Not to sound ungrateful, because the Urban Meyer Era was perhaps the greatest in Gator history, but spare me the whole “the stress from this job was just too much” garbage I am already hearing coming out of the mouths of the talking heads on ESPN. Seriously? The pressure from the fans is too much? Are you kidding me? Show of hands here…who has been over to Urban’s house since the SEC Championship Game to lodge a complaint? Anyone? Has anyone called him? Emailed him? I haven’t. Has anyone put a “For Sale” sign in his yard? Not me.
Are we evil because we want the Gators to win? ESPECIALLY when we have almost an entire roster from a National Championship team returning for next year? I heard Herbstreit whining for Urban about how even winning wasn’t good enough for us because we weren’t winning by enough. Tell me Herbie. WHO WAS RIGHT?? WE WERE! We were right when we complained about the lack of a down field passing game. We were right when we worried that we were not playing well enough to beat a very tough Alabama no matter what our record said. And guess what? Urban is under ZERO requirement to listen to ANY of us. He does not have to read the blogs. He does not have to listen to the radio. ANY pressure he felt this year was put there by only one person. Urban Meyer. NOBODY was calling for his head after the ‘Bama loss. He could have stayed here for a s long as he wanted.
I for one have done nothing BUT defend the guy. Now I feel like a fool. All these Georgia, FSU, and UT fans who have been praying for him to go to Notre Dame and hitting us with the “wait until after this year when Tebow and Meyer are both gone” are all laughing their collective asses off right now. So yes, I am a bit ticked right now. I don’t want anyone having a heart attack, don’t get me wrong. But how many of us don’t have some sort of health issues? I’m 45 myself. I have plenty. Do I get to just say screw it?
If I hear one more “People don’t understand the intense pressure he was under” comment I am going to go postal. The guy was making $4,000,000 a year base salary. Altogether I would bet that’s really close to $10,000,000. Who among us would not LOVE to make that kind of money? Would you complain about having to work 14 hours a day? You want to know what pressure is Urban? Pressure is not knowing whether you can get your kids anything for Christmas. Pressure is screening your calls from the creditors. Pressure is having to come up with some money right now because the guy is at your door threatening to turn the power off. Pressure is wondering what would happen to your family if you were to get too sick to work. THAT is pressure. THAT is the pressure your fan base is going through right now. Companies are closing their doors, homes are being foreclosed on and you people have the nerve to complain about having to win a football game?
They say on TV that your health issues are not life threatening? Well then if that’s the case, get some medicine, maybe delegate some of the workload, but get your butt back to work. That’s what the rest of us have to do. And if you don’t feel like you can do the job at the level you’ve been doing it, than that’s fine. But don’t blame it on us. You love us when you want us to buy tickets. You love us when you want us to write checks made out to the athletic department. Now you want to blame us for your chest pains? So whoever the next coach is, know what is expected BEFORE you come here. You are expected to win championships. Period. End of story. With that comes pressure and also the potential for great fame, glory, wealth and admiration. If that sounds like a fair trade off, then welcome aboard. But if you fail to deliver on your end, make no mistake, you will be held accountable.
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I somewhat agree. I am somewhat torn between being angry at his departure when my job and my 12-hour days and sometimes 365-day deployments wear on my health and family at only $50K/year, and being grateful for a great 5-year era of Gator football. I keep flip-flopping between closing my posts with “God bless Urban Meyer and his family” and “give me one-tenth of your paycheck and let me suffer through health problems for the most fun job on earth”.
I’m not bashing the guy for making a decision based on his health or his family. I’m a bit ticked off that somehow WE are to blame in the eyes of the media and other fans. That’s BS! And this crap about how the pressure to win at Florida is somehow the cause of this is just that. Crap!
If this guy doesn’t feel he can do the job anymore than fine. Go ahead and do something else. And I’m not saying he’s blaming this on the fans, but many are. Obviously he thought about it and had a change of heart. Maybe he realizes that many people every day have health issues and still have to get up and go to work every day.
This has nothing to do with being ungrateful. This has to do with doing your job. If you don’t think you can do it, fine. Just say that. But this back and forth, maybe i can maybe I can’t, is not how to run a football program at a high profile institution like Florida. Do we really want Steve Addazio running things for the next year? I don’t.
If he can’t handle the expectations at Florida then he needs to go. If he can get medication and think about cutting back and his work load then great. But these people who are on tv insinuating it’s the fans’ fault can kiss my ass. And that goes for you too.
Way to stay classy. I was interested to see what the reaction would be from various Gator blogs, but I wouldn’t have expected this. The guy just gave you 2 National Championships, 2 conference and 3 eastern division titles, recruited and coached your Heisman-winning quarterback, and never had worse than a 9-win season during his tenure. He has far and away been the best coach in the country over the past 5 years. There’s nobody else who could have been as successful in his place. And it’s not like he’s pulling a Saban and heading for the NFL or a different job elsewhere. He’s going to stay at UF in some capacity; he has been calling recruits to persuade them to keep their commitments, and he’s going to help find the next coach. The real irony is watching you bash the guy and declare that the next coach is expected to win national championships. Last I checked, the Gators had won all of 1 national championship before Meyer showed up. A little quick research (here) shows that 17 schools had won more nc’s than Florida before Meyer got there. Before Meyer showed up Florida had the 6th best all-time win percentage… in the SEC (here). UF used to be a good program, Meyer turned the school into a great one and made the head coaching job the top one in the country. Meyer’s success is the only reason you can demand championships without sounding delusional. You should be thankful for the time that Meyer was a head coach, instead of demanding he sacrifice everything else in his life so that your football team can win more games.
I love college football as much as anyone, but it’s worth keeping in mind that when it boils down to it, it’s just a game. It shouldn’t even be the top priority at a university, whose main purpose I believe has something to do with education. Meyer’s decision to prioritize his family and his health over money and a game shows that he is a responsible father and husband. It really is a shame that a good person like Meyer is struggling with health issues, and not an ungrateful asshole like yourself.