Urban Meyer staying in college football as a broadcaster for FOX

Urban Meyer is out of coaching, at least for now, but he’s staying in college football as a broadcaster.

It’s easy to question if Urban Meyer is really never going to coach again, despite health issues he could not keep hidden on the sideline last season. But he’s staying close to college football, as expected, with the New York Post reporting FOX has hired Meyer to be part of their pregame show they hope will challenge ESPN’s College Gameday.

FOX has confirmed the move, as Meyer will join Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Brady Quinn for a Saturday morning show hosted by Rob Stone. Leinart and Quinn have both worked for the network, on NFL games in Quinn’s case, while Bush will presumably continue to work for NFL Network.

The new show is not expected to travel like ESPN’s pregame show does, which probably appealed to Meyer as he considered any broadcasting jobs. FOX’s announcement including the time the show will air, 11:00 a.m ET each Saturday leading into noon ET kickoffs.

This is not the first venture into broadcasting for Meyer. He worked for ESPN/ABC for one season after retiring as coach at Florida, before taking the job at Ohio State in 2012. In January Sporting News reported FOX was close to a deal to hire Meyer, and now it’s come to fruition as part of a bigger move to compete for Saturday pregame eyeballs.

FOX has had a highly rated NFL pregame show for a long time, and their turn in MLB pregame with big names as analysts (Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Frank Thomas) has been well-received. Their college football pregame show has resided on FS1 previously, but the shift to the big network and a star-studded lineup including Meyer brings hope the success in other sports can be replicated.

But there is an elephant in the room, which FOX has surely considered. Is Meyer just making a another one-year pit stop as a broadcaster?