Breaking up is a hard thing to do.
Perhaps no fan base knows this better than the orange and blue of The Gator Nation.
Even four years after stepping down as head coach of the Florida Gators football program, Urban Meyer continues to be a sore subject for football fans in Gainesville.
Meyer was a god in Florida for years, inspiring a winning mentality and making even the most skeptical fans believe in his system.
He gave a lot of himself to the Gators over the years, but then he took it all back and promptly gave it to someone else — the Ohio State University Buckeyes. This left many dumbfounded, finding themselves asking, what the hell?
To put it in simpler terms, Meyer’s tenure with UF was exactly like everyone’s favorite animated girl-power Disney masterpiece, “Frozen.” In the movie, two sisters arrive at the realization — after 90 minutes of singing their troubles — that they are young, independent women and can accomplish anything with the power of love.
So is Meyer the mysterious and timid Elsa, who has always known she was different but only embraces it once she sets off on her own? Or maybe Meyer is the conniving Hans, who fools everyone into believing he is good when he is actually the worst person ever.
The characters in “Frozen” and its creators at Disney might not actually be full of it after all. The film raises several valid arguments about self-identity and self-worth. We aren’t living in a Disney movie, but Meyer’s departure from UF four years ago revealed the struggles he was going through to find the right fit for him and his family.
The ugly truth is this: Meyer fell out of love with the Gator football program and its fans.
Fast forward four years and Meyer is a champion again. He did it with the Gators, and now he has done it once more with the Buckeyes. He doesn’t need us anymore. He has moved on. And so should we.
I know more than a few UF students and faculty who were hoping the University of Oregon Ducks would crush Meyer’s Buckeyes in the first ever College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 12. Instead, Meyer, dressed in the scarlet and gray of Ohio State, found himself raising the championship trophy over his head.
Meyer’s victory has provided The Gator Nation with the perfect opportunity to let go of something that was so good for so long. While Meyer will spend next season defending his national championship title, the Gators have a clean slate. With new head coach Jim McElwain leading the charge, we can do anything and be anything we want to next season. There is perhaps no better freedom than that.
As for the icy relationship between Florida Gators fans and Meyer, I say it is time to forgive and forget. We should forgive him for playing the part of the conniving Prince Hans as he has clearly proven he does not need us to win. We should do the same by embracing McElwain and welcoming in a new era of Gator football.
If at any point old feelings for Meyer start rising to the surface, just pop in your deluxe edition “Frozen” DVD and let Disney help you get over him once and for all.
As Adele Dazeem would say, just let it go.
Erica Brown is a journalism junior. Her column appears on Tuesdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 1/20/2015 under the headline “Meyer: He’s just not into us"]
