Mike Vrabel responds to belief he could return to college football: ‘Not right now’

There are only 32 NFL head coaching positions and, right now, Mike Vrabel has one of them with the New England Patriots. So, it’s not a surprise that for the time being, he’s not considering a return to the college game.

The topic of the college game came up for Vrabel when he made an appearance on The Triple Option. There, he joked with Urban Meyer, whom he worked for when he was an assistant coach with the Ohio State Buckeyes.

“Three years in college was enough for me,” Vrabel said. “And I took off for the NFL and I’m sure Urban told you. Urban didn’t want to hire me. He’ll tell you, he didn’t want to hire me, or that was just his way of motivating me, and he did a good job because I learned a lot there, but I just felt like the pro game was where I wanted to be.”

Vrabel played his college football at Ohio State in the middle of the 1990s for John Cooper. He’d go on to play in the NFL for more than a decade, winning three Super Bowls for Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. He has since been inducted into the franchise’s Hall of Fame.

After his playing career ended in 2010, Vrabel quickly got into coaching at Ohio State. At the time, he was the linebackers coach in 2011. That was the interim season for Luke Fickell between Jim Tressel and Meyer. He’d stay there through 2013 when his first NFL coaching opportunity opened up. By 2018, he’d be the head coach of the Tennessee Titans.

A bit ironically, Vrabel is now coaching the Patriots. Meanwhile, Belichick has made the jump to the college game at North Carolina. That’s something that he wishes Belichick luck with moving forward, but not something he necessarily wants for himself.

“If Bill feels like he wanted to go down to North Carolina and try to recreate that,” Vrabel said. “I wish him a lot of luck in the world, unless they’re playing Ohio State.”

It’s difficult to imagine an NFL head coach jumping to college completely on their own. Between recruiting, the Transfer Portal, and academics, there are a lot more off-the-field challenges to manage. On top of that, college jobs are generally less prestigious and while not every salary is publicly known, the NFL can almost always pay more, too. So, it’s no surprise that, for the time being, Vrabel is happy to continue leading the franchise he made his name playing for at the NFL level instead of returning to college.

“Not right now,” Vrabel said. “No. No. Not right now.”