Long-time football coach Urban Meyer will be inducted into the college football Hall of Fame, a very prestigious tribute and very well deserved. Meyer was a legend on the field as he led two of his teams to three National Championships.
Meyer was born in Toledo, Ohio, and was a big sports advocate and athlete from day one. He was drafted by the Atlanta Braves baseball team and played defensive back at the University of Cincinnati where he received his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1986. It was there that he met his beautiful wife Shelley who was a nursing student. In 1988 he received his Master’s degree in Sports administration from The Ohio State University.
Meyer started coaching at several colleges as an assistant in his early coaching career before becoming the head coach at Bowling Green where he helped turn around a distraught program and after two years and a 17-6 record, he left to become head coach at Utah.
In his first year at Utah he was named Mountain West Coach of the year finishing with a 10-2 record.
In 2005 he left Utah after much success and became Head coach at the University of Florida. He turned the team around in a big way winning the first Bowl Champion Series (BCS) championship. He won another championship in 2008. In December of 2009 after a medical scare and after discussions with his family Meyer announced that he would resign as Florida’s head coach due to health and family concerns. After a few months of rest, he returned to the Gators where he became the 6th fastest coach in history to win 100 games.
On November 17th, 2011 Meyer was announced as the Head coach at The Ohio State University. He led the Buckeyes to a 12-0 season but they were ineligible due to Previous NCAA sanctions. Meyer knew much about the history of the Buckeyes and their big rivalry with “the team up north” and in his time there he dominated them going 7-0 against them!
In 2015 Meyer and his Buckeyes took on Oregon in the first college football playoff championship and even up against the Ducks with their Heisman trophy winner they defeated the heavily favored Ducks for his third national championship. On December 4, 2018, Meyer announced that he would retire from coaching following the team’s Rose Bowl game for health reasons.
In his years as a coach, he has led a great host of coaches who have succeeded from his coaching tree. 25 coaches who he mentored have become NCAA or NFL coaches. He has a 187-32 coaching record in 17 seasons with an 85.4 win percentage, third highest in NCAA history. He won 7 conference championships and never came close to having a losing season and again, 7-0 against Ohio State’s biggest rival.
Meyer is the 8th Ohio State Coach to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame and the 5th Florida Gator coach to be inducted. He is also one of only 4 Head Coaches to win major college football national championships at two universities.
Meyer and his wife have 3 children and 6 beautiful young grandchildren that he loves very much! Since retiring from coaching he now works for Fox Sports Network appearing weekly on the Big Noon Kickoff Pregame Show.