Urban Comes Back for BGSU Football Reunion

[Rollo83]

I always feel Urban Meyer takes a bad rap here about leaving BG for Utah. I will always credit him for the success we've had the last decade. He inherited a terrible situation here and turned them around. I don't begrudge him for leaving for a better career opportunity at all.

Today, he came back to BG for a football reunion that included his former players. I still say he's a class act and we're a better program for having him coached here.

[factman]

Great to see three of BG's best and most accomplished coaches at the "Urban for Autisim" event tonight. Urban, Dan Dakich and Leigh Ross were all in attendance, as well as 20 or so of Urban's players from his time at BG.
Brent Klassen (Cowboy) also spoke, as he has two autistic children, and did a tremendous job. Very nice event with a HEAVY Falcon presence.

[Flipper]

I was a bit peeved at the way he left...but I'm long over it. The man has built a convincing case to be thought of as the GOAT and he hasn't even coached for 15 years yet. I'm just happy to be able to say it all started here.

[Globetrotter]

Like most coaches at his level he only has one thing in mind and that is winning. He doesn't care about making friends. I wish there were more actual good guys in the profession. They are few and far between.

[mscarn]

Like most coaches at his level he only has one thing in mind and that is winning. He doesn't care about making friends. I wish there were more actual good guys in the profession. They are few and far between.

Yep.

He's a spectacular football coach, but he misled the BG community about his intentions, his departure screwed up a recruiting class which subsequently screwed up more than one football season and he constantly belittles BG and the circumstances he worked under (media attention, facilities, etc.) on the speaking circuit.

[hammb]

And yet he always thanks BG for giving him an opportunity as well.

Truth is the conditions he worked under WERE garbage. And any improvements in those conditions since his time here can largely be traced back to his time here starting the ball rolling in that direction.

I was pissed at when/how he left, but that's coaching, I don't begrudge him one bit for leaving...that's the way it goes. And they ALWAYS will talk out of both sides of their mouth...it's just part of the profession.

Those 2 years of Urban, then the wave of '03 & '04 after he left, was by far and away the best stretch of BG football fandom in my lifetime. I'm well past being upset, and am happy to see that he made it back here to speak and hang out with his former players.

[mscarn]

And any improvements in those conditions since his time here can largely be traced back to his time here starting the ball rolling in that direction.

That's the thing, though. He didn't do it. He didn't stay to see anything happen and left before anything actually got done. No division championships, no conference championships and a blowout against Toledo to close the season for good measure. He's constantly credited for getting the ball rolling but they don't hand out trophies for that. All we hear about are apocryphal "the Sebo Center design was on my desk" stories but it wasn't built until years later after several winning seasons where the catalyst (Josh Harris) was a Blackney recruit. All the lionizing of Meyer is a discredit to the players and coaches who stayed, put in the hard work and finished the job he prematurely left.

I agree he played a role in transforming BG football but the legend of what he actually accomplished in the year and a half he was here grows larger every year he's gone and further and further removed from reality. I'm sure he doesn't care one bit given everything that's happened since but it matters to those who care about BG football before and after his show came and left.

[threestooges]

He got the ball rolling.

A team that went 2-9 under Blackney in 2000 went to Missouri & won the 2001 opener on the way to an 8-win season. No, they didn't win any MAC titles, but he made a losing team a winning team and revived interest in the program. If that's not "getting the ball rolling" I don't know what is.

[Flipper]

Exactly....the Doyt and the training facilities were a shithole when he was here. Truthfully...there was very little reason for a coach to take the job here other than the fact that it afforded him a chance to move up. He beat the odds and won...he helped spark a resurgence in football here that lead to more TV exposure, better facilities and higher profile nationally. Yeah..let's hold a grudge because he did what virtually 100% of other coaches do when a better opportunity arises, leave. Can we sound any more petty?

To fault him because he's "only concerned with winning" is so incredibly juvenile...it's a high pressure, ultra competitive world. Head coaches are judged almost solely on their won/loss records. Look at the number of HC fired every year who run respectable programs wih student athletes that graduate at a high level. They aren't fired becausethe team GPA dropped...they're fired because they lost too many games or ...shockingly enough...didn't end the year in contention for a national title. If you're job depended solely on winning, you have to be a complete moron to be focused on that number.

