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AFM Magazine


Urban Development

Urban Meyer constructs Bowling Green\'s winning foundation
by: Richard Scott
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The record book said Bowling Green was in trouble when Urban Meyer went to interview for the university’s head coaching position in December 2000. The record book said the Falcons hadn’t had a winning season since 1994. The record book said the university had replaced coach Gary Blackney in mid-season that year after nine years on the job and two conference championships.

Meyer looked beyond the record book. He looked back in time, to a history and tradition of football success at Bowling Green. He looked around, and saw the need for small changes that could make a big difference. He looked beyond the immediate sense of failure and saw the potential for long-term success.

Then Meyer accepted that job and looked straight ahead at the task of rebuilding the Falcons into a winner. He not only got it done, he got it done immediately, transforming a team that went 2-9 in 2000 into 8-3 in one season and earning MAC coach of the year honors in his first season as a head coach.

“I grew up in the state of Ohio and I really followed Bowling Green,” said Meyer, who came to Bowling Green from Notre Dame. “I walked into a program with a tradition of winning, one that expects to win. It’s the second-winningest program in the Mid-American Conference, a place where the community and the student body expect to win.

“I also knew that that the previous coach, Gary Blackney, is a very good coach. I knew that Gary had a lot of success here early on and then it slipped. I was concerned about that, because he is a hell of a coach. But I found out that the funding had slipped and it was tough to hire a good staff and recruit.

“It was still early in my coaching career, and I wasn’t going to leave for just any job. A lot of times you only get one shot at Bowling Green and I didn’t want to take a shot at a place where you couldn’t get the support you needed to win. I talked to a lot of people and utilized as many contacts as I could and everybody told me ‘don’t take the job if you can’t hire a good staff and recruit.’ I did as much homework as I could, the university made a commitment to improve things and I saw that I could hire a good staff and recruit here, so that’s what I took the job.”

For a man only 38 years old, for a man who has only been a head coach for one full season, Meyer is blessed with the gift of perspective.

He sees the big picture. He has a vision for the long haul. He sets goals that reach beyond next Saturday. He understands that success goes beyond gimmicks, thrills and psychobabble. Meyer gets it.

“The fact he has risen so far so fast is not really a surprise to any of us who knew him growing up,” said Don Cannell, Meyer’s principal at St. John High School in Ashtabula, Ohio.

“Urban wasn’t just an outstanding athlete, he was a kid with real character. Being honest mattered to him, and I think his teammates, and now his players, take a great deal of motivation from that. There’s nothing phony about him, and Urban’s quick movement through the coaching ranks proves that good things happen to good guys.”

It also proves that good things happen to people who work hard and work with a purpose.

“The thing that always impressed me about Urban was that he had the enthusiasm of a very young man, but the knowledge and grasp of the game you would usually only see in much more experienced coaches,” says Earl Bruce, Meyer’s former boss at Ohio State and Colorado State. “He could put together in his head what the game of football was all about. There are a lot of football coaches, but not many who can do that.

“He had a rapport with the players, and had their respect. When someone called me about a job being open, he was the first one I recommended to them.”

That player rapport proved to be one of the most immediate and crucial factors in Bowling Green’s turnaround. When Meyer took the job, he encountered a group of players who didn’t feel good about themselves after years of losing, and he knew some of them had to be picked up, some of them had to be pumped up and some of them had to be dropped altogether.

“The day after I got the job I met with every player on the team, some for 15-20 minutes, some for five,” Meyer said. “I had heard a lot of bad things and I watched them play on tape and I saw a lot of bad things. The more I talked to them, the more I came away with the impression that the kids never felt like Division I-A players because they weren’t treated that way. The facilities were in bad shape, the locker rooms were in bad shape and a lot of things just needed to be upgraded.”

Meyer took steps to change that attitude by having the locker room re-painted and re-carpeted. The coaches added a stereo in the locker room and started handing out special T-shirts, hats and shoes as motivational tools and rewards.

Those steps would have been mere band-aids if Meyer and his new staff had not addressed the deep-seeded problems.

“The other thing I noticed is that a lot of guys were just along for the ride,” Meyer said. “When you lose for six years straight, the recruiting can slip a little and they had a bunch of players who didn’t need to be there, didn’t want to be there and weren’t willing to make the commitment to be at that level. So we made the decision to make it the hardest, most unmerciful offseason they had ever been through.”

Meyer proved he was serious with offseason drills that had players reaching for buckets and heading for the exits. When a list of 24 players arriving late or missing study hall came across his desk, the coaches responded with a 3 1/2-hour workout that started at 5 a.m.

“The kids called it ‘Black Thursday,’” Meyer said. “We ran for three straight hours. I wanted to get the point across that we would no longer accept that. We lost probably three kids that day who said it was too much to go to class and study hall and workouts.”

