Ask Farrell: Is Meyer inching toward USC with L.A.-based TV show?
In an attempt to compete with ESPN’s College GameDay, Fox is launching a college football pregame show that will feature Urban Meyer, Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Brady Quinn.
The show is expected to be hosted in Los Angeles. Yep, Meyer should be spending a lot more time in Southern California, right down the road from where Clay Helton will be coaching for his job this season with the USC Trojans.
For those who don’t live in the sunny confines of Southern California, the ongoing rumor for weeks has been that if the USC job opens that the powers-that-be could target Meyer. Those are completely unsubstantiated rumors, but it would make sense - great location, recruiting would be a cakewalk and the pressures in the Pac-12 are far from that at Ohio State and Florida. Meyer won 90 percent of his game with the Buckeyes. Imagine what he could do in the Pac-12.
Meyer has done this before. After leaving Florida citing health reasons, he spent some time at ESPN before going to Ohio State. And now he’s left Ohio State citing health reasons, and will be back on TV with the Fox pregame show.
After his stint in Columbus, though, Meyer seemed to be done with coaching and took a job as an assistant athletic director at Ohio State. There were times this past season that headache pain overtook Meyer on the sidelines and he admitted to having a congenital arachnoid cyst on his brain that was causing issues again.
Meyer is only 54 years old. His career winning percentage is better than that of Nick Saban. He’s won national titles. He went an amazing 83-9 at Ohio State and lost only four Big Ten games in seven years.
FARRELL'S TAKE
We ask Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell if he thinks Meyer will stay out of college coaching forever or if taking this Fox job in Los Angeles is a sign that he could be testing the waters to see if he’d be interested in the USC position if it opens after this season?
“I may be naive but I really think Meyer is done with coaching and the LA Fox pre-game show is a bit of a reach for those who think he’s coming back.
"Will USC target him? Yes. Why wouldn’t they? But after retiring twice now for apparent health reasons, I just can’t see him coming back. It would hurt his legacy, which is a great one right now. There’s no guarantee he’d be as successful at USC as he’s been at Florida and Ohio State and right now he’s going out on top and that should be important to him.
"The USC rumors will continue and get very strong if Helton is fired but I think it’s all smoke.”
