Urban Meyer, the only coach to walk away from coaching three times and return three times, says they're won't be a fourth comeback.
In an interview with All Things Covered, a podcast hosted by former NFL cornerbacks Bryant McFadden and Patrick Peterson, Meyer said he has "no interest" in returning to the sidelines again.
In the interview, Meyer said he was content to remain out of football until Jacksonville approached him. Though he didn't say so in as many words, the fact that the Jaguars owned the No. 1 pick in a draft that contained Trevor Lawrence is ultimately what pushed him back in.
"55 (years old) was always my target. My family deserved that," he said. "We'd worked so hard for so many years. I had some friends that unfortunately had some real serious health issues. I had it all planned out; I found the right guy in Ryan Day, who's fantastic. I retired, went to Fox, was an assistant AD for two years."
Other than Nick Saban, Meyer is the best coach of his generation. He won three national titles and finished in the AP Top 5 more seasons (nine) than not (eight) across a 17-year career in which he spent nearly a quarter of that time coaching at Bowling Green and Utah.
Meyer has always had a love-hate relationship with the game he mastered. Health issues pushed him away in 2009, yet he came back. Health issues pushed him away again in 2010, yet he came back in 2012. Health issues pushed him out a third time in 2018, yet he came back again in 2021.
Though only Meyer himself can say where his health stands today in comparison to 2012, or 2018, or 2021, it's encouraging that he's not gearing up for a fourth come back to mend his wounded pride. Meyer's Jacksonville tenure went, frankly speaking, worse than even the worst-case-scenario projections: a 13-game failure on a personal and professional level.
So, the fact that he's not compelled to try to write a new ending is, oddly, the biggest sign of growth Meyer has shown in a long time.
Other interesting topics:
Given that it was a podcast interview, the 25-minute conversation touched on many subjects.
-- Like the time Urban tried to get a job on Saban's Toledo staff but never got a call back. At the time, Meyer was a 26-year-old quarterbacks/wide receivers coach at Illinois State, trying to land a job on the 39-year-old Saban's first coaching staff. Saban had just taken the Toledo job when Meyer called the Saban home and made a compelling pitch... to Miss Terry.
"I called his home. Terry Saban answered the phone and I put on a 30-minute recruiting speech, now. I remember her saying, 'Yeah, I can't wait for him to talk to you.' Whenever I see Terry Saban we still laugh about that. I had her, it was over. I was coming to Toledo," he said.
Meyer never got the job, and it was probably for the best. Saban spent only a year in Toledo before becoming Bill Belichick's defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns. Three weeks after that phone call, Meyer got the wide receivers job on Sonny Lubick's Colorado State staff, a job he'd hold for six seasons.
-- Asked to name his top five college coaching jobs, Meyer named eight: Georgia, Ohio State, Florida, Florida State, LSU, USC, Texas and Alabama.
"I've always said Georgia, within 3-4 hours of that campus, you stumble over players. Here's the interesting thing about Georgia: I think there's as good of high school coaching as there is in the country. Georgia, I would say Ohio State, I would say the Florida Gators slash Florida State, I think they're really similar jobs because of the talent level. I would say my man Patrick (Peterson's) job. We didn't recruit Louisiana. You know why? All the good players are going to LSU. I was really upset when our recruiting guy said he's flying to Louisiana. I would say, 'We're not getting that kid.' I'd put USC there because of the talent. You draw a circle within 300 miles of that campus, then go check the NFL draft. Texas (unintelligible.)
"Alabama high school football is fantastic, but I don't know that you have the same number (of players) that you have in Georgia or an LSU. I would certainly say Alabama is a top five job, though."
So, the actual order of the top five is unclear, but Georgia is far-and-away Urban's No. 1.