S.E.C. Media Days: Nick Saban Soars, Urban Meyer Crashes and Burns

by T Kyle King on Jul 27, 2007 1:40 PM EDT in Football

The S.E.C. Media Days continued on Thursday after opening with a moderately quotable Wednesday.

Yesterday's interviewees included Alabama's Nick Saban and Florida's Urban Meyer, two men with similarly stellar Southeastern Conference coaching resumes who came into the day with distinctly different public personas and may have reversed their respective roles during their sessions with the press.

Coach Saban was commonly viewed as prickly and brusque, whereas Coach Meyer was all the rage after the Gators' 2006 title run. However, on Thursday, the Armani Bear came across as a smooth operator, while the Urban Legend made one wonder whether the man who has never before coached a quarterback he recruited might yet prove to be the Urban Myth.

Coach Saban has been criticized here before for making ill-considered remarks, but, in this instance, the new Alabama head coach acquitted himself extremely well. He began by declaring it "[g]reat to be back in the S.E.C." and followed that up by telling the members of the news media that he "thank[ed] each and every one of you for the job that you do."

He praised the Southeastern Conference as "even tougher now than ever before"---a statement for which a case objectively could be made---without belittling any other leagues in the process. He concluded his opening statement thusly:

It's great to be optimistic. It's probably not so good to be pessimistic. But it's best to be realistic, to stay focused on the process of things you need to do to continue to improve so that you can reach your full potential and have every individual player reach his full potential so that you can have the best possible team that you can.

That's where our focus is. That's what we're trying to do. That's what we're anxiously looking forward to doing in this fall camp and early in this season.

Coach Saban made numerous references to his family, noting that "we certainly appreciate the passion and support that our fans have" and frequently mentioning "the Sabans." While the accuracy of his characterization of his initial response to the availability of the Alabama job is open to debate, he gave a plausible answer to a reporter's question about his original denial before concluding, "Maybe we could have handled it a better way."

When asked about the reaction of the L.S.U. faithful to his return to the S.E.C. West, Coach Saban began by noting that he had "a tremendous amount of respect for the people of the state of Louisiana." He even praised Les Miles for doing "a tremendous job there in the two years he's been there."

Regarding non-conference scheduling, Coach Saban offered a reasonable and intriguing observation:

Philosophically, and I know there's a debate and a dilemma on this all the time, but we have a very difficult league. It's tough from top to bottom. If you're going to have success in the league, it's difficult to play a tough out of conference schedule.

But maybe it's from being at Michigan State for 10 years. We always played Notre Dame. We always played somebody out of the league in one of our three non-conference games that gave us a national recognition, prominence, whatever you want to call it. I still philosophically believe that's important.

I am hopeful that we can try to find one opponent each year that we can do that. The thing with Florida State this year, even though they have a great program, all that, I think is healthy for the S.E.C. I think it's healthy for our program at the University of Alabama.

We're trying to work something possibly for next year, then '08 and '09. We do have Georgia Tech in the future, Penn State in the future in some of those years. Philosophically that's what we're trying to do.

One of the things I think would be more beneficial to our league in doing that and, again, this is kind of coming from the Big 10, we didn't start the Big 10 season until like September 20, the fourth week of the season.

We played our three non-conference games right off the bat, all right, which I think is an advantage because if you play a good opponent and you don't have success, your team can continue to improve and you can prove in those three games before you come into league play.

Like this year we play one game, and then we play Vanderbilt, Arkansas, and Georgia. Later on in the season, when the players are geared into the S.E.C., we have non-conference games we have to try to play. I think if we change that as a league it would be much more beneficial to all the teams and would benefit us all a little bit and would help scheduling. I think people would be more in tune to playing an opponent early on that was a quality opponent.

But philosophically that's what we're trying to do. I think it's important to kind of get the national exposure. People who have done that give themselves a better opportunity to win and be recognized nationally. With our current system, I think that's important.

