Urban Meyer’s run with Ohio State was nothing short of legendary. But what if we told you he was almost fired before he could even make an impact? Surely, the school wouldn’t have risked that and fired the head coach, but as Meyer recently recalled, it nearly came to that. The story centers around his faith, practicing that faith, and bringing it to his students.
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Firstly, let’s recap how much of an impact Urban had at Ohio State. From 2012 to 2018, he led them to a national championship victory in the first-ever college football playoff in 2014. He also won three Big Ten titles and ended his tenure with an 83-9 record. Perhaps the most important accomplishment, though, was going 7-0 against the Michigan Wolverines.
However, many may not know that none of that would’ve happened if the school hadn’t allowed him to host a Bible study session every Sunday with his players. Urban is a self-identified Catholic, and he holds his faith close to his heart. So, he came up with the idea to give his fellow religious players a chance to get their Bible studies in.
“The whole week, players don’t have time to go run a church. So I wanted to bring church to them,” Urban recently expressed at a convention. But there was an issue, as he remembered: “The school attorney comes over to me and says, ‘Coach, you can’t do that.’”
Then, Urban quickly learned about the separation of church and state, a key principle in the U.S. Constitution that states the government should not establish or favor any religion. This policy is also enforced in colleges.
But Urban was determined to hold the sessions. So much so that he was even willing to lose his job.
“I said, Gene, we’re doing this, and if not, you gotta let me go because I can’t do this,” Urban continued. “He’s like, we’re not, we’re good, and he said let’s go talk. So the compromise, we had to call it reflection, right?”
It’s surprising to hear that Urban was so passionate about his faith that he was willing to lose his job over it. But it goes to show how important he views the bible and his religion.
TRENDING: Legendary Urban Meyer says he threatened to LEAVE Ohio State if the school did not allow him to hold the football team’s Bible study sessions.
Urban: “If not, you got to let me go because I can’t do this” willing to lose his job.
(@rooster_ohio)pic.twitter.com/VFyJ5Lo6t5
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) May 12, 2025
All in all, it was a good compromise that Urban came up with. Rewording the sessions as a reflection period meant that anyone from any religion would’ve felt comfortable going as well. Even though it was under the guise of Catholic bible studies.
But was he really planning on quitting his job, or was this story a bit exaggerated? We tend to believe it’s the latter, given that Urban has quite a shady past when it comes to telling the truth. But who knows!
Additionally, that 2012 Ohio State team had Bradley Roby, Carlos Hyde, and Braxton Miller. They went 12-0. It’s hard to believe that Urban would risk that over something like bible studies.
