Urban Meyer: Why His Dream Job Is Ohio State, Not Notre Dame

Urban Meyer has supposedly had many “dream jobs” during his college coaching career.

We know Bowling Green, Meyer’s first head-coaching stop, probably wasn’t the place he wanted to spend his entire coaching life, and we know that Utah was also viewed as a stepping stone, but Meyer’s final destination, Florida, wasn’t his only “dream job.”

Notre Dame, where Meyer was a wide receivers coach from 1996-2000, and Ohio State, where he got his college coaching career started as a tight ends coach back in 1986, were both also considered supposed “dream jobs” for Meyer.

Meyer has had his opportunities to coach at Notre Dame on two occasions, but Ohio State is where it looks like he’ll now ultimately end up.

Since the day former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel resigned back in May, Meyer, who has been taking a year off from coaching and working as an analyst for ESPN, has been linked to the job.

Ironically, he was working with former Buckeye great Chris Spielman (Do I smell a future role as an Ohio State linebackers coach for Speilman?).

Returning to Columbus, the place where he started his college coaching career, is certainly a dream moment for Meyer, one that would have left the young upstart version ecstatic if you would have told him back in 1986 that this would be how it all played out.

Ohio’s own is home.

From Bowling Green, to Utah to Florida, Urban Meyer has worked his way up the college football coaching ladder, and now that he’s reached the top, he’s finally found his way back home.

Meyer will be given the duty of building Ohio State into a national power after an ugly 6-6 campaign this year. But if he’s healthy enough, he’ll have the Buckeyes back on the national scene within a year or two.

Meyer’s a successful coach, a high-level recruiter and a respected leader, three pieces that Ohio State needs to fit into its football puzzle right now.

The Buckeyes couldn’t have done any better than this high-profile hire.

The Ohio State-Urban Meyer partnership is a marriage made in college football heaven.

If Meyer can win a national title for his home-state team, it will likely be the most cherished accomplishment of his storied career.