Urban Meyer names the best coaching job of all-time in college football

The 3-time national champion coach declared this staff's season as the greatest coaching performance in college football history.

Former college football head coach Urban Meyer heaped praise on this Big Ten program's coaching staff. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A legendary figure in the coaching ranks recently identified what he considers the most impressive turnaround in the history of college football. Urban Meyer, who spent decades patrolling sidelines at the highest level, looked past the traditional powerhouses to recognize a program that recently finished an unprecedented climb to the top of the sport.

This acknowledgment follows a season in which a team once defined by its struggles secured a perfect 16-0 record and a national championship.

The achievement culminated in a 27-21 victory over Miami at Hard Rock Stadium, tying a win record established over a century ago. Meyer noted that the speed and efficiency of this transformation set it apart from other famous rebuilding projects he has witnessed since the early 1980s.

The success has been attributed to a specific leadership philosophy that challenged a long-standing culture of losing and replaced it with an expectation of weekly excellence.

Central to this story is the continuity of a coaching staff that has remained largely unchanged despite the pressures of the modern coaching carousel. While many top-tier programs lose their top assistants to head coaching vacancies every winter, this group stayed together to implement a system that eventually overwhelmed the rest of the country.

This stability allowed the program to navigate the expanded playoff and secure the school's first-ever title on the gridiron.

Urban Meyer praises Indiana's Curt Cignetti, Mike Shanahan, Bryant Haynes

Speaking on his Triple Option podcast, Meyer offered high praise for Curt Cignetti and the staff he brought to Bloomington. Meyer emphasized that the program's history makes the current success nearly unbelievable to those familiar with the sport's hierarchy.

"I'm almost 62," Meyer said. "Over 40 years around college football. That's the greatest coaching job I have ever witnessed in my lifetime."

Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti holds up The Coaches' Trophy during the Indiana Football College Football Playoff National Championship celebration. | Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The former national champion coach focused on the synergy between the head coach and his long-time assistants, Mike Shanahan and Bryant Haynes. Meyer noted that while icons like Nick Saban and Pete Carroll eventually saw their staff rooms raided by other programs, Cignetti has kept his core intact.

"What he and his staff, and it's not just him," Meyer explained. "He has two coordinators been with him for nine years. Pete Carroll went through it, Nick Saban went through it, I went through it. It's when you start losing your coaches. Because those guys should be head coaches."

Meyer specifically recognized the work of Shanahan on offense and Haynes, a former Ohio State staffer, on defense. The defensive unit proved its worth in the title game when Jamari Sharpe intercepted a pass in the closing seconds to seal the victory. Meyer concluded that the combination of longevity and results made this the pinnacle of the profession.

"What they've done," Meyer said. "Mike Shanahan and then Bryant Haynes, the defense coordinator, who by the way worked for me at Ohio State, those guys, what they did, I'm telling you, the best coaching job I've seen."