Urban Meyer and the Easy Road
By Tony Breland
There seem to be two main paths to success as a college football coach. One is to use your skills at recruiting to sign talented, hard-working players; to practice relentlessly and coach them in all phases of the game and of life; and to instill a discipline that translates to a culture of success.
The other is to take a job where success is preordained, either by lack of competition, or by such overwhelming advantages that failure is impossible.
Urban Meyer has made a habit out of walking into the latter situation, and did so again this week when he took over as Ohio State’s new head coach. Meyer is now in an enviable position; taking over a program in disarray but with significant built-in advantages, in a conference wracked with scandal, mediocrity and incompetence.
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It was not long ago when Meyer was the toast of college football. His spread offense and a once-in-a-generation quarterback were the class of the SEC, and Florida was the clear power of the SEC. He won two national championships and his offense was revolutionizing the sport. Then along came Nick Saban.
Saban took over an Alabama program in shambles, and built it into a powerhouse one brick at a time. While he and LSU coach Les Miles were methodically building their programs, Meyer was riding the Tim Tebow train, and in a few short years the balance of power had flipped decisively to the Western division.
Faced with the loss of his star player and a conference opponents loaded with talent Meyer bailed, quitting then returning then quitting on his team. Saying he wanted to spend more time with his family, he wound up instead in the safety of the ESPN analyst booth until this latest job became available. Meyer can now return to college coaching in a position where he seems destined to succeed without having to outwork Saban or Miles.
If this sounds cynical, that’s because it is. But so is the attitude of Urban Meyer. He can’t be faulted for taking this job, but when he is winning conference titles in the next year or so, let’s hold off calling him a football genius. Meyer’s genius can be summed up in the title of Shepherd Mead’s 1952 book, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with taking a job where success is easy. Who among us wouldn’t take the easier of two jobs if the pay and benefits were equal? Certainly not a guy like Phil Jackson, who is considered a basketball genius. Would Jackson have so many championships if he’d returned from his own brief retirement to coach the Milwaukee Bucks, instead of the Lakers with Shaq and Kobe?
In recent Alabama history, fans have seen both approaches. Dennis Franchione wanted to build a monument to himself at Alabama, but split town when NCAA sanctions proved a bigger challenge than he wanted. To his credit, Mike Shula took on those challenges, and given his shortcomings as a head coach, didn’t shy away from taking the job at its lowest point.
The coach now at Alabama firmly fits in the camp of taking the road less traveled. Nick Saban has constantly sought out new challenges in his career, moving to the NFL after winning college football’s biggest prize, then returning to the SEC to rebuild Alabama’s program from scratch.
Naturally, the national media vilifies Saban, because they willfully interpret his desire to challenge himself as a mercenary selfishness. Meanwhile, Urban Meyer will get a pass, because he plays the game of the reluctant hero, returning to save a program that really doesn’t need saving.
So enjoy, fans of the Buckeyes, and of frontrunners everywhere. You’ve got your man. Meanwhile, continue talking up guys like Chris Peterson, winning at Boise State by getting his team up to play one solid opponent each year. I’ll take a guy like Will Muschamp, grinding it out in a losing effort as he cleans out the dead wood at Florida and turns that team back into a hard-nosed SEC powerhouse. It will take him a few years, but he’s starting out with a team that had nowhere to go but up.
No thanks to the guy who left it that way.