The college football world in 2015
When choosing coaches to lead the young men at Florida or Ohio State, the important factor was obviously not character.
In fact, it seems to have been no factor at all. Considering what other schools were doing in 2015, one has to wonder what world Urban Meyer was living in.
At Colorado State, Mike Bobo was devoting time in each position group meeting to character education, and domestic abuse in particular. Then Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema and UNLV head coach Jeff Sanchez did as well, both using media accounts of abuse to bring the lesson home.
Mark Richt, then at Georgia, said to Nicole Auerbach of USA TODAY Sports, “We have a lot of family nights. Our wives are around this program, and they see how we honor them and respect them.”
Other head coaches used outside speakers, some used a freshman orientation, others used upper classmen leadership programs. Coaches across America taught players that domestic abuse is unacceptable. Urban Meyer taught his players something else when he retained Zach Smith at Florida and hired him at Ohio State.