Coach Saban worked in a few of the usual platitudes ("I think that sports is a metaphor of life"), emphasized his humble upbringing, and discussed the influence of the book The Road Less Traveled on his spiritual development. He even worked in a "y'all."

Reasonable sports fans may debate the sincerity of Coach Saban's responses, although there seems to be no particularly good reason on this specific occasion for accusing him of engaging in noncommittal coachspeak any more so than any of his colleagues. I give the man credit for saying what needed to be said in a way that not only did not stir the pot further, but actually worked to calm down an inflamed situation.

This brings us to Urban Meyer.

Coach Meyer provides a clear example of how fine a line there is between success and failure in major college football. He comes into this season as the fair-haired boy of the league, having captured a national championship in just his second season in the Southeastern Conference.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that, but for a couple of blocked kicks against South Carolina, Coach Meyer would enter this season as the occupant of the hottest seat in the league outside of Fayetteville, Ark., as the Gator faithful wondered whether he would ever beat Steve Spurrier.

Perhaps it is the presence of the Ol' Ball Coach in the Eastern Division, but, for all his outward arrogance, Urban Meyer comes across as a guy whose bluster only barely conceals his dire need to take a Dale Carnegie course to boost his self-confidence.

When describing the S.E.C. as "so traditional rich," Coach Meyer felt the need to compare the spring game attendance of the defending national champions to that of a team that finished 2006 with a losing record: "I think we had 70,000. They had 90,000."

Urban Meyer's acute consciousness of residing in Darth Visor's shadow is painfully apparent. When asked about Nick Saban, the Gator skipper turned the discussion to the Evil Genius:

Steve Spurrier going to South Carolina was a big deal, too. Any school that has a coach come in with a great tradition and obviously an excellent record, you're going to see that.

When describing the S.E.C. East, Coach Meyer also referred to "see[ing] South Carolina with a coach that has a record that's as good as anybody that ever coached."

As usual, Coach Meyer made bold pronouncements harkening back to his days at Bowling Green and Utah, apparently forgetting Lewis Grizzard's rule that we are happy to welcome northerners into our environs, so long as they don't keep telling us how they did things back in Cleveland.

When addressing a subject on which "[o]pinions are strong," though, Coach Meyer was so clumsy in his evasiveness that he felt moved to sum up his answer by saying, "Pretty good way to not answer your question, wasn't it?" Coach Saban never came anywhere near calling attention to the man behind the curtain so ham-handedly.

Intense hyperactivity typifies many successful coaches, but Urban Meyer comes across as being almost comically fidgety and jittery. He declared himself "awful anxious to get going" and said of Tim Tebow: "He's got the 'it.' Everybody wants the 'it' in that position."

Perhaps his affinity for text-messaging has impeded his ability to articulate a thought verbally. This would explain why Coach Meyer talks like a teenage girl . . . and why he seemed to be caught completely off-guard by the inevitable question about what would happen if Tebow was injured:

Ooh. Turn around and punch him right in the mouth, will you? Next question. I don't know. Make sure your punter . . .

To be fair, Coach Meyer did make one cogent point about the effect of demographics on recruiting, observing (albeit awkwardly):

I think the population base has moved to the South. It's not by accident that those teams, Miami, F.S.U., Florida, have really when you look at the history of college football, that wasn't a real strong history back when Ohio State and Michigan because the population base where I'm from was much greater than it is now.

In saying so, Coach Meyer sounded a bit like Peter Applebome, although he muddied the waters once more when he made the cryptic remark, "In my personal opinion, making it through the S.E.C. injury-free is a secret." A secret? What, do the other coaches in the league not know about it?

Bookending Thursday's marquee coaches were Vanderbilt's Bobby Johnson and Mississippi State's Sylvester Croom, the latter of whom laid it on the line at the outset:

I feel a great deal of pressure. The same pressure I felt when I was in the ninth grade when Tuscaloosa Junior High played Eastwood Junior High. Tuscaloosa Junior High won. Same pressure I felt then. The pressure of winning a game and having bragging rights after the game's over.

