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Letter to the editor

First impression of Meyer: A classy winner

By HUBERT MIZELL
Published December 12, 2004

He's my ninth Florida Gators football coach, dating to 1958 when, as a teenage correspondent, I wrote about Bob Woodruff for my hometown Jacksonville newspaper.

It's been a sweet trip, analyzing upsy, downsy seasons of Gainesville generals known as Graves, Dickey, Pell, Hall, Darnell, Spurrier and Zook. Nah, I'm not going to include Charlie Strong.

Watching the new Bull Gator take over was a different experience. No longer a daily columnist, I scribbled no notes, asked no questions and worried not about an angle for the next morning.

For once, I could stand back, observe, listen and silently assess as Urban Meyer, fresh in from snowy Utah mountains, did his first flatlander dance with curious, probing Florida reporters.

U.M. was queried about career decisions, philosophies, recruiting, dealing with today's athletes and the new UF coach's reputation as a disciplinarian in the styles of Vince Lombardi and Woody Hayes.

Answers were candid and firm. Maybe 60 reporters came for a look, media voices from every Florida cranny. Also some national journalists. At least 30 or 40 cameras hummed. Meyer was new to almost all, so the learning is just beginning.

Clearly, he won't be buddy-buddy with Gator players, not in the style of predecessor Ron Zook. Good idea. It's like a father raising children; there should never be doubt about who's the daddy or who gets the only vote.

Months ago, Meyer declared, "When I hear somebody is a players' coach, I get real worried. What does that mean? That they have cocktails with players?" Or meet up at a frat house?

There couldn't be a finer UF hire than Meyer. Considering all angles and a 19-year age difference, not even a second coming - at 59 - of Steve Spurrier as Florida coach would've been better than Urbanization.

Meyer must win big, and he will. How quickly? If I knew, I'd load up at my bank and catch a flight to Vegas. If there is rapid, massive acceptance of Urban ways among Zook leftovers, the Gators should go 9-2 or better.

Meyer's history tells us he will drive players hard, physically and mentally. I'm okay with that, as long as there is no smudging of the line between humanity and inhumanity.

Jocks, even the moderns, though often slow to admit it, are prone to find happiness in environments heavy in discipline. Gators who were used to Zook's long leash will be stunned by some Meyer commandments.

He frowns at showboating. Urban loathes acts of arrogance. "I'm not much for cool," he said. Meyer watches little of the NFL because ballfield exhibitionists turn his stomach. He stresses old-style humility. I'm for that. We'll see how speedily the more demonstrative among Gators come to accept the harnesses of new UF house rules.

To his Utes, there was a loud Urban promise: "If you miss class without a good reason, you'll get your a-- kicked." He decries jocks self-grouping by race.

"When I first got to Utah," he said, "there were Polynesians in one group, black kids in another; you had your Mormon kids in one corner. All good kids, but they didn't know each other."

Soon they mixed well.

Meyer spouts fresh text. Not from some stale, predictable coaching handbook. "Some people fear losing," he said. "I don't. If they're better than us and play better, they're going to win."

In the hours after Meyer's opening act, I asked more than 20 boosters of the Gators to assess their new leader. Not a one was anti-Urban. Pains unquestionably were subsiding from a Spurrier nonreturn and then the Ol' Ball Coach signing on with SEC East rival South Carolina.

Most of those UF fans cheered Meyer's ideas of strong discipline, his well-documented offensive creativity and Spurrier brand of spice in dealing with Florida State and other prime adversaries.

Meyer, a la Steve, expressed disinterest in being pals with FSU Seminoles or Georgia Bulldogs or Tennessee Vols. Meyer, we must presume, includes South Carolina Gamecocks in his non-beloveds.

Let the games begin.

THE LAST WORD: One thing is a lock; being christened "Urban," there will constantly be word plays on the coach's intriguing name. I'm guilty, having branded Meyer's well-spread offensive formations as "Urban Sprawl."

He's been labeled "Urban Legend." Taking over the Gators is "Urban Renewal." When his plans don't work, they could be termed "Sub-urban." Oh, yeah, I also used "Urbanization."

But he's no kin to Oscar Meyer.

Hubert Mizell can be contacted at mizell3@cox.net

[Last modified December 12, 2004, 00:32:19]