Urban Meyer Will Return to Fox College Football's Big Noon Kickoff

Urban Meyer is returning to television.

Meyer had been a popular addition to the Fox College Football broadcast team after leaving Ohio State, but left the commentator's table to take over the head coaching position with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Trevor Lawrence #16 talks with Head Coach Urban Meyer during the disastrous 2021 season for the Jacksonville. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

His tenure in North Florida was a complete disaster, with repeated embarrassments, controversies and eventually, an inevitable firing.

But now, Fox Sports has announced that Meyer will be back on their Big Noon Kickoff show for the upcoming season:

The original cast of Rob Stone, Brady Quinn, Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Meyer will all return to what's been an incredibly successful Saturday morning configuration.

The chemistry between the hosts helped contribute to the huge ratings that the Big Noon Kickoff show generated.

It seemed odd at the time that Meyer would leave a comfortable position with Fox Sports to go back to the non-stop, high pressure world of coaching. The motivation to prove himself in the NFL after his remarkable success at Ohio State must have been too tempting for the 58-year old.

Unfortunately the NFL run was essentially the polar opposite of his time in Columbus; short, unsuccessful and unpopular.

The big question is, will Meyer attempt another return to coaching?

He's still relatively young; Pete Carroll is 12 years older than Meyer, for example.

But after his stint with the Jaguars, would anyone give him another chance? Seemingly not in the NFL, but a college football program could be interested.

At least for now though, this seems like a win-win for both parties; Fox gets back one of their original crew, and Meyer gets a chance to rehab his image a bit without the pressures of a high-stakes coaching job.

Most importantly, the best news about this report is that it means college football's return is incredibly close.