Urban Meyer’s name still carries real weight in Gainesville, even if Sports Illustrated didn’t place him quite as high as plenty of Florida fans might expect.
SI recently rolled out its all-time college football coaching rankings, and Meyer landed at No. 10. That’s a strange spot for a coach who won two BCS national championships at Florida, went 65-15 overall with the Gators and posted a 36-12 mark in SEC play during his six seasons there.
There’s no argument at the top of the list, where Nick Saban checked in at No. 1.
But Meyer’s placement feels light for a coach whose résumé stretches well beyond one stop. He and Saban are the only coaches to win national championships with two different programs.
Meyer’s run at Florida helped define an era. His six seasons in Gainesville left a lasting imprint on the program, and that influence still shows up in the way the job is talked about today. When Jon Sumrall was hired by the Gators, he immediately lifted part of Meyer’s playbook, hoping to connect with his team the same way Meyer once did.
After leaving Florida in 2010, Meyer stepped away for a bit before taking over at Ohio State in 2012. By his third season there, he had already knocked off Saban’s Alabama in the College Football Playoff and finished the job with a national title. He went 83-9 overall with the Buckeyes and 54-4 in Big Ten play.
His success didn’t start in Columbus, either. Meyer was 17-6 in two years at Bowling Green and 22-2 in two years at Utah, which pushed his career record to 187-32.
The source material also points to his Utah run as one of his biggest accomplishments, noting that he took the Utes to the Fiesta Bowl in 2024, where they were undefeated and beat Pittsburgh 35-7. The point is clear: Meyer’s teams rarely stumbled, and his programs were almost always in position to win big.
That’s part of why the ranking raised eyebrows. Meyer may not have coached as long as some of the names ahead of him, but his impact was massive, and his teams always finished with winning records - something the source notes Saban cannot say.
As for Florida’s current direction, Sumrall has at least given the fan base reasons to pay attention. The Gators have suffered three blowout losses, but they also showed real punch in a blowout win over Ole Miss and an upset of Texas in Austin. That’s enough to make the first season look promising, especially after inheriting a team that went 4-8 last year.
The next step is resources. Sumrall will need better funding to keep pace with the SEC’s top programs, but if that support arrives, he has a chance to become one of the better coaches in Florida history. The question now is whether he can follow a path anything like Meyer’s - or maybe even Steve Spurrier’s.
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