Major College Football Program Reportedly Turns Down Urban Meyer for Head Coaching Job

Urban Meyer is widely regarded as one of the best coaches that college football has ever seen after he won three championships and compiled a 187-32 record in 17 years as a head coach at four different programs. His last stop of his coaching career was at Ohio State where he led the Buckeyes to a championship in 2014, winning the first-ever College Football Playoff.

Meyer, 61, hasn’t been on the sidelines since he took a whack at coaching at the NFL level in 2021, where he lasted just 13 games as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars before he was fired. Meyer is now a beloved analyst for Fox’s pregame show “Big Noon Kickoff.”

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Although Meyer has been consistent in saying he has no interest in returning to coaching, with jobs such as LSU, Florida and Penn State being open, his name has been floated out quite a bit. The 2025 College Football Hall of Fame was asked about a potential return on Friday, saying, “I don’t have a desire.”

While Meyer has publicly maintained this stance for the past couple of years, a Friday report revealed that, behind the scenes, the former Ohio State head coach has at least considered one job opening.

As reported by Audacy’s Zach Gelb, Meyer had “strong interest” in the Penn State opening, but the talks broke down as a result of one subject matter.

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“I’ve been hearing a lot about Urban Meyer and the Penn State job in the last 48 hours and just people I’ve been talking to,” Gelb said. “I’m not going to crush Urban Meyer for lying when he says ‘Hey, I don’t have any interest in coaching again.’ But I’ve talked to two sources and two sources told me that Urban Meyer had a great interest level in becoming the next head football coach at Penn State.”

Gelb added that according to sources, Meyer had conversations with Penn State decision makers about becoming their next head coach.

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“The reasons why those talks did break down is when they got to the topic of NIL, which Urban Meyer has never been a head coach during the NIL era,” Gelb said. “His plan and his answers in terms of navigating those name image and likeness waters were not viewed as satisfactory enough.”

With that being said, Gelb did confirm that Meyer will be advocating for current Ohio State wide receivers coach Brian Hartline to get a head coaching job this offseason. As for Penn State, which fired James Franklin after 12 years, finding a big-name replacement may prove more difficult than initially expected.

While Meyer has a great track record at the college level, it is an entirely new ball game in the hierarchy of college football due to NIL. Only time will tell if Meyer truly does want to get back into coaching, but clearly, he has some sort of itch.

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Related: Congratulations Pour in for CFB Legend Urban Meyer Over Career News

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Nov 1, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.