During Meyer’s six-year tenure at Florida, some 31 players were arrested, with at least 10 accused of crimes ranging from misdemeanor battery to felony domestic assault to felony theft to domestic battery. Punishment varied depending on the player, but let’s just say it was uneven at best.
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You should read this article about Courtney Smith, the damage done to her by Zach Smith, and how Urban Meyer basically did nothing, even when he knew about it. The Zach Smith issue was not an institutional issue, that was Meyer deciding specifically to protect a serial domestic abuser. This episode was and continues to be ugly, no matter how much Meyer tries to distance from it. This is the reason that I would not welcome him back.
Also, I will say, every issue that you lay at the feet of the institution, and not at Meyer’s feet is grossly misplaced. The power that Meyer had as head football coach at these institutions, basically made him the institution. He is not some babe in the woods here.
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What he did for the program was super awesome.
You also know he’s going to bail for the better green grass.
I suspect his system relies on some smoke and mirrors and he can’t sustain a program.
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I don’t think he’s a babe in the woods. But you simply can’t lay this all at Urban Meyer’s feet. These Universities have donors, boosters and size that make the job huge. Urban is a football coach. He’s hired to win football games.
The Athletic Department is there to get rid of as much of those burdens as possible so the coach can coach. I get that these are young men - but they are still men. Urban wins football games. He’s not a good marriage counselor, babysitter or maybe even spouse. That shouldn’t stop him from coaching in my opinion and there are plenty of players who would agree.
Head coaches today are hired for more than that (ok, they are hired to win, but there is a LOT more to it then just straight up ‘coaching’). They are hired to be the face of the program. To schmooze with the donors (fundraise). To do media events and promote the team and school. Donor relations can sometimes screw things up (making a player ineligible or vacate wins later) - of course some of that is out of a coach’s control, but if they have a culture of looking the other way, it might come back to bite them. They are responsible for academic performance of their athletes (universities do a lot to provide resources, but the coach has to set a culture and expectations [and some a robust tutoring program, if you know what I mean]). A good HC will ultimately oversee conditioning and nutrition and trainers to keep athletes healthy. HCs deal with off-field issues.
Then comes the coaching which coordinators and position coaches do day to day. HC is also ultimately responsible to hire/fire their staff. The HC sets the tone and surely is hands on involved but it’s a different job now. The HC makes higher level decisions on game plans, clock management, critical play decisions, etc.
So, institutions lay a lot on the HCs and the HCs should expect a lot from the institutions. But as they are usually the highest paid employee the university has (base + money to meet media/other expectations), when things fail, whether right or wrong, the coach is going to own/share a lot of the blame.
No doubt Urb sets a good winning culture quickly (at the college level - see recent Aaron Rodgers comments on differences between college and NFL coaches) and that is his talent. But longer term maintenance of a program seems to degrade as other pieces start to fall apart. So you get some quick glory years then the foundation starts to crumble and he’s out. If any AD wants/needs that, great. I don’t think Utah would want that now (but we did post-McBride, it was a brilliant hire and 2 years that essentially got things going and us into the PAC12).
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Utah has a very good institutional structure. The back bone is solid and provides for all the ancillary things you mention above. Trust me Kyle is not a good networker. He’s a good football coach.
I don’t think with the proper structures in place he would leave the program in ruin. I really believe it was where he went that caused him some problems. It’s not like these coaches come out of the womb knowing how to run big time programs. That’s why the institutional checks need to be in place.
I surely can lay them at his feet, as he either promoted, or actively failed to eliminate the issues that were occurring. If you think that many of the issues that have involved Meyer since he left Utah should not be at his feet, or a factor that a major university should not consider when hiring, then we just won’t be able to agree.
Putting aside absolutely all the other issues that have occurred in his programs under his watch, and even with all the massive amount of winning that he has accomplished, the fact that he protected and enabled a wife beater by itself is a disqualifier to run a major college football program.
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He’s got good mojo but someone else recruited his players for him for sure at Utah. There’s more to the job than what he provided.
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