The two coaches seem to be wired the same way – at least in terms of being utterly consumed by their work. Meyer, in an ESPN interview Sunday night, talked of e-mailing recruits during church. He talked of thinking about certain game situations while eating out with family.
Saban hasn’t exactly made those same specific confessions, but you’d have to think the ultra-driven coach has done similar things.
There’s a reason these two guys rule the SEC – heck, you could almost say college football as a whole -- these days, and it’s not because they casually roll into the office at 8 a.m. and head home at 5 p.m. To achieve and then sustain the level of success Saban and Meyer have had in their profession, football has to very nearly become your religion, your family, your personal life.
This fall, Meyer, who admitted to dealing with health problems for the last four years, finally buckled under the weight of that lifestyle.
He was hospitalized with chest pains after the SEC Championship Game loss to Alabama. He’s lost more than 20 pounds in the last month. Plain and simple, the guy looks worn down. After some self-reflection and talking with his wife and three daughters, Meyer elected to resign as Florida’s coach on Saturday. On Sunday, after taking in Florida’s ‘spirited’ practice, he reconsidered and will now take an indefinite leave of absence, and will now likely return for the ’10 season.
He’s expected to coach the Gators in the Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati, too.
Meyer talked of realigning his priorities and putting God and family back ahead of work. You can’t help but have an appreciation for Meyer and his willingness to admit he has a problem and his desire to want to do better. Priorities is something every person struggles with at some point in time.
So what about Saban? At what point is he in this beat-down process, in this never-ending rat race of turning Alabama back into a national power and keeping it as such? Perhaps, moreso than Meyer, he’s ...
Subscribers click HERE to read the rest of the story and join the discussion.
Not a subscriber but want to be? It's just $5. Simply click HERE.
