Between his retirement from Ohio State and his brief stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Urban Meyer served as a college football analyst for Fox Sports, appearing on the network’s Big Noon Kickoff pregame show. With Meyer no longer a head coach after he was fired by the Jaguars last season, Fox is bringing him back.
On Friday afternoon, Fox announced that Meyer will once again be part of the Big Noon Kickoff cast, joining Rob Stone, former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn, and former USC Heisman Trophy-winning teammates Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart.
Fox’s decision to bring Meyer back was certainly controversial after the way the former coach’s previous stints ended. Meyer retired from Ohio State in 2018 season after he was suspended for four games to start the season for his handling of domestic violence accusations against one of his former assistant coaches.
Following his time at Ohio State, Meyer spent two seasons with Fox before becoming the head coach of Jacksonville Jaguars, but he did not make it even a full season before he was fired.
Under Meyer’s leadership, Jacksonville had just a 2-11 record in his 13 games as a head coach. But off-field issues plagued Meyer as well, including but certainly not limited to a viral video of Meyer dancing inappropriately with a woman at his restaurant and allegations that he kicked former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo.
As a result, the college football world was not exactly thrilled with Fox’s decision to bring Meyer back.
There are so many good people they can get for commentary yet they chose him https://t.co/FhEv8TDngD
— JP Acosta (@acosta32_jp) August 19, 2022
great day for all zero viewers who wanted urban meyer back on their television
— portal quarry (@crimsonquarry) August 19, 2022
There are many more important things in the world to get fired up about than who’s on a pregame show that I won’t watch anyway but Fox’s fealty to the notion that lots of people want to see Urban Meyer on TV is super strange https://t.co/9KJXqoc0vW
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) August 19, 2022
yeah gross https://t.co/xKJn5hVJ16
— John E. Hoover 🌮 (@johnehoover) August 19, 2022
After what happened last year I cannot believe any network would gleefully bring Urban Meyer back to TV. https://t.co/CrXPCxWIlY
— Field Gulls (@FieldGulls) August 19, 2022
When FOX intros Urban Meyer this year they should just say he’s back after taking a year off.
They wouldn’t be lying
— Matt Verderame (@MattVerderame) August 19, 2022
Meyer and the rest of the Big Noon Kickoff crew will debut on Aug. 20, during Fox’s Baseball Night in America.
[Fox]
