Public Perception

After watching too much football of late, I am deviating from the norm today to look at how the public perceives people through some personal observations dealing with college football coaches.

Urban Meyer has been highly successful where he has coached and I think the University of Florida would have been happy to keep him around for many decades. Last season he had some health issues and almost stepped down. This season, he found himself tired and missing the time he should be spending with his wife and 3 children so he resigned. Rumors have him doing some part-time work for ESPN but nothing at anywhere near the magnitude of a D-1 football program. He put his family and health ahead of his ego and preserved his future if he ever wants to return.

Dave Wannstadt was a fiery NFL coach who came back to his roots to coach at the University of Pittsburgh. While there, he forced several touted recruits (Joe Flacco-now an NFL QB for one) out to make room for his style of athlete. Most of his work backfired and now he is publicly stating he is angry at Pitt for forcing him to resign.

Pitt's new hire, Mike Hayward, came with only 2 unimpressive years as a head coach at a smaller school but with lots of talk about improving the discipline, GPA's, and dress codes of his players. Less than 3 weeks after being hired, he spent a night in jail before posting bail on a felony charge of domestic aggravated assault. Pitt fired him a few hours later.

George O'Leary was hired several years back to revive Notre Dame's slumping football program after some successful years in the Big 12. He was fired a few weeks later for falsifying his resume and has struggled to regain respect in the coaching world taking low paying assistant coaching jobs before making his way to the University of Central Florida.

Finally, there is Joe Paterno who just completed his 45Th season as head coach at Penn State, 60Th overall at PSU. 'Joepa' has never changed one thing about his approach to coaching, always putting integrity of himself, his staff, his athletes, his family and the university ahead of winning. Albeit a tough loss yesterday, he has taken his teams to 37 bowl games in 45 years. His graduates have become classically trained musicians, noted surgeons, politicians, corporate presidents, educators, and yes, football coaches and athletic directors. Those who got in trouble got a second chance but he strongly adheres to two strikes and you are out.

These contrasting stories could easily transfer to any profession. As 2011 begins, I urge you to take a good hard look at yourself and make sure you represent the type of person you really want to be!