Urban Meyer’s coaching methods on the gridiron were never in dispute. It got him three national championships during his stints with Florida and Ohio State. However, that didn’t come about without sacrifices. The former OSU head coach had to compromise in his duties as a father to achieve perfection on the football field.
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“We would spend more time with each other than with our families,” Meyer said in the episode of the Breaking Sales Podcast on June 15. “I have three children at home, and I’m spending, during the season, 10 times more time with you [coaches and players] than with them. So, I expect a lot out of you, and you should expect a lot out of me. We’re in this thing for 8 hours a day, and I go home tonight, and especially my children are young.”
“I wouldn’t see them for a couple of weeks because I would leave before they got up, and I’d get home after they were in bed, and that broke your heart as a parent, but it’s also your job to win games, and we’re the ones who selected this profession.”
Meyer had an exceptional run with the Buckeyes, and in the 7 seasons he coached them, he had an 83-9 overall record (.902 winning percentage). The FOX analyst also led Ohio State to a national championship in 2014, despite two injured QBs, Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett. More than the championship title, Meyer is remembered for his perfect 7-0 record against the arch-rival Michigan Wolverines. But the cost was steep. While his record was exceptional, his family paid the price.
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Meyer met his wife, Shelley Mather Meyer, in 1984 at a university fraternity party while both were attending the University of Cincinnati. They tied the knot in 1989. Shelly is a registered nurse who spent years teaching clinical and mental health nursing. Funnily, it came to light that before signing the contract with Ohio State, Shelly forced Meyer to sign a family contract, requiring him to prioritize family dinners, vacations, and health over work. But Meyer couldn’t keep up his word with his 16-18-hour shifts in his job.
The couple has two daughters and one son, all of whom are grown up. Nicki Meyer Dennis played Div 1 volleyball at Georgia Tech and is now married to Corey Dennis, a former football player who later served as an offensive assistant under Urban at Ohio State.
The second daughter, Gisela “Gigi” Meyer Pruett, was also a Div. 1 volleyball player at Florida Gulf Coast University, like her older sister. The youngest son, Nathan “Nate” Meyer, initially attended the University of Cincinnati to play baseball, but in 2020, he switched careers and followed in his father’s footsteps, walking on to the Bearcats football team as a wide receiver.
The lifestyle of a major collegiate head coach requires 80-to-100-hour work weeks, year-round recruiting, and immense public pressure. This has led several notable coaches to publicly share their own struggles, regrets, or decisions to step away to protect their families. The former OSU head coach is not the only one to have spoken about the personal sacrifices involved in such roles.
Nick Saban famously adhered to a rigid, year-round routine where a standard day lasted 14 hours. He noted that during his kids’ childhoods, he missed nearly every school event and play. The former Alabama head coach also admitted that his children essentially had to “share their father with an entire state.” He has noted in interviews that his retirement was partially motivated by a desire to finally be present as a grandfather, acknowledging he could never get back the time he missed as a young dad.
Bob Stoops shocked the college football world in 2017 when he retired from Oklahoma at just 56 years old, right at the peak of his career. Stoops watched his own father, Ron Stoops Sr., a legendary high school football coach, die on the field from a heart attack at age 54. Driven by his father’s sudden death and the realization that his twin sons, Drake and Isaac, were about to play high school football, Stoops walked away. He explicitly stated that he did not want to spend his sons’ final years at home trapped in a film room. By stepping down, he was able to attend every one of their high school games, a luxury he never had when they were younger.
Just last year, the Seahawks HC Mike Macdonald revealed that he gets to spend just 30 minutes with his newborn son during the week. “On Thursdays, I don’t get to see Jack throughout the week as much, so on Thursdays… I try to get home pretty quick to be with him, maybe a half-hour to an hour before he goes to bed,” Macdonald told King 5 Sports in January.
And such is the rigor required to achieve success in sports that coaches like Meyer wouldn’t have liked to do it any other way. However, the regret of sacrificing family time stays on.