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UF's Meyer A Master Motivator

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By MICK ELLIOTT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 17, 2008

Updated: 08/17/2008 12:12 am

GAINESVILLE - Urban Meyer's new favorite book sits within arm's reach, resting on the large desk that is the centerpiece of the University of Florida football coach's office. Although months ago Meyer consumed the motivational theories of "Change or Die - The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life" by author Alan Deutschman, the autographed copy remains strategically accessible, a constant reminder of Meyer's hotwired commitment to psychology as a football teaching aid.

"I think the ability to motivate and understand each individual contributes to the success we have had," Meyer says. "The old adage about treating everybody the same ... I cannot disagree more. You have to get to know someone before you can understand how to coach them, how to treat them, how to get the most out of them."

Meyer majored in psychology at the University of Cincinnati and has since made mental motivation and manipulation as much a part of his coaching profile as the spread offense.

"I started out as a math major, but calculus beat me to death," he said. "So I went into psychology and actually fell in love with it."

The voluminous reader has since worked his way through most every leadership philosophy that can be found at a neighborhood book store. None, however, sent the gears in Meyer's mind spinning quite like "Change or Die." That was made obvious this summer during an Atlanta Gator Booster Club stop when, instead of delivering an expected state-of-the-team address to passionate fans, the coach spent most of his 30 minutes expounding on psychological hot buttons he had just finished reading about.

"In a profession where changing people is a big part of what we do, the misunderstanding of how hard it is to change is one of the issues we deal with," Meyer said. "It's difficult."

Three examples:

•Deutschman writes that more than 11/2 million people every year in the United States undergo coronary bypass graft or angioplasty surgery. Yet, after surgery, only 3 percent of the patients commit completely to a healthier lifestyle that would stop the course of their heart disease.

•In the largest study of criminal recidivism conducted in the U.S., the Justice Department tracked 272,111 inmates after they were released from state prisons in 15 states. The result: 30 percent of former inmates were arrested within six months, and 67.5 percent within three years.

•Some 5,000 workers lost their jobs in the early 1980s when a General Motors factory was closed in California because of "unmanageable" workers. Although presented opportunities to accept management's desire for a more automated work site, the workforce so opposed any change that GM chose simply to close the factory.

"That tells you how hard it is to change people," Meyer said.

Deutschman, however, uncovered and praises less traditional and more psychological-powered approaches with far different results.

"Change or Die" cites an instance when 77 percent of heart-disease patients succeeded in changing their lives, primarily through group conversations and peer support.

It tells of a self-funding San Francisco center called the Delancey Street Foundation where some 500 former convicts - among them blacks, Latinos and self-proclaimed neo-Nazis - live together with only one professional staffer, banding together to run a top-rated moving company in the city, an upscale restaurant and bookstore-cafe.

And the GM plant that was closed? Toyota contracted to operate the plant and resume producing the same GM automobile. It took back half of the previously disgruntled workforce, continued using the same technology and within three months was operating at a prosperous level, having changed only employee management practices.

"I think there is a direct correlation to the things he talks about and what we are trying to do," Meyer said.

Meyer's goal is to get into players' minds and hearts. He studies their weaknesses as much, if not more, than their strengths. Better people make better teammates. Better teammates make better teams.

"There is a part of the book that talks about having small victories," Meyer said. "That's how you change someone.

"The biggest issue we have is two, three, maybe four years to change someone completely. That's almost impossible. So having small victories is the best. When a kid makes an A in class, gets a B, makes it through a whole week at practice, does not have alcohol or drug issues for a while. Those are all small victories that you have to build on."

One of Meyer's favorite psychological ploys is to reward players with special privileges and better practice gear for successes in both the classroom and football. Incoming freshmen begin practice marked by a piece of black tape on their helmets. The incriminating mark is removed in something of a battle-field promotion, earned by good play and taking responsibility.

Pushing the Florida program as family, assistant coaches and their wives are required to "baby-sit" players, providing social mentoring in addition to support in academics and athletics.

Throw Meyer's insistence on total immersion into players' lives - knowing class schedules, girlfriends and social interests - and suddenly there seems only a thin line separating involvement and suffocation.

"Maybe it is a fine line to certain people," senior receiver Louis Murphy said. "But if you break down that wall, man, it's like the national championship year. That team was closer than anybody - coaches, players, everybody.

"He just wants to know his players. He's going to see where you are at, look you in the eye, make sure you are living the right way."

And he will push buttons.

"Coach Meyer is very good at sending out messages," sophomore redshirt defensive tackle Terron Sanders said. "He preaches family a lot. Our teammates are our brothers. You never want to let family down. The feeling of letting a teammate down is so much worse than letting the coach down, because the coach is still going to coach you. If you let your teammate down, there's no telling if he can trust you on the field again or not."

Meyer made that thinking clear to the Atlanta Gator Club, almost ignoring talk about scoring points and diagramming plays. The meat of his speech was about changing players' old life habits with new ways of thinking.

Purely by chance, Deutschman, director of a strategy consulting firm, lives in Atlanta. By late morning the day after Meyer's address, the author - "not that big of a sports fan" - had learned of the coach's unsolicited review.

Telephone contact was arranged for both parties to exchange pleasantries and opinions. Deutschman soon had his face-to-face meeting. Now he has his own opinions of this big-time football coach.

"The programs I wrote about in my book, like Delancey Street and the ex-convicts and auto plant, those are all about people being motivated by their peers," Deutschman said. "The traditional approach in both business and in criminal justice is very authoritarian. It's 'I'm the boss.'

"Likewise, traditionally in sports it has always been 'I'm the coach and you are the players.' I think what Meyer has done is understand that today's younger generation is very rebellious against authority, but everyone wants to fit in with their peers and be respected by peers and community. I think he has found a number of ways to use that as a powerful motivation."

Small victories.

Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534 or melliott@tampatrib.com.

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