Urban Meyer’s impact at Ohio State is beyond wins and championships. Sure, he snagged a national championship, piled up Big Ten titles, and owned Michigan for seven straight years. But what really sets him apart? How he went the extra mile for his players, tackling the dark side of a potential addiction head-on. And in a sport where athletes are often one injury away from a prescription bottle, that’s a big deal…

The story surfaced after Alabama’s former strength coach Scott Cochran shared his personal struggles. Migraines led to Vicodin, then OxyContin, and before Cochran knew it, the pills took over—at one point, the coach was downing 20 to 25 pills a day, as per ESPN. It was a slippery slope, and Meyer saw it happening way too close to home.

On the “Triple Option” podcast on March 22, Urban Meyer responded to Cochran’s story. He revealed a previously unknown chapter of his time at Ohio State: His fight against addiction within the program. He wasn’t about to let painkillers take over a team he built with his blood, sweat and tears. This stance wasn’t arbitrary but stemmed from his own family’s experiences, particularly surrounding his daughter’s health condition.

He explained, “My daughter…This is years ago. One day she had ankle surgery, and I get home and I started hearing it…Oxy and what’s the other one, Vicodin?…I just didn’t hear much about it, and then it became like an everyday [thing] you know? And so, I remember I came home, and I asked Shelley…’You know what?’…They gave her a bottle of 40 pills…I grabbed those pills. I was like, ‘Wait a minute.'” This incident served as the coach’s one of many run ins with what could’ve been an uncontrollable situation soon. Unfortunately, he faced the same situation not long after…

Athletes are no strangers to painkillers, often due to accumulated injuries. However, when Meyer discovered excessive prescription refills within Ohio State, he couldn’t just stay still “I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus…I went into Ohio State, and I went to our training staff…I said, ‘So when our guys have surgery, what happens?’ And they get these…back then it said two refills. So you’re getting this massive…I’m saying 40 [pills]. It might have been 30.” 

“I’m not a doctor, but I jumped right in the middle of that, and I said, ‘We are not doing that. We’re not. If they want to keep coming to you, give them a couple of times’,” he added. What’s more? Despite a potential pushback, Meyer was even ready to risk his job for his players’ health. “And I remember someone saying, ‘You can’t do that because of…privacy or HIPAA or whatever…’I said, ‘No, no. Fire me then. We’re doing it. We are not having these massive bottles with refills.'”

“So I remember, we stopped it at Ohio. I know it’s stopped now. I think it is,” Meyer concluded.

Urban Meyer’s own struggles against addiction

Meyer’s successful Ohio State tenure came after a turbulent period at Florida. After leading the Gators to a national championship in 2006, he believed coaching would always be enjoyable. “Probably the most incorrect statement to come out of a human being’s mouth,” he later admitted. Winning became the only expectation, consuming him.

Following Florida’s 2009 national championship, he isolated himself, messaging recruits. As per a 2023 confession, “Anything less than winning a national title and you’re a failure.” The pressure took a toll. “Nothing was good enough in ‘09. We would win a game by 14 points and I’d be so angry at our team because I thought we should’ve beat them by 30 points.” He lost weight, developed anxiety, and struggled with insomnia. “I started to lose weight, and I became addicted to Ambien. I couldn’t sleep, so I’d take an Ambien, and then that was not working. So it got to the point where I’d drink two Ambien and drink a beer on top of it just to get four hours of sleep.”

“I’d have those moments where I would just sit there and I’d start sweating, shaking, like, a panic attack. Like, ‘Something’s going on here. We’re not ready, we’re not ready,” he added.

Meyer ultimately left the Gators after an 8-5 season in 2010. He returned to coaching at Ohio State in 2012. And those personal struggles made his fight against addiction in his program more than just a coaching decision; it was a mission.