Urban Meyer Was So Tough On ’04 Utes Some Wanted To Quit, But He Wouldn’t Allow It

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Former Utah head coach Urban Meyer was in his second season at the helm for the Utes when he changed many players forever.

He put the players through very difficult practices to the point where players wanted to quit playing football.

In the end, it made those players who didn’t quit on the team mentally tougher. Plus, some players were not allowed to quit because Meyer wouldn’t let them. It paid off because that 2004 Utah football team became the first non-BCS school to win a BCS Bowl game when they beat Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl to finish the season with a perfect 12-0 record.

KSL Sports caught up with four members of the 2004 team in running back Quinton Ganther, wide receivers John Madsen and Paris Warren along with defensive back Morgan Scalley.

Madsen, Ganther Were Rethinking Football Career

During the “Great Ute Debate: ’04 vs. ’08” Ganther told KSL Sports that he was rethinking his football career when he joined the Utes from junior college.

Madsen had such a difficult time with the difficult practices and training sessions from Meyer early in the 2004 season. It was to the point where he went to Meyer’s office to let him know that he was done playing football.

“I literally went up to Urban’s office and said ‘I appreciate you giving me the opportunity but I don’t think I love football, man. I am not going to do this,”‘ Madsen said. “Urban told me to shut the door in his office and sit down and told me that if I walked out of that room he was going to fight me. He said ‘look John, I have coached football for 18 years and you have more raw ability than anybody and I will not let you quit.’ He sat me down and I had tears streaming down my face because I was not mentally tough back then.”

What are your favorite memories/plays from the 2004 and 2008 @Utah_Football seasons?#GoUtes #BCSBustershttps://t.co/HZhtoNNDce

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) May 11, 2020

Madsen was a Hunter High School graduate who grew up in Utah and was a Utes fan throughout his childhood. He felt that he lived a pretty easy life up until he went to the University of Utah.

“I was a kid who grew up with a pretty easy life and that was my first taste of hard,” Madsen stated. “I was trying to get out as quick as I good but I am glad I didn’t because my life would have been different. When they say it was hard, these guys were much tougher than I was. My house was 15 minutes away. I had a car that was packed up.”

Now that he is not playing football anymore, Madsen still has a close relationship with Meyer who just retired from coaching at Ohio State after the 2018 season.

“One of the many gifts that Urban had was getting the best out of everybody whether you liked him or not,” mentioned Madsen. “Every single player was a better player because he knew how to get the best out of them. He didn’t treat everybody the same.”

Tough Workouts/Drills

Morgan Scalley knew that things were going to be different at Utah under Meyer from the first weight lifting session.

“From the first weight room session, you could tell it was going to be different,” Scalley said. “They chained the doors shut, they put black paper over all of the windows. The group in front of us was the offensive lineman and defensive lineman and all you could hear was screaming. They unchained the doors and the guys come walking out with throw up on their shirts. I never had butterflies going into a weight room and that had me going.”

If you talk to any player that has ever played for Urban Meyer, you hear stories about how hard the practices and training sessions were. Madsen and Warren told some stories including some of the workouts that Meyer put his players through.

Paris Warren joined the Utes after transferring from Oregon. The workouts under Meyer were harder than any workout he had to do at Oregon.

“I worked hard at Oregon. But I don’t know if it was Utah’s altitude but Urban killed us,” Warren jokingly said. “They had me wearing a weighted vest, I would never do that again. We didn’t walk anywhere. We always ran. If we went to go eat, we ran.”

If you missed this morning's "Domination" conversation with 2004 @Utah_Football standouts @SafetyPride, @john_madsen, Paris Warren and Quinton Ganther, you can watch the video ⬇️ https://t.co/OspqMWnszj pic.twitter.com/Y3C8JwS05b

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) May 7, 2020

One instance Madsen recalled was a weight room session where they had 10 minutes left in the session when Warren wanted to walk out on the team.

“I remember one time in the weight room, they were murdering us and you (Warren) were holding ropes and you stopped and said ‘forget this I am done.’ We had 10 minutes to go,” Madsen stated. “Paris was our star and Urban came in and gave him the choice to walk out and we start the whole thing over for everybody. Paris turned around to go back, Urban blew the whistle and had us start the whole thing over. I think I had tears in my eyes.”

A drill that players dreaded during the 2004 season under Meyer was the “mat drills.”

“I came from a junior college so I didn’t know what mat drills was,” said Madsen. “What they did was bring out wrestling mats, one player would start out on their hands and knees while the other player was hovering over them. They would blow a whistle and you had 10 yards to get to the end of the mat but their was no rules. It was a fight for 10 yards. Guys would have ripped shirts, broken noses, it was ridiculous.”

Finally, Meyer would only give his players two weeks off during the off-season before they returned to workouts.

“I remember the first season (under Urban) and I just needed a break. We were down in Memphis for the Liberty Bowl,” stated Madsen. “I remember that I was just so tired. With Urban, you had two weeks off and then you had more mat drills.  It wasn’t just training camp. It was from January to January without a break.”

Even though all of the workouts and practices were difficult with Meyer, all four players that joined KSL Sports said that Meyer made them a better football player, a better person while making them physically and mentally stronger.

You can watch the full broadcast with members of the 2004 Utah football team towards the top of the story.

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.