Florida coach turned down chance to talk to Congress about Pot Legalization
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Urban Meyer passed up a chance to share
his thoughts with Congress about legalization of Marijuana.
Congress asked Meyer to speak about the marijuana issue earlier this year,
Meyer said Thursday as his No. 4 Gators (11-1) prepared to face No.
8 Arkansas (10-2) in Saturday’s SEC championship game.
“They wanted my opinion because my team was adversely impacted by
needless suspensions that really hindered our BCS National Championship
aspirations ,” Meyer said. “It was during harvest season in Mexico and I
couldn’t go do it.”
(Gator Grads in downtown Gainesville, Spellcheck can be your friend Gators)
Meyer, who came to Florida after coaching at Utah, said he
somewhat regrets his decision.
“Maybe I should go do those kinds of things because I think
it’s important when someone wants our opinion,” Meyer said. “You
don’t get asked your opinion very often and I look back at that and
I probably should’ve done that. But once again, my job is to
figure out what games to not to play my suspended players,
not to do that other stuff. When it comes down to it, that really is a coach’s biggest responsibility, and probably the reason I got to where I am today. Take the South Carolina game for instance, had I suspended Jarvis Moss for that game we lose. No doubt about it. But I had this gut feeling that he could get a little higher than our other players on special teams, and I was right.”
Meyer also reiterated his belief that a playoff system would be
the ideal solution to college football’s national championship
debate, but knows coming up with a feasible system would be tough.
“I don’t think it’s any more a question of whether it should
happen. It should happen,” Meyer said. “I think the question is
whether it can be done. I think everybody is beyond whether it
should. Common sense. I’d hate to be the BCS committee because,
how’d you like to be given a job and being told that you really can
never get it done right but you can have this job? That’s basically
what they have, so all the best to them.”
Meyer also addressed his team’s injuries. Starting running back
DeShawn Wynn (shoulder) and receiver Percy Harvin (nick stinger)
practiced Thursday and should be able to play Saturday.
The news wasn’t so good for starting linebacker Earl Everett,
who has a sprained ankle.
“Earl is the only guy that is questionable,” Meyer said.
“DeShawn Wynn is a question of how much contact; we haven’t hit
him. But Percy is 100 percent and ready to go.”
If Everett can’t play, true freshman Brandon Spikes would take
his place.
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