Jeremy Foley Quotations

We appreciate the support of the Jacksonville community to keep this traditional rivalry in Jacksonville through 2010. The week-long festivities in the community and the pageantry surrounding the game are unmatched in college football.

The reason 2008 and 2013 worked is because those are 14-week seasons. Trying to put Miami in a 13-week season, our schedule is tough enough as it is. With 14 weeks, it does give you another open date to play with.

When the NCAA added the 12th game, we wanted to look for years where there was a 14-week window to the season to give us flexibility in picking a date for this series. The 2008 and 2013 calendar years allow us to do just that. In every other year, there are just 13 weeks to play 12 games, giving you less flexibility to schedule games and opponents.

When the situation starts going downhill, it's hard sometimes to push it back up, ... I think the situation got out of control, even for him.

Learn from your mistakes, always self-evaluate. Great leaders are thinking, evolving. And John Wooden was a great leader.

Obviously we're paying attention but right now everything looks fine,

On November 20th, UF and FSU will compete on the track, and on the 26th, the teams compete on the gridiron. This is the first time this rivalry has been promoted through another sporting event like this, and we want to thank Checkers for their outstanding support.

Getting to a place like this is awfully hard to do.

He did a great job and got us into a bowl game, beat FSU (Florida State) at FSU. I think it takes a special person to do that and a lot of toughness.

We've got to talk about it. It seems to be the league has made a commitment to it and everyone has to make the same commitment.

Keith is just flat-out outstanding. He is a tremendous administrator and will bring passion, great organizational skills and a strong work ethic to that role. He is one of my closest friends. This is a grand slam for the University of Central Florida.

I think it's a huge home-court advantage. I think the fact that everybody is on top of the court, the job the students have done making that a difficult place to play ... people say how loud it is in there. It's a different environment.

It had nothing to do with the outcome of the game.

I think to have that tradition that we want, to be recognized as one of the best, you have to have a few of those (championship) banners up there. That's what Kentucky has, Indiana has, North Carolina, Duke.

I think the series is good for the state, and so does Paul Dee, but it's just not a series that's going to work out on a regular basis.

Part of the conversations with (Miami athletic director) Paul Dee is they are about to put $120 million in renovations in the Orange Bowl. If they do that, it's not a concern. The contract has an out, if that work doesn't get done. Then we would play it in Dolphins Stadium.

That was something you don't see every day. It's obvious people are very exited about the University of Florida football, and it's obvious people are thrilled that Urban Meyer is our coach.

That way when it's time to hit the ground once the season is over, you're already off and running. The timing is never ideal in a coaching change. I talked to former coaches, NFL GMs, television folks. I picked people's brains and checked out the Internet to find out as much as I could. Indiana has time to do that. I didn't talk to any school or coaches but did hire a consultant to gauge the interest for us.

We celebrated a lot of big victories there. After the national championship, we didn't come back until the next day but we still went there to celebrate. Dean had a tape of the game but everyone was so tired we all fell asleep at halftime.

Yeah we went on probation, but we made out all right. After all that talk of whether we were a basketball or football program, those girls in spandex made us proud. Florida was a true gymnastics school.

Why not us? Why can't we be champions in basketball, too.

We wanted to be a factor on the national scene. And you can't do that without being a player in this tournament.

What was said shouldn't have been said, but I think Stanford responded in the appropriate way. This thing has been unfortunate for Billy, but hopefully we can put it behind us.

Billy told me he was tired of losing early and determined to figure out what was wrong and fix it. I could tell he was serious and it was bothering him.

Billy said last week he didn't think there was a place in America that had a better commitment to basketball. Obviously we're a football school, but you'd be hard-pressed to say we're not a basketball school right now.

Errors in officiating occur in all sports at all levels. The University of Florida has certainly been on both sides of this conversation as most teams have.

First of all, Urban has brought together a fan base that was fractured. We were not having as much success as we were accustomed to, and here in Gator Nation people expect us to be successful. People look at Urban, look at his record, and they like what they see.

Now all of a sudden, Billy can coach again, huh?

Are we a basketball school the way Kentucky and Indiana are? Not yet. That's the goal. Will we get there? That's the goal 15 years from now.

The years that we do have the flexibility, we want to schedule them.

This just reaffirms what we've been saying all along: This is a big-time basketball school with a big-time basketball coach. Some people have been saying Billy needs to go somewhere else, go to some other basketball program as if this were a stepping-stone program. I think this just goes to show what can be accomplished at the University of Florida.

It's a unique situation. Obviously it causes a lot of awkward situations and it's not ideal. But I do think it helped with the search.

That's still a possibility. Neutral site games are an issue with television right now. Who owns the TV rights? That's obviously a marquee ballgame. Both schools' television partners are going to want that.

That's still a possibility. Neutral-site games are an issue because of television.

It's important to tell our story and find ways we can to do things better,

It's not a bunch of losers here making excuses. It has nothing to do with the outcome. They beat us fair and square. It's just a matter of running your business the way it should be run and the way this league wants it run.

I learned a long time ago, when it comes to discipline you don't get 100 percent acceptance of what you do.

In the final analysis, it was apparent to me that something's not working here, ... I know that's kind of nebulous, but it's the truth. It's hard to put a finger on it exactly, but it certainly just didn't appear to be working as we all envisioned.

In my opinion, it should have been handled better. Before the game starts, if you have an idea that's going to happen and there's nothing you do about it, it makes you wonder how much planning went into it.

I just think to try to put Miami in a 13-week season, our schedule is tough enough as it is. If there are 14 weeks, that gives you another open date to play with there. That's why we did it. I think the series is good for the state, and so does Paul Dee. But it's just not a series that's going to work out on a regular basis.

He's embraced football from the day he's walked onto campus. He's not competing against it. You've heard him say that 1,000 times. He's not worried about a pecking order at the University of Florida.

He's got a presence. You walk into a room and you can tell he has a little something about him. Obviously you look at the job he's done at programs that have been less than successful. ... I think he can coach. I think he does a great job with his players and has a tremendous work ethic.

I do know that you've just got to be honest and open.

The guy has been here for three years; this is his football team, ... He's worked extraordinarily hard. It would be inappropriate for him not to finish the season. It would be inappropriate for the kids, too. We didn't think that would have been right in our opinion.

The effects of Hurricane Katrina are nothing short of tragic and we know there is a tremendous need for assistance, ... Floridians . . . understand the amount of work the affected areas have in front of them.

The comment was made (before the game) that if they (won) they felt the students were coming and there's nothing they could do about it. Before the game starts, if you have an idea that's going to happen and there's nothing you do about it, it makes you wonder how much planning went into it.