If you're asking me whether I'm worried about whether I'm going to get fired, no. I've coached for 30 years. I've never had to go look for a job. I've always had one. The good Lord has blessed me with one. I know we're doing things the right way.

Coach Croom may or may not have a job in the Southeastern Conference a year from now---my bet is that he will return in 2008---but, clearly, he has the self-confidence that Urban Meyer only pretends to possess, which may account for why the Gator coach, despite being the toast of the town, was the fourth most intelligible S.E.C. coach to have spoken to the media on Thursday.

Go 'Dawgs!

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Speaking of hotseats

It is not the accuracy of the quotes that the Gator supporters are commenting on just your tainted and perverted interpretation of them.

Any rationally thinking individual cognizant of the malaise in Athens caused by the conspicuous lack of national championships over the past decades will attribute your puerile and shallow remarks to sour grapes (or in your case peaches).

by wci347 on Jul 28, 2007 4:00 AM EDT 0 recs

Speaking of perverted interpretations . . .

. . . Georgia has the best winning percentage in the S.E.C. over the course of the last decade and of the last half-decade. The Bulldogs are the only team in the S.E.C. to have won at least nine games in each of the last five seasons.

In his first two seasons in Athens, Mark Richt compiled a won-lost record virtually identical to that compiled by Urban Meyer in his first two years in Gainesville. Both coaches posted 13-4 conference ledgers in their first two seasons and Mark Richt's best season at Georgia mirrored Urban Meyer's best season at Florida.

Georgia has won 12 S.E.C. championships, including two in the last five years. Florida has won seven S.E.C. championships, including one in the last six years.

Georgia has represented the Eastern Division in the S.E.C. championship game three times in the last five years. Florida has represented the Eastern Division in the S.E.C. championship game once in the last six years.

Mark Richt has twice been named S.E.C. Coach of the Year. Mark Richt ranks alongside Vince Dooley, Nick Saban, and Steve Spurrier as one of only six coaches in the league's 75-year history to have won two Southeastern Conference championships in his first five years in the league. Mark Richt ranks alongside Bear Bryant, Vince Dooley, and Steve Spurrier as one of only five coaches to have led an S.E.C. school to four consecutive seasons of double-digit victories.

It is, of course, true that the Bulldogs have lost 15 of their last 17 games against the Gators, just as it is true that the Orange and Blue lost 15 of their previous 19 games against the Red and Black in the years immediately preceding Steve Spurrier's return to Gainesville.

However, Florida has not posted an undefeated season since 1911 and Georgia has gone unbeaten three times since then (in 1920, 1946, and 1980). Surely no serious person would argue that the luck of the draw differentiating 2002 (when there were two undefeated teams from B.C.S. conferences at the end of the regular season) from 2006 (when U.S.C.'s loss to U.C.L.A. and Urban Meyer's lobbying put the Gators in the title game) makes Florida's program somehow superior to Georgia's.

I thank you for taking the time to comment and I regret that so much outrage was generated by something so benign as a comparison of two coaches' respective abilities to answer questions articulately at a press conference. I had not hitherto known that this had been a Gator point of pride.

The idea that Georgia is mired in "malaise," however, is simply nonsense, both presently and historically. As always, though, we in Bulldog Nation congratulate the Gators on their national championship.

by T Kyle King on Jul 28, 2007 10:57 AM EDT 0 recs

Whistlin' Through the Boneyard

I have to admit I don't share the rancor a lot of my fellow Gators feel towards Georgia. In my experience the fans have been gracious, classy and outstanding people who love their team like I love mine. Mark Richt is an outstanding coach and maybe a better person. I can't, won't, badmouth Georgia and it's fans. On the other hand I also have enough respect for them not to ever look past them which is why I find it so amusing y'all are whistlin' through the graveyard here. ; )

One of the Dawg posters felt obligated to bring up history. That argument is usually reserved for those whose present is obliterated by their past. What happened last year and in 1923 is history and as such fine for warm and fuzzy feelings but not much else though a National Championship in 2007 does feel a little more intimate than one in 1980. ; )

