If you’ve seen Untold: Swamp Kings — the new four-part Netflix docuseries that tells the story of how the University of Florida’s football team rose up to win two national championships in 2006 and 2008 — you may be wondering what happened to the Gators’ former coach, Urban Meyer.
Much has been written about the man who had a take-no-prisoners attitude on the football field and recruited top players like quarterback Tim Tebow and linebacker Brandon Spikes to restore the Gators back to their former glory.
But what happened to Meyer after he left his job as head coach of the University of Florida football team?
We’ve got answers, and some of them were never mentioned in Untold: Swamp Kings.
What Happened to Urban Meyer and Where Is He Now?
After the Gators’ disappointing loss at the SEC Championship game against Alabama in 2009, Meyer explains in the fourth and final episode of Untold: Swamp Kings that he realized he had let his mental and physical health deteriorate due to the stress of trying to have a perfect season and win a third National Championship following 2006 and 2008.
“I just felt like something was wrong with me. I felt the dynasty slipping from our hands right there. I feel all this coming on me, ’cause it’s my team. Felt like a failure,” Meyer says in the episode.
“I was in a deep depression. I couldn’t get out of bed. I was curled up. No energy. No desire. I thought I was going to die. That’s when I started thinking, ‘I’m done.’”
He stepped down as head coach of the Gators after five seasons. But two months later, he changed his mind and decided to come back for the 2010 season. However, at the end of that season, Meyer decided to step down for good.
Also Read: Untold: Swamp Kings: Where Is Tim Tebow Now?
Following that departure, he became a college football commentator and analyst for ESPN.
The Ohio State Incident
But in 2011, Meyer decided to move to Ohio to become the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes. He remained with the Buckeyes until 2018, the year he was placed on administrative leave after Buckeyes wide receiver coach Zach Smith was fired as a result of domestic violence accusations from his ex-wife, Courtney Smith.
Courtney Smith produced text messages between herself and Meyer’s wife, Shelley Meyer, that suggest Urban Meyer knew about the allegations against Smith and failed to report them to the university, according to the Associated Press.
Meyers has apologized for the incident.
“I appreciate the opportunity to learn from a mistake,” he said at a press conference in 2018, according to USA Today. “There were red flags (with Zach Smith). I wish I did a better job knowing things and finding out things. I wish people told me more things. . . . I wish I had known more. I want to apologize to the Buckeye Nation. I followed my heart and not my head. … At each juncture I gave Zach the benefit of the doubt.”
As for Smith, he agreed to a three-year civil protective order filed by his ex-wife, but the former coach was found guilty of violating the order in 2019, according to Sports Illustrated. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail but only had to serve 20 days after a suspended sentence, according to Eleven Warriors.
Meyer returned to coaching after his three-game suspension, but he ultimately stepped down from his head coaching job at Ohio State at the end of the 2018 season, according to SI.
He then took time off until he accepted his first NFL coaching job for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021. During the preseason, he briefly gave former University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow a chance to reignite his stalled NFL career as a tight end with the Jaguars, but ended up cutting Tebow from the team shortly after.
Meyers’ own career with the Jaguars was also cut short before the season finished. In December 2021, he was fired from his coaching position as a result of former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo accusing Meyer of kicking him repeatedly during preseason warmups, according to CBS.
It now appears that Meyer has retired from coaching permanently. In April 2023, he told the Columbia Dispatch (via CBS) that “the book is closed” on his coaching career. “It’s going to be TV and grandfather,” he added.
Meyer joined FOX Sports as an analyst before the 2019 season on its Big Noon Kickoff show. He and his wife Shelley also started the Urban and Shelley Meyer Fund for Cancer Research at Ohio State.
The couple has three children: Nicole, Gisela, and Nathan, and two grandsons, Troy and Gray.
All four episodes of Untold: Swamp Kings are now streaming on Netflix.
Main Image: Former Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer pictured Untold: Swamp Kings courtesy of Netflix
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