Urban Meyer has been out of a job for only about a week. In that time, he has not been quiet.
Speaking to NFL Network via Yahoo Sports, Meyer vented frustration about his firing. He also vented about the state of the mental makeup of the country, and what he sees is wrong with it.
Here's exactly what he said.
Urban Meyer speaks on firing and "fragile" culture
Essentially, Meyer blamed his firing on what he views as the "fragile" state of the world right now. Basically, he's saying there's a lack of toughness and it is a negative thing.
“I think everything is so fragile right now. And that includes coaching staffs. When I got into coaching, coaches weren’t making this kind of money and they didn’t have agents. Everything is so fragile where it used to be team, team, team. I remember talking about it in a staff meeting three days ago. I got into this profession because I had the greatest high school coach and it was all about team. All about the huddle.”
Meyer is alluding to how he could have been a tough guy in years past at the college level, but his players are not as patient at the NFL level.
He also said that college players and society as a whole are less tolerant of hard-nosed mentalities.
“I think college has changed quite a bit, too,” Meyer said. “Just society has changed. You think how hard you pushed. . . . I believe there is greatness in everybody and it’s the coach’s job to find that greatness however you do that. Positive encouragement. Pushing them to be greater, making them work harder, identifying flaws and trying to fix [them].
One could spin this argument right back at Meyer. While his job was to make people better by pushing them, he himself isn't growing. Society has always been about getting better and pushing people in their own ways.
Meyer hasn't changed his hard-nosed coaching style, so society is knocking him down a peg in the same way he would knock his players down a peg.
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Will Meyer adapt and grow, potentially with a new team in the future, or will he fade into the background for good? With the coaching hire season right around the corner, there may be an early indication as to which way he is trending.
Typically, teams hire their next head coaches in the first month or two of the new year. If Meyer doesn't have a job by March, it could be a clue as to his eventual fate.
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