The legendary coach understands anxiety. That’s why, at Ohio State, he’s created a culture of family, faith and trust
BY ROBIN CHENOWETH
June 18, 2018
Talk about anxiety. Urban Meyer, ’88 MA, and his players know the meaning of the word.
Anxiety is what can happen, and sometimes does, when several million people are trained on your every move via ESPN. It’s what happens when you fumble the ball, and fans go from thinking you’re a superhero to assailing you on Twitter. It’s about being a hair’s breadth from making the playoffs, but not quite making the cut. (And everyone and his brother has a theory why.)
Football players, after all, are college students. And these days, their 18- to 22-year-old peers are a pretty angsty bunch. Their pressure cooker includes the term paper due the same week as midterm exams, fighting with a roommate and overdue car insurance.
But today’s college students also are stressed about politics, national security, school shootings and debt. Like their predecessors, they’re figuring out who they are, but in an era of omnipresent social media and technology, which thrills but dogs them.
Up to 40 percent of college students nationwide, in fact, report anxiety as a top concern. That’s different than 10 years ago, when depression ranked the No. 1 mental health issue on campus. The university in two years added 13 new counselors and staff to handle a backlog of stressed students. Some experts say this generation is on the brink of a mental health crisis.
And Meyer’s players have the added pressure to win games amid near-perpetual media scrutiny. Engaging in typical college-age “stress relief” could get them booted off the team.
So why do they seem so cool under duress? Everyone knows winning football games is about mental preparedness, right? The answer, Meyer says, is that he and his staff work tirelessly to channel potentially destructive anxiety into a positive outcome.
“We spend an inordinate amount of time teaching our players how to respond to situations. Situations academically, situations socially and obviously situations athletically,” he said.
“They’re at a football program where you’re expected to win every game by a large margin. And so that anxiety is not uncommon. As a matter of fact, it’s uncommon if you don’t feel it.”
“But I consider stress a blessing,” he said. “There are a lot of very successful people who care very deeply about what they do and still deal with anxiety and other issues.”
Meyer knows. He is one of those very successful people.
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