January 15, 2010
Floyd, coach refute claims about Meyer
Adam Gorney
GatorBait.net Assistant Editor
Talk about it in Alligator Alley
Sharrif Floyd wants to make one thing clear: Florida coach Urban Meyer never told him or any of his high school coaches that he had a "dream" about coaching Floyd or that he'd "rather die on the sidelines coaching (him) than anywhere else in the world."
Those were just some of the scandalous accusations about Meyer made in a blog post on GamecockCentral.com citing "Floyd's coaches" but not naming any of them. Floyd's head coach, Ron Cohen, was not immediately available for comment but told Rivals.com recruiting analyst Mike Farrell that the report was unfounded.
Floyd, the top-rated defensive tackle by Rivals.com, strongly refuted the report, too.
Here's part of what was posted in Scott Hood's blog:
According to Floyd's coaches, he was set to pick Ohio State until he spoke with Meyer on the phone. That's when Florida's coach, desperate to rein in the nation's top defensive tackle prospect, went "all in" with the religion card. Here's what the coaches said:
"Sharrif was really confused and put a call into Coach Meyer. When they spoke Coach Meyer told him that he had a 'dream' the night before, and that Coach Meyer saw himself on the sideline coaching Sharrif. Told him that is was a "message from God that I should come back and coach, as I guess if it's my time to die, I'd rather die on the sidelines coaching you than anywhere else in the world.
"Sharrif talked to us the next day and said Ohio State is great and all, but Coach Meyer said he would DIE for me. That's pretty intense. From that day on Sharrif mainly kept to himself. But that was the turning point in my eyes."
Floyd said he first read the report around 1:30 p.m. Friday and was immediately taken aback.
"I'm looking at it as payback for not going to Carolina," said Floyd, who committed to the Gators at Saturday's U.S. Army All-American Bowl. "The words never came out of my mouth. The only thing that's true is that me and coach Meyer have been talking every week.
"He never said he would die for me. That's a little over the top especially for me to go to Florida. I don't think it's that important that I would go to Florida. It's untrue."
To further back up his denial, Floyd talked with Cohen, who denied the statements were ever made by him. He also called Meyer to make sure he didn't think those comments would not be attributed to anyone from his high school.
Florida officials are apparently furious over the blog publication and refute its veracity. Hood was not immediately available for clarification when contacted by Gatorbait.net.
Floyd said if Meyer made that statement that it would be "a little over the top" and that it wouldn't have changed his mind anyway - that it came down to Florida and Ohio State in the end and he felt more comfortable with the Gators. South Carolina was a distant third.
"That wouldn't have changed my mind, him saying that," Floyd said. "That's not true. I went to the Gators for my reasons and I'm going to stick with it and I'm not going to change my mind.
"I looked at (the blog) and read it and I got a little mad. I went to my head coach and I said, 'What is this?' and he said it's not true. I went back and called coach Meyer and started to talk to him about it. I didn't say anything about it and he knew that and we're cool.
