Jeff Janssen, Janssen Sports Leadership Center

MEYER ON MOTIVATION, TEAM BUILDING & LEADERSHIP

Florida football coach Urban Meyer has quickly ascended up the coaching ranks after stops at Utah, Bowling Green, Notre Dame, Illinois State, Colorado State, and Ohio State.

Why has Coach Meyer been so successful? Perhaps because Meyer uses a variety of cutting edge ideas to help keep his team motivated, committed, and unified.

Here are some of the motivational methods that Meyer uses that you might be able to adapt to your team:

Leadership Committee

Because Coach Meyer ultimately wants his players to be accountable to each other and not just the coaching staff, he created the Leadership Committee. The Leadership Committee consists of six seniors, three juniors, three sophomores, and two freshmen - and is voted on by the team.

The Leadership Committee is in charge of representing the team, establishing team policies, being a liaison with the coaching staff, and policing academic and social issues. The committee meets regularly throughout the year with Coach Meyer and the coaching staff.

Coach Meyer says, "We are looking for the Leadership Committee to enhance team chemistry, police the team from within and exemplify what it means to be leaders, both on and off the field."

Champion's Club

The Champion's Club is an incentive program designed to reward players who excel in the classroom, offseason conditioning, and in their personal lives.

Four times a year, the Champion's Club members are treated to a steak dinner served on fine china with linen tablecloths. The players who are not in the Champion's Club get paper plates and eat potato salad and hot dogs with soggy buns. They are also in charge of cleaning up.

Meyer says, "We are not fair in our program. We reward achievement."

Player Profiles

Because effective leadership is all about building solid relationships, Coach Meyer creates Player Profiles for each of his athletes. He wants his coaching staff to know as much about the players as possible including names of girlfriends, friends, parents, majors, grade point averages, projected graduation dates, and important phone numbers.

Associate head coach Doc Holliday says, "You get so tight with your players that they can't let you down. They don't want to let you down. They're going to play for you. That's why we do all we do."

Color-coded Academic Groups

Because academic performance is also critical in Coach Meyer's program, he broke his team down into three separate academic categories: gold, red, and scarlet.

Gold players are performing well and thus do not need to be class-checked or attend study hall.

Red players are struggling and need to be watched closely.

And scarlet players are in serious academic difficulty and need to be monitored constantly.

This color-coded system helps Meyer and his staff stay on top of academic issues.

"You never have to worry about motivation with coach Meyer," tight end Tate Casey says. "He always has that part covered. He's going to motivate you, he's going to get you going. If he can't, then nobody can."