How much magic does Urban Meyer have?

[Escambia94]

Urban Meyer has lost 7 assistants in the 2 years since a national championship. That happened to Steve Spurrier as well, and it took 3 years to win the SEC East, and another to win the SEC. It took him another 7 years (minus 3 in the NFL) to build up another SEC East champion, using an entirely different coaching staff. His staff of former Gators did not work well in his early days at USCe, and it took the rise of his son as an assistant plus some former head coaches at lesser programs to get a decent coaching staff.

Meyer has a penchant for finding/re-discovering talented assistants that make decent head coaches: Kyle Whittingham (Utah), Greg Brandon (Bowling Green), Mike Sanford (UNLV), Tim Beckman (Toledo), Dan Mullen (Mississippi State), Charlie Strong (Louisville).

How much magic is left in him? Can he attract more great assistants? Is there someone left on his staff that can help rebuild the team? If we do win a national championship, can he absorb the loss of those assistants as well? The advantage to Meyer is that he is rather young, so he has time to build up relationships with other coaches that he can attract to UF. If we don't see any coaching changes on offense, I don't see us rebuilding well into a championship team. We might be okay on defense with Teryl Austin, but nobody on offense sticks out other than maybe Azzanni. I hear good things about Loeffler, but it is hard to see (especially in a crappy quarterback...I had to insert that stab there).

 

[Leakfan12]

Well I like to find out when he gets rid of Addazio.

 

[DRU2012]

THAT is a very important point (and QUESTION), I believe--one that I have tended to overlook before now.
I'm not sure Spurrier's example is typical: there were a number of factors there, including the NFL interlude, that conspired to perhaps lengthen that process. Perhaps there IS no "typical" experience one can draw conclusions from, each successful coach's experience and career being unique. When I consider it, it seems there are in general one of two different types of such "cycles" at work in the great ones' success: some move on at some point and begin that cycle again at a new school (on their way up, they move "at the top" of that cycle to a new, bigger opportunity; later on, they maybe wear out their welcome on the "down side" before moving on), a few settle in at a particular institution at some point and ride through successive cycles there for the rest of their careers, becoming venerated old "fixtures" there (how THAT plays out can vary--witness Jo-Pa as opposed to Bobby B).
Judging by what we've seen so far from Meyer, which of the above "types" he was looked to be still in the balance--he'd been a "jumper" up 'til he got here, but until last year's flip/flop (and subsequent questions raised by some since) it seemed he'd found a home, if he wanted it. As for how long it would take for him to "bring us back", assuming he's here "for the long haul", I think you're dead on: it depends on how he deals with the problems at hand, which in turn will largely be determined by the people he brings in. In other words, it is entirely up to Urban Meyer, at this point. HE has to make the hard choices that will start the ball rolling. "Does he have any magic left?" We're about to find out.

 

[Escambia94]

Even in that span between 1996 and 2000, Spurrier had problems rebuilding his coaching staff. That's four years to an SEC East, or five to an SEC championship. Meyer had essentially the same staff from 2006 to 2008. He has nobody from 2008. I would like to think that his "four year clock" to get back to the SEC East started in 2009. We already know that the Dazzler is not going to coach us into greatness in 2011, at least not as the OC. Here is one thing to consider. Spurrier had less of a dropoff in offensive production between 1996 and 2000 because he had the same offensive coordinator, a man named Steve Spurrier. We all assume that Meyer needed Mullen, but what if Meyer took on the OC job himself? That is what Spurrier did, and that is what Mullen does today. Mullen has not proven to me at MSU that he was the offensive mastermind of the SO/ZR. Look at how he wins at MSU--dive, dive, zone read, flip the ball 5 yards. It looks to me that Meyer really is an offensive mastermind (as we once touted before Mullen left), but he lacked the personnel to run the modified Plan to Win. If Driskel can step in as a Tebow, then we really are built like 2006. We thought we were built like 2006 in 2010, but we suspended Rainey and Demps got hurt. Even with that crappy o-line we could have won a few more games with Rainey and Demps. Next year, we will look a lot better if we get a new OC, perhaps a man named Urban Meyer. If he is too busy, maybe he needs to promote Azzanni, a man that worked with Meyer at Bowling Green. If that doesn't work for Meyer, perhaps he needs to hire another hot shot OC.

 

[GainesvillebornNraised]

we had some damn good established talent coming into the 06/07 seasons tho

especially at key positions like WR and D-line

i wish some how we could just get a pro set OC thats what the best players in the country wanna play in it makes sense

im so sick of lame passing game thats the main reason if we were more versitile and actually threw it deep every now and then like oregon or aub i prolly wouldnt say that

 

[Escambia94]

we had some damn good established talent coming into the 06/07 seasons tho

especially at key positions like WR and D-line

i wish some how we could just get a pro set OC thats what the best players in the country wanna play in it makes sense

im so sick of lame passing game thats the main reason if we were more versitile and actually threw it deep every now and then like oregon or aub i prolly wouldnt say that

We may have some good talent now. We just don't know because our OC is so unimaginative.

With the right QB and a WR that did not have brick hands, we would have a passing game.

As for the pro set, that just isn't the Florida offense as long as Urban Meyer is the HC. It's either the spread-option or a new head coach. Pick a side--spread-option or a new head coach. Urban Meyer tried to deviate from that offense, and this is what happened. His players are recruited for this offense, not the pro set. His OC is just not capable of executing the offense. Plain and simple.

Now we sit back and watch the show. Does Urban Meyer fix this with a subpar offensive coordinator and load of good freshmen, or do we continue sliding into mediocrity?

 

[DRU2012]

@ G'villeBornNraised:
Well, they'd never go to a pro-set unless the Perfect Running Back were to just show up, determined to be a Gator "no matter what" (a la Emmit Smith, about 25 years ago); given their handling of the offense around Brantley THIS season, what current young running back would likely be convinced by any promise to "change that offense" to suit THEIR style? We were lucky to get Mack Brown last year (I THINK--it'd have been nice to have some idea of what he's got by now), but I'm not so sure he's an every-down-back. Anyway, as long as Urban Meyer is here, it's going to be some version of his Spread...Now, that DOESN'T mean it can't be freewheeling and imaginative; on the contrary, "stretching the field" is a central component of the spread offense. The fact that it appeared to have disappeared from the playbook was one more frustrating example of the Gator "braintrust" ignoring the obvious all season long.
@ Escambia'94:
Both of our above "quick sketches of where it all leaves us" bring us to the same point, a choice Meyer has to make (where "keeping Addazio right where he is" amounts to making no choice, and invites disaster):
Either the Head Coach becomes his own Offensive Coordinator, or he brings in one of the next generation of his disciples to help find a new synthesis and new excitement in the Spread Offense.