By now you’ve probably seen the footage of Florida head coach Urban Meyer — just months removed from chest pains and talk of leaving the Gator program — verbally abusing the Orlando Sentinel’s Jeremy Fowler for having the temerity to….hold a microphone while WR Deonte Thompson praised Tim Tebow’s successor, QB John Brantley? If you found Meyer’s behavior dangerously creepy, you’re not alone, as Sentinel colleague Mike Bianchi suggests, “isn’t it only a matter of time before he goes Zooker and threatens to beat up an entire frat house?”

This is totally out of character for Meyer. He never, ever complains about the media; he just ignores it. And that’s why this unbalanced behavior is so troubling. That’s why Gator football fans must wonder if he is mentally ready to resume being the coach at a suffocating program like UF.

This is almost as tyrannical as when Meyer said former UF quarterbacking great Shane Matthews was not welcome at UF after Matthews criticized the Gators’ offense a few years ago. Did I miss something? I thought Meyer was just the football coach at UF; I didn’t realize he had been coronated king and could banish alumni and media from the program via royal decree.

Is Meyer really such a control freak that he believes he can dictate how people interpret quotes? Good grief, this guy really does think he’s the Pope, doesn’t he? He doesn’t just want to control what we do; he wants to control how we think.