COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Bellagio Resort & Casino played host to an all-star cast of history’s greatest football legends and the sport’s most promising student-athletes during Tuesday night’s 67th National Football Foundation (NFF) Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas.
 
More than 1,800 people attended, and countless more watched on ESPN+ as the star-studded 2025 NFF College Football Hall of Fame Class received college football’s ultimate honor. The NFF also honored 16 of the game’s top student-athletes, who collected postgraduate scholarships as members of the 2025 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class Presented by Fidelity Investments. More than 50 previous NFF Hall of Fame inductees returned, and 125 colleges and universities sent representatives to attend the fabled affair.

Urban Meyer, the third-winningest coach in Division I history who led Ohio State to a national championship, three Big Ten Conference titles and seven wins over Michigan during a seven-year tenure as head coach, was among the class of 22 inductees: 18 first-team All-America players and four standout coaches.

Meyer coached the final game of a coaching career that places him alongside legends on Jan. 1, 2019 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. His Buckeyes defeated Pac 12 champion Washington, 28-23, to cap a 13-1 campaign.

Meyer’s Ohio State Buckeyes were, for seven seasons, on top of the college football world. The team won the inaugural College Football Playoff national championship in 2014 and won Big Ten Conference titles in 2014, 2017 and 2018. His teams never finished worse than first in the Big Ten’s divisional standings, and his Buckeyes were dominant in Big Ten games with a best-ever 7-0 record vs. Michigan and a 54-4 overall record in Big Ten games, including an NCAA record 30 consecutive conference victories.

His Buckeye teams were 83-9 overall, including the sixth unbeaten/untied season in school history in 2012 (12-0), a record-tying 14 wins in 2014 and the two longest win streaks in school history: 24 and 23 games.

Meyer’s 17 seasons as a head coach featured a record of 187-32 that positions him with the third-highest winning percentage in college football history at .853, trailing only Hall of Fame coaches Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy.  

Off the field, Meyer’s development of players included “Real Life Wednesdays,” a series of speakers – CEOs, money managers, pro athletes, etc. – who addressed the team in life experiences and pursuits to ensure they were prepared for life after football.

Beyond football, Meyer has made a lasting impact through civic service, serving on the boards of the Veterans Golfers Association, Folds of Honor, and the Tim Tebow Foundation. He and his wife established the Urban and Shelley Meyer Fund for Cancer Research at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Meyer earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Cincinnati (1986), lettering one season (1984) with the Bearcats as a defensive back. While launching his coaching career as a graduate assistant with the Buckeyes, he earned his master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio State in 1988. Meyer’s coaching career also includes assistant positions at Illinois State, Colorado State and Notre Dame. He was the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021.

He is a member of the Utah Athletics Crimson Club Hall of Fame, the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame, and the Ashtabula County Football Hall of Fame. He currently serves as a host and analyst on FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff.

Ohio State Head Coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame (8)

Name – Years at Ohio State   Inducted

Urban Meyer – 2012-18        2025

Jim Tressel – 2001-10           2015

John Cooper – 1988-2000      2008

Earle Bruce – 1979-87           2002

Woody Hayes – 1951-78       1983

Francis Schmidt – 1934-40    1971

John Wilce – 1913-28           1954

Howard Jones – 1910            1951