Urban Meyer: Safety, Winning Are Top Two Priorities When Coaching In Pandemic

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Former Utah head coach Urban Meyer won’t know what other coaches are going through as they guide their teams through a pandemic, but he knows what he would do.

Meyer retired from coaching college football and the 2018 season and joined FOX Sports as an analyst for the network.

The three-time National Champion joined the Crimson Corner podcast to discuss what he would do in that situation. You can listen to the full interview with Urban Meyer, below.

“People that know me, everything’s a panic, everything’s fourth and one,” Meyer told KSL Sports.

Safety, Winning

Meyer said that there are two things to focus on when leading a team through a pandemic.

“Number one is safety and welfare. Then number two is go win,” Meyer stated. “That’s your job description. You take care of your players that includes on the field, off the field, academics, performance, and most importantly, safety. But then you got to go win games, especially when you set a standard like Utah is us you gotta win. No excuses. So I would do everything I possibly can, after making sure players are safe.”

Utah is going through a pandemic at one of the worst times with 9 new starters on defense and three new key starters on offense while not being able to develop the young talent through spring ball.

1️⃣ Player safety

2️ Win@CoachUrbanMeyer on how he would be handling a team during the pandemic.

Listen to the full episode of Crimson Corner w/ @TrevorASports here: https://t.co/BUHY4TC40r pic.twitter.com/6xcR27w9RC

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) July 9, 2020

Leadership Will Be A Factor

Meyer mentioned that the leaders on the team will be a driver for the program because players have to do so much on their own.

“I haven’t really talked to Kyle (Whittingham) about it,” Meyer said. “Ironically talked to Gary Andersen about it a little bit and I see what Ohio State is doing. You got to do what you can and this is where culture and leadership are going to be a driver program because these players have to do so much on their own. Football is unlike – all due respect to basketball, baseball – football is a sport that you have to be trained, you can’t take time off really you got to keep going or your body won’t be able to handle the stress and the pounding that it takes during training camp and the season.”

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.