LSU fans were trying their darnedest to frustrate Urban Meyer by getting a hold of his cell phone number. It obviously worked because Florida’s coach had to change his number. Friends, family and certain people in the media all had to be notified of the change. I’m actually still waiting for my e-mail.
But most importantly, recruits had to know how to get a hold of Meyer. Of course, one of the best in the recruiting game didn’t let his cell phone issues get him down.
“We e-mail recruits, so it’s OK,” Meyer said. “We’ve got a plan.”
I spoke to a few recruits about the incident. A few didn’t know that Meyer changed his number, and defensive end commit Lynden Trail said it was “crazy” that LSU fans would do that to a coach. Running back commit Mack Brown said he got an e-mail with Meyer’s new number.
But it was wide receiver commit Solomon Patton who had the funniest story concerning his future coach’s cell phone.
Last Tuesday, Patton was at work when one of his friends told him that he had Meyer’s number. Patton, who attends Mobile, Ala., Murphy High School, was stunned to say the least but a bit skeptical. To see if the story was true, Patton had the kid text him the number. What he saw next left him speechless.
“How about he text me the exact number,” Patton said. “How did he get my coach’s number? I think it’s crazy.”
It was crazy, but it helped Patton figure out why all of his calls to Meyer kept going straight to voicemail for about a week.
Patton said he heard that LSU fans had gotten Meyer’s number and knew that they had a history of doing that, but he didn’t know that the trading of the number spread so far. He kind of laughed off the incident, saying that it just came back to bite LSU because of Florida’s victory.
“I think it’s worthless,” he said. “They just make it worse on themselves and their team because Florida’s just going to go in there and take it out of on them.”
Patton said he hasn’t had any trouble reaching Meyer. All he has to do is call up receivers coach Billy Gonzales. The two are always together, so it’s never been a problem.
He laughs about it now, but Patton said he can only imagine what will happen should LSU fans ever find his number when he gets to Gainesville.
“I don’t know what I’ll do,” he said. “I’ll probably get my number changed.”
Please answer one question – how does LSU and no other school end up getting Gator cell phone numbers? Is it because an LSU alumnus works for a telephone company whereby he has access to anyone’s cell phone number who subscribes to that telephone company?
the reality is that some recruits will actually sell a coaches phone number if it is a coach from a school they dont anticipate going to. sad but 100$ true. im sure some LSU fan with nothing better to do paid off a highschooler to get the #.
Coaches need to start using Google Voice!
I have a friend who’s an LSU fan and was bragging how he had Meyer and Cooper’s numbers. So I posted his number on Facebook. He got the point.
why is uf not after casey turner rb ed white jax fl and dillon lynch k neptune beach fletcher. turner is on pace to be over 2000 yards and i have never seen a kicker with as strong a leg ad lynch. he alreasdy has a couple of 50+ yd field goals. any info would be nice. thanks , love your blog.
LSU is sooo stupid. It just gives Urban and the rest of the team something to get fired up on. If Les Miles was smart he would go out to the media and tell his fans and students that they’re disrespecting the University and the football team.
Why not just get all the numbers that are calling these guys, give them to the Gator nation and turn the Florida fans loose on these people. They’ll knock it off once they have to change their numbers.
Its obvious the number are put out there by players that UF was/has recruited. And Im sure a lot of these recruits give out their number to fellow recruits. You can’t just go on the internet and find cell numbers.
Ed, I have a question for you. You may have answered this already in a previous column, but who are the Gators pursuing as far as o-line recruits? Do you see this class remaining light on the o-line?