DB Marcus Williamson (Official Thread)

[Abenaki]

Couple more, FWIW:

 

[Jaxbuck]

Also remember that Marcus dealt with mental health issues in the past.

I didn't recall that but reading it made me wonder if he was alright.

Reads to me like a young man who might need help more so than the air raid siren for everyone to report to their normal culture war battle stations.

 

[Dryden]

I mean how much smoke needs to swirl around Urban Meyer before some people are willing to acknowledge that there just might be a fire there. Florida, Ohio State and Jacksonville all ended as complete shitshows. #DrakeWasRight

This kid has certainly made questionable decisions and can soundly be criticized for them. That, however, in and of itself doesn't automatically negate what he's saying. Using Trayvon Martin as a warning not to wear hoodies? What kind of fucked up psycho shit is that. Maybe Urban didn't see a racial aspect to that, and if he didn't then it just means he's one profoundly stupid football coach.

I don’t disagree a bit with the “how much smoke until…” bit. Not at all. I’m frankly glad to be done with Urban and the carnival side show that was Shelley, especially glad that they were gone before she, a registered nurse, starting tweeting dumb shit during a pandemic.

My only point of caution in giving Marcus’s allegations about the culture merit is that he didn’t actually quit the program under Urban Meyer. He walked out under Ryan Day — a players coach, after the Michigan game and ahead of the Rose Bowl.

As for the Trayvon Martin image, Imma go out on a limb and guess Urban Meyer didn’t ever spend one second in his office doing Google Image searches for “black guy wearing a hoodie” to plug into his PowerPoints decks. If this was an actual slide in a presentation for the team, 110% a GA or the graphics department put it together. That said, I’ve seen about thirty different players Tweet support for Meyer and the continuing culture under Ryan Day. I’ve not seen one comment from any former player verifying the Martin image ever being used in a team meeting. So this claim remains specious and unsubstantiated.

I’m not trying to discredit Marcus either or accuse him of lying, the entirety of his thread raises a whole lot of valid points and he’s always seemed an educated and articulate person. But there are two tweets in the thread roll of ten or twelve that seem oddly specific of problems under Meyer, who left three years ago.

His OSU career didn’t go the way he, his coaches, or any of us expected. That’s unfortunate. That’s also football. Tweeting this ish in the middle of a Rose Bowl he apparently opted out of raises suspicion about the sincerity and intent.

In fact, I’m not sure if he opted out, quit, medically retired, or what? His New Years Day unloading on Urban just raises more questions about him than Urban, at least to me.

 

[Dryden]

 

[Trevi]

Jeff Snook was able to reach Meyer for his response. Snook has filed the following report on Facebook. It is reproduced below with his permission.

“Former Ohio State player Marcus Williamson went on a Twitter rant last night during and after the Rose Bowl, and among his allegations was that former coach Urban Meyer had a ‘no hoodie rule,’ and that he had also displayed a picture of Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie as an example.”

“I talked to Meyer Sunday morning about Williamson’s allegations and he responded: ‘Our team rule was no hats or hoodies or sunglasses of any kind but only in team meetings, just so we could see their eyes and make sure they were paying attention and not asleep. We did not, and never would show a picture of Trayvon Martin. My gosh, no. That is absolutely false and you can check with any other player on my teams during that time to confirm what I am saying. Other players know what he is saying is false. I would never do that. He is crossing the line here. It seems people are just piling on now. But that never happened.'”

Urban Meyer takes exception to Twitter remarks made by Marcus Williamson | The-Ozone (theozone.net)

 

[bucknut502]

I wish Marcus all the success in the future. That’s all I will say since I don’t have anything else nice to say.

 

[MaxBuck]

 

[mendensa]

IDK, been following this pretty closely the last few days. Not going to say anything new that hasn't already been said, but without saying anything too negative directly towards Williamson, I'll keep it simple: his career path @ OSU didn't go the way he saw it going, he didn't capitalize on NIL like some of his other teammates, Urban's an easy target right now, and social media is an easy and convenient way to lash out when things don't go your way. Not saying there aren't issues going on and part of what he is saying isn't true, but during the Rose Bowl, in which you are not participating, is awfully convenient.

