Urban Meyer Reportedly Has No Interest In Returning To Coach College Football

Stop if you've heard this before: a coach absolutely insists he has no interest in leaving his current job for another one.

In the 2021 college football coaching carousel, it seems as though every successful coach has to shoot down rumors. With Lincoln Riley and Brian Kelly both leaving their respective jobs at Oklahoma and Notre Dame, nothing appears off the table. Many have even speculated that Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer would return to college football to be Kelly's successor at Notre Dame.

The AP's Mark Long, however, says he's hearing that Meyer has no intention of returning to college football, effectively taking his name out of the running for Notre Dame. The 57-year-old, three-time National Champion head coach would be a huge get for the Fighting Irish, who called Notre Dame a "dream job" in 2008. Meyer served as wide receivers coach at Notre Dame from 1996-2000.

It's currently rumored that Notre Dame defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman, Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell and Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell are the leading candidates for the job.

While Meyer comes with a higher pedigree than those three and has roots at Notre Dame, one incident might be keep him away from the discussion. Of course that would be the viral video of Meyer, who is married, with a younger woman sitting on his lap at a bar in September. His own players and even owner Shad Khan, who said Meyer had to earn his trust back with the team, criticized him for the incident.

Meyer previously shot down speculation of him taking the USC job after Clay Helton was fired in September.

Meyer indeed kept his word and remains head coach of the Jaguars (2-9). We'll see if he still does that now that one of the premier jobs in college football has opened for the first time in 11 years.

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