Nevermind: Bulldog Nation, You Are Now Officially Authorized to Go Back to Thinking Urban Meyer Is a Colossal Jerk With Dangerously Skewed Priorities
by T Kyle King on Dec 27, 2009 9:29 PM EST
in Football
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PrintLast night, while expressing my sympathy to Urban Meyer and his family, I made mention of the fact that, when Steve Spurrier abruptly resigned as the head coach of the Florida Gators, I began to view the so-called "Evil Genius" in a more positive light, to the point of rooting for the Washington Redskins while he was coaching in the District of Columbia.
What I neglected to mention was that, as soon as he returned to the SEC East as the head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks, Darth Visor went right back to being a great big ol’ honkin’ jackass.
I lack the vocabulary to express adequately in prose my thoughts on Urban Meyer’s change of heart. Accordingly, as I have done before, I will share my emotional response in song:
Sympathy for the Gator
Please allow me to introduce myself;
I’m a man with sharp chest pain.
I’ll be around for a few more years,
Now that I’m done jerkin’ your chain.
I spoke of faith, health, and family
When I played each of you for a fool.
I’d rather point, lie, and call time outs
And generally prove I’m a tool.
So, if you meet me, please have some courtesy.
Have some sympathy, and cut me some slack.
Now I’ve got to go text prospects and tell my kids
They can’t have their daddy back.
Obviously, we should continue to keep Urban Meyer’s family and Urban Meyer’s health in our thoughts and prayers. I hope, for his sake and for his family’s, that he has made the right decision, because the consequences of his having made the wrong decision are so dire.
However, since it does not appear that Corch Myers is in any immediate danger, I will permit myself to slip on my red-and-black-colored glasses in order to say this: I was right that what made Urban Meyer such a good football coach was the fact that he is such a lousy person.
Go ‘Dawgs!
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I truly lack vocabulary to describe the ass-clown nature of it all...
The 24 hrs of goodwill for Gators is over. Back to the hate. No doubt about it.
I think Erk Russell could have kicked Clint Eastwood and John Wayne's butts with a corn cob and one hand tied behind his back. GATA!
I don't know...
… for me, the jury is still out. I think the next chapter of this saga still has yet to be written. Based on what we saw today, I think it’s right now at 50/50 shot as to whether he’ll ever step on the field as the Gators’ coach again.
If he is coaching the Saurians on September 4 against Miami (Ohio) (or if he makes a definitive statement saying he will), then I will feel comfortable in reverting to my previous opinion of the man.
I still think his recent trevails are weighing on him, however, and if he is not leading the Gators onto the field in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for the first game of the to-be-disappointing 2010 Florida football season, then I predict he will never coach at Florida again.
As has been said about Urban Meyer many times in the past 24+ hours, he can’t do anything in first, second, third, or fourth gear. He either has to be doing it all-out or not at all. If he tries to change and does come back after a year off, I don’t think he’ll be the same coach (which, obviously, could be to the Dawgs’ advantage).
So, ultimately, I think the Corch will either be on the sidelines next year, at which point I will mock him as much as I normally do, or he will never coach the Gators again.
Either way, I still hate Florida. (I do appreciate the absolution to make that remark again…)
I respect that attitude, vineyarddawg
For me, though, the tipping point was this:
Meyer said that upon hearing the news, his 18-year-old daughter hugged him and said, "I get my daddy back."
My daughter is a lot younger than Urban Meyer’s, but, if I made a decision to change jobs due to health concerns and my daughter responded that way, there would be no chance of me reconsidering that decision. No power on this earth would make me go back to my daughter, look her in the eye, and say, “I changed my mind.”
I don’t want to overstate the case; obviously, much of the preceding posting was over the top in the service of a larger point, and I made sure to emphasize the fact that, even though Coach Meyer is our biggest division’s rival’s head coach once more, we still ought to hope for his good health.
I’m sure Urban Meyer loves his family, but he previously reached a decision that was responsible, self-aware, demonstrative of an even-keeled view of life, and indicative of proper priorities. To reverse course so soon after such soul-searching produced a public announcement and such an outpouring of genuine happiness from his family suggests strongly that Urban Meyer’s brief window of clearheaded rationality was an aberration in the life and career of a man too driven to do what is best for himself and those about whom he cares the most. I worry for the man, and, as a father, I find him selfish and misguided in a way that, in my mind, confirms every negative thing I have ever thought about him.
