Fox announced Friday that Urban Meyer was rejoining “Big Noon Kickoff,” confirming reports from April about the ex-Jacksonville Jaguars and college football coach returning to television.
Meyer is an original member of the cast that will reunite in its third season. Former Oklahoma Sooners coach Bob Stoops replaced Meyer when he took the Jaguars job ahead of the 2021 season, and Meyer will now slot back into that chair alongside host Rob Stone and fellow analysts Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn and Reggie Bush.
Jacksonville hired Meyer away from the gig under the guise of installing a steady hand atop the organization. Instead, the Jaguars went 2-11 and, even worse, was riddled by a series of scandals – the video of him with a woman who was not his wife at an Ohio bar after he did not fly home with the team – and embarrassments in his short tenure. He was fired before Week 15.
Meyer, a three-time national champion (twice with the Florida Gators, once with Ohio State), departed the college ranks after the 2018 season. Months earlier, the university suspended him three games following an investigation into the domestic abuse of a former assistant, Zack Smith.
Meyer found success as an analyst who could break down film in a digestible way for the viewer. That skill, Fox decided, was worth bringing him back.
Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.
