—
Urhan Meyer
READ, READ OPTION, AND SHOVEL PASS
University of Florida
Wher ! was recruiting in Florida (as an assistant
coach at Notre Dame}, | had to drive to Lake City,
Florida, to see a recruit. As { was driving up the
interstate, | Kept Seeing exit signs to Gainesvitle,
One after another, the Gainesville exit signs came
up. Ihada couple of hours to kil! before! got to Lake
City so} decided to go see the stadium and the
campus at the University of Florida.
J pulled off the interstate to go to the stadium.
parked my car and walked on the University of
Florida campus on the way to the stadium. | waked
on the campus in the middle of Janay antl} saw all
kinds of students engaged in different activities.
you have been to Sauth Bend, Indiana, you know you
would not see that in January at Notre Dame, The
students at most campuses {visited at that time of
the year were not very happy. At the University of
Florida, everyone was walking around in golf shirts
and was having fun.
| walked into the stadium. At other college
stadiums, you find a padlock on the stadium gates
because they are closed when not being used. t
‘went into the stadium and there were people in the
stadium running around in the middle of the
“swamp.” It was in the middle of January and they
were having @ great time. | walked down the
stadium steps, and watked aut on the field. |walked
to the 50-yard line, My heart rate increased and the
hair stood up on my arms. | called my wife and told
her, “This is the place.” Thisis the best place tobe in
college football. The reason say thatis simple. Jam
so happy now because | can rectuit the kids i
Florida and tel them to come to Gainesville.
{am excited about being the coach at Florida.
know you ate supposed to stay calm, cool, and
collected when you talk about the school where
you coach, Nevertheless, | am excited about the
coaching staff we have and} am thankful for the
opportunity that { have to caach at Florida. This s
the job; this is it, Some of my friends asked me i+
was interested in coaching in the pros. | think t=
Miami Dolphins have the best offensive coordinat
in the game today in Scott Linehan. t have visite
with him over the years and | have a great deal
respect for tiim and many other professia~=
coaches, | do nat want to coach professio~:
football
The head coach is the person everyane looks <=
inal! phases of the football program. want tos
few things about the academic situation. Thats
job of the head coach. Everyone is counting on .
@ head coach to see that the athletes ge: 31
education. That is part of the hard job as 2 “=
coach. The littie things are the hard thing
accomplish, You have to make sure everyone
statf does their job. The head football coach s~
fhave controt aver everything, am in my third
head coach. f our assistant coaches “suck,”
not be here very long. If our academic s.
system is nat good, we will lose our player
have been terrific after two-and-a-half ma
have anew weight staff. We fave a gaod -
staff and we are re-doing our entire train|
My advice to you is this. Get your F:
every thing that involves your program. If th
the players in any way, you need to get c=:
them. If they are exposed ta the players
to know what they stand for and how