Urban Meyer would 'absolutely' listen if the Dallas Cowboys called
If the Dallas Cowboys want to make a coaching change and are looking for a coach who has spent his career in college football, there’s a famous one currently doing TV work who would “absolutely” listen to their pitch.
Former Ohio State coach and current Fox analyst Urban Meyer said on Colin Cowherd’s Fox Sports 1 show Friday that he would not shoot down the Cowboys if the franchise approached him. The conversation about Dallas came up when Meyer was talking about Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley and the widespread belief that Riley could be a favorite for the job if the 3-3 Cowboys don’t re-sign Jason Garrett after the season.
“Pure speculation because I know him but I don’t know him like that, that’s the one,” Meyer said. “That’s New York Yankees, that’s the Dallas Cowboys, that’s the one. Great city, you’ve got Dak Prescott, you’ve got Zeke Elliott, loaded team — I can’t speak for him obviously, I hate to even speculate because I don’t know him, that’s really not fair, but to me that’s the one job in professional football where you kind of say ‘I gotta go do that.’”
Cowherd then asked if Meyer had been contacted by the Cowboys. He said he had not. Cowherd then followed up and asked Meyer if he’d spend “a couple days with it” if the Cowboys did reach out to him.
“Sure,” Meyer said. “Absolutely. Absolutely. That one? Yes.”
Meyer retired at the end of 2018
When he stepped down at Ohio State at the end of the 2018 season, Meyer said that he believed he was done with his coaching career. But this isn’t his first retirement either. He spent the 2011 season doing TV work after leaving Florida following the 2010 campaign. He became Ohio State’s coach before the 2012 season.
Meyer left both Florida and Ohio State because of health issues; he dealt with chest pains while at Florida and had headaches — and even brain surgery in 2014 — because of an arachnoid cyst while he was at Ohio State.
But there are many who believe that Meyer could eventually be open to taking another coaching job before his career is officially over. Namely, the one at USC if (or when) the school parts ways with Clay Helton. The NFL hadn’t been mentioned until Meyer did it himself on Friday with a wry smile.
Would he be truly interested if the Cowboys expressed interest? Who knows. But we do know that Meyer could have answered that question in myriad other ways to explicitly show he wasn’t open to coaching again.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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