Urban Meyer Details Decision to Decline Major College Football Job

Urban Meyer says that this major program tried to hire him as its head coach between his time at Florida and Ohio State.

Former Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer broadcasts on Fox's Big Noon Kickoff prior to the NCAA football game between the Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Nov. 29, 2025. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Urban Meyer stepped away from Ohio State in 2018 as one of the most decorated coaches in the modern era of college football.

Neither Bowling Green nor Utah could keep Meyer around for more than two seasons apiece because he won so much in such a short period of time. Florida won a pair of BCS National Championship Games and was an SEC Championship loss to Alabama away from playing in a third in Meyer's six-year tenure in Gainesville.

Meyer won 10 or more games in all seven of his seasons as Ohio State's head coach, winning the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship in his third season.

Meyer finished his coaching career with a 187-32 overall record, winning no fewer than eight games in each of his 17 seasons as a head coach. However, Meyer recently revealed that his career could have taken a very different path.

Meyer was interviewed for Arizona's head coaching vacancy in 2011

Sep 6, 2025; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide athletic director Greg Byrne watches from the sidelines during the first quarter against the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Leong-Imagn Images | David Leong-Imagn Images

Between his stops at Florida and Ohio State, Meyer took a one-year hiatus from coaching in 2011. During that hiatus, he was approached by then Arizona athletics director Greg Byrne, who now serves in the same role at Alabama, for the Wildcats' head coaching vacancy.

"(Greg Byrne) calls me up and says, 'Hey, I want to meet with you about the head coaching job at Arizona,' and I said, 'Greg, I'm not going to do that,'" Meyer recalled on a recent edition of the Triple Option podcast with fellow Big Noon Kickoff panelists Rob Stone and Mark Ingram. "He said, 'Listen, I have a booster's plane, can I take a swing? My boosters want this to happen.'"

Byrne made the decision to part ways with head coach Mike Stoops in the midst of the 2011 season, one that Arizona started at 1-5 overall. Meyer recalled that Byrne's visit was in the midst of a challenging personal matter for him.

"I'm supposed to meet with him, and this is a really sad part of the story, but my father had cancer, and my sisters called me as I was walking off the (golf) course and said, 'you've got to get home, it doesn't look good.'" Meyer said.

"I call Greg, and I say, 'I can't meet with you, I've got to get home,' and he says, 'I'm sorry, where does your father live?' and I said, 'Cincinnati, Ohio.' He said, 'Jump on the plane, I'll take you home, and we'll do our interview on the plane.' That's how good a man the guy is."

Who did Arizona hire that offseason?

Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez reacts after a Wildcats touchdown was called back due to a penalty in the fourth quarter on Nov. 25, 2017 during the 91st Annual Territorial Cup in Tempe, Ariz. Arizona Vs Arizona State 2017 | Rob Schumacher/The Republic

Instead of hiring Meyer, Byrne came away with Rich Rodriguez as the Wildcats' successor to Stoops. Rodriguez was 60-26 in his seven-year tenure at West Virginia in the 2000s, but a disappointing 15-22 mark at Michigan saw him lose that job within three years.

In six years as Arizona's head coach, Rodriguez posted a 43-35 overall record that featured a 10-win season in 2014. The Wildcats parted ways with Rodriguez in the 2018 offseason due to an ongoing sexual harassment investigation, hiring recently-fired Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin as his successor.