It’s hard to argue a more successful college football coach than Urban Meyer in recent memory, this side of Nick Saban. Meyer won national championships with both the Florida Gators and the Ohio State Buckeyes, going undefeated against the Buckeyes’ archrival, the Michigan Wolverines, in his tenure in Columbus.
However, Meyer recently revealed that his tenure in Columbus was almost cut short due to some off-the-field disagreements with the university.
Per Fox News: “Meyer revealed during a sermon in Columbus, Ohio, at a non-denominational church that he threatened to leave the school after his idea to have a church service before team meetings on Sundays.”
Meyer revealed that the university’s attorney told him that he was not permitted to have a Bible study nor was he allowed to have a church service, but that he’d decided to go through with it regardless.
“I said, ‘I’m really busy, we’re doing it’. She got our athletic director,” he said. Gene (Smith) comes over, I haven’t told this story many times. But, he comes over … and he’s like ‘OK’, and I said ‘Gene, we’re doing this, if not, you gotta let me go’. He’s like, ‘We’re good, let’s go talk.’
“So, the compromise was that we had to call it ‘reflection.’ I don’t know, in this day and age, you’re 18 to 21 years old, we take every second of their time. How can you not do that?
“That’s more of the question. Instead of saying, ‘How do you do it?’ How do you not do it?”
Meyer was at the helm in Columbus from 2012 to 2018, winning the national championship in 2014.