Urban Meyer ranks Florida as the top coaching job available

The college football landscape has played out like the Wild, Wild West this season, as high-profile jobs across the sport have come open following surprising firings. Just a few of these open head coaching jobs include Florida, Penn State, Arkansas and Virginia Tech.

While discussing which job is the best available, College Football Hall of Famer Urban Meyer revealed that he believes the Florida opening is the best available. Meyer coached at Florida from 2005-2010, leading the Gators to National Championship wins in 2006 and 2008.

“It’s not even close and I think it’s Florida,” Meyer said on ‘The Triple Option‘ podcast. “I had that same decision to make back in 2004 and I’m Irish Catholic, Notre Dame — I still love Notre Dame) — and not many people know this story, but I was offered both jobs. Many thought I was going to go to South Bend, but Florida‘s a better job. Florida‘s a better job because it’s recruiting. It’s also at the time of life where I had young kids at home.”

“This is why I’m saying it’s ahead of Penn State, because when you recruit at Notre Dame or Penn State, you’re on a plane half the time. When you’re at Notre Dame, because I did it as an assistant coach, you’re recruiting Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Arizona, Dallas, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Detroit and Chicago. At Florida, you’re a 45-minute flight from your recruiting base. I had two planes and they said I could be home at night. I said this is a no-brainer.”

Stricklin needs to make slam dunk hire following Napier disaster

Florida parted ways with head coach Billy Napier after he led the program to a 22-23 record across four seasons. He is now owed a $20.95 million buyout, which the program will honor. Athletic Director Scott Stricklin will be looking to finally make the correct move at head coach, as no Florida head coach has lasted four full seasons at the helm since Meyer resigned following the 2010 season.

“We’re going to honor the contract as it’s written,” Stricklin said earlier this week. “It’s not insignificant,” Stricklin said. “The market kind of dictates that. We’re blessed that we have tremendous resources, but it’s not unlimited. We’ll have to manage that, and we will. And the resources are not going to be a reason why we don’t make the right decision going forward here.”

With these high-profile jobs, the coaching carousel is set to be unpredictable this offseason. As coaches jump across conferences and programs, other head coaching vacancies will eventually open as well. If you thought the coaching changes were crazy already, you haven’t seen anything yet.