For the past year, Buddy Martin has gotten to know Urban Meyer as very few will ever know him. Behind the scenes and in the locker rooms, Buddy has spent time with Urban, the Florida coaching staff and players, past and present, to gather the stories and information to write the authorized biography of the Florida football coach that will hit bookstores in the fall.
It takes a real pro to write a book about a coach like Meyer, who in seven short years has risen to the top of the college football coaching profession. Meyer has resurrected football programs at Bowling Green and Utah, and in three years at Florida, he’s delivered 31 wins including a magical 13-1 season in 2006 that produced the Gators’ second national championship. Meyer is a complicated man, driven to win, but driven harder to turn his players into winners in the most important game of all — the game of life.
In the next few days, Buddy will also be sharing with us some of the things that didn’t go in the final version of the book, which will be published by St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books and released in September. This is a Gator Country exclusive, so sit back, relax and enjoy.
And just think, if the excerpts that didn’t make it in the book are this good, just think how good the book is going to be.
— Franz Beard
The other day I came out of my hole and saw my shadow, which means we have at least eight more months of football. Unlike Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog, or Rip Van Winkle, the narcoleptic, however, I have not been asleep.
I have been living with Urban.
Well, sort of.
More like living with “Urban’s Way.”
That’s the name of the new authorized biography on Florida’s football coach which I recently completed after three years of research, one season of working inside the program and 100 straight days of writing.
The 300 pages of “Urban’s Way” are divided into three sections and, in fact, make up what turned out to be like three books.
1. Urban, the early years.
2. Urban as an assistant, then a head coach at Bowing Green and Utah.
3. Urban as a Gator – the SEC title and national championship.
After two years covering Urban Meyer and his Gators, I was invited inside the program for a season behind closed doors with the team in 2007.
I didn’t know quite what to expect, but this was a dream assignment for anybody who loves college football and, of course, anybody who has followed Gator football most of his life.
The only caveat was that I could not write or talk about anything I saw and heard except in the forthcoming book – basically rescinding my rights as a journalist on such matters. I gladly did it, because the chance to experience the inner workings of a major college football program like Florida’s was one that has rarely been afforded a writer.
Those experiences included everything from running through the tunnel on Florida Field with the team for the Tennessee game, observing coaches meetings, listening on the headsets to the coaches’ dialogue during several games, having a team meal on Friday night and riding on the bus on the way to the “Gator Walk.”
All during the season I never really talked to Meyer, but did interview each of his assistant coaches and quite a few members of his support staff. And I even had retired Florida Highway Patrol Major Malcolm Jowers, who has escorted every Gator coach since Charley Pell on and off the field, as my personal guide.
Meanwhile, I was speaking to players at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida about Urban. What I found most remarkable about that is that each of them, without knowing what the other had said, pretty much had the same thought, which was:
If you knuckle down and do the work he requires of you in football, academics and social responsibilities, you will not only succeed in the game, but also in life. And later when you are out in the free world, you will begin to understand why he preached the importance of a good family life and good conduct.
Already, several people have asked me the same questions about Meyer, which were:
1) What did you find out about Urban Meyer that you didn’t know before you started?
2) Did your perception of him change and, if so, how?
The answer to both may sound contrived or corny, but the truth is that Urban is a far more spiritual person that I realized. And the second part of that is that he is equally committed – if not more – to turning around the lives of some players than he is in trying to win.
That was revealed at the end of the ’07 season, when Urban granted me part of two days for long interviews at his lake home, during which he told me numerous stories of his boyhood and early coaching career, gave me a clinic on “The Spread” and then expressed the deep abiding affection he has for former players like Dallas Baker, Ray McDonald, Brandon Siler, Vernell Brown, Jemalle Cornelius, etc.
If this reads like a cheap plug for “Urban’s Way” (it is) which will be published this summer by St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books, don’t blame me. Blame it on GatorCountry.com Managing Editor Franz Beard, who insisted I write this column.
Given that I had to take leave of my duties from GatorCountry.com as a columnist in recent weeks, it’s the least I could do in return from Franz and Ray Hines III.
Since I do have this shot, however let me just go ahead with a full-blown commercial: If you want to know about Urban Meyer and the Florida Gator football team, run, don’t walk, to your nearest book store or go online and pre-order your copies. You can also watch GatorCountry.com for more ways to get your copy – possibly even autographed.
Meanwhile, excuse me while I re-introduce myself to my wife, my dog and the guy in the mirror. I loved doing “Urban’s Way.” But now it’s time for a little bit of “Buddy’s Way.”
COMING NEXT: Some of the stuff left on the cutting room floor that didn’t make it in “Urban’s Way.”