Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Even heavier? The college football coach who put colleagues on blast for making excuses, but then hurls an entire position under the bus.
Oh, hello there, Ohio State Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer.
As you may recall, Meyer took some digs at other football coaches recently. It was pretty big news, as Myer indirectly called out Texas Longhorns coach Tom Herman for his “I don't have fairy dust” comment.
To get you up to speed, Urban Meyer somewhat clapped at the magical dust remark, as well as not being a huge fan of anyone at Florida claiming he left the roster thing with talent.
“That’s like, when I got here, everybody wanted me to say Jim Tressel left the cupboard bare,” Meyer said to CBS. “If I heard any assistant coach [say that], they’d be gone. You’re done.
“Those are your players. I hear TV guys [say], ‘Wait until they get their own players in there.’ They’re our players. What do you mean ‘their players?’ The minute you sign a contract, they’re your players.
“You didn’t choose me, I chose you. You’re mine, absolutely. I love you, and I’m going to kick the shit out of you, and we’re going to do it right …
“[Blaming players] drives me insane.”
You notice something funky about that last statement? Maybe you don't because there's no other context that makes it strange today.
Alas, there is now some.
Meyer has now said, “Kickoff coverage is a mess. We don't have a kicker that can kick the ball.”
There's a thin line between holding a player accountable or instead tossing that kid to the wayside as an excuse for failures. While the Ohio State coach didn't go bonkers with tone during this statement, it was as petty as it was cruel, especially only a few weeks removed from saying he doesn't like blaming players.
And that is exactly what this is. The Ohio State fan base bubble can claim this not to be a hypocritical statement, but it will be an awfully hard spin. Even if the team's kicker is downright dreadful — and hey, it isn't fun to bash unpaid talent as it is, so we'll leave it alone — the paid to be “leader of young men” does not have to demean the kid in public.
This was a dressing down of Ohio State's kicker in front of adults by Meyer. Not only that, but there were cameras around to capture this. Meaning, at least indirectly, the kicker will have to trot about Ohio State's campus as the guy the head coach said stinks at his job.
Other kids on campus know this. They will no longer look at him as a classmate. Rather, he is that guy “Urban Meyer says is at fault for…” whatever those kids will want him to be at fault for.
I mean, don't kickers and punters have it bad enough as is?
It is just a really weird look, is all. Calling out Herman for the fairy dust stuff, then going after one of his own in public less than a month later? Eh.
This is our weekly reminder that college coaches are not all those things some media members and fans so badly want them to be. Sports isn't some morality play. Nor is a college coach's job to do anything other than win as many games as humanly possible. If he happens to also help kids get better at life, that's great. But no program — especially not one as good as Ohio State — would keep around a coach if he can't win just because he's good at making teenagers adults.
To be Camp Crystal Lake clear here (which is code for some hedging): Urban Meyer didn't do the worst thing in the world. He's not the first, nor will he be the last, to publicly say something negative about one of this players. Not to mention that Meyer didn't go on and on about it, or claim the kicker as a direct reason for any of the team's woes.
Still, even if asked a question specifically about something like that, maybe the latter part of that presser would have been enough. When saying, “everyone could have been better” suffices, there's no reason to also hurl in a “we don't have a kicker who can kick the ball.”
It's just too direct. Too blunt. Too much of a jerk move, if we are being honest. That statement, regardless of its truth, doesn't need to be made in public.
Anyway, the funny thing about this — per the usual — is the paid adult holding the kids to a higher standard of accountability than they do themselves. Meyer bashes others for laying blame, then irony sets in shortly thereafter.
Maybe Meyer went to a Brian Kelly seminar recently?
Follow Us
Subscribe