Flops like Jim McElwain
Ohio State calculated value of elite coach
are the reason why Urban Meyer still has a job at Ohio State, Mike Bianchi writes.
Florida Gators coaching flop Jim McElwain is the reason Urban Meyer — as disgustingly deceitful and dishonest as he is — still has a job with the Ohio State Buckeyes. Allow me to explain. Did you see Orlando Sentinel colleague Edgar Thompson’s story on Friday in which he reported that UF’s season-ticket sales are down a whopping 9,000 from last year despite the buzz new coach Dan Mullen has tried to create?
As Thompson wrote: “Mullen’s passion and optimism has energized an apathetic fan base since his late November hiring to replace Jim McElwain. But the combination of last season’s 4-7 finish, a lackluster 2018 home schedule and the nationwide trend of declining tickets in college football have delivered strong headwinds to Mullen’s plan to pack the Swamp on Saturdays.”
My translation: Jim McEl-
wain’s pathetic offense and his overall incompetence as a big-time college football coach drove away Gator fans in droves. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why Urban Meyer still has a job at Ohio State despite the fact that he not only kept rogue assistant coach Zach Smith, an alleged serial domestic abuser, on his staff for years; Meyer lied and denied to try to cover it up.
Urban Meyer can get away with being slimy and dirty because he is a dominant, dynamic college football coach in a profession filled with mundane and miserable ones. If Ohio State fired him, the Buckeyes might end up with the equivalent of McElwain or Butch Jones or Ed Orgeron or some other middling, run-of-the-mill coach.
The Gators are the poster boys of what can happen to a college football program when they lose an elite coach. When Steve Spurrier resigned to go to the NFL, the Gators ended up with the pedestrian Ron Zook. When Meyer left to spend more time with his ESPN family, Will Muschamp and McElwain both ended up being fired for their mediocrity.
I know, I know, McElwain was ostensibly fired for making up death threats, but don’t kid yourself. If McElwain’s offense were humming; and if he’d been 7-0 heading into last year’s Georgia game instead of 3-4; and if he’d beaten the Bulldogs 42-7 instead of losing to them 42-7, the Gators would have staunchly backed him up on the death threats and lauded his courageous ability to overcome adversity.
McElwain was fired from his job because he was a bad coach who happened to be disingenuous. Likewise, Meyer kept his job because he is a great coach who happened to be disingenuous.
In recent weeks, Meyer has been unmasked and the nation has seen him for what he truly is: an untruthful, unethical, unrepentant college football coach. On Wednesday night when the school held a news conference to announce Meyer’s three-game suspension for harboring a domestic abuser, he came off as a cold, calculating, callous, unfeeling, uncaring, emotionless, pitiless jerk who had no sympathy for domestic violence victims.
On Friday night, Meyer went on Twitter and tried to salvage his wrecked reputation with a phony mea culpa about his arrogant attitude two nights earlier and finally apologized to Courtney Smith — the abused wife of Zach Smith. Instead of issuing this bogus apology that was probably written by someone else, Meyer should have called a news conference, stood up in front of the camera without a prepared statement and issued an emotional, heartfelt apology culminating with an announcement that he is dedicating his entire $8 million salary this season to domestic violence causes. But I digress. The fact is, Meyer doesn’t have do to anything to appease his own fan base except win games — and lots of them. Ohio State has shown it will keep him no matter what because he sells tickets, fills stadiums and keeps the cash rolling into the coffers and the booze flowing up in the sold-out luxury suites.
Elite college football coaches are rare commodities and otherwise esteemed institutions of higher learning will sell their souls and bastardize their reputations to hold onto them. Why? Because there is nobody out there to replace them.
LSU administrators mistakenly fired Les Miles under the misguided notion they could hire Jimbo Fisher or Tom Herman. They had to settle on Orgeron, who had a miserable 3-21 SEC record when he coached at Ole Miss.
When Fisher accepted an obscene contract from Texas A&M, Florida State ended up with Willie Taggart — a coach with a career 47-50 record.
The Gators’ last three coaches have been Muschamp, McElwain and now Mullen, who had a 33-39 SEC record at Mississippi State.
Have you seen the last four coaches — Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones and now Jeremy Pruitt — Tennessee has hired? Not exactly the Mount Rushmore of head-coaching candidates. In fact, I’m not even sure if you would call them the Mount Dora of head-coaching candidates.
Most of us are repulsed and disgusted Urban Meyer still has a job, but in the multi-billion-dollar world of college football, Ohio State probably made the smart business decision.
Sadly, it is better to retain a great coach who is immoral and untruthful than to take a chance, roll the dice and end up with Jim McElwain.