Urban Meyer is highly regarded as one of college football’s greatest coaches, with three national championships to back up the claims. However, his decorated career is not without its own regrets. Looking back, Meyer made a move away from a program that still haunts him to date.

“Yeah, there are a few regrets I had in my coaching career, none more than leaving Florida,” former Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer said to the hosts of Hightop Sports YouTube channel. “You know, I never should have left. I was going through some significant health stuff that I was really convinced in my mind that I wasn’t going to make… I mean, a friend of mine had a heart attack and passed away. I was having chest pains.

“It’s well documented, but and I stepped away. But a month after I did, I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. What the hell did I do?’ And I looked at Shelley. I was trying to get my strength back and working out a little bit. And I looked at her, and I said, ‘I made a mistake.'”

Meyer’s career clearly did not go as planned. He had several interruptions that made him draw the curtains at a young coaching age. But even at that, he stubbornly returned to coaching a few times before his final retirement in 2018 after six years of coaching the Buckeyes, citing health issues related to a congenital arachnoid cyst.

The root cause behind the health issues that plagued his coaching career was his reaction to losses. He famously confessed on the Breaking Sales podcast that, “I knew when I hit 55, I was done. Because a loss took my soul away, especially a loss where I knew that we shouldn’t have lost.”

However, more than his final retirement, the most painful one was his final exit from the Florida Gators, where he announced his first retirement after being hospitalized in the aftermath of the 2009 SEC Championship game due to chest pains — a year after winning his second national championship with the Gators. Surprisingly, he returned to coaching the next day and took an indefinite leave of absence that only lasted until March.

His return to coaching did not go so well. The Gators ended the 2010 season with an 8-5 record, ultimately forcing Meyer to quit, though he stated that family was his main reason for making the decision. While he returned to Ohio State two years later and won a national championship during his time in Columbus, Meyer regrets not staying with the Gators after the 8-5 season.

Things got bad after he left. Meyer was replaced by Will Muschamp, who led the team to a 3-5 SEC record and a 7-6 overall record in the 2011 season. To Meyer, Muschamp was not necessarily a bad coach, but the offense was too poor by the program’s standard. He built strong defenses, and even won 11 games in 2012, but the team’s persistent offensive struggles led to his firing. After Muschamp, Florida had employed Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen and Bill Napier, in search for the way of life Meyer introduced them to. Sadly, the search has been futile so far.