On Monday, news broke that Urban Meyer would retire after the Ohio State Buckeyes took on Washington in the Rose Bowl on January 1. This is now the second time that Meyer has walked away from a program after being embroiled in scandal, following his resignation as the head coach of the Florida Gators at the end of the 2010 season. In his press conference on Tuesday, he initially left the door open for a potential return, before saying, “I believe I will not coach again.” Regardless of what Meyer is saying, many believe that the three-time national championship winning coach will eventually return to the sidelines.
Will Urban Meyer be an NFL or college head coach before 9/1/20?
Yes -300
No +240
There is no doubt that Urban Meyer is one of the greatest coaches in the history of college football. Over the last two decades, only Nick Saban has achieved more than Meyer, and Meyer has won with all four teams he has coached. His .853 winning percentage as a head coach ranks third all-time, and he has won more often than any coach in the modern era.
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However, at each of his last two stops he has been at the head of a toxic culture, and his last seasons at both Florida and Ohio State were marred by scandal. At Florida, pressure was mounting for something to be done after at least 31 players had been arrested over a five-year period and rumors swirled that there was a major drug problem in the locker room. Meyer initially announced his resignation at the end of the 2009 season, before taking it back a day later, but he retired the following season when the off-field scrutiny really began to heat up. The coach claimed he was having chest pains and wanted to spend more time with his family, but many speculated that the real reason was due to the off-field issues.
After he took the head coaching job at Ohio State less than a year after announcing he was stepping away from football, those same people found their opinions justified. It didn’t take long for the Buckeyes to become a perennial national championship contender once more under Meyer, and he was winning even more than he did in Gainesville. However, he became the big story of the offseason after Brett McMurphy broke the news that Meyer knew about assistant coach Zach Smith’s alleged domestic abuse of his then-wife. Meyer was suspended from the team for three weeks, and there were rumors that he would not last much longer as the head coach of the Buckeyes, in spite of his on-field success. He ended up citing health issues as the reason for walking away from a program once more, but not many are buying that reason this time around.
Time and time again, we have seen both college and NFL teams look over off the field problems if a player or coach is talented enough, and I don’t doubt that we will see the cycle repeat itself with Meyer. For all of his flaws as a human being, he is a winner on the football field, and a number of programs or teams might talk themselves into everything that comes with hiring Meyer for the prospect of winning titles. A number of high-profile jobs (USC, Auburn, and LSU among them) could be open by the start of the 2020 season, and Meyer’s name will definitely be bandied about the list of potential candidates because of his track record.
For his part, Meyer certainly seems to be open to a return with the way he is phrasing things. Take a look at these two quotes from his press conference on Tuesday:
Urban Meyer is asked if he’s finished coaching. “That’s a complicated question,” he says.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 4, 2018
Urban Meyer: “I believe I will not coach again.”
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 4, 2018
His wordsmithing when asked a simple question makes it seem obvious that he is once again taking a short break with an eye on coaching again in the future. The only question for me is which school makes the decision to sell its soul for a return to football greatness.
