Nick Saban and Urban Meyer are two most dominant college football coaches of the last 20 years. Between the two, they have ten national championships, and their teams have played in 13 of the last 20 title games. The two have had their fair share of head-to-head matchups, splitting the four games. But their relationship goes back even farther than their epic clashes as the lead men at Alabama, Florida and Ohio State.
Nick Saban Didn’t Hire Urban Meyer: Left Him Hanging
In 1990, when Saban was the head coach at Toledo, Meyer a Toledo native, was hoping to land a job with Saban. Per Meyer, that never came to fruition, and it wasn’t for lack of effort on his part. During a recent appearance on the “All Things Covered” podcast with Bryant McFadden and Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson, “Urban Legend,” as he’s often referred to, talked about that experience.
“I called his home, and Terry Saban answered the phone and I put on a 30-minute recruiting speech and I remember her saying, Yeah I can’t wait for him to talk to you,” Meyer said.
“Terry Saban will still laugh about that because she — I had her won over, I was coming to Toledo.”
Meyer was hoping to get a better position paying more than the $10,000 per year he was making as an assistant at Illinois State. But per Meyer, talking to Saban’s wife is about as close as he got to being hired at Toledo, as the return call from Saban never came.
“I thought I might as well take a run at it, but about 3 weeks later I got hired at Colorado State and it all worked out.”
Did you know @CoachUrbanMeyer nearly worked for Nick Saban in the 90's?
Coach tells the story about how it nearly happened pic.twitter.com/3eRQpZqRnU
— All Things Covered (@ATCoveredPod) February 1, 2023
Urban Meyer Built Dynasty Programs
The fact that Saban didn’t return his call was a blessing in disguise. Meyer used his time in Colorado and Notre Dame an offensive assistant to propel himself into the head coaching ranks.
After ten combined seasons as wide receivers coach at the two schools, Meyer was named head coach at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and then Ohio State. His collegiate coaching record of 187-32, and .854 winning percentage is the third-best in NCAA history. He also won three national championships, two at Florida and one at Ohio State.
While his NFL coaching career only lasted 13 games, due to his continual lack of judgment, no one can deny his greatness as a collegiate coach.
"If you weren't a 4.4 or better, you weren't allowed to be on my punt block team"
Urban Meyer was enamored with blocking punts Florida.
Full episode 👇 #GoGators https://t.co/pttcqLSoGk pic.twitter.com/56XUvNAsKD
— All Things Covered (@ATCoveredPod) February 1, 2023
Meyer Regrets How Things Ended In Jacksonville
During a segment of the podcast, Meyer was asked if he misses coaching and is he looking to return to it after his failed attempt with the Jaguars.
“No desire,” Meyer said in the podcast. “Of course, I would’ve done things differently.”
That last reference was in response to how things ended in Duval County.
After he left the Jags, Meyer returned to Fox Sports as a college football analyst, but that hasn’t stopped him from keeping an eye on his former team, as he told McFadden and Peterson.
“I was excited to see because they have a lot of different players from when I was there,” Meyer said. “They did a really good job in free agency this year. But to me, it’s kind of funny when you hear people say the NFL is a quarterback league — Pop Warner is a quarterback league. So is high school. It’s a quarterback sport and when you get a killer like a Trevor Lawrence … you’ve got a chance. So they’ve got a great future.”
Asked about the Jaguars' impressive turnaround in 2022, Urban Meyer suggested that it had to do with the players Jacksonville acquired in free agency last offseason. Not a result of improved coaching. https://t.co/nwWox9BFNW
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 1, 2023
Meyer saying, he has no desire to lead a team right now. When a coach has had the type of success he’s had, his name will come up for college jobs each year. At some point he’ll accept and be back on the sidelines.
