The New Urban Meyer
by mlmintampa on Jan 6, 2010 2:31 AM EST
in Florida Football
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PrintThe signing of D.J. Durkin as possible special teams and linebacker coach and Stan Drayton as running backs coach are more than just new hires. They are examples of Urban Meyer taking his foot off the pedal and delegating authority and responsibility as he tries to rebuild his health while maintaining a powerhouse.
Durkin, if he does become special teams coach as is assumed, will take away Meyer's unit. Before you wonder if Florida loses anything here, consider this; Stanford's punt return defense averaged only two yards more than Florida's and their kick return defense was one yard better. If you assume that UF has better athletes, all Durkin has to do is maintain status quo and Meyer will not be missed. Durkin worked for Meyer at Bowling Green, so Meyer trusts the guy. But you can hold some doubt about Durkin being able to replicate Charlie Strong's work with the linebackers.
Drayton is a different issue in that he left UF for Tennessee on strange terms, mainly because of concerns about the traditional use of the running backs. That Meyer asked him to return (via Syracuse), is a sign that any problems are water under the bridge. It is also a reflection of Meyer's faith in a run heavy offense, necessary because of John Brantley's first season without legit receivers but great running backs. If Mike Pouncey stays to play center, while Maurkice leaves, four of five line starters return, it makes sense to be a run-first team.
There is also faith in Steve Addazio shown by asking Drayton to return because Addazio is probably more comfortable with a run-first offense. (We base that statement on the lack of creativity in the passing game this season.) Meyer also mentions Addazio by name, which seems strange to me;
"Coach Addazio and I worked together on this and are excited to have D.J. and Stan join our coaching staff," Urban Meyer said.
I believe Meyer is coming back, but it seems odd to make a direct reference to your offensive coordinator. Maybe this is because we don't exactly know how Meyer's leave of absence will work, while the football offices know exactly. We're looking between the lines, while a decision has already been made behind closed doors. That seems like a likely scenario after the commitments UF picked up this weekend at the Under Armour All-America Game, especially Dominique Easley, who dropped Penn State only a few days earlier.
There are still open spots to fill, not to mention any possible changes in offensive and defensive play calling. Each decision will give us a greater peek inside the football offices. As for now, this is a new Urban. Hopefully one that is healthy and will learn that he does not have to carry all the burden of victory.
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I'm not into conspiracy theories but something wierd was going on with our coaching staff during the 2009 season.
First off; B. Gonzalez, his exit right after the SECCG told me that he was disgruntled because he didn’t get the OC position after Mullen. The lack of offensive production tells me that there was cooporation issues between coaches. It was almost as if Gonzo had been trying to sabotage the Gator O all season, especially when he left for LSU over night.
Second while Charlie Strong has been a staple Of UF’s success over the past few years. He has done it with arguably the best atheletes in the country. If his coaching is so great what happened in 2007? He clearly lost his ability to motivate his players this year and that showed by the poor performance during the SECCG. He got this opportunity to coach at UL because he has benefitted from Urban Meyer’s recruiting and football IQ and how does he thank coach Meyer? Strong lies and goes after what is left of Meyers coaching staff.
How do you return so many players and come up short. The 2009 season was sabataged by UF coaching staff members thinking of what was best for themselves and not what was best for their players, their head coach, and their university. I believe this is why Coach Meyer has givin so much favor to coach Addazio. Because Addazio has remained faithful to him and the University during a successful but trying time. GO GATORS
Re: How do you return so many players and come up short.
Because Alabama had a better game plan and was the challenger. It is harder to defend than to win the first time. Also, UF lost both top receivers and offensive tackles.
As for Strong, if you’re taking the rebuilding 2007 season and the 2009 Alabama game as evidence of his coaching ability, you’re forgetting everything else. He spent 12 years of his career at Florida and coached with class. Try not to treat him like a bum.
mlmintampa
UF C/O 06
http://www.alligatorarmy.com
Agreed
Viva La Charlie!
I also don’t buy Gonzales sabotaging the Gators. If that were the case, why would he recruit for the Gators as hard as he did?
I agree that he felt slighted by Adazzio being promoted instead of him, and judging by how Adazzio handled a talent-laden offense this season, I don’t think I can really blame him.
Sabotage was probably a little strong but I was referencing that he may have been holding back
and not giving it his best effort hoping for Addazio’s failure. Please, don’t be naive to this point that you don’t believe these kind of things happen. Our receivers’ production was way down this season and I know we lost Percy and Louis but after less than a month with our new receivers coach our receivers looked more comfortable and played much looser vs cincinatti than they played all year. It sure looked to me that they all found new confidence from somewhere. Either way it appears we are heading in the right direction and for this I am thankful. GO GATORS
I'm still not buying it
by holding back his WRs, Gonzales would be weakening his own job resume. If you look at the body of work, why wouldn’t you pose the question “Isn’t Billy Gonzo effective only when he has superstars to work with? Once he lost Percy – his WR production went down the tubes.”
That just doesn’t make sense.
