Rob Oller | Ryan Day, Kyle Whittingham praise Urban Meyer but avoid discussing NFL debacle
LOS ANGELES — Separated by 10 feet of table, Ohio State's Ryan Day and Utah's Kyle Whittingham took turns honoring their 6-foot-2 mentor — Urban Meyer — during Friday’s Rose Bowl coaches media conference.
They also took turns mixing avoidance with the accolades. Both Day and Whittingham played hot potato on the topic of Meyer’s NFL debacle.
That’s where we stand today, pointing out Meyer’s success as a college coach even while pointing a finger at his failed experiment with the Jacksonville Jaguars. It is hard not to be impressed by Meyer’s college record of 187-32 (.854), including 12-3 in bowl games and 7-0 against Michigan while with the Buckeyes. He won everywhere he went, from Bowling Green (17-6) to Utah (22-2) to Florida (65-15) to Ohio State (83-9).
It is equally hard to look at Meyer’s 2-11 record in Jacksonville before he was fired and not see a college coach whose strengths became liabilities in the pros, where owners have the ultimate power, established assistant coaches don’t need a head coach to help elevate their careers and players pay more attention to what their wives have to say than to their coach’s marching orders.
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“I can’t speak for what went on there. It just seemed to kind of snowball and get away from him,” said Whittingham, who worked two seasons as Meyer’s defensive coordinator at Utah before taking over the reins when Meyer left for Florida in 2004.
“I’ll echo again what Kyle said there,” Day said, choosing not to elaborate.
Yet even as both coaches remained mum on Meyer’s brief stay with the Jaguars, their explanation for his success in college shed light on why his NFL career likely was doomed from the beginning. What enabled Meyer to win one national championship at Ohio State and two at Florida — controlling everything and everyone every minute of every day — does not wash in the NFL. Some college coaches have successfully transitioned from college to the NFL — a few such as Jimmy Johnson and Pete Carroll won national titles and Super Bowls — but many more have struggled.
Whittingham was effusive in his praise of Meyer, going so far as to say Utah’s current success is due in part to Meyer going to Salt Lake City in 2003 after two seasons at Bowling Green.
“It was kind of a weird situation. I had been at (Utah) seven or eight years, our head coach was let go and I thought I should be the guy,” Whittingham said. “Urban got the job and it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me as a football coach, because after two years with him I realized I wasn’t ready two years prior.”
Whittingham pinpointed what he learned from Meyer: meticulous attention to detail.
“His complete organization of the entire program, on a day-to-day basis, mapping out the entire year. Nothing was left to chance,” Whittingham said.
Day agreed what he took from Meyer during two seasons as an OSU assistant was the importance of organizing the entire program.
“Certainly in recruiting, how he drives the coaches and drives recruiting on a daily basis,” Day said, adding, “He has a great feel for the team and for what the team needs at that moment.”
That last comment is where things got tough in Jacksonville. It is one thing to read the room in college; quite another to read it in the NFL, where players do not take kindly to their motivational temperature being taken. Or manipulated.
Day (mostly) and Whittingham wanted no part of that discussion, instead keeping the focus on how they both benefited from a foundation laid by Meyer.
“It’s very unique that Kyle and I were both handed the whistle after (Meyer’s) last game,” Day said.
Both coaches took that whistle and ran with it. Whittingham is 144-69 (.676) in 18 seasons at Utah, including 11-3 in bowl games, and has the Utes in the Rose Bowl for the first time in school history. Day is 33-4 (.892), including 1-2 in the College Football Playoff.
“Urban is one heck of a football coach and I have a lot of respect for him and owe him a lot,” Whittingham said. “Any success since he’s been gone, a lot of it is attributed to him.”
Whittingham has been content to coach 18- to 22-year-olds his entire career without trying on the NFL for size. Will Day follow that path or make the jump? Does Meyer’s mess in Jacksonville impact his decision? Who can say? Not Day, at least not this day.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Urban Meyer mentored Ryan Day, Kyle Whittingham at Ohio State, Utah
