After a forgettable 11-month stint in the NFL, former college head coach Urban Meyer is returning to one of his old gigs.
Fox announced Friday that Meyer will be back with the “Big Noon Kickoff” Saturday morning show for the 2022 college football season, joining Brady Quinn, Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and host Matt Stone.
Meyer appeared on the show in 2019 and 2020 before taking the head coaching post with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Jaguars fired Meyer on Dec. 16 after a series of behavioral blunders off the field. After a last-second loss in a “Thursday Night Football” game at the Cincinnati Bengals, Meyer — who is married — didn’t fly back home with the team and was later seen on video with a woman closely dancing on him in a bar in Columbus, Ohio.
Meyer denied reports that he called his coaching staff losers and demanded they “defend” their resumes to him. On Dec. 15, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Meyer kicked former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo in the leg during a pregame stretch in the preseason.
In a report published Dec. 15, Lambo said he responded to Meyer’s kick with “Don’t you ever f–king kick me again!” And his response was, “I’m the head ball coach, I’ll kick you whenever the f–k I want.”
The report soon led to Meyer’s firing. The Jaguars were 2-11 at the time.
Before Jacksonville, Meyer was best known as a college head coach who won three national championships, two at Florida (2006, 2008) and Ohio State (2014).
Off-the-field controversies did crop up during his college career, though, the most serious coming in 2018 when it was reported Meyer turned a blind eye to domestic violence allegations against one of his assistant coaches. Ohio State placed Meyer on administrative leave and eventually suspended him for three games.
Meyer cited personal health reasons when he retired from both Florida in 2010 and Ohio State in 2018.
He said on a podcast appearance in April that he planned to return to “Big Noon Kickoff.”
–Field Level Media
