“Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football” — John W. Heisman, famous football coach, immortalized by the trophy that bears his name, and firm believer that nothing good happens when you fumble the ball.
If Urban Meyer were to write his Ten Commandments of Football, his likely commandment number one — Thou Shalt Not Fumble — would be inspired by Heisman, whose dislike of fumbles was legendary in a coaching career that included a 1917 national championship at Georgia Tech. If the fastest way to Urban Meyer’s heart is special teams, then the fastest way into his dog house is to fumble the football.
Since he arrived on the Florida campus in 2005, ball security has been a staple of the “Gospel According to Urban Meyer,” which goes by the more conventional name of “The Plan to Win.” Play great defense, win the kicking game, take care of the football and score when you’re in the red zone are the four pillars of success in the plan. Win those four and typically you win football games but if you don’t take care of the ball, chances are you lose.
Meyer is 46-9 as Florida’s football coach and of those nine losses since 2005, the Gators have lost the turnover battle six times. In the national championship seasons of 2006 and 2008 the Gators lost one game in each season. Against Ole Miss in 2008, the Gators fumbled the football five times and lost three. In the Gators’ 27-17 loss to Auburn in 2006, they fumbled three times and lost it twice plus they threw an interception.
Meyer detests interceptions — the Gators have thrown 32 in the 55 games since he became the head coach — but as much as he abhors throwing the ball away, he hates fumbles even worse. The Gators have fumbled the football 86 times since 2005 and they’ve lost the ball 36 times. That number includes last Saturday against Troy when the Gators coughed it up six times and lost three, Florida’s worst day of ball security since last year’s 31-30 loss to Ole Miss.
“We don’t do that here … lay the ball on the ground,” Meyer said after the Gators beat Troy, 56-6, Saturday.
Meyer said something similar in 2008 after the Gators literally gave the Ole Miss game away with their second half fumbles. Florida lost three that day but only lost five more fumbles the rest of the season.
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John Heisman was born in Cleveland but grew up in Titusville, Pennsylvania, which is a two hour drive from Ashtabula, Ohio, Meyer’s home town. Heisman coached at Penn, Auburn and Clemson among other places, but it was at Georgia Tech that he made his name as an offensive innovator. After watching a forward pass in an 1897 game between Georgia and North Carolina, he was so impressed by its potential that he lobbied Walter Camp for years to make the play legal. Camp and the rules committee approved the forward pass in 1906 thanks to intense lobbying by Heisman.
As much as he loved coming up with new ideas like the toss sweep with the entire offensive line pulling out in front — 60 years later Southern Cal would call it “student body right” or “student body left” — Heisman understood that no matter how slick your offense might be, it only takes a fumble to destroy whatever momentum you’ve built up to that point in the game.
Meyer shares Heisman’s love for offensive innovation. His spread option offense wasn’t supposed to work in the SEC if you believed all the so-called “experts” back in 2005. Four years later, it’s the rage of college football but Meyer knows that as good as the spread option is at isolating his best players against the weakest players on the defense, that fumbles can eliminate any advantage in a split second. Meyer might be the newest of the new school offensive geniuses but he’s got a lot of John Heisman in him.
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“You can’t turn the ball over,” says Kenny Carter. Carter endeared himself to Meyer in the spring of 2008 when he interviewed for the vacancy on the Florida staff for a new running backs coach. Carter’s no-nonsense approach to ball security was all Meyer needed to hear. During the entire 2008 season, Carter’s running backs lost only three fumbles.
Carter had three projects last year in Jeff Demps, Chris Rainey and Emmanuel Moody. Demps was known for his speed but not his toughness. Rainey was known not only for his breakaway ability but for his penchant to put the ball on the deck. Moody fumbled a lot in spring practice. All three proved themselves worthy of Carter’s trust. Demps lost two fumbles late in the season in 2008, one in the torrential rain at Florida State. Rainey’s only lost fumble was on a high pitch in the rain at FSU. Moody fumbled once but recovered his only fumble.
Moody lost the first fumble of the season for the Gators last week against Troy. He was busy turning a potential no gain into 12 positive yards when the ball came out. Even though he went back in the game again, Moody never carried the ball again against Troy.
With Carter, fumbles are teaching opportunities so it was important for him to get with Moody and examine exactly why the fumble happened in the first place.
“He knows why he fumbled,” Carter said. “That’s the number one thing. We don’t just say you fumbled. We actually examine why it happened. It happened because the ball was low and when he got tackled from behind, because the ball was low the guy was able to pull the ball out.”
With Carter as with Meyer, there is a consequence for fumbling.
“We address those issues and he has to get himself in position where he earns our trust again,” Carter said. “He will [earn the trust] but there’s a price to pay for it.”
In the spring a fumble meant going the length of the field holding a football high, tight and locked in each arm. Every ten yards the whistle blew and the guilty party had to fall forward and land on his forearms — 100 yards up and 100 yards back for every fumble.
Once the punishment for fumbling is taken care of, it’s time to prove in practice that the miscue was a one-time thing and not something that’s going to be an ongoing problem.
It’s called earning the coaches’ trust all over again.
“You have to continue to be diligent in practice and prove that it was an accident, that it wasn’t something because of negligence,” Carter said.
Saturday, it was evident that Moody was distraught on the sidelines after the fumble and later in the game, he was seen sitting on the bench with his head hung low while Tim Tebow, Aaron Hernandez and the Pouncey Twins gave him a pep talk.
After the game and again on Sunday, Moody met with Carter to discuss the fumble. Last year, Carter wasn’t so sure how Moody would have reacted. This year, Moody was quite disturbed that he had turned the ball over.
“We met Saturday and we met Sunday and he understood very clearly what the deal was and quite frankly he was quite upset with himself that it happened,” Carter said. “It really took him to a point emotionally that I had not seen before, especially last year so I knew that he was growing because it really bothered him that it happened. He didn’t matter of fact and blow it off and say hey, you know, whatever. He was very upset about it and that was really good.”
It was good because Carter expects his running backs to take responsibility for their mistakes and do all that is within their power to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“I know him really well and he has his times when he can be very emotional and it was good to see,” Carter said. “That means that he’s invested and that is when you know you’ve got a guy where you want him.”
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The Gators have won 12 straight games since their fumble-induced loss to Ole Miss last year. They go into Saturday’s game with Tennessee a heavy favorite but Meyer has been in this situation before. The Gators were heavy favorites at Auburn in 2006 and again last year when Ole Miss came to town. In both those games, turnovers, and in particular, fumbles, were the great equalizer.
When it comes to talent, the Gators have a decided advantage over the Vols but talent doesn’t always atone for fumbles and Meyer knows it.
“We have to get that corrected or we’ll lose,” he said.
And nobody knows better than Urban Meyer that if you strictly observe Commandment number one — Thou Shalt Not Fumble — you usually win the game.