Gator fans may be glad today that Urban Meyer is still their head football coach, but, if they are being honest with themselves (in a way Coach Meyer evidently is not being with himself), they will have to admit that they are not proud of the Faustian bargain their head coach has made in putting Florida football ahead of his family, his faith, and perhaps even his life.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Dec 28, 2009 12:29 AM EST up reply actions
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T.Kyle, if you will be honest with yourself, the only thing that could ever change your opinion of Coach Meyer is for him to remove himself as a threat to UGA football. Let it rip son, the hate feels more comfortable. If U.F. fares as poorly as ya’ll think it will next year maybe I’ll be able to hate Mark Richt too.
Not for the same reasons, you won't
Urban Meyer articulated on Saturday that he saw this (correctly) as a choice between faith, family, and health on the one hand or football on the other. Urban Meyer made it clear on Sunday that, given the choice, he prefers the course that might allow him to hold another crystal football in his hands to the course that might allow him to hold his first-born grandchild in his arms.
Do you deny the truth of the preceding paragraph? Do you deny that the priorities evidenced in that choice are misguided at best?
You’ve made it clear here on many occasions, renegator, that you love Florida football but you love the more important aspects of life more. You know that Mark Richt is, by many orders of magnitude, a more admirable man and a more suitable role model than Urban Meyer. If you had to choose one or the other of them to be godfather of your children or grandchildren, you wouldn’t hesitate to pick Mark Richt, and we both know it.
Be honest with yourself, renegator . . . if Mark Richt were Florida’s head coach and Urban Meyer were Georgia’s, you’d be saying the same things I’m saying. Maybe I only hate him because his undeniable unsavory attributes are being put on display in Gainesville rather than Salt Lake City or South Bend, but the fact that he coaches the home team at Florida Field is the only reason you don’t regard him with as much disgust and disdain as I do. As George Clooney said to Julia Roberts in “Ocean’s Eleven,” the fact that I have obvious biases doesn’t make me wrong . . . and the fact that I expressed genuine compassion for him as a fellow human being during the brief window in which he was doing the right thing ought to earn me a little credibility upon this point.
He’s a great coach. He’s a poor human being. Those facts are as related as they are undeniable.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Dec 29, 2009 10:30 PM EST up reply actions
Good analogy.
When it was announced this afternoon that Adazzio was going to be the temporary/head-coach-in-waiting/momentary-fill-in/whatever-they’re-going-to-call-it, I thought to myself, “Really? This guy who just took over the Florida offense and guided Tim Tebow to arguably his worst offensive year ever? I bet that’ll go over real big with Gator fans.”
If Corch Meyers does indeed not come back to roam the sidelines in Gainesville in 2010, I expect there to be a full-on mutiny within the Gator Nation by the end of the year to appoint a new head coach… that is, one not named Adazzio. (Especially since, with the massive amount of talent leaving, the DC leaving, the WR coach leaving, and the head coach himself leaving taking a break… 2010 shapes up to be a pretty lean year in Gainesville by recent standards. I mean, 4 or 5 losses are not only possible, but I dare say probable with so many new players and coaches to break in… no matter how good Brantley is supposed to be.)
by vineyarddawg on Dec 28, 2009 2:41 AM EST up reply actions
just when i think dawg fans are pretty civil people
i read an article like this and regain my perspective. seriously your calling a man you never met a lousy person for not wanting to quit his job. i have no idea how you wrap your logic around that one but kudos on coming to terms with such a very weird attitude. it is known to most people that urban meyer is a workaholic, and as such i dont think its that surprising that he has done what he did. i as a gator fan dont feel “jerked” around by his decisions as of late, cuz id much rather have urban meyer coaching after taking some time off that anyone else that could possibly coach the gators. keep on judging a man you have no idea about though, if that makes all of you feel better. but i for one can say i dont hate richt or any other person that i have never had the pleasure of meeting enough to call them a lousy person. im sure urban will come to some sort of crossroads where his life, family, faith and job will all be able to successfully co-exist. i see all of this as a catalyst to reaching such a crossroad. an hope that richt (or any coach for that matter) never has to go through what urban is/was going through, i know that neither i nor any gator fan i personally know would ever judge richt for doing the same things urban is doing.
Buffalo, that's where it's at baby. - Adam 'Pacman' Jones
I’M A BUFFALO FAN WHO ROOTS FOR THE GATORS WOOOOOOOOOO!
(that was hard to read.)
by get swoll yunel on Dec 28, 2009 3:28 AM EST up reply actions
Serious question
Did you attend Florida?
How did you manage to become a fan of both the Red Sox and Lakers? Those teams represent cities that generally hate each other….
by get swoll yunel on Dec 28, 2009 3:33 AM EST up reply actions
Comparing Mark Richt and Urban Meyer as human beings is laughable, silverstreak3k
I don’t have to have met the man. I’m a father, and I know what it would mean to me to have my daughter say to me what his daughter said to him. You said it yourself . . . Urban Meyer is a workaholic. That’s why his initial recognition that he has only one gear, and the inevitable decision that flowed therefrom, showed such an admirable even keel. When he want back on that, yeah, it showed what kind of man he is and what his priorities are.
