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Is anyone else suprised about him going to Florida? I figured he was going back to Notre Dame.

He had the clause that said he could go to Notre Dame and I thought he would, but it's not a total surprise that he's headed to Florida instead. Notre Dame isn't what it used to be and Florida is now a bigger program with more chance at success in the near-future, all things monetary probably being equal.

yeah hes x4 his pay from $500,000 to $2 million for 7 years. I think the pay was better and there is more money for recruiting and Notre Dame has problems with their recruiting system that may give him problems. I think Notre Dame will struggle to find a coach that will agree with taking athletes that arn't soo smart and they start to red shirt players. I think that is their biggest problem. I can't remember what the system is called but it is where they take a players GPA and test scores they come out with their probable college GPA and they only select a certain number of player under a certain amount. Most colleges only take 20. Notre Dame takes none. Thats a problem. I think Meyer didn't want to set himself up for failure because right now he can write his ticket to about any open college in the country but if he goes to ND for 3 years and gets fired hes going to have to go back to a school like Utah.

I'm thinking Hawkins from Boise St., or maybe Butch Davis if he's interested in coming back to college, would fit in at Notre Dame.

I still think that coaches should be careful before accepting a job at ND. They really haven't have a successful coach in a while. I'll tell you what though, I would fire Lloyd Carr today for Urban Meyer. I can't stand how conservative he is and how he always plays to the level of the team he is playing for the first half. Then he starts trying.

Well, like you said, ND is handicapped by their high admission standards for athletes. No other school except perhaps Stanford has such lofty expectations for incoming student-athletes. No coach is going to thrive in that environment for long, especially now that ND no longer has their "pick of the litter" when it comes to the top recruits each year.

Heres what ESPN has to say about ND's choices-
Butch Davis. Suddenly unemployed, and with a much better track record as a college coach than a pro coach. But he also said he wants to take a year off from coaching.
Kirk Ferentz. Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White and Ferentz are friends dating back to the days when White hired Ferentz as head coach at Maine back in 1990. The catch -- he just signed a new deal and it's highly unlikely he'd leave after doing that.
Jon Gruden. His dad coached there, and he went to high school in South Bend. Gruden was thought to be in play briefly after Bob Davie was fired, but now he's in the first year of a contract worth more than $4 million annually. Notre Dame won't be paying anywhere near that.
Dan Hawkins. It's a huge step up in wattage from Boise State, but the man's record is 44-6, he seems to have the right perspective for Notre Dame, and his offense is pyrotechnic. Hawkins told ESPN.com in late October that, as a Catholic, Notre Dame was one of the places he could, in his dreams, see himself coaching.
Lou Holtz. Available. And he knows how to beat USC.
Bobby Petrino. The Louisville coach is the only guy in the country with better offensive statistics to his name than Hawkins. But the Auburn fandango last year could cause schools to approach him with caution -- and when it comes to recruiting, the academic requirements at Notre Dame are much different than at Louisville.
Nick Saban. Because what list of Cadillac jobs, pro or college, is complete without the LSU coach?
Bob Stoops. He passed on a chance at the Notre Dame job before Willingham was hired, and has said a blue million times that he's happy at Oklahoma. While he's repeatedly said he has no interest in any other jobs, what would it hurt to listen. What better legacy than to be known as the guy who restored arguably the two greatest traditions in college football?
Jeff Tedford. The creative California coach has worked miracles with the Golden Bears but has been frustrated by the slow response to needs for upgraded facilities. If he's looking to walk from Berkeley, this would be a prime destination.
Charlie Weis. The New England offensive coordinator is a Notre Dame grad and is interested in the job.
My take-
Davis- Possible I don't know very much about him but he seems the second most logical to me on the list.
Ferentz- Probably not going to happen with the new contract.
Gruden- Won't happen either. Why would he leave the NFL to coach an un-ranked team(unless he gets fired like Spurrier).
Hawkins- The most logical. Although he does need to learn a little more deffence. From watching the USC game ND has a solid offence but very little defence (unless it was just Matt and Reggie at work).
Holtz- Never going to happen. The guy doesn't even want to think about coaching after the game agianst Clemson.
Petrino- Logical choice. Sounds like recruiting may be a problem for him but who wouldn't struggle with ND standards.
Saben- Already the highest paid coach in college football. Why would he want to move.
Stoops- Why would you leave the #2 team in the country and I believe that he is the #2 paid coach in college football.
Tedford- From everything I have seen on College Gameday on him, he loves where he is.
Charlie Weis- Another pretty logical choice. May be hard to leave Brady, Brown and Dillion though.

Stoops would be about the only guy who could save ND...or maybe Steve Spurrier, but he's already locked in to USC (South Carolina that is). I think Hawkins or Davis will get it. The others all seem like bigtime longshots.

That is what I'm thinking too. I think ND just has a mess with their recruiting system and they wont get the Urban Meyers, Bob Stoops, Sete Spurriers and Nick Sabens of the world till they change their system.

The mods would have my hide if I let my true feelings about Urban Meyer known.

That said, it's only a surprise that he's not going to ND because the timing of the Willingham firing was so suspicious. I figured for sure that he contacted ND, said that he was about to take the Florida job since they didn't have an opening, and they rushed to a decision on firing Willingham. I guess maybe it did happen like that, and Meyer went back on his word. It wouldn't be the first time.

I still think Florida is miles ahead of ND. I mean 7-4 isn't much better than 6-5 but ND has a streak going of getting rid of coaches after 3 years if they don't win a National Championship or go to a BCS Bowl. I think they may be better off though joining the Big East full time or switching to the Big Ten.

Plus, didn't I hear that Fla has something like 17 returning starters next season? He really can step right into a good situation.

Has there been any discussion about the dude's name? Urban? Whassup with that? Does he have siblings? Rural Meyer? Country Meyer? Neighborhood Meyer?

Reminds me of the 'Seven' episode on Seinfeld.......'How about Seltzer?'

Yeah, Florida's shelves are pretty well stocked. Not to mention a QB in Chris Leak that has two years left and is just the athlete Meyer likes at QB. It might not exactly be the return of the Fun n' Gun, but it'll be close. I haven't done the math, but if Meyer's teams have averaged less than 35 points a game the last 4 years, I'd be shocked.

*laugh* remember that Fuzzy Zoeller's middle name is Urban, too.

With Florida, you have great weather (although it does get extremely humid in the summer) and a great pool of in state players to recruit from. Notre Dame has the history but Florida is a pretty well-regarded program these days, too. I think he also got offered more money from Florida?

I also read somewhere that Mooch (Steve Mariucci) was contacted by ND but told them he was staying put.

Yeah I herd that too. I don't know what ND is think contacting all of these NFL Coaches that are in the middle of long term contracts with great pay. I even herd they were talking to Jon Gruden.