BLOOMINGTON — Urban Meyer won three national titles as a head coach, two at Florida and one at Ohio State.
He twice led his teams to a top five finish after winning a championship — the Gators in 2009 and OSU in 2015 — but never repeated.
On Friday afternoon, Meyer reflected on the challenge of being defending national champs while previewing Indiana football’s season opener against North Texas. The Hoosiers are fresh off going 16-0 and winning the program’s first national title.
“In ’06 we won (at Florida), and ’07 was tough,” Meyer said. “The team was different, the staff was different. ’08, very similar, we had the whole team back, but it was just different. And then 2014 (at Ohio State), we had the majority of the team back as well, and it was much better, but still different.”
IU’s Curt Cignetti keeps sideline reporters on their toes. They wouldn’t want it any other way
The Hall of Fame coach spoke to reporters on the South Lawn in front of Memorial Stadium. He’s covering the game in his role as an analyst for Big Noon Kickoff, Fox’s weekly pregame show.
“Coach Cignetti’s going to deal with something that’s really uncharted waters for everybody in that team, locker room, university, how do you handle a team that just won the national title?” Meyer asked.
Georgia is the only team to accomplish the feat in the era of the College Football Playoff (2021-22) and Alabama is the only other program in the FBS to repeat (2011-12) over the last three decades.
The challenge transcends the college ranks, only eight NFL teams have defended their title. The 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers were the first MLB team to win consecutive champions in 25 years.
“I went and visited Joe Maddon, my friend, and the manager of the Cubs in 2017 the year after they won the World Series, and I remember sitting in his office, and he was fairly miserable,” Meyer said. “The year after is always really difficult.”
How Indiana football QB Josh Hoover found his way back to Bloomington
That doesn’t mean Meyer is counting IU out.
He expects Cignetti to get the most of TCU transfer quarterback Josh Hoover, a favorable early schedule that will allow them get all those new faces acclimated and one advantage that Meyer’s teams lacked — continuity on the coaching staff.
Indiana retained offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan and defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, while filling the only vacancy that opened up to coach quarterbacks with an assistant (Tino Sunseri) who previously held the job.
“I can’t believe they weren’t picked up as head coaches,” Meyer said of Shanahan and Haines. “The job they did was historical. The two sides of the ball were phenomenal. Yes, it’s tough (to repeat), but the one thing he’s got that not many teams have wanted to have is continuity of staff.”
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Why Urban Meyer believes Indiana football has key advantage in quest for repeat titles
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