Maybe the new, “batteries recharged” Ohio State-version of Urban Meyer is a new man. The kind of guy who isn’t willing to take whatever character risks are necessary to become a champion.

But no matter how far Meyer gets away from the track record he developed for having an unusually large number of miscreants under his watch at Florida, he can’t fully escape the continued idiotic, criminal and possibly sociopathic behavior of several of the young men he supposedly molded.

In his six seasons at Florida, Meyer saw 31 of his players arrested – an absurd rate of 5.16 Gators in handcuffs per year. Some of it is the type of stupid stuff any college kid is liable to get arrested for – underage drinking, open container laws, disorderly conduct. The type of stuff that’s easily fixed with a few mandatory runs up the stadium steps.

There were also far more serious cases – credit card fraud, various cases of battery, Cam Newton stealing another student’s laptop and so on. All of that is well documented.

But the habit of former Meyer players to continue finding trouble well after they are done playing for him raises serious questions about either his ability to judge character or his willingness to ignore it entirely. While Meyer is not personally responsible for the poor behavior, you can’t help but wonder what kind of person finds a way to put that many bad people in one place. (Usually they’re called jailers.)

The greatest example is currently sitting behind bars in Massachusetts in the form of Aaron Hernandez. The former tight end has already been convicted of one murder, and the motive was supposedly to shut up the one guy willing to squeal on him about two more that he committed. But it’s not like Hernandez’s fate should come as some great shock.

He also was arrested in his Florida days for punching a bar employee in the back of the head after refusing to pay for his drinks while drinking underage, rupturing the man’s eardrum. That’s probably the point Meyer should have pulled the metaphorical trigger on his talented young future sociopath.

Alas, he stayed in Gainesville long enough to likely be involved in a shooting that wounded two, though no charges were ever filed. (He was still a juvenile.)

And we haven’t even gotten to the time in 2013 he shot his own friend in the face.

Chris Rainey is another Meyer Gator who has run afoul of the law both at Florida and after. He was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of stalking when he texted his girlfriend the message “Time to die bitch,” but was reinstated when charges were dropped.

Once he went pro, Rainey was cut by the Steelers after he was arrested on a battery charge against his girlfriend, though that was also dropped. He resurfaced with the Colts the next season until they cut him for a “violation of team rules.” He has not played an NFL game since.

Ray McDonald is the latest Meyer protégé in the news, getting cut by the Bears Monday following his latest domestic violence arrest. He had already been released by the 49ers after a “pattern of poor decisions,” many of which involved doing threatening things to women.

Granted, McDonald’s issues came up well after he played his final down for Meyer. But we can hardly be shocked any time a former Meyer player ends up in the police blotter.

It is odd that a guy who coached one of the most revered character guys in football history, Tim Tebow, is so closely associated with so many of the game’s worst characters.  Of course, Tebow looks more like the exception than the rule each passing day.

Now that he has established himself as a college coaching great on the field, perhaps Urban Meyer will feel secure enough in what he has accomplished to stop taking risks on questionable human beings to stay at the top. But it is going to take a lot of work in Columbus for Meyer to completely vindicate himself from the black eye his former players continue to give the Florida program.

After all, when Janoris Jenkins was finally kicked off the team by Meyer’s successor, Will Muschamp, he had this to say:

“If Coach Meyer were still coaching, I’d still be playing for the Gators,” Jenkins told the Orlando Sentinel. “Coach Meyer knows what it takes to win.”