Urban Meyer has a degree is Pyschology and he uses it. He poor mouths our team on purpose because even losing what we lost, especially on defense, we have a pretty good football team and Meyer wants us hiding in the tall grass hoping our opponents buy into the idea we are in a transition year. Don't be fooled Dawg fans. When he hesitates talking about a backup for Tim Tebow he doesn't bother mentioning a guy like Cameron Newton from College Park, GA. The 6'5, 243lb true freshman QB had a great spring competing for the backup QB job most expected to go to JC transfer Bryan Waggener who missed spring ball due to injury. Meyer doesn't mention having 4 scholarship QBs on the roster for the first time including Gator legacy and Gatorade Player of the Year John Brantley. Go ahead and pray Tebow goes down if that gets you through the night. We will still have someone at the helm who can get the job done.

If Meyer seemed less smooth than usual it was on purpose. I have heard the man speak and he is a gifted public speaker. I believe Meyer's intent was to remove some pressure on his team and himself during Media Days. He must have been successful because y'all bought into his act. ; ) Go ahead and believe he can't coach QBs he recruits. Go ahead and believe Meyer is living in "Darth Visor's shadow". Go ahead and believe anything negative you want because the truth is that is what Urban Meyer wants you to do. The man is in the league 2 years and has a SEC and National Championships on his resume. I think he knows exactly what he is doing and what he is doing is building a team that will consistently challenge for SEC and National titles. You know he can recruit. You know he can coach. We Gators know he can speak and more importantly we know his players listen and understand.

One last thing. I noted Mr. King referred to Florida's 2008 recruiting. Just a note about accuracy to the esteemed Dawg. We have FIVE verbals not 4 and 2 of them are from the Peach State. ; ) We have so few because we will only have 16-18 to give out (bad news for the SEC in the immediate future) and we are being very, very picky who we give them to right now. I won't bore y'all with too many details but we are in the driver's seat for some of the best HS players in the country and while we won't likely be a top five finisher in the Recruiting Wars because of numbers I'd bet our average "star power" is top 5 and we will qualify each and every kid. Recruiting, Mr. King, is a complicated business and you should know very little of this business is settled in July. ; )

by irish2u2 on Jul 28, 2007 12:09 PM EDT 0 recs

I thank you for leaving . . .

. . . a thoughtful and erudite comment. I quite agree that recruiting is not settled in July (which is why I wrote that I believed the Gators would close strongly in February) and I am grateful to you for correcting Mike Farrell's apparent error in reporting the number of verbal commitments his recruiting service believes Florida has.

As for Coach Meyer's success at keeping the defending national champions flying underneath the radar, I believe you have overestimated his public relations skills. The media, who were on hand for his remarks, didn't buy the hype: Florida is the clear favorite to win the division. I believe the more likely explanation is that Urban Meyer, like Jim Donnan before him, is having to experience on-the-job training at media relations after years spent coaching far from large markets.

It appears that, once again, the team flying under the radar is Georgia. Of the league's six marquee coaches (Phillip Fulmer, Urban Meyer, Mark Richt, Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, and Tommy Tuberville), Georgia has one of only two who is likely to be with his current program five years hence and Mark Richt, who has as good a track record as any coach in the league at developing quarterbacks, has guided the 'Dawgs into the position of being the S.E.C.'s most successful program over the course of the last five years, yet still opponents suggest that a "malaise" has set in, leaving the experts content to rank the Red and Black in the mid-teens.

Once again, I thank you for leaving a thoughtful and intelligent comment. I will look forward to settling matters (for this season, at least) by the St. John's River.

by T Kyle King on Jul 28, 2007 1:18 PM EDT up 0 recs

This is all

Reggie Fish's fault. LET IT GO!! Who fields a punt running backwards over the shoulder at the two?? You have the lead! You have Darren McFadden! Just don't do something retarded!! I'm a bit bitter, but any time I start to think that I hate Florida...I remember Auburn.

by Bodey on Jul 28, 2007 11:41 PM EDT 0 recs