What does a win cost? The complicated legacy of Urban Meyer
As Meyer prepares to retire and Ohio State sits on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff, it’s worth asking whether his attitude has hurt as much as it has helped?
Urban Meyer’s legacy is complicated.
In light of the announcement today that Meyer will step down as Ohio State coach after a season of controversy that ended in the team’s failure to make the College Football Playoff, it’s worth wondering if the tumult he caused has interfered with the possibility of greater success?
As a coach, he is a tactical genius, phenomenal recruiter and superb in the art of preparation as his three championships prove. Meyer, who will step down after the Rose Bowl, was one of the first coaches to bring the spread offense in the SEC, adding the option attack while incorporating power run principles to complement the passing attack. His offensive expertise matches his relentless pursuit of winning.
However, as a manager of men, his history is shrouded in controversy, ranging from his handling of Aaron Hernandez to Zach Smith. The question is whether his management has inhibited his ability to win even more and keep up with adversary Nick Saban in the battle for greatness.
While coaching at Florida, the 54-year-old Meyer transformed the Gators back to a national power. He won two national championships in 2006 and 2008, and his offensive scheme immortalized Tim Tebow. But stories about Meyer enabling star players, overlooking the signs of trouble for Hernandez, and having 31 of his players arrested during his time in Gainesville have come to light in the past six years.
Additionally, from 2006-2009 Gator football players were handed 251 traffic citations. Meyer’s health issues and December 2009 hospital admittance required the legendary coach to resign at the end of the 2010 season. But it could have also been associated with the litany of off-the-field transgressions from his players too.
With a promise to his family to change his coaching and personal habits, Meyer returned to coaching at Ohio State in 2012. But it seems the axiom about more change yielding the same result has played out. This summer, Meyer became ingrained in a scandal that left many wondering whether he’s truly changed. His stated lack of awareness of the Smith domestic abuse scandal left many with a bitter taste in their mouths, with the past sins in Gainesville reappearing in Columbus.
Meyer’s supposed lack of personnel discipline highlighted his win-at-any-cost mentality and apathy toward the dubious extracurricular actions of players and coaches, Moreover, the lack of discipline was supported by the university. Putting national championships, conference titles and players sent to the NFL aside, one must wonder: How much does a win cost for Meyer?
His coaching career is a huge success based on wins and losses. He is a savant offensively, all while psychologically motivating players to perform at peak levels. He transformed Bowling Green and Utah each in just two seasons. His coaching style on the field restored Florida and Ohio State to national prominence again. An undefeated season at Utah in 2004, two national championship seasons at Florida, an undefeated season in 2012 and a national title in 2014 at Ohio State established Meyer as a coach with the rare ability to convince college student-athletes of their perceived invincibility.
As a coach on the field, his track record can’t be questioned.
Coaching records aside, Meyer’s management system will forever be questioned. The true value of a coach is more than wins and losses. A coach in any sport is supposed to be a leader. A coach is there to guide players and teams and get the most out of them on and off the field. In this respect, Meyer has bypassed being the adult figure at a pivotal point in several of his players’ lives, all for the sake of adding wins to his resume.
One month prior to his retirement from Florida in December of 2010, he alluded that the program was broken. Arrest records for the Gators were well-documented; there was scant attention to the trouble brewing. It was not until a Sporting News article in 2012 about the dirt below the surface and an ESPN story in 2015 about the last three years of Meyer’s tenure at Florida that revealed how Meyer’s dynasty crumbled.
Former players confessed Meyer fostered a two-tiered culture that rewarded the haves while keeping the have-nots at bay. Star players, who were in his “Ballers” or “Circle of Trust” program were excused from practices, received team meals first and sat in the front on charter planes. Members in the “Ballers” program also benefited from Meyer’s protection.
In the Sporting News article, it was revealed that Hernandez, Percy Harvin and Brandon Spikes were not injured in the team’s first game of the 2008 season against Hawaii. In fact, they were sitting out because of failed drug tests.
Ironically, all three failed drug tests later: Hernandez and Harvin failed drug tests leading up to their respective NFL Drafts, causing both to drop lower than their talent would indicate they’d be selected. Spikes was suspended for the first four games of his NFL career with the New England Patriots due to a failed drug test. Harvin and fellow receiver Riley Cooper reportedly attacked receivers coach Billy Gonzalez with no consequence from Meyer.
Cornerback Janoris Jenkins walked out on Meyer after the Hawaii game in 2008 and did not receive any punishment. Jenkins later stated tongue-in-cheek if Meyer were still coaching instead of Will Muschamp, Jenkins would still be a Gator instead of Muschamp who kicked him off the team.