If you don’t find that disturbing, well, you obviously care more about your coach’s on-field successes than his family relationships, his spiritual state, and his personal health. That makes you pretty pathetic and warped in my book . . . but, then, we have come to expect that from many Gator fans.
(By the way, if you don’t see the hypocrisy of (a) ripping on me, a person you have never met, for ripping on a person I have never met, and (b) taking a “judge not, lest ye be judged” attitude while quoting Pacman Jones in your tag line, you should Google the definition of “irony.”)
Go 'Dawgs!
Color me cynical.
If Meyer didn’t already have a reputation for being extremely deliberate and calculating (traits to which his disciples point with great pride — “he studied psychology!”), it would be a lot easier to accept all of this drama at face value: the man got disturbing news about his health, spent a chunk of of Advent in deep reflection, and came to a decision that he quickly and understandably regretted and is instead taking a less definite path.
However, Meyer does have a reputation for being extremely deliberate and calculating; he’s earned it. In that light, his and Tebow’s remarks during the press conference sounded scripted — designed to create both sympathy and admiration for a man who, even while in the midst of one of the biggest and most difficult decisions of his life, is giving so much consideration to the interests of those young men who elected to commit to playing for him and the Gators. He tells his players he loves them! What a guy! It’s too bad they couldn’t find some way to get this message of love, honor, and loyalty across to high school football players during this period when they are forbidden by NCAA rules to make contact with them.
I don’t know the man. I haven’t seen his medical records, nor have I spoken with his doctors. His wife and daughters have not clued me in on what their conversations have been like for the past few weeks, and neither have Foley or Machen. Based on circumstantial evidence and the available testimony (with the understanding that reporters might not be in a position to indulge in a thorough and sifting cross-examination), I think that Meyer has serious health issues exacerbated by physical and emotional stress; that a change in lifestyle has been advised; and that, somewhere along the way, he decided to exploit those facts for his and his program’s benefit in a way (whether before or after the initial resignation announcement) that approaches if not crosses the line into disingenuousness. It is who he is, and perhaps it’s his job to do so.
That may be a stretch
I’ll give the Corch credit for being an apt student of the human mind and for exploiting such chances as are available to him, but I don’t even think a Gator would stoop that low.
Plus, isn’t the uncertainty about Meyer’s future a major selling point for rival schools now? Isn’t every recruit thinking “even if he coaches this year, what about the next?”
I think he’s coming back because he isn’t ready to give up the game. He is a truly great coach, and I can understand him wanting to come back and keep proving it. But he’s also a mortal man, a husband, and a father. I don’t respect his invocation of these less spectacular but more important roles as reasons to leave the game, only to set them aside a day later. Maybe he will find better work/life balance (I have to hope he does), but the timing of the annoucements makes me think he just said “never mind.”
I have said on this blog that I think Meyer is a tragic figure. I hope I’m wrong, but his actions seem to fit the narrative so spectacularly that I am afraid to be right.
by first and thom on Dec 28, 2009 10:08 AM EST up reply actions
Hold on
before we all go off the deep end thinking that Urban is this or Urban is that, let’s examine the situation just a little more. As was mentioned by several people here and on other sites, with Coach Meyer leaving many recruits may be “in play” once again. Well, if he simply says he is taking a leave of absence, then the recruits are no longer “in play” and once they sign and get on campus, he can resign and Florida will have their next head coach in place as an assistant.
I think yall are villifying Corch Meyers just a bit
One of my co-workers (a huge UGA fan – although not a classy one, she is more of the type that can give UGA fans a bad name) thinks it was all a ploy and that Meyer is a big liar. When I asked her when he ever lied, she responded “I’m sure he has lied to recruits and people call him ‘Urban Liar’.” I asked her to show me any evidence that he has ever lied. She obviouisly could not and said “I just remember reading it.”
Really?
I take pride in that I am able to separate the rivalry from personal feelings about individuals. I hate FSU. Do I hate FSU’s players? of course not. I hate them during the game because they are the enemy, but I know that they are just like my team’s players – they are college students and gifted athletes who just happened to make a poor decision about where to play (kidding). It appears that 98% of you are the same.
There is a perception that Corch Meyers is a bad guy. I don’t think he is. Intense? Sure. Serious? Absolutely. But a bad person? Nah. I just don’t see it. He’s a football coach. That’s obviously what he meant to do. He does it well – better than almost all his peers. I’m not so sure that it would be better for his health to stop doing what he does. It could be worse. He’s mid 40s – too young to retire. What is he going to do? fish? I think that would give a guy like Meyer a heart attack for sure.
