Sports TV viewers may see a lot more of Urban Meyer on TV this year than they thought they would. Fox Sports is close to finalizing a deal to hire the former Ohio State head coach as its star college football analyst, sources tell Sporting News.
Meyer, who won three national championships between Ohio State and Florida, is being given the choice to work either as a color commentator in the game booth or as a studio analyst at Fox, sources said. Citing serious health concerns, the 54-year-old Buckeyes coach retired after the 2019 Rose Bowl.
A Fox Sports spokeswoman declined comment to Sporting News Thursday night.
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Fox just wrapped its most-watched college football regular season ever. The network envisions Meyer as the kind of big-time coaching name/TV talent who could potentially put its "Fox College Football Pregame" show on par with Kirk Herbstreit's "College GameDay" at ESPN.
Both Meyer and Herbstreit are former Buckeyes. Both are Ohio natives. ESPN used the addition of Herbstreit and his popular "College GameDay" to fight off Fox's short-lived incursion into live coverage of the NFL Draft.
"Fox feels like they have enough good (college football) games now to really compete with ESPN," said one source. "If this comes off, the question is: Does he call games or work the studio?"
NSFW - Ohio State fan to head coach Urban Meyer as he leaves Lucas Oil Stadium after the Big Ten Championship Game, perhaps his last with the Buckeyes: “You can’t leave Columbus! Look at this, man! You’re a f---ing god here! We love you, Urban Meyer!” pic.twitter.com/kEubOLKdED
— Garrett Stepien (@GarrettStepien) December 2, 2018
Meyer famously stomped Big Ten coaching rival Jim Harbaugh 7-0 in head-to-head play vs. Michigan. As the most famous field general in the conference, he'd be treated like the second coming at Big Ten Network, which is majority owned by Fox. He'll always be beloved in Columbus after delivering the 2014 national championship to Buckeye Nation.
Meyer is no TV rookie. After leading the Florida Gators to two national championships, he worked at ESPN as a studio analyst in 2011 before returning to the sidelines at Ohio State.
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But Meyer's no sure thing after a 33-year coaching career. If he still has his eye on coaching again, Meyer may use TV as a way station to get his health in order and pick up a fat paycheck.
On the other hand, if he's fully ready to join the TV dark side, an unplugged, outspoken Meyer would sound loudly across a college football media landscape still dominated by ESPN voices like Herbstreit and Paul "King of the South" Finebaum.
This past season, Meyer was suspended three games by Ohio State for mishandling domestic abuse allegations against former assistant coach Zach Smith. Apart from that, with a brain cyst causing stress-related headaches, Meyer frequently looked in pain during the season, nearly collapsing on the sidelines at one point. His Buckeyes defeated Washington in the Rose Bowl to close Meyer's coaching career.
Meyer would join a number of former Buckeyes at Fox, including close friend Cris Carter, co-host of FS1's "First Things First" morning show, All-Big Ten running back turned studio analyst Robert Smith and ex-Buckeye linebackers Chris Spielman and James Laurinaitis. ESPN is still No. 1 in the college football space. But Fox controls a growing package of games from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences.
The network's college footbal announce teams include: Gus Johnson-Joel Klatt-Jenny Taft; Tim Brando-Spencer Tillman-Holly Sonders; Joe Davis-Brady Quinn-Bruce Feldman; Brian Custer-Ben Leber; and Justin Kutcher-DeMarco Murray-Petros Papadakis. Fox's studio coverage features Stone, Smith, Dave Wannstedt and Matt Leinart (The network also uses rules analysts Mike Pereira and Dean Blandino for both NFL and college football coverage).
