Meyer’s public persona (even “post” most recent NCAA Championship) has changed from stressed out, driven, win at all cost curmudgeon to broken, appreciate the small stuff, smile at the press-conference, “serenity now” embracing coach/father/brother/mentor example. Urban Meyer (new man, new championship, newly found sense of humor) has apparently embraced the Serenity Prayer (authored by Reinhold Niebuhr and embraced fully by Alcoholics Anonymous). “He said, ‘I’ve learned to accept the things I cannot change.’ I’m sure every day he says the prayer about ‘Lord, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the strength to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.'” “When Braxton Miller was injured, I called him and asked him how he was dealing with it,” said Erica Meyer Judd, Meyer’s younger sister. “It reminded me a lot of my dad, actually, the way his eyes got all wide and then he scrunched his face up. “That moment was awesome,” said Gigi Meyer Escoe, the coach’s older sister. He leaned to his left, pretending to leave the press conference. He seemed to wonder, briefly, if someone were playing a joke on him.īut then, after processing it, Meyer laughed. Meyer - who had not yet heard the score of the Ducks-Seminoles game - looked incredulous, then awestruck. Here’s what happened: Meyer was chatting with the media after Ohio State’s surprising victory over Alabama in the College Football Playoff when a reporter casually mentioned, in the middle of a question, that Oregon had beaten Florida State by nearly 40 points in the other semifinal. Gigi and Erica make it clear that their brother isn’t the same guy that left Florida as a shell of himself just a few years ago: Meyer took the 2011 season off before taking the head coach job at Ohio State in 2012. Sacrificing his personal happiness, especially in the cutthroat world of coaching football, seemed like an understandable trade-off to many. But he built winners everywhere he went, and his two national titles at Florida earned him a reputation as one of the best in his profession. He snarled at reporters, stressed himself into a ball of knots (even after victories), and he generally looked miserable. When irritated, his stare felt like it could melt a hole in your forehead.
There was a time, not long ago, when Meyer grimaced and growled his way through the day with the disposition of an ornery badger. Kevin Van Valkenburg at talks about Myer’s last few years at Florida: Meyer had resigned from his head coach position at the University of Florida because of a scare with a heart issue related to the stress from the job. They spoke at length about the “new Urban Meyer”. Prior to the Oregon/Ohio State game Monday night, ran this interview with Urban Meyer’s sisters (Gigi and Erica). Meanwhile over at Grantland, Brian Phillips wrote a definitive piece on the downward trajectory of NBA icon Kobe Bryant (h/t DZ). This was certainly the most improbable of the three as his Ohio State Buckeyes (behind a 3rd string QB) manhandled Oregon by 3+ touchdowns. Meyer, of course, on Monday night became only the 8th coach in NCAA history with three or more National Championships. Kobe Bryant and Urban Meyer – two guys at the top of their sports professions earlier this century (both leading their teams to multiple championships) – were in the news these past few weeks.
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