I have to admit that a piece of me truly thought Urban Meyer was going to stay at the U and really make a name for himself. Imagine how much hype would surround Meyer if he had stuck around and repeatedly led a non-BCS school to a BCS bowl game.
I had visions of the Utes constantly stomping on the Smurfs-down-south until they begged the Mountain West to let them out of the conference so they could have reprieve from their northern rival. Yes, I was like a BYU coed who sends her man off on a mission with hopes of him returning with honor. I truly thought that Urban would return to continue the successful mutual relationship he established with Utah football. In two years, he constructed a team that had a legitimate shot of beating an undefeated Auburn team in a bowl game, if the BCS weren’t such a pathetic excuse for a championship system.
I guess I should have expected that Meyer would use the U like a log on the second level of “Frogger;” he did the same thing to Bowling Green. Meyer successfully rode logs long enough until they took him to the better log, eventually landing him his dream job where he now has the chance to win a national title with the Florida Gators. Whether or not Meyer’s example helped Alex Smith, or any other Ute player, to buy into the concept of “get yours while you can,” is up for debate. There is, on the other hand, another high-profile coach at Florida who recently sent a different message to his players.
After leading the Florida Gators to the school’s first NCAA basketball title, head coach Billy Donovan turned down a contract extension. Donovan isn’t looking for a bigger payoff if his team repeats as national champions in 2007. Donovan doesn’t seem to have aspirations of jumping ship to coach in the NBA or at a different school. Donovan turned down the extension to send an important message to his team-Billy Donovan is ready to make sacrifices, too.
In these days of multimillion-dollar contracts for both NBA players and college coaches, the Florida Gators are going against the grain. According to NBA scouts and draft experts, Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Al Horford, all would have been drafted in the first round of the 2006 NBA draft, ensuring each player of multimillion-dollar contracts. Instead, all three players decided to come back to school and give their team a legitimate chance to be the first team since Duke in the early ’90s to repeat as national champions.
Players returning to college for another season, though rare, certainly aren’t unprecedented in recent college sports history. Matt Linert forfeited a possible first-round selection in the 2005 NFL draft to return to USC and try to win a third-straight title. A coach fresh off a national-title season declining a well-deserved extension is an unprecedented example of a coach buying into the concept of the word “team.”
Is anyone scratching his head wondering why three first-round draft picks are returning to Florida for another season? Is there any question which team will be the favorite coming into the 2006-2007 season?
Florida is a basketball program that obviously has its head screwed on right, and the coach is a big reason why. For Donovan, it was just a small gesture but it sends a huge message to his players, the school and the fans. It’s not like the Billy Donovan residence is starving anyway; Donovan is going to eventually sign a contract extension. He is going to make more money in the future, but he decided to make a small gesture to his players, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that gesture go a long, long way.
Donovan undoubtedly expects his players to act like champions, and I firmly believe his gesture is the act of a coach who knows what it means to be a champion. It is too bad that it is even news today. It would be nice if Urban Meyer’s decision were the exception. Unfortunately, situations such as Meyer’s are becoming the norm, and gestures like Donovan’s aren’t. I just hope I don’t spend the rest of my life wondering: What if Florida’s head football coach had been more like its head basketball coach? I can almost see a long lineage of John Beck-like quarterbacks crying at the sights of a Meyer-led Ute team. Luckily for the Utes, Meyer built the foundation and left the team in Kyle Whittingham’s capable hands.