Urban Meyer Accomplishments
Head Coaching Experience:
2005 Florida, Head Coach
2003-04 Utah, Head Coach
2001-02 Bowling Green, Head Coach
Urban Meyer, a two-time National Coach of the Year and one of the nation's top young coaching talents, was named the 21st head football coach at the University of Florida on December 4th, 2004.
Meyer turned around the football program at Bowling Green State University in 2001-02 and engineered a reversal of fortune at the University of Utah in 2003-04. Utah finished as a consensus top-five team in the nation, including a final ranking of third by Sports Illustrated.
Since 1900, only six coaches in the history of Division I college football have won more than 39 games in their first four years as a head coach.
Meyer earned multiple National Coach of the Year honors after leading Utah's to a perfect 12-0 season, the school's first in 75 years. Meyer collected the Home Depot National Coach of the Year, the George Munger Award for the Collegiate Coach of the Year presented by the Maxwell Club and the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year (Named by the Football Writers Association of America). He also was named National Coach of the Year by Pro Football Weekly and earned the Woody Hayes Trophy Award and the Victor Award.
With it's post-season bid to the Fiesta Bowl, Utah made history by becoming the first school from a non-Bowl Championship Series conference to earn a berth in a BSC Bowl and Utah finished as the outright 2004 MWC champion to become the only back-to-back outright winners in the league's history.
Meyer completed his Utah coaching career riding a 16-game winning streak, the second-longest in the nation behind only Southern California (21). The Utes did not trail at halftime of any 2004 game and their closest margin of victory was 14, a 49-35 win over Air Force on Sept. 25.
Meyer's mark has been made on the NFL draft as well, tutoring the No. 1 pick in the 2005 Draft. Quarterback Alex Smith, the first round draft pick by the San Francisco 49ers in April, is one of 23 former Meyer players who have signed contracts with NFL teams.
Meyer was named the 2003 National Coach of the Year by The Sporting News after leading the Utes to a 10-2 record, their first outright conference championship since 1957, a bowl victory and a final national ranking of No. 21.
Meyer's explosive spread offense and one of the nation's best defenses brought Utah local and national attention. The 2003 Utes shattered their previous home attendance record by averaging 41,478 fans. The largest crowd ever to attend a Utah athletic event (46,768) and a national ESPN television audience watched the Utes beat California, 31-24, in Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Meyer began his head coaching career at Bowling Green in 2001, where he engineered the top turnaround in NCAA Division I-A football, showing a six-win improvement from the previous season. The Falcons rebounded from a 2-9 record to post their first winning season since 1994 with an 8-3 finish. For his efforts, he was named the 2001 Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year. A year later, he guided BGSU to a 9-3 record and its highest national ranking in school history (No. 16 ESPN/USA Today and No. 20 Associated Press). Bowling Green spent five weeks in the national polls and finished third in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 40.8 points per game.
The Bowling Green Falcons, who became the highest scoring team in MAC history, also finished ninth in the nation in total offense (448.9 ypg) and 11th in rushing offense (219.1 ypg) in 2002. They were the only team in the nation to average at least 215 yards rushing and 215 yards passing per game. BGSU also led the nation in red zone production, scoring on 61-of-63 trips (.968) inside the 20-yard line, including 52 touchdowns.
Utah Head Coaching Highlights (2003-04)
The Home Depot 2004 Coach of the Year
2004 George Munger Award for the Collegiate Coach of the Year presented by the Maxwell Club
2004 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year (Named by the Football Writers Association of America)
2004 Woody Hayes Trophy Award (Presented by the Columbus Touchdown Club)
2004 Victor Award
Semifinalist the 2004 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year award
2003 National Coach of the Year by The Sporting News
2003 and 2004 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year
22-2 overall record and 6-1 mark versus BCS teams
Directed Utah to a perfect 12-0 record in 2004 and became the first school from a non-Bowl Championship Series conference to earn a berth in a BSC Bowl (Fiesta)
Utah finished as the MWC winner for the second-straight season to become the only back-to-back outright champion in the league's existence
The 2004 Utes ranked in the top five nationally in six statistical categories and the top 20 in eight.
2004 Utah squad led the MWC in 11 statistical categories
Coached Heisman Trophy Finalist Alex Smith, who also earned The Sporting News National Player of the Year and was the first player selected in the 2005 NFL Draft
Squad averaged 44,112 spectators per game, breaking the school record of 41,478 set in 2003
First Utah football coach ever named National Coach of the Year
Best debut season ever for a Utah football coach (10-2)
2003 marked the school's first outright conference championship since 1957
Became only coach in program's history to win conference crown in debut season
Utah ranked No. 1 in the nation in kickoff returns in 2003
86% conference winning percentage in '03 was the best since 1953
Road sweep of Brigham Young, Colorado State and Air Force in 2003 was a Utah first
Led the Utes to their first New Year's Eve bowl ever, where they beat Southern Mississippi (17-0) in the AXA Liberty Bowl, Dec. 31
Utah ended Brigham Young's NCAA record 361-game, 28-year scoring streak to complete the 2003 regular season
Bowling Green Head Coaching Highlights (2001-02)
2001 Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year
Biggest turnaround in the NCAA in 2001
First winning season at BGSU since 1994
17-6 overall record and 5-0 versus BCS teams
Five weeks in the national rankings in 2002
Ranked as high as No. 16 (Coaches) and No. 20 (Associated Press)
Finished third in the nation in scoring offense in 2002 with 40.8 points per game
40.8 points per game set new MAC mark
Finished ninth in the nation in total offense with 448.9 yards per game
2001 defense led MAC in total defense, scoring defense and rush defense
Quotes From Meyer
"Back as a player, I was always the hardest working guy. I would be so upset with myself if I wasn't. Was I the best? I was average, but I outworked everybody. As a coach, am I the smartest? No. But I believe that in a lot of areas I outwork a lot of guys."
"As a player, I was upset when a coach would come in and say, "OK, everybody is going to be treated fairly. That's not the way good coaches work. John Wooden used to say, "Don't treat players fairly, treat them the way they deserve to be treated."
"We have core values in our program and today's society, I think that's critical. The way Lou Holtz said it, 'Whether it's raising a family, running a business or running a football team, there's no difference.'"
"I learned that you can't get personal, that you have to let kids be kids. No doubt in my mind I wouldn't be here today without Sonny Lubick."
"I'm involved with every player. I know every player on this team. My wife is involved and knows everyone of these kids. There's not a kid on this team that can walk through this door and I couldn't tell you his story."
"Everybody has something in their life that they have to share. Nobody wants to, but to be close, they have to. We take pride in being close. As a coach, I have to know those stories and respect where the players come from. If you respect that, there's a chance they're going to respect you, and you'll get more out of them."
"Some people fear losing. I don't. If they're better than us and they play better, they're going to win. But if we fail because we didn't see a certain thing in practice or because we missed something on film, then that's what drives everybody here."
"There's no such thing as luck, there's a big word called investment. If there was luck, why work as hard as we do. I've never been involved in a game where the most invested team lost.
"Our coaches are responsible for every aspect of the kids' lives - academic, spiritual, social. We are their fathers away from home."
"I'm an organizational freak. Every second is accounted for. Every second away from football is with my kids."
