difficult decision, when to know the game is in hand enough to pull your starters.
“It’s always a tough thing,” Miles said. “The main thing is you want to finish the game in solid, solid fashion how you started it. It’s one where the coach weighs the responsibility of getting the starters out with the responsibility of finishing this game well.”
The criticism of Meyer since the concussion seems a bit absurd, but that goes with the territory of having the most overexposed player in the country going down in a vomiting heap.
Play football.
I’m sure this story will come out soon. The medical people were asking Tebow the series of questions like how many fingers am I holding up; what day is it; and then they held up a picture of Kiffin and asked, “Who is this?” That’s when he vomited.
I am as far from a Tebow fan as you can get (Boomer Sooner!), but I cannot figure out the basis for the criticism of having Tebow in the game when they are only up by 24 on the road in the 3rd quarter.
LOL, skinny.
And, yeah, there’s no basis to criticize Meyer on having Tebow in. First of all, he pulled the starters early against either Kentucky or Vandy a few years back and then had to put them back in again in the 4th quarter. That’s not a good situation, morale and health-wise. Also, the Gator offense hadn’t produced squat since the first quarter and Meyer probably wanted them to start clicking again before he pulled the ones.