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Urban Meyer

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Urban Meyer

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 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 [1]. 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. [2]

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

File:Urban Meyer UFvshawaii2008.jpg
Urban Meyer is interviewed after the Gators' August 30, 2008 game against Hawaii

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 in the BCS before the SEC championship victory over Arkansas. That 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 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 14-1 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. [3]

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,[4] but struggles on defense made it difficult for the Gators to reach a BCS bowl game.[5] 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

Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl/playoffs Coaches# AP°
Bowling Green Falcons (Mid-American Conference) (2001–2002)
2001 Bowling Green 8–3 5–3 2 — —
2002 Bowling Green 9–3 6–2 3 — —
Bowling Green: 17–6 11–5
Utah Utes (Mountain West Conference) (2003–2004)
2003 Utah 10–2 6–1 1 W Liberty 21 21
2004 Utah 12–0 7–0 1 W Fiesta† 5 4
Utah: 22–2 13–1
Florida Gators (Southeastern Conference) (2005–present)
2005 Florida 9–3 5–3 2 - East W Outback 16 12
2006 Florida 13–1 8–1 1 - East W BCS NCG† 1 1
2007 Florida 9–4 5–3 3 - East L Capital One 16 13
Florida: 31–8 18–7
Total: 70–16
      National championship         Conference title         Conference division title or championship game berth

Awards

References

  1. ^ http://florida.scout.com/2/583172.html>
  2. ^ Player Bio: Urban Meyer :: Football
  3. ^ "Donovan welcomed back with college basketball's highest salary". Palm Beach Post. 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2007-06-07. {{cite web}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
  4. ^ "2007 SEC Football Leaders". Southeastern Conference. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
  5. ^ "Gators to alter style of play with loss of nine defensive starters". ESPN.com. 2007-08-07. Retrieved 2007-12-23. {{cite web}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)

See also

Preceded by Bowling Green State University Head Football Coach
2001–2002 		Succeeded by
Preceded by University of Utah Head Football Coach
2003–2004 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Charlie Strong (interim)
 University of Florida Head Football Coach
2005– 		Succeeded by
Current
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