The purpose for the offseason from hell was twofold: first, to determine who really wanted to stay and who didn’t want to pay the price. That worked when more than 20 players left the program in the first six months. Second, to restore pride. Meyer figured if the players put that much effort into the program, it would be hard to give up and let go. That was crucial for a team that had lost five games after leading in the fourth quarter.

“That created a completely different atmosphere,” Meyer said. “We were blessed with a really special senior class. We didn’t recruit them. Obviously, the previous staff brought them in, and they played well. They were committed, they wanted to go out as seniors and they had pride. They were easy to coach.

“The problem was after that class we had a big lull. That’s where we needed to develop players, replace players, develop a work ethic and a commitment to what we were doing.”

This was a group of seniors that had won six MAC games and 12 games overall in their three previous years at Bowling Green. If they had chose to buck the system, it would have been difficult for Meyer to implement his overall plan for the program.

“Just about everyone told me to write off the seniors, because they had never won. I was told, ‘Get rid of them.’ But once I sat across the table from them and looked into their eyes, I couldn’t do that,” Meyer said. “We had so many strong seniors, and we made it so hard that there were no fence-riders. We had no room for the locker room lawyers. They showed me they belonged here. They begged to play.”

Meyer also realized he had to build a sense of family into the program. Losing tends to pull some teams apart, and the Falcons were so fractured and fragmented that when Meyer called out two of his upperclassmen in front of the team during one of the first winter workouts, it soon became apparent that the two players didn’t know each other’s names.

“That was a real turning point,” said defensive coordinator Tim Beckman, who had coached under Blackney the three previous seasons. “We all saw that the X and O part of football was not necessarily the most important thing. We had to know each other, like each other and come together as a family. There had to be one standard for everyone.”

Beckman also played a big part in the program’s turnaround. Meyer could have filled his staff with outsiders, as most coaches do (and often with good reason), but Meyer looked beyond his ego and found a capable defensive coordinator right down the hall. Meyer not only retained Beckman, but he also changed his mind about running his own offense and decided to hire Colorado assistant Gregg Brandon as his offensive coordinator.

“Having two quality coordinators was a key, and that freed me up to take care of the special teams and do the other things a head coach has to do at this level,” Meyer said. “I hired guys I didn’t know, because they came so highly recommended. Some might say a lot of them were gambles, but all I know is I’ve got nine assistant coaches who I can’t wait to be around.”

By the end of that first practice under Meyer and his staff, many people in and around the program could sense a profound change in attitude and spirit. It was most noticeable in the seniors, who not only cooperated with Meyer’s plan for the program, but also bought into Meyer’s way of doing things heart, soul and body.

“I went over to the weight room in April,” Bowling Green basketball coach Dan Dakich says, “and (senior wide receiver) Kurt Gerling came up to me with a big smile on his face and said ‘This man is crazy, meaning Coach Meyer. He said it with love – he meant a good kind of crazy,’ because they could sense things were turning around.”

The positive direction of the program continued in the preseason when Meyer housed his players in a simple dormitory on the Bowling Green campus for the duration of preseason practice, and chose to live with them night and day until the end of two-a-days. Instead of removing himself from the grind of the preseason at night, he immersed himself into a community of players 24 hours a day.

“This is a very important time for a football team, and a very difficult time, so I think it is critical to be close to the players,” Meyer said. “As a coaching staff we are very aggressive and we work them hard in practice, so it helps to have some time with them away from the football field – to eat with them and relax a little with them.”

Don’t think the players didn’t notice Meyer’s commitment to the team.

“I’m away from my wife too, but him making that sacrifice and staying in the dorm with us sets a strong example that the team comes first as we get ready for the season,” offensive lineman Dennis Wendel said during the 2001 preseason. “The rooms are pretty bare – there’s not much there – but how can anyone complain if the head coach is living and sleeping right there, too? From top to bottom, everyone associated with this team is just concentrating on football.”

For all that hard work in the offseason, the real test came in the fall when the season began. Even with 17 returning starters and a strong senior class, Meyer still wasn’t sure how his team would respond once it was time to actually keep score.

The season opener turned out to be sign of things to come. Bowling Green not only went to Missouri and won, beating former Toledo coach Gary Pinkel in his Missouri debut, but the Falcons dominated for a 20-13 victory that wasn’t as close as the score indicated.

“Before coach Meyer got here, we practiced, we lifted weights and we played the games – it was kind of methodical,” senior defensive tackle Ryan Wingrove said. “Then it was like everything came to life with some kind of electrical shock or something. When we beat Missouri, guys who had never shown any emotion at all were crying their eyes out. Everybody who had stayed was changed – big-time.”

Meyer saw something in that game that made him think the program was definitely on the right track. That’s when he knew he had hired good coaches and had a good group of players who really wanted to win.

“That’s when I first saw it,” Meyer said, “and I saw it keep building and building throughout the year.”

