Well, this is unexpected.
We can’t go as far as saying that former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, now an analyst with Fox, is defending Michigan football, but he at least sees something wrong happening at the moment: the way the media is pouncing all over the Wolverines with little confirmation as to what happened in the Connor Stalions story.
Meyer isn’t defending Michigan, but he doesn’t want to pile on without knowing everything that actually happened rather than just a bunch of conclusions the media has come to a consensus over.
During the latest episode of Urban’s Take with Tim May, Meyer made it clear that he has no comment on the scandal itself. But he did say that he takes issue with the reporting and that he believes Harbaugh deserves the benefit of the doubt versus the media.
“This is really the first time, because it’s you and a guy I respect — so I’m very cautious. I’ve been asked over 100 times to comment on it and I just won’t. But I am going to, I’ll tell you my thoughts: First of all I’m very skeptical of reporters reporting. My experience is they’re wrong most of the time. And that’s not a shot at the media, that’s reality. People say things that they’re reporting that’s just not true. So I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt saying, first of all it’s hard for me to believe that is true,” Meyer said.
But, Meyer continued, he doesn’t particularly ascribe to the defense ‘every team does this.’
“I also heard people say that ‘Well, everyone does that.’ And Tim, no one does that. I’ve never heard of that in 40 years of being around the game. There’s a very clear and that rule, some will say it’s not that important. Once again, everybody is entitled to their opinion. If they know your signals, it is that important. You’re changing the game. That’s very egregious if that’s what happened. I’m not saying it did, because I’m still skeptical it did,” Meyer said.
Of course, we don’t know what other teams do or don’t do, and none are going to publicly reveal their potential dirty actions at the moment. Regardless, Wednesday has provided a wave of vociferous opinions on the airwaves and social media, and it’s interesting Urban Meyer is the one who’s saying everyone should just wait for the facts to come out.