It’s tough to tell if he meant to, but Urban Meyer may have accidentally given the perfect answer to a season-long question Monday.
When asked if he watches Auburn quarterback Cam Newton’s games on TV, Meyer said, “It’s really hard, I’ll tell you that. I don’t watch much of it.”
Meyer — and a UF spokesman — went on to clarify that he meant it’s difficult to find time to watch the Tigers, who aren’t on the Gators’ schedule, but it seems to me that Meyer messed up and let some honesty slip out before backpedaling.
But we don’t need to know what Meyer really meant. We have common sense.
Since transferring away from Florida, Newton has gone beast mode for the Tigers while Florida’s offense has plodded along.
Auburn is off to an 8-0 start, and after shredding LSU for 217 rushing yards on Saturday, Newton set a Southeastern Conference record for single-season rushing yards by a quarterback with 1,077 — 82 more than Florida has as a team.
All those rushing yards have meant less demand on his arm, but he’s ranked first in the conference in pass efficiency (UF’s John Brantley is No. 10). He also has 27 total touchdowns, while Florida’s offense has 22.
He’s putting together a masterpiece of a season and is the frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy.
What about that would be fun for Meyer to watch?
Plenty of people have cracked jokes this year about how a laptop swung the balance of power in the SEC, a reference to the trouble Newton landed in after buying a stolen computer and throwing it out the window when police came to his UF dorm.
But that isn’t what ended Newton’s career at Florida. The truth should be even tougher for Meyer to swallow.
Newton wasn’t kicked off the team for that incident (it takes a lot more than that to get the boot here).
Nope, when Tim Tebow decided to come back for his senior season, Newton looked around and realized he’d have to sit behind The Chosen One for another year, then beat out Brantley, who was being groomed as the quarterback of the future.
The truth is, Meyer and his staff flat-out missed on Newton’s talent.
He never did anything particularly impressive at UF, but the ability to be the nation’s best player was there all along, and his coaches failed to realize that.
No matter how much blame Meyer deserves, this simple fact remains: A player who was at Florida could win the Heisman Trophy this season — at Auburn.
That’s a nightmare scenario for a coach, and to think Meyer is at peace with the situation is laughable.
What Newton is doing in different shades of orange and blue is akin to long-distance torture for Florida, and if his on-field performance hasn’t been enough, Newton twisted the knife last week in an interview with ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach.
“If it was up to me, I would still want to be at Florida,” Newton said. “My heart is still at Florida because of the long-lasting relationships I have with my teammates there. Leaving them was the hardest part.”
It should be hard for Meyer to watch Newton, and that should be hard to hear.
Not because he’s busy and deaf, but because he let his next great quarterback get away.