Most notably, Hernandez’s troubles followed him in the NFL, getting charged and convicted of the murder of Odin Lloyd, and in April 2017, he committed suicide in his jail cell. A six-part Boston Globe series on Hernandez attributed his descent to what happened during his time at Florida under Meyer’s watch.
According to the Globe, Meyer and the coaches enabled Hernandez’s behavior, which contributed to a troubled young man heading down to a path of murder and self-destruction. Part of the negligence by Meyer was that Hernandez was never punished for rupturing the eardrum of a Gainesville bar employee in a 2007 incident. According to the Globe, that prompted Tebow and Hernandez to call Meyer who then contacted defense attorney Huntley Johnson to take on the matter.
In that same year, Hernandez was never formally questioned by the police although he and his Florida teammates, Mike and Maurkice Pouncey, were suspects in a shooting near a club. Per the report, the authorities called Meyer’s assistant. Meyer then intervened and counseled Hernandez and the Pouncey brothers before they spoke to authorities. In the end, no charges were brought against the Gator football players.
Meyer’s issues at Ohio State are different from Florida but are alarming enough to lead to questions about the culture he’s fostered. Meyer had immediate success in Columbus, winning his first 24 games and a national title in his third season. At first glance, it appeared that Meyer cured his obsessive win-at-all-cost culture. But this past August rekindled the memories of the out of control culture under Meyer at Florida. Add in that Meyer was only suspended for three games to start the 2018 season, it became clear that his ideology, to win at any cost, was Ohio State’s philosophy too.
Meyer’s lackadaisical influence on the program could be traced all the way back to around the 2015 season. Ezekiel Elliott’s name was found on two Columbus Police reports during his sophomore year at Ohio State in 2014. Elliott later admitted he used drugs in college and became entangled in his own domestic violence case, leading to a six-game suspension in the 2017 NFL season.
With Elliott’s popularity during his time at Ohio State, it’s hard to believe Meyer wasn’t aware of his star tailback’s behavior. That 2015 Buckeye’s team was poised to repeat, as they were stacked with NFL talent but too often complacency would be the theme, and it appeared Meyer didn’t care about this flaw as long as they won.
The same permeated Meyer’s teams the next few seasons, in which lopsided losses to Clemson, Iowa and Purdue have been plagued by a lack of discipline on the field. Meyer’s teams in 2017 and 2018 season ranked 103rd and 115th in penalties, respectively. Alabama, by comparison, has ranked 38th and 46th the last two seasons. The fact that a team under Meyer’s tutelage has played with such a lack of discipline and have endured embarrassing losses to Iowa and Purdue is alarming.
Is it that Meyer doesn’t care for the flaws of his teams as long as he wins? Does it point out that the team has taken on his attitude as a coach, which has tolerated character issues off the field? Lastly, were Denzel Ward and Nick Bosa, who elected to begin their NFL Draft process early, a product of a similar culture of emboldening star players in Gainesville? All of that leads to the ultimate question of whether Meyer’s tolerance of bad behavior has affected his chase for more titles and, ultimately, the view of his legacy?
None of this will stop him from getting into the College Football Hall of Fame or from his place among the greatest college coaches ever. Meyer deserves full credit for the on-field success his teams at Bowling Green Utah, Florida and Ohio State have had. His ability to turn programs around swiftly is a remarkable gift, his influence easily permeates over a program radiantly.
But the cost of winning for Meyer has become apparent.
He has a whatever-it-takes attitude. If it means neglecting player welfare, failed drug tests, giving small or even no punishments and tolerating sloppy wins, then so be it.
Perhaps, this is what separates Meyer and Saban in terms of who is more productive. While Meyer is in elite company alongside Saban and Pop Warner as the only coaches to win a national championship at two different schools, Saban’s edge is his proven ability to sustain excellence while committing to preparing his teams to play at a high level consistently. Saban’s edge over Meyer is six championships to three, even though Meyer has won two of their three head-to-head matchups.
In short, Meyer appears to be at his best within a window. His effectiveness is in the first few years, but he struggles to sustain a program the longer he stays, as shown at Florida and Ohio State. It will always be a what-if regarding whether Meyer could have won more than three national titles to this point had he fulfilled his moral obligations as a coach. Meyer will always be credited as an extremely talented coach with a rare drive to win.
His 62-39 victory over Michigan and Big Ten Championship Game victory showed he can motivate his teams to greatness. But the loss to Purdue is haunting in the aftermath of the Smith fiasco. For every monumental win, there are losses that shouldn’t have happened.
For every national championship win, the sins of Hernandez, Elliott and Smith will forever hang over Meyer. The legacy of Meyer will depend on which lens you want to use view him.
If you are viewing him as a coach, tactician or strategist, he represents pure greatness. If you are viewing him through the lens of whether he’s a leader of men, that’s where it will always be complicated.