Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that Urban Frank Meyer III changed the world of football when he took on the role of head coach at the University of Florida in the 2000s. After all, as carefully explored in Netflix’s ‘Untold: Swamp Kings,’ not only did he bring new challenges with him to this Southeastern Conference (SEC) school, but he also changed expectations. So now, if you simply wish to learn more about him — with a particular focus on his background, his career trajectory, as well as his current standing — we’ve got the necessary details for you.
Who is Urban Meyer?
Although born in Toledo, Ohio, on July 10, 1964, as one of three plus sole son to Gisela Meyer and Urban “Bud” Meyer Sr., Urban actually grew up in Ashtabula in a very “hardcore” household. The truth is both his father and one of his sisters were in the military, making him develop a rather straightforward approach to nearly every aspect of life, including his passion for various sports. It thus comes as no surprise he admittedly hates losing even more than he loves winning, which definitely pushed him a lot as an athlete and a rising coach shortly upon graduating high school.
We specify this because Urban was reportedly selected in the 13th round of the 1982 Major League Baseball Draft by the Atlanta Braves, just to play for two seasons before completely evolving. In fact, he became a footballer at the University of Cincinnati while earning a Bachelor’s in Psychology (1986) prior to moving on to obtain his Master’s in Sports Administration from Ohio State (1988). Though by this point, he’d already established himself as a coach — he was the Defensive Backs Coach for St. Xavier High School in 1985, plus the Graduate Assistant at Ohio State from 1986 to 1987.
Then came Urban’s stint at Illinois State, where he initially served as an Outside Linebackers Coach in 1988 before subsequently rising to be the Quarterbacks Coach & Wide Receivers Coach in 1989. This was actually followed by him finding himself doing well as a Wide Receivers Coach, first at Colorado State University from 1990 to 1995 and later at the University of Notre Dame from 1996 to 2000. It was then that he was appointed Head Coach at Bowling Green State University in Ohio for a year prior to his decision of again shifting gears to sign with the University of Utah from 2003 to 2004.
According to reports, Urban undeniably did wonders within these two years thanks to his version of running the Spread Offense tactic, which he then implemented at the Univeristy of Florida too. But alas, while leading the Florida Gators from 2005 to 2010, he found himself struggling with such depression as well as pressure he got addicted to sleeping pills, per the documentary series. The reason — once they won two BCS National Championships (2006 and 2008), his competitive drive made him feel as if everything was a failure if a play wasn’t executed perfectly no matter the outcome of an overall game.
Urban Meyer is a Motivational Speaker Now
It was in 2009 when Urban first indicated he planned to leave his position at the University of Florida for his health, by which point his record as head coach was 96–18 (84.2 win percentage). However, he returned for the ensuing season, only for it not to pan out in the way he’d hoped and leading him to hand in his resignation with an indefinite leave of absence announcement in late 2010. Yet his retirement was only temporary as he became a College Football Analyst at ESPEN in 2011 before signing with Ohio State to be their Head Coach from 2012 to 2018 — he won a championship with this team too in 2014.
As per reports, Urban retired from coaching in 2019 in favor of serving as an Assistant Athletic Director at Ohio State and as an Analyst for Fox Sports, but he briefly came out of it in 2021. That’s because he was given the opportunity to lead the Jacksonville Jaguars in the National Football League, unaware it would be filled with controversies owing to his personal life and harsh coaching techniques. In fact, following a complaint of alleged physical as well as verbal abuse by a renowned athlete, he was fired in the early hours of December 16, 2021, with a record of a 2–11 (15.4 win percentage).
Urban later called this stint “the worst experience I’ve ever had in my professional lifetime” on former athlete Dan Dakich’s ‘Don’t @ Me’ podcast before adding he was still struggling with depression. “I’d stare at the ceilings and [think] ‘are we doing everything possible’ because I really believed we had a roster that was good enough to win games,” he said. “I just don’t think we did a great job.”
Nevertheless, from what we can tell, this ‘Above the Line’ (2015) author has since resumed his broadcasting career and currently even works as a motivational speaker signed under Morgan Sports Partners. As for his personal life, it appears as if Urban leads a rather quiet and comfortable life in Jacksonville, Florida, alongside his wife of 37 years, Shelley Mather Meyer, while also being surrounded by their three adult children: Nicole “Nicki” Meyer, Gisela “Gigi” Meyer, and Nathan “Nate” Meyer.