[mscarn]

Loyalty still matters to some even in this day and age. Rod Carey didn't leave NIU after winning the MAC. Turner Gill didn't leave Buffalo the year after he won the MAC. Butch Jones and Dave Doeren both won MAC championships, stayed at their schools and left after the second championship. He would have had plenty of chances to advance his career after the 2003 season just like Clawson would have after 2014. They're mercenaries and darn good ones but that doesn't mean I'm going to happily and gratefully applaud them for it.

[Falconfreak90]

I always feel Urban Meyer takes a bad rap here about leaving BG for Utah. I will always credit him for the success we've had the last decade. He inherited a terrible situation here and turned them around. I don't begrudge him for leaving for a better career opportunity at all.

Today, he came back to BG for a football reunion that included his former players. I still say he's a class act and we're a better program for having him coached here.

Dennis Wendel, Greg Kupke and one of my fave OL of all time, #72 BiG Jon Mazur. Meyer is the BEST motivator I've ever seen in college football or almost any sport. He only cares about winning but isn't that why coaches coach? Sure to mold young men into good men but winning is the bottom line. I was pissed the way he left but am well over it. Just a fact of life in the MAC. Meyer isn't out to make friends, just win.

When Blackney resigned, the program was in very bad shape. He turned the whole culture around in less than 1 year. that 2001 team will always be one of my fave BG teams.

I wonder if after enough years in the limelight under the microscope at Ohio A & M, would he possibly come back to BG? Kinda like Solich? Never say never.

[hammb]

Urban Meyer did the most important thing that any BG coach has done in the past 30 years as far as I'm concerned.

He was here for my Junior and Senior year. When I was in a computer lab and saw that Blackney had resigned I let out an audible cry of joy. Some people asked me what was going on and I told them Blackney resigned. Not one person in the group around me had a clue who he was.

Fast forward 1 year later and the student section is overflowing with students, chanting "Ur-ban Meyer", and ripping down the goalposts after a huge win against Toledo.

As far as I'm concerned Urban took over a program that could have gone away without the campus realizing it and turned it into the cool place to spend Saturday afternoons in the fall. During Urban's tenure is when a tailgating culture came to BG. Urban led teams beat Mizzou twice and Northwestern once; accomplishments that mean far more to me than winning the MAC, and I feel do far more to further the program in terms of fan support and name recognition.

It could very well be partially because that's the era I became a BG fan, since I was on campus at the time, but when Urban took over we went from nothingness to a legit D1A program, IMO. I give him credit for that turnaround. Maybe I wouldn't see it that way if I were around for the previous successful eras in BG football, but I saw firsthand a complete change in culture surrounding the program, largely because of the leadership of Urban Meyer.

And I also think he's been the greatest college football coach in the land ever since.

[hammb]

To fault him because he's "only concerned with winning" is so incredibly juvenile...it's a high pressure, ultra competitive world. Head coaches are judged almost solely on their won/loss records. Look at the number of HC fired every year who run respectable programs wih student athletes that graduate at a high level. They aren't fired becausethe team GPA dropped...they're fired because they lost too many games or ...shockingly enough...didn't end the year in contention for a national title. If you're job depended solely on winning, you have to be a complete moron to be focused on that number.

Agreed 100%.

I have major issues with the state of college football. Especially with the fact that at schools on that level winning trumps EVERYTHING, and that includes playing within the rules. I'm disgusted by it to the point where I don't even really enjoy the sport anymore.

But I sure as hell don't fault the coaches. The only way they keep their jobs is by winning, and they all know that skating the rules is the best way to do that...and it's considered acceptable at that level to do so. It's not the coaches' fault that winning (largely because it is what brings in the real ruler: $$$) is more important than anything. Of course Urban's only concern is winning. If he didn't have that consistent drive to WIN he wouldn't be successful, and he wouldn't be the coach he is today.

[jpfalcon09]

He's a great ambassador for BGSU and because of him, BGSU gets national mention almost every time Ohio State plays. Regardless of what you think about him personally, he's a helluva football coach and gets the most out of his players and in return they become better people for it. He was a major cog in helping to get the Sebo Center constructed and forced the administration to actually start giving a crap about the football program. I'm proud to say that Bowling Green was the school to give him his first job which catapulted him to national prominence.

[FalconTurf]

For coaches that are not first and foremost concerned with winning there is unemployment. Are we kidding? You may complain how he got there but I don't remember any NCAA violations or long list of blotter entries. Players graduated. So what more do we need?

Leadership does not have to be popular to be effective.