NCAA Football

This Week in Awful Coaching: Urban Meyer

It really is amazing watching “professional” coaches call a football game. You get the idea that some of them don’t even own their own PlayStations. If they did, they’d know that there are some basic play calling mistakes you should never make. This week’s game ball for idiot coach of the week goes to none other than Urban Meyer, a man I have always held in the highest regard for, ironically, his fantastic play calling.

First of all, the Florida Gators should never have been in the situation to lose to Ole Miss in the first place. So much for the SEC being so great. Whoops. But, when faced with adversity, Meyer chooses to go to the section of the playbook labeled “Won’t Work” to pick his most important play of the day.

Imagine this: Fourth down and one yard to go. Under a minute to go. Down by one. Almost in field goal range. Everybody in the building knows that Tim Tebow’s number is getting called, and sure enough, it is. No gain. Mississippi ball. Game over.

Here’s the problem. TEBOW WAS IN THE SHOTGUN.

You need a half a yard. Eighteen f***ing inches. So why not take the best power-running quarterback in the nation and run a QB sneak? I suppose that’s too easy. Meyer decided to instead run a QB sneak from FIVE YARDS DEEP in the backfield.

It really is pathetic to watch “top-level” coaches in both the NFL and college football, who really are clueless in some of the most basic features of the sport of football.

I’m not pointing to any one coach here, but nothing bothers me more than these coaches refusing to go for fourth downs past midfield, late in the game, from a manageable distance. If these guys weren’t so afraid of being questioned for having a set of balls, they would win more games.

Les Miles, one of the few coaches that calls a game right, doesn’t get questioned, and you know why? Because he wins more than he loses. Every football study in the world shows that punting on fourth down is a waste, unless it is fourth and long, and/or you are deep in your own territory. Punting on fourth and two from the plus 40 is the 100 percent wrong move.

But when you go for it, you have to do it right. You don’t run a QB dive from the shotgun when you need a half-a-yard. You don’t throw a five yard pass on fourth and six. You’d be amazed how often these idiots do it.

I feel no sympathy for Meyer or Florida. They are the better team and shouldn’t have been in that situation. And they failed to block on an extra point that got blocked, as well as ran the absolute wrong play on the most important play of the game.

The got what they deserved.

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