Oregon Football: Is Urban Meyer a realistic option as next head coach?

Urban Meyer has been a name that’s floated around a little over the past couple of days, but is he a realistic option for Oregon football?

With Oregon football in the market for a new coach, there have been some wild rumors going around about the Ducks’ interest in certain candidates.

Some eye-opening names such as Chris Petersen, Lane Kiffin, and Dave Aranda have been floating around, but one name that has been touched on over the past few days because of rumored interest in an NFL coach is Urban Meyer.

Talk about shooting for the stars.

Meyer has had success everywhere he’s been in the college ranks but he has a reputation of retiring suddenly, leaving that program searching for an immediate replacement. He is also looked at as a coach with baggage, especially after his off-field issues with a woman who was not his wife at a bar this year in which he had to fight to win his Jackson Jaguars’ players’ respect back.

And it still may not be fully back because Trevor Lawrence recently called out some coaching mistakes and he’s just a rookie so that’s not a good sign.

If his time in the NFL is coming to an end (it truly seems like a matter of when not if), Meyer could be back on the market for a team like Oregon to go out and scoop him up.

Is this realistic, though?

Oregon football and Urban Meyer would be an odd couple

I know what some defenders of the Meyer to Oregon rumors would be saying right now: Urban coached at Utah and had a ton of respect, so why couldn’t he succeed at a bigger Pac-12 program?

I get it, Utah isn’t exactly a perfect fit for Meyer anymore since Kyle Whittingham has changed the culture and Urban has molded into a household name. He’s not the same coach as he was back in 2003-04 when he was at Utah so if he were to go back now, it would be the wrong fit.

Meyer is just not a Pac-12 coach. That’s not necessarily a knock on the conference, but he’s a coach who loves the bright lights, and while Oregon or USC have the best chance to give him that in the Pac-12, it’s still not the same as it would be at Florida, Ohio State, or the NFL.

Plus, it would cost a ton to get Urban to consider the Ducks. He probably wants to retire in a state like Florida instead of moving to the Pacific Northwest.

I just don’t see this as a realistic option for either side. The fit just isn’t right.