Kragthorpe: Meyer’s early exit was nine years in the making

Whether his intent was a warning, a promise or merely an attempt to convince himself, Urban Meyer always said this day was coming sooner than anyone else was willing to believe.

When he would tell his Utah football players he did not plan to coach forever, “We’d all look at each other like, ‘Yeah, right,’ ” said former defensive back Steve Tate.

Yet when it actually happened Saturday, with Meyer citing health reasons for his plans to leave Florida after the Sugar Bowl, everybody should have seen it coming. And credit Meyer, the coach who made folks in Ohio and Utah unhappy with his early departures, for always knowing when to exit.

Turns out, those 2003 and ‘04 seasons with the Utes represented a sizable chunk of his professional life. The years he invested in producing that 22-2 record account for 22.2 percent of Meyer’s head coaching career.

Meyer spoke of having “given my heart and soul” to coaching, and he was probably leaving something out. Having checked himself into a hospital the morning after losing to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference championship game, Meyer checked out with a case of self-awareness, beyond any physical diagnosis.

This guy always attacked his job relentlessly and successfully, and the same forces that made quitting at age 45 possible also made it necessary. The profession can defeat a coach, even when he’s winning like crazy and raking in money. The demands can be overwhelming, and Meyer knew it in Salt Lake City.

“I won’t last,” he once told The Tribune ’s Gordon Monson. “At 50, I see myself at the end of my rope.”

He was 39 then, so Meyer actually underestimated the wear and tear he would experience. And yet, as a recent Sports Illustrated profile revealed, there were signs even then of what was to come.

During a win over Oregon in his fifth game at Utah, he was struck by nearly debilitating headaches, diagnosed as stemming from a brain cyst, inflamed by stress and excitement.

Or, in one word, coaching.

Meyer claimed in that SI story to have managed himself better since then, but the toll still accumulated. Eric Weddle, the San Diego Chargers safety who was emerging as a star defensive back in ‘04 when the Utes went 12-0 with a Fiesta Bowl victory, unintentionally invented a word to describe Meyer’s approach: “submerse.”

Then again, the creative combination of “immerse” and “submerge” accurately summarizes how Meyer went about his work. “It can take you over,” Weddle told The Tribune ’s Lya Wodraska. “But I hope he continues coaching.”

Certainly, the natural response to Saturday’s news is that Meyer is not done, that he’s merely regrouping and positioning himself for the next challenge — and soon. But I doubt it. I believe that with annual income that has rocketed from $400,000 at Utah to $4 million at Florida in six years, Meyer recognizes, how many more millions do you need?

I also know Tim Tebow played into this decision, and not because the quarterback’s college career is ending. From Tebow, Meyer has learned to reassess his priorities, become a more faithful person and looked beyond himself, as evidenced by his family’s mission trips to the Dominican Republic.

Kyle Whittingham, Meyer’s successor at Utah, labeled Meyer’s move “carefully thought out and made for the right reasons.”

Meyer’s impact on the Utes extends through Whittingham, who also has acknowledged a coaching shelf life. The reality is that the Meyer/Whittingham/Bronco Mendenhall generation will not include any Joe Paternos or LaVell Edwardses, coaches who could insulate themselves from the demands of the job by delegating much of the actual coaching. Not these guys.

Meyer gave all 113 games his full attention over the past nine seasons, and now his laser focus will shift.

Meyer’s daughters are 19 and 16; his son is 11. “His health and his family are the most important things to him,” said Ute athletic director Chris Hill, who hired Meyer.

Weber State coach Ron McBride, 70, responded to his own health scare in 2004 by valuing his job more than ever. Last year, after having to leave the field during a game, McBride told his players, “If I die out there, you guys prop me up and make it look like I’m alive.”

Those who know Mac know he was only partly kidding.

Regardless, that won’t happen to Urban Meyer. This is one time when the master motivator succeeded in persuading himself to make the right move.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

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