Amidst swirling rumors as to what the future of Penn State football holds, former Florida head coach Urban Meyer issued a statement regarding his coaching career.
“I am very happy with my role at ESPN,” Meyer said in a statement. “I have no plans to return to coaching at this time.”
Meyer has been rumored as a potential replacement for former Nittany Lions head coach Joe Paterno for some time and is serving as the color analyst for ESPN’s broadcast of the Penn State vs. Nebraska game this Saturday at noon.
Rumblings that Meyer purchased a home in the Boalsburg area earlier this week proved to be at least somewhat untrue. Centre County recorder of deeds Joe Davidson said Monday that no one with the last name “Meyer” had purchased a home in the county since Jan. 1, 2011.
Davidson was unavailable for comment Thursday evening.
However, homes do not necessarily have to be purchased under the name of the future resident.
In his coaching career, Meyer won two national championships and two SEC championships as the head coach of the Gators in 2006 and 2008 and had been a coach at the Division I level for 24 years.
The former defensive back at Cincinnati from 1983-86 began his coaching career as a tight ends coach for Ohio State in 1986. He eventually coached the Buckeyes’ wide receivers before moving to Illinois in 1988-89.
He coached wide receivers at Colorado State from 1990-95 and at Notre Dame from 1996-2000 before landing his first head-coaching gig with Bowling Green in 2001.
He coached the Falcons until 2002 before coaching Utah to two straight MWC championships from 2003-04. He later ended up at Florida from 2005-10.
Back in May, when Meyer was thought to be one of the men who could replace the departed Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel, he issued a similar statement detailing his desires to remain with the sports network.
“I am committed to ESPN and will not pursue any coaching opportunities this fall,” Meyer said on May 30. “I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the people at ESPN this spring and remain very excited about my role with the network this fall.”
Right now, former Lions defensive coordinator Tom Bradley is serving as the interim head coach of the team.
Although, he did mention in his press conference Tuesday morning that there were no discussions between he and acting athletic director Mark Sherburne regarding Bradley coaching beyond this season.
