For months, many have speculated Urban Meyer would step down from his job as head coach at Ohio State. The reasons were plenty: Zach Smith scandal, history of health problems, sideline behavior, etc.
At his Tuesday press conference, he referred to it as a cumulative decision. When explaining why he felt the need to step away, he described as not being able to coach in his preferred style.
“The style of coaching I’ve done for 33 years is very intense, very demanding,” Meyer said. “I tried to delegate more and CEO more and the product started to feel. I didn’t feel I was doing right by our players and by [athletic director] Gene (Smith). The challenge was could I continue to do that in that style.”
This will all sound familiar to those who followed Meyer’s tenure at Florida (2005-10), particularly the 2009 and ’10 seasons. When Meyer retired and almost instantly un-retired in ’09, he talked of delegating more responsibilities to then-offensive coordinator Steve Addazio, even going as far to say that Addazio would be in charge of spring practice. Meyer, however, found he couldn’t stay away from practice or dial it down. It is also of note that at Florida the product was at its worst (8-5) in that final season after the un-retirement.
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.
