Meyer faces greatest challenge of his life
Coach must remain nation's best, without ruining his physical health
OPINION
By Dave Curtis
updated 9:27 p.m. ET Dec. 27, 2009
Tim Tebow called the weekend a whirlwind. Jeremy Foley, Florida's athletic director, said he took two pills Saturday night and still struggled to fall asleep. But both spoke at Florida's news conference Sunday in relaxed tones, as though the craziness and the insomnia were gone.
In between on a dais sat coach Urban Meyer, and, well, relaxed sure wasn't the adjective. He smiled some and even cracked a joke during his nationally televised session in New Orleans, where his team is preparing for the Sugar Bowl. But he seemed uncertain and tentative throughout, and with good reason. For Meyer, the hardest part of his professional life begins now. And it might be the part he can't conquer.
The battle of the past couple of weeks — stay, resign, or take the indefinite leave of absence he announced Sunday — challenged him in a way that Alabama and Cincinnati, the Gators' Sugar Bowl opponent, never could. He thought, he cried, and he wavered, and Sunday it showed in his measured comments.
One of the comments, about feeling in his gut that he'll re-take his job in time for the 2010 season (he'll coach the bowl game Friday), will resonate from now until September. That period will bring a new hardest task for him: how to remain the Hall of Fame-bound coach of a premier program without ruining his physical health.
"The challenge here for him," Foley said, "and I'm sure for (his wife) Shelley and all of us who care so much about him, is to help him evaluate how he does things but not take away the edge that makes him successful." Foley spoke of seeing lunches uneaten on Meyer's desk and of seeing him shedding weight as a season rolled on. More deli sandwiches, though, won't solve his problems. Meyer on Sunday admitted he needs to overhaul his lifestyle but couldn't provide how he'll turn that trick.
"That's something I've got to figure out," he said at the news conference. "I'm going to attempt to get that thing fixed."
To fix it, Meyer will need to change his identity. From a young age, he built his life around Successories-type tenets — only victory is acceptable, and that victory comes from outworking everyone. He made himself a minor-league baseball player and endured as a college football walk-on. He'd become a D-I head coach at age 36, coach an undefeated, BCS bowl team at 40, win an SEC and national championship at 42.
Those results came from what turned out to be more hours and intensity than his body can take. Meyer recruited so much and with such earnest that the NCAA changed rules about ways coaches can contact prospects. He helped make the spread offense mainstream. He became a legend in fewer years than it takes some guys to get their first head coaching jobs.
"I lived a 30-year coaching career in nine years," he said, "and I can't do that."
Tebow could see it happening. He said Sunday that he long knew of Meyer's health problems and that the last couple of weeks showed they were worse than "digestive issues." Foley had greater knowledge of the extent of Meyer's difficulties, saying he has worried for Meyer since he started at Florida.
"Is Urban Meyer going to be coaching football when he's 60 and doing it the way he's doing it now? No," Foley said. "I knew that, and I knew that when he signed a new contract. If the University of Florida got the entire contract out of him, we'd be blessed."
The contract lasts five more seasons, and for Meyer to remain Florida's coach when it ends, things need to be different. And though Foley pledged he'd help however he and his staff could, the changes must come within. Throughout his time with the Gators, Meyer managed one of the more talented and accomplished coaching staffs in America. Florida officials spared no expense in surrounding the program with support personnel, from nutritionists to academic advisors to a full-time director of player and community relations. Even with all those lieutenants, Meyer still desired to repair and enhance almost every detail of almost every aspect of the program.
"If that means staying until 4 in the morning, if that means rehashing over and over again what to do different, it's our fault," Meyer said.
"When a young man flunks a class, that's our fault. Something happened." Meyer has built a life, a legacy and a fortune with that attitude. Now, it needs to go, and in a hurry. Maybe hearing his kids speak of "getting their daddy back" will help him ease up. Maybe he constructs his staff in unique fashion to alleviate some of the pressure on the head coach. Maybe the doctors' warnings that he'll do damage if he continues at his current pace will force the overhaul.
Or maybe nothing will work. Can a coach re-invent himself with a few months of reflection? The search for precedent leads to Dick Vermeil, who spent better than a decade out of coaching before returning to the profession in the late 1990s.
The news conference didn't answer those questions. The next few months will. And Florida football, its fans and all of college football wait for the outcome.
If he never returns, Meyer will end his career as an all-time great. If he comes back and thrives again as a winning, healthy coach, it will rank among his greatest accomplishments.
© 2012 Sporting News
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