"Gonna treat my superstars like superstars": When Brandon Siler recounted Urban Meyer's ruthless coaching style at Florida Gators 

Urban Meyer is one of the most ruthless college football coaches in history. During his days at Florida, the coach often employed intense tactics to drive improvement in his players. His approach proved effective, evident in multiple championship victories.

A Netflix documentary series, “Untold: Swamp Kings,” released in August 2023, detailed Meyer's successful tenure with the Gators. In the docuseries, former Florida linebacker Brandon Siler explained how Meyer pushed his players to their very best during his time in Gainesville.

“Urban said, 'I'm gonna treat my superstars like superstars and my sh*t like sh*t. If I treat you like sh*t, and you want me to change, then you find a way to make yourself a superstar, and I'll start treating you like that.' To me, I was like, 'That is so profound.' Every coach does it, but no coach says it,” Siler said.

Urban Meyer made a lot of superstar players during his time at Florida. These include known names like Brandon Siler, Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin, Aaron Hernandez, Reggie Nelson, Maurkice Pouncey, Mike Pouncey, Joe Haden and Carlos Dunlap, among a host of others.

The Florida 2007 recruiting class is considered one of the best ever in college football history due to the amount of NFL talent it produced. The coaching style of Meyer obviously played a role in their development.

---

Urban Meyer explained why he took part in the Netflix documentary

When Netflix had reached out to Urban Meyer on the production of the “Untold: Swamp Kings” documentary, he initially rejected. However, the legendary coach reconsidered his decision after assessing the core opportunity taking part in the series offers.

“At first, I said no when they asked me to take part in it,” Urban Meyer said. “And then I thought, wait a minute, you know, there’s been so many comments about that team and, quite honestly, ridiculous comments about that team. So, I said I am going to do this because all I care about is honoring them.

“That ’08 team, that will go down as one of the great teams in college football history. That ’06 team, think about what they did. They came out of nowhere and went on to beat the No. 1 team in the country soundly. So, I did it and they (Netflix) were great to work with.”

Netflix also had former Florida players like Tim Tebow, Brandon Siler, Brandon Spikes, Brandon James, Ahmad Black and Major Wright in the documentary. Overall, it shed a lot of light on the successful but controversial tenure of Urban Meyer with the Gators.