Sports
Source: Urban Meyer close to being new Ohio State football coach
By: Grant Burkhardt
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Ohio State football may have a new head coach for 2012-13, and it's a familiar name to Buckeye fans.
Joe Inderhees, of NBC Bay Area in San Jose, Cali., is reporting online that Urban Meyer, former head football coach at the University of Florida, is close to reaching a deal that would make him the next Ohio State head football coach.
Inderhees (@jinde) tweeted late Thursday night: "Sources: urban meyer to #ohiostate. Deal in process."
Meyer's Gator teams won two BCS National Championships (2006, 2008) in his six seasons in Gainesville, and beat Ohio State 41-14 in the title game after the 2006 season.
Meyer, who stepped down from his position at UF because of lingering heart and health problems, is 104-23 (7-1 in bowl games) in his coaching career, and is rumored to have recently purchased property in the Columbus area.
Meyer's first collegiate head coaching job came at Bowling Green State University in 2001, where his first-year Falcon team finished 8-3 and Meyer was named Mid-American Conference "Coach of the Year." In year two at BGSU, Meyer's team finished 9-3 and the head coach left the MAC for the University of Utah.
Meyer is currently a college football studio analyst and color commentator at ESPN.
Luke Fickell is the interim head coach of the Buckeyes, and his 2011 team is 6-4 with a 3-3 record in the Big Ten.
Fickell replaced former coach Jim Tressel, who was fired after his program allegedly committed major NCAA violations.
@BobcatShowcase
Updated, November 18 – 8:05 p.m.