50 Facts About Urban Meyer

Urban Frank Meyer III was born on July 10,1964 and is a college football TV commentator and former American football coach.

Urban Meyer spent most of his coaching career at the collegiate level, having served as the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcons from 2001 to 2002, the Utah Utes from 2003 to 2004, the Florida Gators from 2005 to 2010, and the Ohio State Buckeyes from 2012 to 2018.

Urban Meyer retired from coaching in 2019 at the end of the Rose Bowl, and stayed at Ohio State as an assistant athletic director and was an analyst for Fox Sports, appearing weekly on their Big Noon Kickoff pre-game show.

Urban Meyer then went back to Fox Sports to resume his broadcasting career.

Urban Meyer was born in Toledo, Ohio, grew up in Ashtabula, Ohio, and attended the University of Cincinnati, where he played football as a defensive back.

Urban Meyer is one of four coaches, along with Pop Warner, Howard Jones, and Nick Saban, to win a major college football national championship at two universities.

Urban Meyer was born on July 10,1964, in Toledo, Ohio, and grew up in Ashtabula, Ohio.

Urban Meyer graduated from Ashtabula's Saint John High School in 1982.

Urban Meyer was selected in the 13th round of the 1982 Major League Baseball Draft by the Atlanta Braves as a shortstop, where he spent two seasons playing minor league baseball in the Braves organization.

Urban Meyer concurrently played defensive back at the University of Cincinnati before earning his bachelor's degree in psychology in 1986.

Urban Meyer went on to earn his master's degree in sports administration in 1988 from Ohio State University.

In 2004, Urban Meyer was recognized as the college football coach of the year by both sportswriters and television commentators.

Urban Meyer then had twenty years of college coaching experience, including nine as a head coach.

Urban Meyer is Catholic, and on several occasions has referred to the head coaching position at the University of Notre Dame as his "dream job", leading to speculation that he would someday wish to coach there.

However, according to a July 2009 newspaper report, Urban Meyer insisted he would never leave Florida for Notre Dame.

On December 26,2009, Urban Meyer announced he would resign following the team's bowl game against Cincinnati, citing health concerns.

However, the following day Urban Meyer announced that he would instead take an indefinite leave of absence, and he resumed his coaching duties in time for the beginning of the Gators' spring practice on March 17,2010.

On November 28,2011, Urban Meyer accepted the head coach position at Ohio State University.

Urban Meyer's first collegiate coaching position was a two-year stint as a graduate assistant coaching tight ends at Ohio State under head coach Earle Bruce.

Urban Meyer put up over 1,000 yards receiving from 1990 to 1992 under Meyer's tutelage.

In 2001, Urban Meyer took his first head coaching job at Bowling Green.

Urban Meyer earned Mid-American Conference coach of the year honors.

Urban Meyer earned honors as The Sporting News National Coach of the Year, the first Utes coach to do so.

Urban Meyer's success can be attributed to his unique offensive system, which is an offshoot of Bill Walsh's West Coast Offense, relying on short pass routes.

In 2004, Urban Meyer led the undefeated Utes to a Bowl Championship Series bid, something that had not been done by a team from a non-automatically qualifying BCS conference since the formation of the BCS in 1998.

Urban Meyer remained at Utah long enough to coach the team to a Fiesta Bowl win over Pittsburgh, capping off the Utes' first perfect season since 1930.

Urban Meyer's production in Meyer's offensive scheme was a large reason why Smith was considered a first-round pick entering the 2005 NFL Draft.

Urban Meyer chose to become Florida's head coach for the 2005 season, signing a seven-year contract worth $14 million.

Urban Meyer later signed a six-year contract extension with the Gators on June 7,2007; the extended contract paid an average of $3.25 million per year.

At the time of the latest contract extension, Urban Meyer was the third highest-paid college football coach, behind only Pete Carroll and Charlie Weis.

Urban Meyer has been criticized by some commentators because 31 of his players were arrested during his six years as the Gators' coach.

Urban Meyer served as a pre-game and halftime analyst for the 2008 BCS National Championship Game.

In 2009, Urban Meyer's Gators began the season ranked No 1 by the largest margin in the history of the AP preseason poll.

Urban Meyer was released later in the day, and the incident was not announced to the public at the time.

Urban Meyer took significant time off from his coaching duties after the bowl game in an attempt to improve his personal health.

On March 17,2010, Urban Meyer returned full-time to his position for the start of the Gators' spring practice and continued in that role into the 2010 season.

Urban Meyer became the sixth fastest NCAA coach to reach that record, following Gil Dobie, George Woodruff, Bud Wilkinson, Fielding Yost, and Knute Rockne.

Urban Meyer was the second-fastest to reach 100 wins since Wilkinson in 1945.

On December 8,2010, Urban Meyer again announced his retirement from coaching for much the same reasons he mentioned in December 2009: his family and his health.

The article quoted several Florida players who declared that Urban Meyer developed a "Circle of Trust" that included only star players, and that those players received favorable treatment, including not having to complete workouts, lenient punishment, and hiding the player's positive drug tests from the public.

On November 17,2011, Eleven Warriors reported that Urban Meyer would become the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

The school said Urban Meyer would receive a six-year contract that pays $4 million annually, plus another $2.4 million total in "retention payments".

Urban Meyer was surrounded by first-year coaches such as offensive coordinator Tom Herman, co-offensive coordinator Ed Warriner, and co-defensive coordinator Everett Withers.

Urban Meyer lost talent at the end of the year to the 2014 NFL Draft, including linebacker Ryan Shazier, cornerback Bradley Roby, and running back Carlos Hyde.

Urban Meyer missed the team's games against Oregon State, Rutgers, and TCU.

On December 4,2018, Urban Meyer announced that he would retire from coaching following the team's Rose Bowl game due to health reasons.

On January 14,2021, Urban Meyer was hired to become the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Jaguars owner Shahid Khan said that Urban Meyer's behavior had been "inexcusable" and that Urban Meyer "must regain our trust and respect".

On January 26,2022, Urban Meyer spoke publicly for the first time about his tenure with the Jaguars on Dan Dakich's podcast Don't @ Me, calling it "the worst experience I've had in my professional lifetime", citing the five-game losing streak and the differences in practice time compared to college football.

When Meyer got his first head coaching position at Bowling Green, he took trips to visit John L Smith and Scott Linehan at Louisville, Randy Walker and Kevin Wilson at Northwestern, Bill Snyder at Kansas State, Joe Tiller and Jim Chaney at Purdue, and Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia, all of whom ran some version of the spread offense.