Urban Meyer describes conversation with Billy Gonzales, shares message for Florida interim HC
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Upon landing the role of Florida interim head coach, Billy Gonzales knew where to turn for advice. Gonzales called up Urban Meyer to get some pointers on how to handle his new responsibilities.
Gonzales played wide receiver at Colorado State, and Meyer was his position coach. When landing his first head coaching job at Bowling Green, he turned to Gonzales to coach wide receivers. Gonzales would follow Meyer to Utah and Florida in the same role.
On the latest episode of The Triple Option, Meyer described his call with Gonzales.
“So he calls me, and he said, ‘I’m the interim coach now at Florida.’ And I was like, ‘Whoa.’ … And then he said, ‘I have a staff meeting coming up, I have a team meeting coming up.’ And I was like, I mean, I was taking a deep breath saying, I got to help my guy here, and this is not easy.”
Meyer went on to reveal some of his advice for Gonzales.
“And I said the first thing, and most importantly, and he agreed, you know, don’t you dare take a shot at the previous (coach). Don’t. Stay completely away from that.”
Gonzales was one of the only staff links between the Billy Napier and Dan Mullen eras. Upon his hiring, Napier did not retain any of Mullen’s assistant coaches, including Gonzales. When Napier needed to hire a wide receivers coach ahead of his second season, though, he brought back Gonzales, who coached the position under Mullen at Mississippi State and Florida.
Meyer also told Gonzales to be focused on the players.
“… The most important thing are these darn players,” Meyer said. “And everything is going to be on film. A player can ruin his (NFL) Draft stock or his career by screwing around right now, or not getting coached.”
It’s also important for the coaches who might be looking for new jobs to stay focused on the task at hand, Meyer noted.
“Say you’re an offensive line coach at Florida… If I was going to hire someone, I’m going to watch that film and see if he coached those last 5, 6 games. And you can tell probably in about 30 seconds if they have or have not,” Meyer said.
Florida has 5 remaining regular-season games on the schedule, starting with Week 10’s rivalry showdown against No. 5 Georgia in Jacksonville.
@3xoptionshow After Billy Napier’s firing, Urban says his former player Billy Gonzales called him for advice on stepping in as Florida’s interim coach.
♬ original sound – The Triple Option
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
