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Attention on Avery Atkins case
posted: Monday, June 26, 2006 | Feedback | Print Entry
A whole lot of people will be watching very closely to see what happens with the Avery Atkins case down in Florida.
Atkins is the embattled young Gator cornerback and a projected starter in a shaky secondary. He's also a guy who has spent quite a bit of time in coach Urban Meyer's doghouse and now finds himself at the center of an incident in which the mother of his child has accused him of punching her in the face "about 13 times" and holding her against her will, according to this Gainesville Sun story.
Last week, Meyer suspended Atkins from the team indefinitely, and if charges are brought against him, there's a chance his suspension could become permanent. Locally, Meyer is beginning to catch some heat. Over the weekend, Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi wondered just how serious Meyer is about his well-publicized stance as a strict disciplinarian:
"Believe what you want, but here's the part that always makes me roll my eyes at coaches: Meyer announced that Atkins has been -- are you ready for this? -- 'suspended indefinitely.' That's downright Zooker-esque. In football coaching lingo, suspended indefinitely translates into, 'Suspended until we need him.' And when Atkins asked for his release so he could transfer from UF, Meyer refused because, as he told the Sentinel, 'We feel like it's in his best interest to try to fight through this and not be scared of the issues.' That's coachspeak for: 'He's our best cornerback.'
"Then again, maybe Meyer is just cutting the kid some slack because no assault weapons were involved."
I'm using this as a jumping-off point for a discussion I had with a buddy the other night about Meyer's old stance that he supposedly had a better chance of winning a national title at UF than Notre Dame. I've begun to think otherwise, and now so does Vegas, which has ND at 3-1 and UF is at 12-1.
My reasoning is that UF actually plays the tougher schedule and right now has more question marks than the Irish. ND's team leadership also seems more solid. The really intriguing part in all this is how dramatically perceptions have changed about these two places in the last nine months.
This offseason Charlie Weis' program has been getting all kinds of warm and fuzzy stories about "Zibby," Brady and "Shark." Meanwhile, the Gators have endured that assault rifle fiasco, hearing about how their top recruit (Percy Harvin) has been barred from competing in his home state of Virginia again in high school track and now this Atkins mess.
By the way, as a footnote, both schools seem to be essentially recruiting many of the same kids. Case in point: the Irish made the final two (along with USC) for James Wilson, one of the country's top OGs. Wilson was actually Tim Tebow's top blocker last season. Anyhow.
Orlando Sentinel
Atkins incident debunks myth of tough-guy Meyer
Published June 24, 2006
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</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Running off at the typewriter . . .
So can we now please bury this urban myth about how Florida football Coach Urban Meyer doesn't tolerate disciplinary problems? Meyer, as we've been trying to tell you, is no better or worse than any other college coach when it comes to key players getting into trouble.
The latest example involves troubled UF cornerback Avery Atkins, who has been in and out of the doghouse and most recently was involved in an incident in which the mother of his child accused him of punching her repeatedly and holding her against her will. Atkins claims he was only trying to defend himself when the woman attacked him.
Believe what you want, but here's the part that always makes me roll my eyes at coaches: Meyer announced that Atkins has been -- are you ready for this? -- "suspended indefinitely." That's downright Zooker-esque. In football coaching lingo, suspended indefinitely translates into, "Suspended until we need him."
And when Atkins asked for his release so he could transfer from UF, Meyer refused because, as he told the Sentinel, "We feel like it's in his best interest to try to fight through this and not be scared of the issues." That's coachspeak for: "He's our best cornerback."
Then again, maybe Meyer is just cutting the kid some slack because no assault weapons were involved.
Short stuff: I'm not saying Phil Mickelson is getting a little plump, but I think I saw him marking his ball with a Junior Mint at the U.S. Open. . . . The only way Ben Roethlisberger could have been injured any worse would have been if he'd collided with a Shaquille O'Neal free throw. . . . How do Canadians feel about a second consecutive Southern team winning the Stanley Cup? "We're not happy about it at all," says Galen Perras, who teaches American history at the University of Ottawa. "We feel the fans in the southern United States have hockey ranked on their pecking order somewhere below counting termites." Hey, Bub, we love our hockey down here in the South. And what we like best about it is that after hockey season, we can melt the ice and use the rink for cockfights. . . .
Again, I'm not saying Mickelson is getting a little plump, but I think I saw him mark his ball with an Oreo at the U.S. Open. . . . Jerry Greene has just accused Orlando police of spatial profiling. . . . I've got the perfect remedy for what ails the USA soccer team: Steroids. . . . Larry Brown is my new hero. The Knicks essentially said, "Hey, Larry, if you'll resign, we'll pay you half your $40 million guaranteed salary." And Larry's reply went something like this: "I've got a better idea. Why don't you fire me and pay me the whole thing?" . . . After spending last week covering the U.S. Open, it still amazes me how some golf writers actually wear golf shoes to cover a tournament. What if other writers showed up at events wearing what the athletes wear? Actually, that's not a bad idea. I think I'm going to wear a HANS device to the Pepsi 400 next week. . . .
This has been bothering me for nearly a week now: Why was Mickelson still wearing that goofy grin as he walked up the 18th fairway after blowing the Open? Come on, Phil, you don't smile after suffering the worst sports crash-and-burn since Roethlisberger showed up riding Barbaro. . . . And let me stress one last time that I'm not saying Phil is getting a little plump, but I think I saw him mark his ball with a veal medallion at the U.S. Open.