One could sense the bitterness and jealous coming from Urban Meyer as he spoke on ESPN’s postgame show following Alabama’s win over Notre Dame in the National Championship Game. The Crimson Tide had just won its third national championship in four seasons, and it was clear the program had done something Meyer did not think was possible.
“There was a time where I really believed that couldn’t be done because of the parity in college football,” Meyer said on ESPN’s postgame show. “The SEC — you saw Georgia, LSU and A&M take Alabama right to the ropes, so I really didn’t think that could be done.”
Meyer, whose Ohio State Buckeyes went 12-0, understands how difficult it is to build a dynasty in college football. You have to bring in the top recruits each year, hope they develop properly, and you need little calls or plays go your way in several games. There is also a lot of turnover to overcome; players graduate, transfer, and turn pro, and assistant coaches leave for other jobs. Knowing all this, Meyer, who won two national championships at Florida, can’t believe that Nick Saban has been able to build such a dominant dynasty at Alabama. He even made it clear after Bama beat Notre Dame that he hopes Saban’s coaching staff gets raided in order to weaken the program.
“He doesn’t lose coaches. I’m still trying to figure that out. We had that thing going at Florida and it was a turnstyle — head coaches here, head coaches there. How do you not go hire one of those assistant coaches at Alabama?” Meyer asked.
Meyer is not entirely accurate; Saban lost offensive coordinator Jim McElwain after last season, but he has managed to keep Kirby Smart as his defensive coordinator since 2007.
What’s amusing is that this is the second prominent college football coach in a week who’s tried to weaken the Bama program. These guys have a hard time topping Bama on the field, so this is all they can do to take down Alabama. It was pretty weak of Meyer to use his platform on ESPN for that purpose.
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