Georgia Football: The Lesson from the fall of Urban Meyer

Watching the potential fall of one of the most successful head coaches in college football is a lesson for Georgia Football and everyone else that the age of cover-ups is over.

There are no ‘good takes’ from this story. While some Dawg fans might be thinking about what recruits they can poach from OSU as the program falls into a scandal, the fact remains that none of this is good. In college football right now, only two head coaches have won multiple titles. Urban Meyer is one of them and even that is unlikely to save his job if the allegations against him are true.

Nor should it. While fans support their teams, they also shouldn’t forget what the main role of a college football head coach is. They are supposed to be developing young men into adults and teaching them values and life skills that can impact their future. It’s getting increasingly obvious that Meyer, like many other coaches, was prepared to sacrifice others in his quest to win. Hardly a role model I would want for my child.

As Kyle mentioned yesterday, none of this is a surprise to SEC East fans. Those of us who remember his tenure at Florida can recollect more than one incident that he turned a blind eye to or covered up. The facade fell after his departure and all of the stories came flooding out. Still, Ohio State hired him and even now their fans continue to defend his actions.

That being said, every program in the country should look at what’s happening as a wake-up call. The days of football coaches being able to cover up scandals and ‘keep things in-house’ are over. Despite what OSU fans might think right now, that’s not a bad thing. Cover-ups gave us Jerry Sandusky and 52 alleged rapes at Baylor by football players in just 4 years. No amount of ‘winning’ justifies turning a blind eye to human suffering.

If Urban Meyer loses his job because he ignored that one of his coaches was beating his wife, then no coach is safe. Good. For too long, many fans have been prepared to accept almost any conduct from the guy at the top so long as he wins. That sort of attitude is thankfully starting to disappear even though small elements remain. Look hard enough and you’ll find plenty of OSU fans prepared to defend anything that Meyer may have done simply to keep him as head coach.

But there is a lesson here and it’s important that Kirby Smart and everyone who is a part of the Georgia Football program learns it. Eventually, bad news always comes out. The reporting suggests that Meyer’s wife learned of the domestic violence in 2015. Zac Smith was fired just over a week ago and it’s been downhill ever since. If Meyer covered things up, Buckeye fans got 3 seasons from their coach before the dam broke. That’s a lot less than they would have if Smith had been reported in 2015 and some action had been taken.

What makes the truly legendary head coaches the icons that they are, is their ability to succeed in one program for a long time. Player attrition is ridiculous, assistants get promoted and poached, the grind just to stay afloat is never-ending. Since arriving at UGA, Kirby Smart has looked like someone in it for the long haul. Whether it’s the work he puts into facilities, the recruiting trail or even the stable of assistant coaches he’s built up behind the scenes. Smart looks like THE guy at Georgia for several decades.

For that to happen, however, he will have to avoid a scandal like Meyer. Like any coach, Smart has faced some issues with player’s breaking the laws and so far as we know, he’s handled them well. However, Meyer’s fall is a reminder that as a head coach, Smart has responsibilities that he needs to live up to.

If Smart is going to be the guy that fans hope he is, then he will continue to encounter situations that look bad and potential embarrass the school. Doing the right thing, holding people accountable for their actions and being open about their mistakes is the only way for him to build a long-term legacy in Athens. It’s not necessarily the easiest thing to do when the immediate consequences are stark. It is, however, the only way to protect both himself and his program for the long haul.

In politics, they always say that when a scandal breaks, it’s not the crime that brings down the powerful, but the coverup. People can understand when mistakes are made and some may even forgive them, but nobody likes a liar. It’s a lesson that Urban Meyer doesn’t seem to have learned from his time in Florida and now both he and OSU are likely to pay for it. I for one am hoping that Kirby Smart doesn’t end up making the same mistake.