Now, it’s a question of whether Meyer made the right choice in jumping from college to the NFL. He resigned at Ohio State after the 2018 season. In 13 seasons between Florida and Ohio State, Meyer won three national titles - two with quarterback Tim Tebow and the Gators in 20, and one with Ohio State in 2014. “He got in the right place, and his career just took off,” Lubick said. Then it was on to Utah, where he went 22-2 with two bowl wins, including the Fiesta Bowl, making him the most sought-after coach in the nation and leading him to Florida. Five years later, he got his first head coaching job at Bowling Green, where he stayed for two years. “I’m putting words in everybody’s mouth, but I think all of us (ex-Rams assistants from Lubick’s tenure) all look back on our career and say, ‘Hey, that was a pretty good time right there.’ We learned a lot, won a lot.”īy the time Meyer left CSU to take the same job with Notre Dame in 1996, his profile in the college football world was rising quickly. “I had no doubt he was going to go on to have a great career,” Fairchild said. That list includes John Benton (Jets’ offensive line and run game coordinator), Brian Scheinder (formerly the special teams coach for the Seahawks) and Steve Fairchild (former NFL offensive coordinator and CSU head coach).įairchild, the Rams’ quarterbacks coach during Meyer’s tenure there, noted that “initially when I got to know him, I could tell he was as good of a receiver coach or position coach as I had worked with.” Fairchild and Meyer lived on the same street in Fort Collins, and their families became close.
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Meyer was one of several assistants from Lubick’s staff who went on to greater college and pro gigs. That six-year stint in Fort Collins allowed Meyer to grow professionally, and allowed his young family to have a stretch of stability that’s uncommon for young assistants on the move. He expected us to be the toughest receiving corps in the country, and we were.” He wasn’t physical at all with anyone, just very mental. It wasn’t so much yelling, but just very intense in the words he used, very challenging in knowing which buttons to press for certain people.
“In terms of how he challenged me, it got the most out of me, but it definitely wasn’t for everybody…. “How everyone reacted to his intensity was up to each individual,” said Olson, who played for Meyer from 1990-94. During that time, CSU went from irrelevance to a WAC power, winning multiple conference titles and appearing in the program’s first bowl games.Īs former CSU wideout Eric Olson explains, “fiery would probably not be doing it justice” to describe Meyer’s coaching style. Meyer coached at CSU from 1990 through 1995, first under Earle Bruce and then under Lubick. Photo courtesy of CSU AthleticsFormer CSU head football coach Earle Bruce, left, and assistant coach Urban Meyer stand along the sidelines at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins in the early 1990s. Urban Meyer's first FBS coaching job was at CSU, where he established a reputation for intensity Close Menu