Former Bearcat to coach against ‘Cats in Sugar Bowl

When Urban Meyer played football at the University of Cincinnati less than 2,000 people showed up to see the ‘Cats play. “We were playing Memphis State,” he said when addressing the UC football squad after a spring practice in 2008. “And getting our butts beat.”

This isn’t Urban Meyer’s program anymore. The UC Bearcats will actually head to New Orleans ranked ahead of the Gators, who are considered heavy favorites by many “experts”. But all Meyer has to do is point to his former program, Utah, who beat Alabama in last year’s Sugar Bowl to show his team that anyone can win on any given day.

The kid from Ashtabula, Ohio got drafted by the Atlanta Braves out of high school, and ended up at the University of Cincinnati playing defensive back.

“The one thing I can remember is him saying this used to be a rinky-dink program. That's the only thing I remember,” UC wideout Mardy Gilyard said. “The team knew we weren't a rinky-dink program. That just kind of fueled me.”

But Meyer came away impressed with that version of the Cincinnati Bearcats, who won the 2008 Big East title. “Watching practice, I walked away saying that this was an SEC-caliber team,” he said. He added that he wouldn’t want to play UC. “If your AD calls our AD and wants us to play you guys, I'm telling him, ‘No way. I don't want to play those guys’.”
Strong words from one of the best coaches in the nation, but as I stated last year in October, “What if he has no chance?” Sometimes even my craziest dreams come true, but did Meyer ever think he’d be playing his alma mater in a BCS bowl game? Probably not.

Meyer showing off his ball security skills after winning the National Title last year

Which is why after last season, current Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly traveled to Gainesville and met with Meyer and the Florida staff to share some coaching insights. Both sides shared ideas about offense and even some special teams insight.

“We shared some ideas about some things,” Kelly said. “That's the fraternity of the coaching business. We certainly weren't looking at a matchup with Florida on our regular schedule. We run some similar things offensively. We share some similar ideas in terms of practice.”

When Meyer visited UC back in the spring of 2008 he stood next to Kelly and they chatted. Wouldn’t it have been fantastic to be a fly buzzing around those two offensive masterminds? I know of more than a few people who would love to have been in that situation (and most of them have been beaten by Meyer or Kelly in the past few seasons).

Tim Hinton, UC’s running backs coach, and Meyer met at Ohio State in the late 1980s and have continued a close relationship ever since.
“I had never met Coach (Brian) Kelly and one of their coaches is a very good friend, Tim Hinton,” Meyer said. “I was invited down to practice. Without disrespect to the University of Cincinnati, I didn’t expect what I saw and what I saw was one of the best teams in America practicing and the way their defensive staff was coaching and the way Coach Kelly was directly involved, I remember walking away from that and saying wow. Since then I made it a point and I never miss a game when they were on.”

Perhaps that will help him when he stalks the sidelines in January 1st against his alma mater. Until then, Meyer will think back to that day when he walked away from that spring practice thinking about just how good the UC Bearcats were. They certainly aren’t the same Bearcats he played for in the 1980s. These Bearcats can beat Florida, and that probably scares Meyer just a little bit.

Playing Florida certainly won’t scare the UC Bearcats, who realize that they have an opportunity to do some unbelievable things in this game. Finishing a perfect season, finishing in the top five in the final polls and beating Florida would legitimatize the UC football program as one of the premier programs in all the land. “Who is more recognized as a program in the past five years than Florida?” asked Brian Kelly before he bolted for South Bend.

The answer is no one. Who is a better recognized coach than Urban Meyer over the past five years? With all due respect to Kelly, it’s still probably Urban Meyer. And now Meyer has a chance to see his program play on a national stage. The only problem is it’s against his Florida Gators.

“Nobody’s going to pick us to win that game and we understand that,” said Gilyard. But even if UC wins you’ve gotta think that Urban Meyer would be at least happy to see his program succeeding against the best in the game.

And hopefully we get to see if Meyer can give us that reaction on New Year’s Day.