Urban Meyer

College coach infobox
Name = Urban Meyer

---

DateOfBirth = birth date and age|1964|7|10
Birthplace = flagicon|Ohio 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 State
Utah
Florida
FootballHOF =

Urban Meyer (born July 10, 1964 in Ashtabula, Ohio) is currently the head football coach at the University of Florida. He is also known for leading the University of Utah Utes to an undefeated season in 2004, forcing the Bowl Championship Series to allow Utah to play in a BCS Bowl. Utah defeated Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl and was the first non-BCS team to play in a BCS Bowl. The following year, Meyer became head football coach at the University of Florida. Florida won the 2006 Southeastern Conference Championship and later the BCS Championship. Meyer started his head coaching career at Bowling Green State University, where he led the Falcons to 17 wins in 2 years.

Early life

Upon graduating from Ashtabula's [http://www.ssjp.org 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 [http://florida.scout.com/2/583172.html>] . He married his wife, Shelley, in 1986. The Meyers have have three children: Nicole, Gigi, and Nate.

Meyer 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. [ [http://utahutes.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/meyer_urban00.html Player Bio: Urban Meyer :: Football ] ]

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 as of the 2007 season is 70-16 and he is 41-13 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 had not 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 2 over Arkansas by a score of 38-28. Despite the loss to Auburn, Florida was ranked 4th ] 41-14. It was 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 14-2 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. [cite web |url=http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/sports/epaper/2007/06/07/0607ufsalaries.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=46 |title= Donovan welcomed back with college basketball's highest salary |authors=Lindsay Jones |publisher=Palm Beach Post |date=2007-06-07 |accessdate=2007-06-07]

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, [cite web |url=http://www.secsports.com/new/sports/fbc/07stats/confldrs.htm |title=2007 SEC Football Leaders |publisher=Southeastern Conference |accessdate=2007-12-23] but struggles on defense made it difficult for the Gators to reach a BCS bowl game. [cite web |url=http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview07/news/story?id=2964388 |title=Gators to alter style of play with loss of nine defensive starters |authors=Mark Schlabach |publisher=ESPN.com |date=2007-08-07 |accessdate=2007-12-23] 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

CFB Yearly Record Subhead
name=Bowling Green Falcons
conf=Mid-American Conference
startyear=2001
endyear=2002CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship =
year = 2001
name = Bowling Green
overall = 8–3
conference = 5–3
confstanding = 2
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking = —
ranking2 = —CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship =
year = 2002
name = Bowling Green
overall = 9–3
conference = 6–2
confstanding = 3
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking = —
ranking2 = —CFB Yearly Record Subtotal
name=Bowling Green
overall=17–6
confrecord=11–5CFB Yearly Record Subhead
name=Utah Utes
conf=Mountain West Conference
startyear=2003
endyear=2004CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship = conference
year = 2003
name = Utah
overall = 10–2
conference = 6–1
confstanding = 1
bowlname = Liberty
bowloutcome = W
bcsbowl =
ranking = 21
ranking2 = 21CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship = conference
year = 2004
name = Utah
overall = 12–0
conference = 7–0
confstanding = 1
bowlname = Fiesta
bowloutcome = W
bcsbowl = yes
ranking = 5
ranking2 = 4CFB Yearly Record Subtotal
name=Utah
overall=22–2
confrecord=13–1CFB Yearly Record Subhead
name=Florida Gators
conf=Southeastern Conference
startyear=2005
endyear=CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship =
year = 2005
name = Florida
overall = 9–3
conference = 5–3
confstanding = 2 - East
bowlname = Outback
bowloutcome = W
bcsbowl =
ranking = 16
ranking2 = 12CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship = national
year = 2006
name = Florida
overall = 13–1
conference = 8–1
confstanding = 1 - East
bowlname = BCS NCG
bowloutcome = W
bcsbowl = yes
ranking = 1
ranking2 = 1CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship =
year = 2007
name = Florida
overall = 9–4
conference = 5–3
confstanding = 3 - East
bowlname = Capital One
bowloutcome = L
bcsbowl = no
ranking = 16
ranking2 = 13CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship =
year = 2008
name = Florida
overall = 3-1
conference = 1-1
confstanding =
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 = CFB Yearly Record Subtotal
name=Florida
overall=34–9
confrecord=19–8CFB Yearly Record End
overall = 73–17
bcs = yes
poll = two
polltype =

Awards

*2001 Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year
*2003 The Sporting News National Coach of the Year
*2003 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year
*2004 The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award
*2004 George Munger Award for the Collegiate Coach of the Year presented by the Maxwell Club
*2004 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year (presented by the Football Writers Association of America)
*2004 Pro Football Weekly National Coach of the Year
*2004 Woody Hayes Trophy Award (Presented by the Columbus Touchdown Club)
*2004 Victor Award
*2004 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year

References

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External links

* [http://gatorzone.com/urbanmeyer/ Official Site]
* [http://collegefootball.rivals.com/viewcoach.asp?Coach=279 Rivals.com biography]
* [http://www.ssjp.org/ Saint John High School]

ee also