Alabama Football: Urban Meyer is picking the Buckeyes over the Crimson Tide but no one should listen.
Like a slew of former college football coaches, Urban Meyer is now paid to talk. Alabama football fans know well that no one should listen. Urban Meyer knows football, as well as the best of today’s coaches. Well, most of the best; maybe as well as all but one – Nick Saban.
In a battle of wills and minds, Nick Saban crushed Urban Meyer in 2009. A year earlier, in 2008, Nick put Urban on notice that he and the Crimson Tide would take away the Gators football dominance. Urban and the Gators won the 2006 National Championship. The following season, Urban’s team lost to an LSU football program coached by Les Miles but built by Nick Saban. In 2008, Urban saw that same build quickly escalating in Tuscaloosa.
The Alabama Crimson Tide led the Florida Gators 20-17 at the end of the third quarter. The Gators took the lead with 9:21 left in the fourth quarter. The final margin of 11 points resulted from a late interception of a Crimson Tide pass and a 14-yard drive by the Gators. The Gators were the better team and deserved to win. Player talent was not equal on the teams, but the Tide gave the Gators a tough fight.
For a year, Alabama football fans looked forward to a payback. Given what later transpired with Urban in Gainesville, it is fair to presume Meyer spent the year dreading facing Saban and the Tide again.
In the 2009 SEC Championship game, Tim Tebow put the Gators on his back and personally produced over 300 yards of offense. It was not close to being enough. Leading 26-13 after three quarters, the Crimson Tide coasted to a 32-13 win.
Urban Meyer was more crushed than his team. Within hours of the game, he was hospitalized after suffering chest pains. Before the end of December 2009, Urban resigned. Having won 22 of his most recent 23 games, Meyer was done with the pressure. A day later, he changed his mind and un-resigned.
Not everyone in Gainesville embraced Urban’s change of plans. Said, former Florida, offensive lineman, David Young,
"He couldn’t take the heat — that’s all that was. He wanted to hand the job off to [offensive coordinator] Steve Addazio and get out of there."
The Gators struggled to an 8-5 record in 2010 and Meyer resigned again. He meant it the second time. A year later, Ohio State lured him back into coaching. Under Meyer, the Buckeyes had a glorious 83-9 run, winning the National Championship in 2014. In the Sugar Bowl semi-final, the Buckeyes took down the Crimson Tide, 42-35.
Whatever demons Urban Meyer still battled should have been exorcised by that game. Hopefully, they were. Fully recovered from what the Alabama football program once did to him – or not, Urban Meyer is the last guy anyone should expect to be objective about the Buckeyes and the Crimson Tide.
Of course, Urban Meyer is picking the Buckeyes to win Monday night. As their former coach, he should. His ‘whys’ for picking Ohio State should be ignored.