With six NFL teams currently having head-coaching vacancies, there’s one coach who hasn’t yet emerged as a candidate, but should be considered: Urban Meyer.
Meyer, who led Ohio State to victory in Monday night’s national championship game, has such a phenomenal track record of success in college football that he’s at least worth considering for some team that wants to consider an outside-the-box candidate.
Meyer isn’t just a good coach, he’s a great coach. Meyer’s winning percentage of .845 is the third-best in major college football history, behind only Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy. Meyer won two national championships at Florida and now has one at Ohio State, but what might be most impressive about him is that he wins even at places where it’s not assumed that you’re going to win: He took over a 2-9 Bowling Green team and proceeded to go 8-3 and 9-3 in his two seasons there, then took over a 5-6 Utah team and proceeded to go 10-2 and 12-0 in his two seasons there. All Meyer does is win, everywhere, every year.
It’s true that Meyer has never coached in the NFL, and that’s the major drawback against him. But Chip Kelly had never coached in the NFL either, and he took over a 4-12 Eagles team and took them to the playoffs in his first season. College football and the NFL are different, but they’re not so different that a great coach at one level can’t succeed at the other.
Meyer probably isn’t interested in coaching in the NFL because he’s had all the success he could ask for at Ohio State. Then again, maybe that’s why he would be intrigued by the possibility of coaching in the NFL: He’s done everything he can do at the college level, and a Super Bowl ring would be a nice acquisition to add to his coaching legacy.
Whether Meyer is interested or not, some team ought to ask. He’s too good a coach for the NFL to overlook.