Urban Meyer addresses Texas A&M coaching search, names he would look at
Texas A&M has an important hire to make after firing head football coach Jimbo Fisher this past weekend. Former Florida and Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer joined On3’s Tim May recently and shared his thoughts on the Texas A&M job and coaching search.
Meyer, who has won three national championships, believes the Texas A&M job is one of the best in the country, despite the Aggies not having much recent success.
“I don’t get that one,” Meyer said of the program’s struggles. “You know, whenever you take a job or research a job, the No. 1 thing you look at, by far, is recruiting base. I think Texas high school football is the best in the country. Of all the players we signed over all the years, we’ve never had a player from Texas not make it. Tough, rugged coaching. Usually really good families. I love Texas high school football. I think it’s the very best in the country.”
Outside of recruiting, Texas A&M also has plenty of other advantages.
The school has a ton of money, as shown by the fact that Jimbo Fisher is receiving a record buyout of more than $77 million. Meyer added that he has heard good things about the program from other coaches, too.
“You look at the resources and support – there’s none better. So I don’t understand that. I don’t understand,” Meyer said. “A good friend of mine – Steve Addazio – is the o-line coach there. He loves it there. He said, ‘This is a top-5 job.’ And he’s been at Florida with me. So I don’t get it. They’ve gotta get the right guy in there, I guess. … Jimbo Fisher won a national championship. They’ve had good coaches, but if you say, ‘What’s the problem?’ I have no idea.”
Finally, Urban Meyer spoke about what Texas A&M should look for in its next head coach.
Meyer feels that it’s hard to predict what kind of coach will be successful, but he does have a few names he believes would do well in College Station.
“There’s no secret sauce for that. … Like Kalen DeBoer, think about that guy. He was at Indiana and then he goes to Fresno [and now Washington] and he’s an excellent coach. You look at [Lance] Leipold and the coach at Kansas State – [Chris] Klieman and Leipold, I think those are the two best coaches in the country in the same state in Kansas,” Meyer said. “So there’s no secret sauce to that.”
Meyer not only provided his opinion on how good of a job Texas A&M is and who the Aggies should look at, but he also shared what he would look for in a head coach, if he was the Texas A&M AD.
To Meyer, it’s simple.
“If I was hiring a coach, there’s two things I’d look at is what kind of culture does he develop and how does he recruit,” Meyer said. “Other than that, when you start talking about what style of offense, those [things] are all important. But culture, what’s his background, what kind of culture is it. And then second of all, can that person recruit. Because you better go get players. And other than that, make sure you can hire a great staff.
“There’s no secret sauce. There’s people you’d say, ‘This is a can’t miss.’ And they miss. I mean how does Scott Frost go to Nebraska, and we all thought, ‘That’s done, they’re going to bring that place back.’ And it didn’t happen.”