CBS Sports just put out a list of "College football's top 25 coaching hires this century," and former Florida coach Urban Meyer was placed second on the list behind some guy named Nick.
His placement on the list serves as another reminder that love him or hate him that, all four head coaches who have come since have all been trying to escape shadow.
Former Florida coach Urban Meyer named the second-best coaching hire since 2000
You would think a coach who won two national titles in a three-year span would be one of the most beloved coaches in Gator history, but as we know, his legacy in Gainesville is more complicated than that.
The documentary Swamp Kings only scratched the surface of the array of incidents that happened under Meyer's watch, and it left a sour taste in the mouths of some fans when he stepped down due to health reasons, only to pop up at Ohio State less than two years later.
And yet, the expectations that exist today in Gainesville are largely due to what Urban Meyer showcased as possible in Gainesville.
Following the Ron Zook Era, it would have been easy to write off Florida as a program that was only successful because of Steve Spurrier. After all, Florida had pockets of success before the '90s but had never sustained national success before Spurrier.
The impact of Meyer that still lingers today is a theory that Todd Golden just proved this year with Florida Basketball:
When you are at the University of Florida, you are always just one coach away from winning a national title.
The bar in Gainesville has stayed high because of what Meyer accomplished on the field. Before Napier, the previous three coaches for Florida Football all had a ten or more-win season under their belt, and all three of them (Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, and Dan Mullen) still got run out of town.
And so CBS is probably correct to say that Urban Meyer is the second-best coaching hire behind only Nick Saban since 2000.