{"id":734548,"date":"2026-02-07T00:32:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734548\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T00:32:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:32:01","slug":"mike-vrabels-ohio-state-interview-with-urban-meyer-was-worst-thing-hed-ever-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734548\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Vrabel\u2019s Ohio State Interview With Urban Meyer Was \u2018Worst Thing\u2019 He\u2019d Ever Done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long before he was a two-time NFL Coach of the Year, New England\u2019s Mike Vrabel<\/a> was coaching linebackers at his alma mater, Ohio State<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He joined interim-coach Luke Fickell\u2019s staff upon retiring from playing in the NFL and nearly didn\u2019t make it to a second season because of an interview with Urban Meyer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Vrabel\u2019s first season of wearing a headset rather than a helmet wrapped up, Meyer was named Ohio State\u2019s new head coach. First order of business for Meyer was to retain or dismiss coaches from Fickell\u2019s staff. Vrabel, along with the other coaches, was asked to interview with Meyer.<\/p>\n

That was a whole new world for Vrabel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never interviewed (before),\u201d Vrabel recounted to Meyer on The Triple Option podcast that Urban hosts with Rob Stone and Mark Ingram. \u201cI had coached for a year and basically what I did is I coached the linebackers, but I really just made sure they went to class or showed up to practice on time because Luke (Fickell) coached the linebackers and was the head coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fickell and Vrabel were long-time friends and former roommates from their time spent playing together along the Ohio State defensive line. No interview was required for Vrabel to join friend\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst interview, \u2026 in front of the whole staff that (Urban Meyer) had just hired, I get up there,\u201d a smirking Vrabel remembered. \u201cI draw this little circle, this little T. Talking about three-technique. And I mean, I just p***ed down my leg. I had no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meyer recognized Vrabel\u2019s untimely fumble, but didn\u2019t hold it against the three-time Super Bowl champion.<\/p>\n

Vrabel remembers Meyer\u2019s immediate comment. \u201cThat is the worst thing I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Vrabel said of Meyer\u2019s response. \u201cI want you to go home and come back at six in the morning.\u201d From there, Vrabel went home and told his wife he didn\u2019t think he\u2019d be coaching much longer and called the interview \u201cthe worst thing I\u2019ve ever done in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than accept defeat, Vrabel, as he\u2019s so often done in his playing and coaching careers, went back to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went back to the office, stayed there all night. Had a teaching progression. Figured out what I wanted to do and how I wanted to explain it,\u201d Vrabel continued. \u201c(The second interview) did a little better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot better,\u201d Meyer confirmed.<\/p>\n

Following three years at Ohio State \u2014 the last two under Meyer \u2014 Vrabel moved to the NFL. After four years with the Texans, he was hired by the Titans where he was head coach for six seasons. Then it was onto Cleveland as a coaching consultant for a year before landing in New England where he\u2019ll lead the Patriots against Seattle in Sunday\u2019s Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

If all goes according to plan, his next interview will take place while holding a Lombardi trophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long before he was a two-time NFL Coach of the Year, New England\u2019s Mike Vrabel was coaching linebackers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[7,6,526,394,2411,527],"class_list":["post-734548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennessee-titans","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-tennessee","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-tennesseetitans","tag-titans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116026536669802480","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}