Re: 2011 College Football: Occupy GameDay!
Take a year off from a stressful job and he thinks his health problems are permanently gone, I guess? OSU isn't Florida, but it's definitely a top 15 stress inducing job, I'd guess.
I don't recall any assertion that Meyer was some sort an invalid, or that he could never work full time again. At the same time, assuming the accuracy of the
Dispatch report, both sides are taking a calculated risk on Meyer's health. That's admittedly uncomfortable. Then again, buying any sort of health or life insurance raises the same kind of uncomfortable questions. I hope, and have to believe, that the employment contract will deal with the possible scenarios in great detail -- in a way that's fair to all concerned.
His daughter must hate his guts by now.
Oh, I don't know. The normal kid wants her parents to be involved in her life, and that's as it should be. But no high school or college kid is going to want a parent who hovers around on a full time basis. One problem with a high profile coaching career is the that free time tends to be all or nothing. The happy medium is desirable but not doable.
Big Picture: Whenever someone leaves a high profile job citing health and/or family reasons, it will be second guessed. That's legitimate, because such reasons can range from 100% truthful to total BS. In this case, my feeling is that the reasons were more truthful than not. Then again, all of us are just reading tea leaves, and are unlikely to ever know the exact truth.
My particular theory is that Meyer felt he had accomplished all he could at Florida, and despite mixed feelings, decided to move on. The health and family concerns were real enough, but also became a means to facilitate a change. While it's certainly possible to move directly from one high profile program to another, it's considerably more comfortable to have a gap between jobs. As just one example, Nick Saban went the other route when moving from LSU to Alabama, and took more than a little heat for it.
The timing of Meyer's return to coaching is also a legitimate question. More specifically, should the gap have been longer? Arguably, yes. But if Ohio State was the job he really wanted, this was time to go after it. No doubt the job opened up sooner than he could have imagined. When he left Florida I presume he would have expected Jim Tressel to be the Coach of the Buckeyes for several more seasons. As it played out, the crossroads came much sooner.
So was Ohio State really Meyer's dream job? Or just one of several jobs he would have considered? In these parts, the dream job scenario is a pretty easy sell. Outside of Ohio, I suppose the second theory would be more widely believed. How one feels about this last question is going to heavily influence their views on the other issues. If it's the dream job, you dive right in and accept the downside risks as necessary evils. If it's just one job among many, cutting corners on health and family seems much more questionable.
