Healthy competition was near the center of Urban Meyer's coaching philosophy at every stop in his head coaching career starting at Bowling Green, then to Utah and then Florida, and finally Ohio State. Competition is one area that was engrained in each of those programs, and Meyer used it in a variety of different ways.
A clip of Meyer, where he seems to be doing the typical talk with a broadcast crew before a game, popped up on Twitter over the weekend, and the story Urban uses is a great reminder of how he used competition to motivate and humble players.
"The best way to keep people humble, in my world, is competition."
"One of the great stories is, Zeke Elliot - yes, the great Zeke Elliot - missed two classes one year back in 2014. So Curtis Samuel got the start. So that humbled him a little bit to not miss classes anymore. On the third play of that game Curtis Samuel took it 40-yard for a touchdown, so Zeke figured out, 'Wait a minute, they don't really need me that much.'"
"So the best way to humble people and keep them on-guard is competition."
Of course, Zeke went on to be the first running back picked in the 2016 draft and made the All Pro team his rookie season after leading the NFL rushing. Curtis Samuel went on to have an outstanding Buckeye career, becoming the only player in program history to have 1,000 rushing and 1,000 receiving yards in a career, and was drafted in the 2nd round by the Carolina Panthers.
https://twitter.com/jamesalight/status/1287390753501728768?s=12