‘Everybody Changes’: Urban Meyer Breaks Down Why Repeating Is So Hard

Winning a national championship in back-to-back seasons is tough, just ask Urban Meyer. 

The former Florida and Ohio State head coach fell short in all three of his title defenses, failing to make it back to the national championship game each time.

As Ohio State begins its quest to repeat, Meyer is urging those around Ryan Day’s program to avoid the pitfalls that tripped up his own teams.

“Everybody changes,” Meyer said on “The Joel Klatt Show.” “Everybody wants to point the finger at the players. I didn’t. The administration is different. Your fans are different. Your donors are different. Your coaching staff is different. Everybody walks around like something’s changed. We’re a blue-collar team. We’re blue-collar people. We work our ass off, and now we have the answers. 

“I used to say that all the time, ‘I get it now, so we have all the answers because we want it.’ Do you realize we’re now going to be the target of every team in the country? I would always try to push it down, and it’s hard to do because everybody changes.”

Meyer’s first run at a title defense came in 2007, seeking to lead Florida to back-to-back titles after winning it all in 2006. He admitted that his 2007 team wasn’t “ready for primetime,” but it was in 2008, winning the title that year. 

When Florida tried to repeat in 2009, Meyer saw the mindset shift he had warned about — one that revealed itself in the SEC Championship Game, where Nick Saban’s Alabama squad dismantled the Gators, 32–13.

“Every coach’s dream is to coach a hungry, pissed-off team. Every coach’s nightmare is to coach a satisfied team. It’s awful,” Meyer said. “I would do whatever I had to do to try to piss that team off, whether it be making up articles or whatever, just to, because the way the mind works. Comfort is not a good word in the world of athletics. Comfort, I hear that and I cringe because comfort is not good. Pissed off is really good, especially in the sport of football. So I saw a pissed off team [in Alabama].”

Years later, Meyer learned from his “Big Noon Kickoff” teammate, Mark Ingram, that Alabama had been “swinging” for Florida all year in 2009. 

“The Florida Gators weren’t swinging for Alabama,” Meyer said. “We won every game. We were 12-0. But it was a freaking street fight every game, from the media, our own fan support, our players and our coaching staff. It was a fight.”

When Alabama took down Florida in 2009, it avenged its loss from the SEC Championship Game a year prior. Ohio State’s opponent on Saturday has a chance to do something similar. Texas fell to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinal last year before the Buckeyes went on to win the national title.

Alabama’s win over Florida in the 2009 SEC Championship Game showed the mindset of a team being the hunters taking down the hunted, according to Urban Meyer. (Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images)

Unlike the 2009 SEC Championship Game, though, Saturday’s matchup won’t determine the fate of either team. Still, it’s a tough test for what shapes up to be a laborious road ahead for No. 3 Ohio State.

As Day looks to do something that his mentor never did, Meyer recalled an illuminating conversation that he had with former Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon a year after their World Series season in 2016 that spoke to how difficult it is to repeat. 

“He was miserable in 2017,” Meyer said of Maddon. “[The Cubs] had the same team back, great players and I still think they were in first place. I walked in [to see Maddon] and he said, ‘This is awful.’

“He actually showed me a piece of paper from NHL, NBA, NCAA basketball, football and all the major sports and how hard it is to repeat. It’s low single digits, if I remember right. It was like 2% or something like that of teams ever in the major sports repeat. It’s not because you’re losing players a lot of times. It’s because the mindset you go from is a prizefighter to a guy that you’re playing defense all the time.”

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