Bowling Green State University Athletics
Meyer Speaks to BG Chamber of Commerce
July 30, 2001 | Football
July 30, 2001
- By JACK CARLE Sentinel Sports Editor
A football coach has to be a little bit of everything -- father figure, physiologist, authority figure, motivational speaker, salesman -- in addition to being good with X's and O's.
Urban Meyer was in his salesman mode Wednesday at the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce mid-year luncheon and awards program.
Meyer, the new head football coach at Bowling Green State University, was the keynote speaker for the event. He cut short a vacation to come back for the luncheon.
And his sales pitch was simple -- getting the word out that Bowling Green is a pretty good place to live. And the way to spread the word, according to Meyer, is to put people in the stands at Perry Stadium to watch a winning football team.
"Why in the world are we trying to keep the Bowling Green community a secret?" Meyer said. "This is a great place to raise a family. This is Midwest U.S.A. Everybody thinks the grass is greener other places. I've been a lot of other places. This is a great town ... great people.
"This is a lot like Colorado State where I saw a community take not partial ownership, but complete absolute ownership of the football team at a university," Meyer added. "That's one way to get the secret out." Colorado State is in Fort Collins, Colo., a community of approximately 90,000 located north of Denver.
"At Colorado State, the enrollment shot up," he said, "the annual giving shot up, alumni support up, people buying green and gold T-shirts shot up. "Maybe it was because we had a great football team and built something from nothing or maybe it wasn't."
The key to letting people know about Bowling Green State University and the community of Bowling Green is to display the features of both to a national audience.
A winning football team before a huge crowd at Perry Stadium, is Meyer's idea of a perfect showcase.
"When they really want to find out about Bowling Green, one great way to do it, is to put a great football team on that field, that's going to be my responsibility," Meyer said. "Your responsibility is to bring your friends and come watch a football game."
Meyer, 37, has a tough job ahead of him in his first collegiate head coaching position. He has been at Notre Dame, Colorado State, Illinois State, Ohio State and Cincinnati in his career as an assistant. Most recently he spent five years at Notre Dame.
The Falcons were 2-9 a year ago and have not had a winning season since 1994. BG was 1-4 at Perry Stadium last season, drawing an average crowd of 8,484. The official capacity of Perry Stadium is 30,599. Losing becomes a habit and Meyer hopes he can show the Falcons how to break that habit.
"I'm dealing with a football team ... that's comfortable. To make a change there's risk," Meyer said. "At Bowling Green, I think, the last few years kids accepted the fact they were going to go out there and go 2-9, 3-8, 4-7 and the pressure is not on.
"Right now I'm dealing with 85 guys that have not seen it done. I'm going to knock myself out trying to get it done here," he continued. "We're going to put pressure on guys ... we're going to raise the bar."
The Falcons open the season on Sept. 1 at Missouri. The home opener is Sept. 8 against Buffalo with kickoff schedule for 6 p.m. There are four other home dates this fall.
