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Ohio State Football: Dabo Swinney Using Psychology on Urban Meyer?
Somebody trying to use psychology on Urban Meyer?
In the press conference following his team’s arrival in Arizona, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney spoke glowingly of Ohio State in general and Urban Meyer’s Buckeye football team in particular. Was Dabo trying to use psychology against Urban Meyer.
Coach Swinney said he bought coach Meyer’s book “Above the Line” and was going to read it this week. He asked if anybody had any cliff notes.
The Clemson head coach said he was looking for any edge he could find. That makes sense as his team and Urban Meyer’s are very similar. The two coaches are good friends and have discussed a ton of football with each other as well.
The two first met when Swinney was an assistant coach and he visited Urban Meyer when he was coaching at Utah. After losing touch with each other when coach Meyer moved on to Florida, Urban visited Clemson in his one year hiatus from coaching before taking over at Ohio State.
The two men and their wives have grown close since. Here is what coach Swinney had to say about how their relationship has become stronger as reported by http://ohiostate.247sports.com/
“But mostly as a Nike school, Nike takes us on a trip every February,” he continued. “And so really have got to know he and Shelley very well on the Nike trips. We kind of gravitated to each other. I pick his brain. He picks mine. We’ve had some great conversations.”
Obviously coach Swinney has picked Urban Meyer’s brain when it comes to psychology. Urban will use every ploy imaginable to build up the opposition and motivate his team. Check out these quotes reported in an article by http://www.elevenwarriors.com/
“I think their brand speaks for themselves and they’ve earned that,” Swinney said. “I think percentage wise they’re the winningest team in the country since like 1950.”
“Their coaching staff is tremendous,” Swinney continued. “I know several of those guys and I’ve got a lot of respect for coach Meyer. He barely ever loses. We were joking back in Clemson that it’s like Knute Rockne and Urban Meyer as the two winningest coaches ever.”
“They’re what everybody wants to be from a brand standpoint and some of the achievements that they’ve had,” Swinney said. “We’re very proud of what we’ve been able to do and the consistency especially in the last six-plus years, but we want to get to the top of the mountain and nobody gives you that.”
“You’ve got to go and earn it and you’ve got to beat the best and they certainly represent that.”
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Obviously Dabo Swinney has learned a lot from Urban Meyer over the years as both his offense and defense are very similar to Ohio State’s. He must have been paying attention to coach Meyer’s psychological ploys as well.
However, when it comes to using psychology there is only one master in the college coaching ranks. And not only does that guy coach at Ohio State but he has an ace in the hole, and you know he has used it in preparation for the Fiesta Bowl.
The last time the Buckeyes faced the Tigers was January 3, 2014 in the Orange Bowl and Ohio State came out on the losing end, and Dabo was coaching Clemson at the time. Don’t you think Urban Meyer has reminded his players of that?
