Urban Meyer Gave Lesson on Ownership During Ohio State's One-Day Camp

By Andrew Lind on June 11, 2017 at 8:30 am
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Ohio State held the first of three one-day camps on Friday. And just as he always does, head coach Urban Meyer addressed the more than 300 high school prospects in attendance at the camp's conclusion.

A three-time national championship-winning coach, Meyer is no stranger to success despite humble beginnings. He had a brief career as a defensive back at Cincinnati and a two-year minor league baseball stint within the Atlanta Braves' organization before rising the coaching ranks to Ohio State, where he's entering his sixth season as head coach. He credits his willingness to learn for his successes.

“As a young coach, when I went somewhere, I would always try to grab something," Meyer said. "I'd take it and bring it back with me. It's something that's made me better."

In hoping to pass some wisdom down to those young athletes, Meyer recalled the Buckeyes' most recent title in 2014, and mentioned that team in the same breath as the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and Nike.

"What do they all have in common," Meyer asked.

He first explained how the fans and media of the teams that aren't very good first place blame upon the coaches or the owners, though it's actually the players not taking accountability for their actions as to why the teams fail. Those who do take ownership are the ones that are successful.

"Those kids," Meyer said as he pointed at the national championship banner at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, "walked in the hallways like they own it. Like this is their home. You don't let people come into your home and do bad things.

"I can tell within five minutes when I walk into a good high school," he continued. "When I walk in, how do you think that weight room looks? Immaculate. Spotless. The nicest stuff around. Your names on the wall. Coaches have everything organized. Everyone's wearing their high school T-shirts with their names on it. Kids clean cut, look good. How do you think they work in there? Great, because they own it."

That, of course, compared to a school where everything is a mess — from how they dress to how they practice. Ohio State, Meyer said, won't take a kid from that school because it takes at least two years to get that mentality out of him.

Meyer also recalled the story of when he was a young coach making $6,000 per year and living in a third-rate apartment. He and his friends were watching the Mike Tyson-Buster Douglas fight, which took place about 10 years before any of those campers in attendance were even born. That, of course, drew a laugh from their parents.

"[Tyson] gets knocked out, so people jump up," Meyer said. "Someone kicks a hole in my wall. With the lousy, disgusting apartment I had, what does anybody do in that kind of apartment? Move the couch to cover the hole. It's what you do.

"Later on, I get my first real job and buy a house," he continued. "What would happen to that person if he kicked a hole in my wall? That's not going to happen because I own it. So my challenge for you — you're the older, more mature people on your team — go back and tell your coach, get a great relationship with your coach, become that leader, get a sense of ownership. How do you do that? You see some stuff on the ground [thanks to] some freshman, [say], 'Hey man, we don't do that. This is our locker room. Pick that up.'"

In closing, Meyer shared the secret of how to be recruited by a school like Ohio State or other major programs.

"Let your coach say, 'Recruit that man right there. He's our leader. He owns this program. It's his.'" Meyer said. "That's what we want. We get players like that, there'll be another banner in here. We get that kind of mentality in here... it's hard. It's easy to act like an idiot. Is it hard to be a leader? Damn right it's hard. Is it hard to own it? It is, because it's got your name on it.

"If you come from a great program, you're a great player and you win, your chance of success is great," he continued. "You come from a lousy program that's disorganized, we probably don't want you. The best leaders in any program are the players, not the coaches ... Own your program."

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