Urban Meyer had his share of disputes with the Ohio State administration during his seven-year stint as the Buckeyes’ head coach.
And according to Meyer, one such dispute resulted in him threatening to leave Columbus — although it wasn’t the one you likely thought it was.
Over the weekend, the 3-time national champion head coach served as one of the speakers at an event for Life Surge, which describes itself as “a one-day, live and in-person experience where thousands of local Christians gather to be inspired, trained, and equipped to leave an impact on God’s Kingdom,” with attendees learning “why and how to create and multiply financial resources for Kingdom impact.” In a video obtained at the event by The Rooster’s D.J. Byrnes, Meyer can be seen detailing the hurdles he faced in trying to bring church services to his Ohio State program, despite the school being a public university.
“Every Sunday, right before our team meeting, we’re going to have church service because you take the whole week; players don’t have time to go run a church, so I’m gonna bring church to them,” Urban Meyer said, recalling his plans. “And so the school attorney comes over to me and said, ‘Coach, you can’t do that.’ And I said, ‘I can’t do what ?’ She says, ‘you can’t have the Bible study and you can’t have the church service.’
“And I said, ‘well, we’re gonna do it.’ She said, ‘well, you can’t. Separation of church and state. You can’t do that.’ And I said, ‘I’m really busy. We’re doing it.'”
The Fox college football analyst then recalled that the attorney got Gene Smith involved, with the longtime Ohio State athletic director sharing the same concerns that she did. The Ashtabula, Ohio, native said that he gave Smith an ultimatum, telling him, “Gene, we’re doing this. And if not, you gotta let me go.”
Smith, obviously, didn’t oblige. And the two sides ultimately reached a compromise to refer to such services as “reflection.”
“Stop telling the secrets, man,” former Ohio State wide receiver Roy Hall, who also spoke at the Columbus event, said to Meyer while laughing.
“In this day and age, you’re 18 to 21 years old. We take every second of their time. How do you not do that?” Meyer continued. “That’s more the question. “It’s instead of saying, ‘how do you do it?’ How do you not do that?”
While it’s always possible that Urban Meyer might have been embellishing the nature of his dispute with the university, we’ll have to take him at his word. And as such, we can only imagine what the reaction would have been had one of college football’s most prominent head coaches left one of its most storied programs over his desire to dance around the separation of church and state.
In addition to Meyer, ESPN College GameDay star Kirk Herbstreit and Tim Tebow were also featured speakers at the Columbus Life Surge event. A full recap can be found via The Rooster.