Column: Meyer must address failures with Hernandez, player discipline

As badly as he might desire, Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer can’t retreat or hide from the truth.

When the news broke that one of his former players from his tenure at the University of Florida, tight end Aaron Hernandez, had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder June 26, inquiring minds and eyes immediately shifted to two parties: Meyer and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

While shifting the blame for Hernandez’s transgressions solely to Kraft is easy, the light should be shed on Meyer, a college head coach responsible not only for winning football games, but for shaping and molding young men.

Yet it’s not the least bit surprising Meyer isn’t man enough to recognize his own failure in the latter responsibility.

In his typical bravado, Meyer hid behind the veil of a text message to the Columbus Dispatch regarding the Hernandez case: “Relating or blaming these serious charges to the University of Florida, myself or our staff is wrong and irresponsible.”

So just like that, Meyer displayed the type of holier than thou attitude that has earned the 49-year-old such a tarnished reputation during his career as a head coach at both Florida and Ohio State, among other places.

But what should cause alarm to the parents of any prospect being recruited by Ohio State is the following set of circumstances.

Following Meyer’s first text message to the Columbus Dispatch, he followed up with a lengthier statement, a sad attempt to save face in light of the Hernandez scandal.
“Our program, in my opinion, does as good of a job as anybody in America in involving families, making it a family atmosphere, getting to know our players and trying to develop our players in all areas of life — social, spiritual, athletic everything,” Meyer said. “Our coaches coach, but that’s a small part of it ... It’s why we work so hard on life after football with these kids.”

Don’t be duped or convinced by that statement.

Per a New York Times report published last month, 41 of the 121 players who were on Florida’s roster during the Gators’ run to the 2008 BCS National Championship Game were arrested either during college or after having left the school.

Let those numbers sink in. Forty-one players from a single Meyer-coached team have run afoul of the law either during their time with the perceived “mentor” or after his many life lessons had been engrained in them.

And the evidence continues to kick Meyer deeper into a pit of hypocrisy
and shame.

Ohio State cornerback Bradley Roby, widely expected to be the Buckeyes’ best defensive player in 2013, was arrested during a weekend in Bloomington and faces preliminary charges of battery resulting in bodily injury.

Roby’s teammate, running back Carlos Hyde, has been cleared as a person of interest, after it was originally reported that he had allegedly struck a woman at Sugar Bar 2 near the Ohio State campus in Columbus, Ohio.

As for Meyer’s statement concerning these two incidents?

He gave yet another shallow, meaningless statement that is nothing but pure spin.

“I have a clear set of core values in place that members of this football program are constantly reminded of and expected to honor,” Meyer said. “There are also expectations with regard to this behavior. I expect our players to conduct themselves responsibly and appropriately and they will be held accountable for their actions.”

This is just another strand in Meyer’s tangled web of lies.

Maybe one day he’ll be the man he purports himself to be and own up to the fact that he has failed as a mentor of young men.


­— ckillore@indiana.edu