It's nice to see past players from a variety of overall success levels, star status, and ethnic backgrounds comment about the situation.

 

[Onebuckfan]

Urban is gone..he’s not coming back. Let it go. Williamson hasn’t had Urban for 3 years.

 

[Abenaki]

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Urban Meyer takes exception to Twitter remarks made by Marcus Williamson | The-Ozone (theozone.net)

So, it sounds like the picture was used, but it wasn't at the direct behest of UM, and the person responsible admitted his ignorance on the matter and apologized. So, Meyer is exonerated, yet still has to go full Meyer and deny everything and attempt to paint his program as perfect in every way. Not missed. And I've been around a few people with hard-wired binary thinking, and I'd peg UM for that in a heartbeat.

I read through MW's full thread, and the Treyvon pic was just a small part of it. He brings up some really good points about forced majors, the physical toll, financial exploitation etc. Had he put this in a well written op-ed essay or book, I'd think he'd have a lot of valuable things to say about the culture of college football. That being said, chain-tweeting it out during the Rose Bowl was bush league and obscures what value he might have brought to the discussion.

 

[dragurd]

So sounds like some GA\intern googled kid in hoodie possibly including race and chose a pic without knowing anything about the pic in question. Sounds like Marcus doesn't think it was unintentional..

 

[Abenaki]

So, it sounds like the picture was used, but it wasn't at the direct behest of UM, and the person responsible admitted his ignorance on the matter and apologized. So, Meyer is exonerated, yet still has to go full Meyer and deny everything and attempt to paint his program as perfect in every way. Not missed. And I've been around a few people with hard-wired binary thinking, and I'd peg UM for that in a heartbeat.

I read through MW's full thread, and the Treyvon pic was just a small part of it. He brings up some really good points about forced majors, the physical toll, financial exploitation etc. Had he put this in a well written op-ed essay or book, I'd think he'd have a lot of valuable things to say about the culture of college football. That being said, chain-tweeting it out during the Rose Bowl was bush league and obscures what value he might have brought to the discussion.

Re: Urban, I agree. He picked the worst possible response to the question. Again.

Re: Williamson, I agree again. He actually had valuable points to be made, but his timing and venue made him look like a disgruntled ex lashing out and ruined a lot of his credibility.

 

[dragurd]

Re: Urban, I agree. He picked the worst possible response to the question. Again.

Re: Williamson, I agree again. He actually had valuable points to be made, but his timing and venue made him look like a disgruntled ex lashing out and ruined a lot of his credibility.

It's very on brand for Meyer from what we learned of him. He can't admit to the slightest fault in his program and makes everything worse by trying to deny any such thing could ever happen cause he's a control freak and being thought as not in 100% control of the program seems to scare him more than failure.

 

[bucknut502]

So, it sounds like the picture was used, but it wasn't at the direct behest of UM, and the person responsible admitted his ignorance on the matter and apologized. So, Meyer is exonerated, yet still has to go full Meyer and deny everything and attempt to paint his program as perfect in every way. Not missed. And I've been around a few people with hard-wired binary thinking, and I'd peg UM for that in a heartbeat.

I read through MW's full thread, and the Treyvon pic was just a small part of it. He brings up some really good points about forced majors, the physical toll, financial exploitation etc. Had he put this in a well written op-ed essay or book, I'd think he'd have a lot of valuable things to say about the culture of college football. That being said, chain-tweeting it out during the Rose Bowl was bush league and obscures what value he might have brought to the discussion.

Is it possible that Meyer didn’t even know about this? It seems like something that was handled between the individual presenting the PP and a few players. If the intern or players didn’t say anything to Meyer, why would he say anything other than what he said?