Buddy Martin Blog: That Night Urban & Steve Stood Together In The Swamp, Celebrating Past Successes
Updated: Sep 10, 2021
"My admiration for Coach Spurrier for doing that is … It’s hard to imagine that when I came here in 2005. This guy in the shadows of Steve Spurrier and we become good friends."
It was one of those photos that resonated deeply with the Florida Gator diehards. On the surface, just two coaching dudes taking a curtain call. Inside the Orange & Blueblood family, it felt like a tiny olive branch. But it was a lot more than that. This was also a homecoming.
Meyer was back on home ground, even though the soil underfoot was now memorialized by the name of the guy standing next to him, Steve Spurrier. The greatness achieved on that grass by those two in that era is forevermore etched with victories and championships. If you’re scoring, that’s 187.5 wins and 11 titles.
“Yeah, I guess Urban and I pretty much have them all,” Spurrier mused at the observation. Between the two of them, the two coaches have all that bling. Maybe eight SECs don’t sound like much compared to Alabama’s 28, but when you haven’t won anything in the first 81 years it takes a bit of catching up. Those titles for the Gators all came in the last three decades.
“It was good to see Urban there,” said Spurrier, who’s been to Jaguars camp and remains friends with Meyer.
What also needs a bit of catching up is mutual respect and appreciation. For some still-angry fans that may still take a minute. Haters gonna hate. And let’s not even try to adjudicate a few with ill feelings toward Urban for leaving Florida to work for ESPN -- and then winding up at Ohio State. Some have moved on since then, some have not.
There was a loud cheer – presumably not all for Spurrier. And no boos.
“It was almost surreal,” Urban told me later.
Last summer, Pat Dooley wrote this for a UF Website: “But Florida has taken it slowly because of Meyer’s conflicts and the conflicted feelings of the fans. Stricklin has asked me several times about when I thought the time would be right, and I know he doesn’t want to pull the trigger and then have Meyer coaching back in college again.
“I do think it has softened a bit, this anger toward Meyer because of the way he left Florida, but it’s still there. There is certainly a concern that a Ring of Honor ceremony could lead to booing from those fans who don’t want it to happen, and that would be embarrassing to the school and the program. That’s why there is a possibility that Florida will have Steve Spurrier introduce Meyer, and if you boo the HBC, you are no longer a Gator.”
That sort of happened last Saturday.
“It was great to hear them cheering for Urban again,” said someone close to him. So maybe Urban Renewal is underway.
Now that he’s a resident of Florida again, coaching that NFL team up north, Urban’s blood is running a bit more Orange & Blue than Scarlet & Gray, in between pulses of Teal & Black.
The next day in his Jaguars press conference, Urban addressed the issue of his departure from UF for the first time.
"I love Gainesville, I love Florida. I wish I had left differently," said Meyer. "But that was a deeply personal situation, but I'll always be respectful to the Gators and I'll always be a Gator fan. My former coach is a coach there and I support them and, shoot, I even pumped up a recruit when he walked by me."
Perhaps a little short of an apology for those who would have preferred one, but at least they got a mea culpa. Maybe it was a gesture to help heal any scars. Some people seem to feel they are owed an apology before Urban is inducted into the Ring of Honor.
Perhaps lost in that brief ceremony was the power of the glory these two men have brought to the University of Florida.
"First time here since I was the coach,” Urban said to Scott Carter of FloridaGators.com. Meyer noted also that it was the first game he’d come to The Swamp in his own car. "Coach Spurrier, we've become good friends. Love hanging out with him."
Before the game Urban took in the Gator Walk, which was established by UF under his regime, where the players walk the gauntlet of fans through the North end zone in street clothes before kickoff. "You could feel the energy," said Meyer.
We spoke a few days before Urban’s first game as Jags coach and the good feelings were still reverberating.
“I’m grateful to Scott Stricklin,” he said, “and to the Spurriers for hanging out for three hours before the game … watching games together. My admiration for Coach Spurrier for doing that is … It’s hard to imagine that when I came here in 2005. This guy in the shadows of Steve Spurrier and we become good friends. And we hang out on the field together.”
So what did they talk about all that time?
“We talked about restaurants. We talked about family. We talked about Crescent Beach. Jacksonville. Talked about the quarterback situation. Dan Mullen. And football plays. And a little bit about the NFL. He shared some of his experiences with me.”
Regarding his statement about wishing it could have ended differently, Urban took it a step further.
“I made a comment (later) when I asked the question,” he said, “that I never really got the chance to like apologize for the way it ended. It happened fast and it was deeply personal. If there’s any doubt or hesitation about my love for Florida, Shelley’s love for Florida, the appreciation we’ve had for Gator Nation and those players that played … three times they went 13-1 and won two national titles. That will always be there. And I’m extremely grateful for that.”
Perhaps standing there together on Steve Spurrier-Florida Field, flashing a Gator chomp in the brief re-introduction to fans, was exactly the tonic needed to celebrate the past and move on to the future. You’re up, Dan Mullen.
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