He does need to learn how to delegate some things so that he can have both – his career and his health. He should sit down with Spurrier, with Joe Pa, with some of the other guys who have been able to coach for a long time and get some feedback and learn how to adjust his life and schedule so that he can continue doing what he does – and still be around to watch his kids grow up.
I really do think that this leave of absence option was open to him whenever he first mentioned anything to Foley – or when Foley saw his health problems (or possibly when Dr. Pete spoke with him). When I first heard of the resignation, I thought the same thing. It makes sense. If you have the coach you want (and he is happy where he is) and he is sick – give him time to try to get well.
It’s a definite risk – I’m sure Kiffin will be working overtime on our recruits when the dead period ends, but so what? The alternative would have been to hire someone new – not an easy task because who wants to coach under Meyer? His plan was to stay connected to the program. That would be a tough situation for any new guy.
It's easy to villify a villian...
…but I hear your point. I don’t think there’s anything nefarious in the Corch’s decision.
However, I will stand by this point: nobody talked about him needing to spend more time with his family until he did. Nobody said he should retire until he did. We have mocked him, but we never commented on his spiritual health. But Meyer brought all of these things to the public eye, invoking them as a reason to step away from the game.
Having said those things, it’s hard not to find it a little pathetic that he reversed course a day later. If we thought he was a cruel, unsleeping football zombie before, what are we to think of him now that he has suddenly concluded that football isn’t really costing his family as much as he thought – or, worse, that he’s willing to pay the high price after all?
The most charitable result is to chalk the resignation annoucement up to flagrantly bad judgment.
by first and thom on Dec 28, 2009 3:54 PM EST up reply actions
As always, skigator93, I thank you for representing your fan base well . . .
. . . particularly when I’m sure you weren’t terribly pleased to read what I wrote.
I would feel differently if the end result had been the initial result; that is, if the story had broken with Urban Meyer revealing the chest pains and what details he has divulged about his consultation with doctors in the course of his announcement that he was taking a leave of absence. As I indicated in my initial response, this entire affair humanizes him considerably and reveals that, underneath his all-business exterior, he is, in fact, a husband, a father, a son, and a man of faith.
I agree with C&F, though, that his quick turnaround from Saturday to Sunday makes his current claims ring hollow. This was no knee-jerk decision . . . he thought on this for three weeks before anything became public. The change of heart isn’t what I find troubling; that I can understand. Allowing your wife to announce that there is no chance you’ll change your mind when you’re within 24 hours of changing your mind, though? Noting that the correctness of your original decision was confirmed for you when your daughter (who said she felt like she hadn’t talked to you in two years) hugged you and said she felt like she had gotten her daddy back, only to do an about-face a couple of days later? As a husband and a father, I find that behavior chilling.
I wish him the best and I hope he is able to strike that balance, but the way he went about this says to me that, although his health, his faith, and his family all are things that matter to him a great deal, at the end of the day, none of them matter to him as much as winning football games does.
All those other things are important, but their importance is secondary, and, ultimately, they are insufficient to overcome his need to increase the integer on the left-hand side of his career coaching ledger on any given Saturday. When push comes to shove, Urban Meyer evidently prefers the course that is more likely to allow him to hold another crystal football in his hands to the course that is more likely to allow him to hold his first-born grandchild in his arms. That is a sobering notion that ought to give us all pause, and it leads me to believe that Urban Meyer is a winner at football for reasons that make him a loser at life, and that, ultimately, may cause him to lose his life.
Again, though, skigator93, I thank you for your measured defense of your coach. I hope you have a happy new year.
Go 'Dawgs!
at the end of the day
Will Urban Meyer’s 18 year old daughter look him in the eye,
(as my two children would), and call him out? The real example
being set here is a tragic one…one that began when his daughters
were small. Coach…do you want your daughters to tell you, one day
in your future, that they don’t have time for you? That is exactly what
you’ve given them. You may not suffer a heart attack, but a broken
heart will make you more miserable than you can imagine.
by please before I die, Falcons on Dec 30, 2009 11:43 PM EST reply actions
Knute set up the Notre Dame-USC series so his wife could get out of Indiana in November
Urban allowed his wife to state publicly that there was “no chance” he would change his mind within 24 hours of changing his mind.
As coaches, they’re comparable. As men, they’re not. Coach Rockne forced his football to conform to his family. Coach Meyer forced his family to conform to his football. As human beings and as role models, they could not be more different.
Go 'Dawgs!
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