Sprints Is Back and Not Hiring Urban Meyer // 02.01.11

by cocknfire on Feb 1, 2026 1:56 AM EST in Sprints

Conflict of what?

The end of the unintentional sanity break
First of all, apologies to all of you for being incommunicado for the last week or week and a half. It wasn't an intentional break for my sanity, though I was getting dangerously close to burn-out, and now feel much better. Work overwhelmed me for most of the time. I am glad to be back blogging, but glad to have had a while when I didn't. To the news.

ESPN: The World Wide Leader in Conflicts of Interest
Urban Meyer might be able to cover Florida as an analyst for ESPN, despite that whole "ethics" part of being a journalism organizations. Executive Norby Williamson:

"We have this with coach (Lou) Holtz all the time with Notre Dame, but you also have Mark May sitting right next to him and Rece Davis. And there is sort of a balance of perspective," Williamson said. "Just because something happens whether it’s the SEC or at Florida doesn’t recuse him from having his perspective heard on whatever may transpire there."

First of all, this might be the first time anyone has approvingly cited Lou Holtz's commentary as a model for sports broadcasting. Secondly, Holtz is not still gainfully employed by Notre Dame, something that is supposed to be the case for Meyer and Florida. If ESPN can't even see how that might be a conflict of interest, maybe it's time to go with what we've been thinking for years and stop regarding them as a serious news outlet.

The best of luck to Steve Kragthorpe's family
He was out of coaching for a year, we now know, because of his wife's multiple sclerosis. Best to her. There is something in life more challenging and important than fixing the LSU offense, though Kragthorpe is about to find out how difficult the latter is. I have a feeling he'd much rather have the current challenge than the last one. Just a hunch.

Decided schematic advantage, Part II
Alabama is trying to make sure that the Tide has hired the worst former head coach for an assistant job this season.

St. Louis Rams running backs coach Sylvester Croom has interviewed for the opening on the University of Alabama's coaching staff, and remains a candidate for the vacancy, while Louisville quarterbacks coach Mike Groh is also a possibility for the position, sources have told The Tuscaloosa News.

This can only end with LSU hiring Tyrone Willingham. Oh, and that's Mike Groh, not Al. Mike is Al Groh's son. I'm not sure if that's more boring or less, or even if being boring is genetic. But Alabama is not cornering the market on bad head coaches.

Positive injury news for McElroy
It's not clear that Greg McElroy will be selected in the NFL Draft regardless of his hand's status, but it can't hurt his chances at a late pick or a free-agent deal that surgery might not be needed for the hand injury at Saturday's Senior Bowl.

Kentucky down one quarterback
Ryan Mossakowski will no longer play for the Wildcats. Or no longer not play for the Wildcats -- he's transferring.

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Comments

Given the way ESPN treated the Craig James/Mike Leach/Adam James saga, it’s not surprising that it’s not concerned about the blatant conflict of interest present when Meyer will address Florida. They assigned Craig to call Texas Tech’s bowl game mere weeks after everything blew up.

Team Speed Kills -- SBNation's SEC Blog
If you're so inclined, follow me @Year2

by Year2 on Feb 1, 2026 11:32 AM EST reply actions

ESPN is absolutely not a credible news outlet

tWWL is basically TMZ: The Network at this point.
The James affair: letting an angry ‘copter Dad use their airwaves and bandwidth to successfully lobby for the firing of his son’s coach, was the exact minute in which ESPN lost any and all journalistic integrity.

The corporate middle finger to the viewership started when the network began teasing stories that were “up next on Sportcenter” without deigning to actually show those stories next, or even in the proximate block. That’s not a tease, that’s a slap.

Ridiculous dog and pony shows like “The Decision,” where JBL (it has been said) broke up with the city of Cleveland in the most public and humiliating fashion, just shows further contempt. ESPN may have newsy programming, but when a network relies more on the creation of spectacle and athlete personality cults (like the coverage of Favre even when there was literally nothing to report, just for ratings’ sake) is when viewers should reciprocate the cynicism with which they are treated.

Foisting an amoral kill-bot like Meyer on the public, and then cramming fifteen minutes of programming relating only to him (and Tebow) into bowl specials where germane items would have had to do with the teams, you know, actually playing, was such a transparent softening-up of the audience… ugh.

Yes, we remember the Jesusback Years.
No, we still don’t like Urban Meyer.

End transmission.

by Grib on Feb 1, 2026 4:27 PM EST reply actions