Urban Meyer isn’t afraid to share an opinion, even if it’s at the expense of a friend.
Following Texas’ stunning loss to Maryland in Week 1, first-year head coach Tom Herman raised some eyebrows with one comment in particular.
“If we all thought that we were going to come in here and in nine months sprinkle some fairy dust on this team and think that we’ve arrived then we’re wrong,” the coach said.
Some took it as a shot at the players Herman inherited. Others saw it as lamenting the culture he inherited. Herman’s former boss is decidedly in the former camp.
“C’mon man. I don’t know where that came from,” the Ohio State head coach told Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com. “It’s like a new generation of excuse. [Herman, his former OSU offensive coordinator] said, ‘I can’t rub pixie dust on this thing.’ He got a dose of reality. Maryland just scored 51 points on you. ...
"[Blaming players] drives me insane.”
Meyer has certainly displayed an expertise throughout his career in winning with what was in the personnel cupboard when he arrived on campus.
In his first head job at Bowling Green, Meyer inherited a team that went 2-9 the year before he arrived; the Falcons won eight games in 2001 and nine in 2002 before Meyer took the job at Utah. Coming off a 5-6 2002 season, Meyer rode former head coach Ron McBride‘s players to 10- and 12-win seasons with the Utes. A 7-5 Florida team in Year 3 of the Ron Zook Era won the national championship two years after Meyer’s 2005 arrival in Gainesville. In his first season at Ohio State, Meyer went 12-0 with nearly the exact same cast of Sweatervest-recruited players who went 6-7 in 2011; two years after that, Meyer claimed his third national championship.
“That’s like, when I got here, everybody wanted me to say Jim Tressel left the cupboard bare,” Meyer told Dodd. “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.”
Herman’s response to his former boss’ very public rebuke will be fascinating to watch unfold.