Everything about Urban Meyer totally explained
| Birthplace =
Ashtabula, OH
| DateOfDeath =
| Sport =
Football
| College =
Florida
| Conference =
SEC
| Title =
Head coach
| CurrentRecord = 31-8
| OverallRecord = 70-16
| BowlRecord = 5-1
| Spouse =
Shelley Meyer
| Awards =
| Championships = 1 National Championship
(2006)2 MWC Championships
(2003, 2004)1 SEC Championship
(2006) Coach of the year
| CFbDWID = 1608
| Player = Y
| Years = 1983-1986
| Team =
Cincinnati
| Position =
DB
| Coach = Y
| CoachYears = 1986
1987
1988
1989
1990-1995
1996-2000
2001-2002
2003-2004
2005-
present
| CoachTeams =
Ohio State (TEs)Ohio State
(WRs)Illinois State (OLBs)Illinois State
(QBs/WRs)Colorado State (WRs)Notre Dame (WRs)Bowling Green StateUtahFlorida
| FootballHOF =
}}
Urban Meyer (born
July 10,
1964 in
Ashtabula, Ohio) is currently the head
football coach at the
University of Florida. He is best known for leading Florida to the 2006 Southeastern Conference Championship and later the
BCS National Championship. Previously, as head coach at the
University of Utah, he led the Utes to two of their greatest seasons in school history. Meyer started his head coaching career at
Bowling Green State University, where he led the
Falcons to 17 wins in 2 years. He married the former Shelley Mather, a
registered nurse, in
1986, and they've three children: Nicole, Gigi, and Nate.
Education
Upon graduating from Ashtabula's Saint John High School, Meyer went on to play
defensive back at the
University of Cincinnati before earning his
bachelor's degree in
psychology in
1986. During his undergraduate studies, Meyer also became a brother of the
Sigma Chi Fraternity, and met his wife at Sigma Chi's Derby Days philanthropy event . He later went on to earn his
master's degree in sports administration at
Ohio State University in
1988. Meyer was also selected in the 13th round, as a shortstop, by the Atlanta Braves in the 1982 major league baseball draft. Meyer spent two seasons playing minor league baseball in the Braves organization.
Coaching career
A two-time National Coach of the Year, Meyer has 20 years of college coaching experience, including six as a head coach. His overall record as a head coach is 70-15 (.786) and he's 33-9 (.786) in conference play. His winning percentage (.833) ranks seventh nationally among active college coaches during the last five years.
Early Coaching career
Meyer's first collegiate coaching position was a two-year stint as a graduate assistant at Ohio State (he had spent one year as a defensive backs coach at
Saint Xavier High School in
Cincinnati, OH). He then spent the next 13 years as an assistant—two at
Illinois State, six at
Colorado State, and finally five at
Notre Dame. In
2001, Meyer took his first head coaching job at
Bowling Green; in his first season there, he engineered the greatest turnaround in the
NCAA, earning
Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year honors in the process.
University of Utah
After two seasons at Bowling Green, he took the job at Utah in
2003. In his first season there, Meyer was named the
Mountain West Conference's Coach of the Year with a 10-2 record, the best ever for a coach's first season at Utah. He also earned honors as
The Sporting News National Coach of the Year, the first Utes coach to do so. Meyer's success can be attributed to his unique offensive system. The system can best be described as an offshoot of
Bill Walsh's famed
West Coast Offense, which relied on short, efficient pass routes and receivers making plays after the reception. Meyer's base offense spreads three receivers and puts the
quarterback in the
shotgun. Then, he introduces motion in the backfield and turns it into an
option attack, adding elements of the traditional run-oriented
option offense.
In
2004, Meyer led the undefeated Utes to a
Bowl Championship Series bid, something that hadn't been done by a
mid-major program since the BCS' creation in
1998. In the wake of this accomplishment, both the
University of Florida and the
University of Notre Dame vied for his services. Meyer chose to become Florida's head coach for the 2005 season, signing a 7-year contract worth
$14 million. He remained at Utah long enough to coach the team to a
Fiesta Bowl win over
Pittsburgh, capping off the Utes' first perfect season (12-0) since
1930.
University of Florida
In
2005,
his first season at Florida, Meyer's
Gators team finished the season 9-3 (5-3 in the
Southeastern Conference). The season included an undefeated record at home and a bowl victory against Iowa in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida. The Gators would have faced LSU in the SEC championship game, but they lost to South Carolina and former Florida coach Steve Spurrier in the SEC regular season finale. Instead the Gators' rival, the
Georgia Bulldogs, took the SEC Eastern Division title to the championship game, ultimately defeating LSU.
In
his second season at Florida, Meyer turned the Gators' fortunes around. He coached the Gators to a 13-1 (8-1 in the SEC) record, with the one loss coming on the road at
Auburn, and SEC wins at home against
South Carolina,
Kentucky,
Alabama, and
LSU; on the road at
Tennessee and Vanderbilt, with another win over rival
Georgia. After clinching the SEC East, the Gators won the
SEC Championship Game on
December 2nd over
Arkansas by a score of 38-28. Despite the loss to Auburn, Florida was ranked 4th in the BCS before their final game of the regular season against Arkansas. This win, coupled with then second-ranked
Southern California's 13-9 loss to unranked rival
UCLA on the same day catapulted Florida into the
BCS National Championship Game where they routed the heavily favored
Ohio State 41-14. It is the first BCS bowl berth for the Gators since the
Orange Bowl that capped off the 2001 campaign, and Florida's first national championship appearance and victory since winning the title in 1996.
Meyer has so far been known for winning big games. In addition to his overall 5-1 record in bowl games (as of 2008), at Florida Meyer has an 8-1 record against three of the Gators' biggest opponents—Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida State—and a 14-1 home record. Despite this success, Meyer is just 5-5 against SEC Western Division teams since taking over at Florida.
Meyer signed a 6-year contract extension with the Gators on June 7, 2007. The contract pays an average of $3.2-million per year, making him the fourth-highest paid coach in college football—behind only
Nick Saban,
Bob Stoops, and
Charlie Weis, respectively.
Meyer's Gators managed a 9-3 regular season record
in 2007, including blowout wins over rivals
Tennessee and
FSU. Quarterback
Tim Tebow also became Coach Meyer's first Heisman Trophy winner. The team led the conference in scoring, but struggles on defense made it difficult for the Gators to reach a
BCS bowl game. The Gators lost in the Capital One Bowl against Michigan by a score of 35-41 on January 1, 2008. Meyer served as a pre-game and halftime analyst for the
2008 BCS National Championship Game.
Head coaching record
Awards
Further Information
Get more info on 'Urban Meyer'.
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