'It would be a fake quote to get his team mad': Kirk Herbstreit says Urban Meyer used ESPN to light a fire under Florida in 2006

College football coaches are really good at finding ways to motivate their teams. Any sort of negativity from the outside world can be turned into fuel for a team.

Apparently Urban Meyer had to be a little more creativity during his days at Florida, at least according to ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit. Back in the 2000s, the three-time national champion made up headlines and quotes to fire up players on his extremely talented Gator teams.

This week, Herbstreit and Chris Fowler conducted a conference call previewing the national title game between No. 1 LSU and No. 3 Clemson, set for Jan. 13. During the call, Herbstreit was asked what kind of motivation Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney would use for his team.

That’s when Herbstreit took a brief dive into Meyer’s tactics over a decade ago.

“Every coach in the country looks for an angle,” Herbstreit said. “We’ve been doing this a long time and Chris and I used to laugh — Urban Meyer in ’06 used to make stuff up. Just throw it out on their hotel meeting rooms and somebody would say something and he’d say ‘Just put it on Herbstreit or ESPN or whatever.’ But it would be a fake quote just to get his team mad.”

Meyer’s approach worked.

Florida finished that season with a 13-1 record, defeated Arkansas in the SEC Championship Game and obliterated Ohio State in the BCS National Championship Game. That was the first of Meyer’s two national titles while in Gainesville.

Herbstreit went on to say that he believes that Swinney can continue to use the narrative that Clemson was viewed as overrated this season to get his team amped up for the title game. It’s been something Swinney has harped on all year.

Whether it’s true or not, it worked for Urban Meyer nearly 15 years ago. Maybe it can work for Swinney and Clemson, too.