Gator fans: Get over it.
I know, I know. A 6-6 record, more SEC L’s than W’s and another loss to the JimboNoles. But looking over your shoulder at Vanderbilt and Kentucky? Hardly. The sun will rise in the east tomorrow, and UF is still in prime position to get more than its share of blue chip recruits. A speed bump for Bull Gators.
Granted, there’s been audible grumbling. How much is the new guy’s fault? How much is a reflection of the talent level? The point will soon be moot. This is not the Florida of Galen Hall or Ron Zook. It will work itself out, even in the best conference in the country.
And, of course, there’s that Urban Meyer thing. He has resurfaced in Columbus, Ohio as the new head coach of Ohio State. Ouch. Well, let it go; Meyer’s back home. And, candidly, there was a reason why his successor, Will Muschamp, was the designated coach-in-waiting at Texas. He was that well thought of. He’ll begin proving it with his own recruiting classes.
The good news for Gator Nation is context. In Gainesville, it’s still all about football, BCS expectations and business as usual. In fact, in the July 2009-10 period, UF football made a $44 million profit on $68 million in revenues, according to the U.S. Department of Education. How’s that for profit margin? That’s what helps maintain the Gator brand and underwrite all those UF sports that don’t make money.
For real perspective, however, let’s go to State College, Pa., the home of Penn State University. Officials and locals would take the angst of a 6-6 record, some booster grousing and the faux betrayal of a former coach in a broken-heart beat.
As a Penn State grad who has covered Joe Paterno professionally and shared conversational snippets at on-campus lectures back in the day, I feel blindsided, devastated and, yeah, betrayed. These are beyond the worst of times. We’re talking, of course, about crimes, tragedies, moral delinquency and institutional malfeasance.
In the shadow of Mt. Nittany, they’d love to be talking about their 89 percent graduation rate and 15 Academic All Americans since 2006. They’d love to be able to reference the “Grand Experiment” without being seen as hypocrites and amoral apologists. Hell, they’d love to be talking about looking bad in beating Furman.
Every place else never looked, frankly, so innocent. Recruiting violations aren’t crimes against nature. Lane Kiffin as Joe Paterno’s moral superior?
Spurrier Contrast
Urban Meyer deserves expanded context too. All he’s accused of is being commitment challenged. He sort of quit, came back, actually quit, signed with ESPN and then hired on at Ohio State–in less than a year. He got his health back and his kids grown in 11 months.
But to be fair, roots and timing are everything.
Ohio State, not Florida, 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 the 47-year-old’s last coaching stop. But the job opened sooner than expected. Previous OSU coach Jim Tressel prematurely said goodbye to Columbus after being involved in a cover-up in that infamous memorabilia-sale scandal, which now sounds like a reach on the infamy scale.
And don’t forget what Meyer accomplished. He solidified Florida’s place in the grid pantheon with the likes of Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, LSU, Michigan, Penn State and–Ohio State. In the process, he arguably did better than Steve Spurrier. The ol’ ball coach won one national championship in 12 years. The “commitment-challenged” Meyer won two in six. At this level, that’s the consummate credit.
But here’s the part that some hard-core Gator fans still seem to cherry pick around when it comes to venting. Urban Meyer at Ohio State makes a lot more sense than Steve Spurrier at South Carolina.
That’s because Spurrier was family; Meyer wasn’t. They are as different as Johnson City, Tennessee and Ashtabula, Ohio.
Spurrier 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 with more national championships to be won, he took the pro money and ran–when he was hardly underpaid or under-adored at Florida. He flopped in Washington and wanted back in. Presumptuousness is a polite word for it, and AD Jeremy Foley didn’t bow and scrape over the magnanimous return of the prodigal icon. Then Spurrier took the South Carolina job in the same conference–and same division–as Florida. He needn’t have put himself–or Florida fans–in that awkward, emotionally-divisive position. But he did.
That’s how you erode a chunk of good-will high ground reserved for the venerated. That’s not what Meyer did. He went home.
And this just in. Florida will play Ohio State in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville Jan. 2. Meyer’s past vs. Meyer’s present. Timing, indeed, is everything.
Go, Gators.