Three football seasons ago, Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators were on top of the college footballworld. They had just won their second BCS Championship in three seasons, their Heisman winning quarterback Tim Tebow had just announced that he would be returning for his senior season and they were certain to start the year off in the AP preseason Top 5. The next year didn't even end up in a championship and the following season would be Meyer's worst as a Gator. At the end of the 2009 football season, Meyer announced that he would be stepping down as the head coach of the Florida Gators. When asked why, he said he was stepping down because of health reasons. He also stated that he was stepping down because he wanted to spend more time with his family and watch his kids grow up. Even then, many people, including myself, thought he was stepping down for other reasons. Even if you didn't believe Meyer at the time it seemed a little insensitive to criticize a man who seemed so passionate about what he does for a living.
So after a while, people let him off the hook, but it is raising eyebrows that he is now talking about coaching again. ESPN analysts are saying it's because he now knows how to balance college football, his family life and his health. They are saying he can now get extra help so he won't have to overwork himself. But what good assistant coach worth his salt wouldn't have signed on to coach with the mighty gators alongside Meyer? It's time now to call him on his lies. He stepped down because Tim Tebow's time was up as a Gator and with talented sophomore Cam Newton gone, there were not any spread option quarterbacks left on the Gators' roster. Meyer was stuck with a highly recruited pocket passer John Brantley. Meyer was not talented enough to alter his offense to make it work, so instead of struggling he retired.
Meyer is now coming back to coaching because Ohio State has a highly sought after mobile quarterback, Braxton Miller, that Meyer believes he can build his famous spread offense around. Whatever happened to the great coaches who could coach to the talent that was on their teams? In today's sports, especially college football, there are no real coaches left, just system coaches. This was not spoken about Meyer while he was on top. He was mentioned among the league's best head coaches. But after all the championships and awards, we now know different. Meyer is nothing more than a system coach. A coach who will not survive change or the test of time. And to make things worst, he could at least be a guy who sticks around when things aren't going well, but he is a quitter. I guarantee that the first year he can't recruit a top-notch mobile quarterback, he is going to quit. Consider yourselves warned Ohio State. The few years of success will not be worth the setback when his health problems suddenly force him to retire again.
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