To those University of Florida football fans Meyered in Urban updates, three words: Get over it. Actually, two more words: Ron Zook. In fact, add two more: Steve Spurrier. More on them later.
Let’s put this Urban Meyer quits-comes back-quits again-cites health and family reasons-signs with ESPN-takes Ohio State job scenario–all in less than a calendar year–into some kind of reasonable perspective. Into something more than just a knee-jerk fan reaction to the coach who got his health back and his kids grown in 11 months. OK, now that cheap-shot is out of the way.
Ohio State is the ultimate coaching job for Meyer. He’s a native of the Buckeye state, went to school at Cincinnati, earned a master’s degree at Ohio State and had his first college coaching job as an assistant at OSU. His first head coaching job was at Bowling Green. He’s an Ohioan and he’s a winner.
This is his last stop, but the job opened sooner than expected. Previous OSU head coach Jim Tressel prematurely said goodbye to Columbus after being involved in a cover-up in that infamous memorabilia-sale scandal. Timing, of course, is everything. And wasn’t Will Muschamp the University of Texas’ designated “coach-in-waiting”? Think there aren’t folks in Austin who think he’s more commitment-challenged than Urban Meyer?
But let’s remember what proven winners such as Urban Meyer mean.
At the level that the University of Florida competes, it’s all about winning, pleasing boosters and Bull Gators, selling out home games and Gator suites and landing a prestigious bowl game. Which means making a profit sizable enough to help pay for all those sports (everything except basketball) that do not make money. In the July 2009-June 2010 period, UF football made a $44 million profit on $68 million in revenues, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Those revenues accounted for 86 percent of all revenues generated by sports at UF in 2009-10.
But winning is also about UF’s ever-ratcheting profile and the Gator brand, which, in turn, also translates into recruiting coups that transcend blue-chip athletes and philanthropy dollars that fund other than gridiron priorities. Arguably, there shouldn’t be much of a correlation between football success and arts benefactors and blue-chip scholars. But there is. That was part of the Meyer halo effect. UF upped the ante and is better for Meyer having coached there. Ask Tim Tebow.
Meyer solidified Florida’s membership in the grid pantheon inhabited by the likes of Texas, Michigan, Alabama, Wisconsin, Penn State and, of course, Ohio State. He did what Ron Zook couldn’t and never would have done. Perhaps Muschamp will fare no better.
But Meyer was also better at his UF job than Steve Spurrier was. Spurrier won one national championship in 12 years. Meyer won two in six.
And speaking of, if Gator fans really want to express outrage that Meyer would crassly resurface so soon with Ohio State, they should juxtapose his unexpectedly early return (no one doubted he would be back somewhere some time) to Spurrier’s acceptance of the South Carolina job.
Spurrier is a literal Gator. He won a Heisman in Gainesville. He coached his alma mater to that national championship. He coined “The Swamp.” He’s in the UF Athletic Hall of Fame. He pre-dates Gatorade.
But he left Florida for pro money and flamed out early in Washington. Then he returned to the college-coaching ranks at South Carolina, in the same conference–and same division–as Florida. He needn’t have put himself –or Florida fans–in that position, but he did. Angst for the memories, ball coach.
Spurrier is the quintessential Gator who now tries annually to beat them. The guy from Ashtabula, Ohio, who played defensive back at the University of Cincinnati is not in that league. Meyer’s not family. He was an exceptionally good coach, not a vintage good ‘ol boy. Frankly, Urban Meyer at Ohio State makes a lot more sense than Steve Spurrier at South Carolina.
And for additional context, let’s add two more words: Joe Paterno.
Florida is still all about football. The big business, the big expectations, the big pressure, the big salary, the big scrutiny, the big outdoor cocktail party.
Penn State would take that in a broken-heart beat.
For someone who is a Penn State grad, who has covered Joe Paterno professionally and shared conversational snippets before on-campus lectures back in the day, these are beyond the worst of times. We’re talking crimes, tragedies, moral delinquency and institutional malfeasance.
Gator Nation, 6-6 never looked so good. Wish Urban Meyer well. He’ll win; he’ll get paid an obscene salary; Ohio State will be satisfied; and you’ll get over it.
Spurrier vs. Meyer
Your analysis couldn’t be more wrong. I can only come to one conclusion: you’re not a Gator.
You’re right that Steve only won 1 national championship at UF. But he had 2 national championship games and should’ve had 3 (had 9/11 not occurred, Earnest Graham plays against Tennessee and we go to the SEC Championship / National Championship in 2001). He also won the SEC almost every single year until 1996. He had 7 SEC championships in 12 years, counting 1990. Urban had two in six. Steve Spurrier never lost more than 3 games in a season. Urban lost 5 EACH YEAR that Tebow wasn’t his QB.
Given the miracles Tebow is working in the NFL, you might want to ask yourself what Meyer really accomplished. Given their coaching records, the number of times each lost to unranked opponents, the way Spurrier improved the program and the distinction of the student-athletes, his own stellar playing career……. it is clear who was better for UF. And who was better at coaching. Spurrier never would’ve given up the way Meyer did in 2010 either.
But let’s get to the heart of your comparison: betrayal.
Spurrier, as is well known, wanted to return to UF when Zook was fired. Foley chose to go in a different direction, not Spurrier. Spurrier has always made his home in the South and the SEC is the best conference. So you ask him to sacrifice his own achievement because of the ill will of Jeremy Foley? Give me a break. We as Gators always root for Steve Spurrier, so long as he is not playing UF. And even then when UF has nothing left to gain, there’s usually a distant, hidden hope that the #1 Gator of all time will prevail.
From Duke to UF and now South Carolina, the odds have always been against him– whereas the odds cannot be said of Meyer, who, while a GOOD football coach, is not GREAT.
Watch Spurrier next year to see what true greatness looks like.
CWW
Sir:
Your points are well made. I should have acknowledged the multiple SEC championships under Spurrier. But however you countenance it, including 9/11 context, Meyer won the prize that counts most twice in half the time.
But more to the point. Spurrier was family. Meyer wasn’t and never would have been. They are as different as Ashtabula and Johnson City.
Candidly, Meyer wasn’t even that nice of a guy, certainly not in Spurrier’s class. In a previous incarnation, I covered both (including TB Bandits) and could see that for myself. Spurrier was also more fun to be around — sharing “drive-by roofing” and “Free Shoes U” type comments with booster gatherings.
But when you take the pro money and run from family, where you were not underpaid, you erode a chunk of good-will high ground reserved for the venerated.
Had he been successful with the Redskins, he wouldn’t have wanted to return to Gainesville ever again, but it didn’t work out. It was bad. So, he wanted back. Presumptuous would be a polite word for it.
Jeremy Foley, having been blindsided a few years earlier, was not inclined to re-install one who had fled the Gator coop for NFL bucks. I can’t fault Foley for not agreeing, in effect, that Spurrier was more important than the program per se. I find that a normal take, not “ill will.”
The No. 1 Gator of all time puts himself in a Gator-beating mode once a year? I’d like to think that if I were a Gator, that would continue to smart.
And for the record, while I’m not a Gator, I am a UF fan. 6-6 is beyond unacceptable after what happened during the (largely) Spurrier-Meyer era.
We don’t agree on the Spurrier-Meyer dynamic, but we’re both rooting for the good guys.
Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Regards,
Joe O’Neill