I think the more plausable solution is that Adazzio loosened up in the Sugar Bowl. Before the loss, he was terrified of making a mistake that would cause us to lose a game and be blamed for it all. After the SECCG, he could call pass plays downfield. I think those plays were there all year – but either Adazzio wouldn’t call them or Tebow wouldn’t pull the string. All we’ve seen from Nelson in the past couple years is big catches in big games, yet we would go several games without even throwing his way. Thompson was obviously able to beat guys deep – but again, balls rarely went his way.
It is all a moot point now but I just felt a lot of tension all season on the offensive
side of the ball. The O never meshed together as a cohesive unit with the exception of a few games and our star potential with Hammond and the rest of the younger receiving corps never came to fruition. In the games where I saw them play they all ran good routes and had good hands when the ball was thrown in their direction. Someone was telling the head coach that they weren’t ready for prime time and that “someone” had to be gonzo, the receivers coach. A lot of coaches hire based on friendship and personality or maybe because they want a rivals’ playbook. Why would gonzo rebound so quickly after the SECCG and bounce right into one of our biggest rivals locker room. All I know is there was something funny going on with our coaching staff even down to Dominique Easley and Dunkley’s commitments outta the blue. Both were recruited by Gonzo and then commited after Gonzo left and were recruited by Addazio. If you remember last year we did not close with recruits as well as the previous years and I believe it was because our Recruiting Coordinator was disgruntled and wasn’t working as hard as he should have been. It’s funny to me that everyone on the outside looking in on the UF football program has a genuine dislike or disdain or unbelief for Coach Addazio but the man responsible for building the program has given Coach Addazio his highest approval and respect. That is enough for me.
well
you are right about the offense never meshing.
I think Gonzo was hired because of his recruiting reputation. He didn bring Percy Harvey from VA to UF. That’s enough to get you a job most places.
Last year’s recruiting class was pretty damn good – we didn’t have many schollys to give. The players we did get were highly rated, there just weren’t a lot of them.
I can’t wait to see Dubose play next season….it’s like we’re already a 5 star player up before the recruitng class is even signed!
I agree with last years quality of players but we missed
on some d-linemen that would have really helped us next year especially after two of our 5* kids quit the team or were cut loose last summer. We have been short of numbers at the defensive tackle/end positions for the past few years and with Dunlaps’ sure departure to the NFL we will be wishin’ that we had a few more bodies to throw into the fray next year. With the quality of kids that we’re getting we should expect them to be leaving early for the NFL dollars and get at least two or three D-tackles and D-ends every year to deal with the attrition. That has not been the case under our old recruiting coordinator. There are still some awesome d-line and o-line recruits that UF is still in the mix with, lets see how this group of coaches close onthose recruits and finishes this years class up.
by pLANEolG8RB8 on Jan 6, 2010 11:26 PM EST up reply actions
I would never treat Coach Strong like a bum.......
and even if he continues to go after the UF coaching staff I’ll hold no animosity for him. And yes, I am refering to the 07 rebuilding and the 09 bama game. My reference was that Coach Strong did not have dominant players in 07 and our defense was not very good. I was referencing that Coach Strong’s ability to coach was tested in 07 due to the lack of experienced talent that UF was able to put on the field and without exceptional and experienced players on the field Coach Strongs Defense was average at best. In fact if it were not for our stellar offense in 07 we would have lost a few more games.
Regarding the Bama game if any one on this blog or elsewhere believes the UF defense was ready to play I apologize because our D was not ready to play. Coaches know when their players are ready and when the players aren’t ready. The coaches have to know how to push the right buttons and get them ready to play. Coach strong either would not or could not. With the events before,during, and following the SECCG I can only surmise that there were problems with our coaching staff this past season. You can look at the coaching turnover and our performance vs Cincinatti in the Sugar Bowl and that should tell us all something.
Charlie was more focused on his future than the SECCG
But it was a huge career move, so that’s life.
it was evident from the first play of the game that UF was not ready to play – WE DID NOT COVER JULIO JONES. Bama’s most explosive player. First play – nobody lined up on him and he ran a 20 yard down-and-in entirely wide open and caught an easy ball. that set the stage for the entire game.
I am really excited with the "new Meyer" theory.
Lets say, Meyer was coaching 80% of the team. Ranging from the offense, to special teams, to recruiting, to the wr’s to the rb’s. Ofcourse there was other coaches in charge of some of those, but for fun lets just say he contributed to those teams at a high level.
What do you think a coach like, Bob Stoops, Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier EXC… coaching level is at? I wonder what is a happy medium. What level of coaching is expected before you become just a Bobby Bowden? I am not knocking Bobby, I am just saying, how much can Urban Meyer step back and still be the immediate reason for a teams success?
"I meant to misspell that word, just observing who would correct me."
I guess it doenst matter who is the coach
Top recruits will flock to UF.
For every woman masturbating right now, there is a guy masturbating while imagining that woman masturbate.
2009 NY Phin PhansFantasy League Champion
2009 Best Regular Season Record in NYPPL.
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