The Falcons weren’t done winning, either. They followed their win at Missouri with a 35-0 win over Buffalo, just one year after a disastrous loss to the Bulls led to Blackney’s departure two days later.

They added their third win by beating Temple 42-23, lost on the road to perennial MAC power Marshall 37-31, beat Kent State 24-7, then lost 37-28 at Western Michigan and came back with a 16-11 win at Akron.

“They remind us of us,” Western defensive back Ronald Rogers said at the time. “They work hard, they play hard, and they never give up. They just don’t stop.”

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the season came when the Falcons lost 24-21 at home to Miami (Ohio), but they bounced right back with a 17-0 win over Ohio and finished with a flourish, beating Northwestern 43-42 and archrival Toledo 56-21.

Some Bowling Green fans would suggest a win over Toledo would somehow make a 1-10 season look good, but to finish 8-3 and beat the Rockets, the eventual MAC champs, made it even more exceptional for a first-year staff and a special senior class.

“I was a part of something this season that a lot of people never dreamed could happen here,” Gerling said. “Football was so different, so hard, so difficult, but so fun. I never saw football this way before, and now I hate that it is over for me. I wish my time here was just beginning, because I think coach Meyer has really started something good.”

Something, it would seem, with a foundation. At first, it was easy to suggest the Falcons were winning with smoke and mirrors and the element of surprise, since no one knew what to expect from them and opponents didn’t know they’d be that good. That may have worked against Missouri, but after that teams had enough film to know they couldn’t dismiss the Falcons.

The Falcons won with players who worked hard, players who led and followed the right way and coaches who gave them the direction and correction they needed. The Falcons also won with schemes that fit their personnel.

On defense, retaining Beckman gave the Falcons continuity and an immediate sense of direction. The result was a unit that led the MAC in total defense, scoring defense, rushing defense and scoring margin and ranked third nationally in turnover margin, seventh against the rush and in interceptions, and 22nd overall in total defense.

“I didn’t really know Tim, but he proved he’s a quality coach,” Meyer said. “I had talked to a lot of MAC coaches and they had great respect for Tim and his defenses, so I let him run the defense and he kept the defense intact.”

The offense, however, underwent a complete transformation from a traditional I-formation attack that finished last in the MAC in 2000 to a more multiple offense that showed tremendous improvement by accumulating 124.46 more yards per game and 14.48 more points per game than the previous season. Bowling Green finished fourth in the MAC total offense, third in scoring offense and set five school records.

“We knew we had some talent and we wanted to make good use of our talent, so we came up with ‘the Bowling Green offense,’ “ Meyer said. “It’s similar to some things we ran at Notre Dame, not near enough, where we wanted to spread the defense out, use four receivers, make you defend sideline to sideline and still run the ball and be physical. We made a commitment to it and Gregg Brandon did a good job with it and it really came of age at the end of the year.”

Looking back on the positive results of Meyer’s first year on the job, it’s easy to see success was no accident. With a background that includes coaching stops under Lou Holtz, Sonny Lubick, Bob Davie and Bruce, Meyer worked with some outstanding mentors with knowledge and experience on both sides of the ball, as well as the experience of running a program from January to December.

Meyer studied every coach and learned something from each one. Of all his strengths as a head coach, his best might be a penchant for perspective he gained during his time with Lubick at Colorado State.

“Sonny probably gives you the best perspective on success, because he wins nine, 10 games a year and he does it with coaching,” Meyer said. “I think he’s the best coach in college football right now. He probably had as much impact on me as anyone as far as how you treat players. You can be tough, but you can’t be negative. You’ve got to be positive so kids will want to come out and practice everyday. He’s such an attitude guy and he really keeps a healthy perspective on it. His time is spent with his players, his coaches and his family and not all the other stuff. I really respect him a lot.”

That perspective is necessary in any level of coaching, but especially at the major college level where MAC teams often take on big-name programs for a paycheck and an opportunity. Winning in the MAC week to week isn’t much easier, because of the balance and parity throughout the conference. One bad recruiting class or a few key injuries can turn a winner into a loser and ruin a coach’s career.

That’s why Meyer’s penchant for perspective is so important. He may have been 8-3 entering this season, but it’s just one season. His Falcons may have whipped Missouri again, this time 51-28, in their second game of the 2002 season, but that’s just one game.

It’s way too soon to start carving the bust for his Hall of Fame induction, but if the new layer of foundation under the Bowling Green program is any indication, Meyer will have many opportunities to prove he can be a successful head coach at the major college level.

“It’s still an on-going process,” Meyer said. “We’re in this for the long run. I don’t even know how good we’re going to be this year. We’re still five scholarships down. To say that we’ve made it would be shortsighted. Our players need to understand that, too. Just because we had a decent year last year, we still didn’t win any championships, and we lost a lot of special seniors. We’re really in the infant stages of rebuilding this program.





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