Urban Meyer's Florida legacy gets a permanent home in The Swamp

Urban Meyer's Florida legacy gets a permanent home in The Swamp this Saturday night.

The 62-year-old former head coach will be inducted into the Gators Football Ring of Honor.

The ceremony happens at the end of the first quarter when No. 24 Florida (5-3, 3-3 SEC) hosts Oklahoma (4-4, 2-3) at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Meyer becomes only the seventh man to have his name unveiled on signage around the top of the stadium.

He joins Steve Spurrier, Jack Youngblood, Wilbur Marshall, Emmitt Smith, Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow.

Meyer led Florida to national championships in 2006 and 2008 during six seasons from 2005 to 2010.

He coached some of the greatest players in program history.

He led the Gators to two Southeastern Conference Championship Game victories.

When facing Florida's top rivals — Tennessee, Georgia and Florida State — he went 16-2.

"You're older and look back and say, 'Wow, we really put our stamp on college football for those years,'" Meyer said.

"Two championships in three years, three 13-win seasons. Pretty incredible."

The induction process began quietly last October.

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin and his wife met Meyer and his wife Shelley for lunch in Sarasota.

Stricklin delivered the news that Meyer was headed for the Ring of Honor.

The architect of three national titles and seven conference titles was speechless.

Shelley was close to tears.

"Football has been a part of my life as long as I can remember," Meyer told the Orlando Sentinel.

"When they came to see us, Shelly actually got emotional. And then, I was like … it's a surreal moment that's actually going to happen."

Meyer's sudden retirement in 2010 left complicated feelings about the end of his Florida tenure.

He went on to coach seven successful seasons at Ohio State from 2012 to 2018.

He won another national championship and three Big Ten titles with the Buckeyes.

A brief and tumultuous stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars followed in 2021.

Now, more than 15 years after leaving Gainesville, Meyer is being welcomed back into the program's most exclusive fraternity.

During the induction, his name will be unveiled on an approximately 18-foot-wide, 5-foot-high display atop the stadium's north end zone.

Meyer has remained a consistent presence around the Florida program over the past year.

He helped Stricklin evaluate current head coach Jon Sumrall during the coaching search.

Sumrall, 44, quickly developed a connection with Meyer.

Their competitive philosophy and driven approach mirror each other.

Along with Spurrier and Wuerffel, Meyer attended Sumrall's introductory press conference.

Since then, he has offered mentorship and support as Sumrall navigates his first season in Gainesville.

"I get texts from him almost weekly," Sumrall said this week.

"He's always very encouraging. He's always."

Players also feel the weight of the moment.

"I feel like this game will kind of be like devoted to him in a way," defensive tackle Brendan Bett said.

"Like, 'Hey, let's go put it on for Coach Meyer.'"

Meyer expects to be flooded by memories during the ceremony.

One story he has told many times involves his first exposure to The Swamp.

He was an assistant at Notre Dame under Lou Holtz in the late 1990s.

He was driving along Interstate 75 on a recruiting trip and saw signs announcing the Gainesville exits.

On a whim, he pulled off the highway, drove to the UF campus and called his wife, Shelley.

"I had a little time, parked the car, walked into The Swamp," he said.

"Surprisingly, it was open. It was a January day in South Bend."

Shelley wanted to know what it was like to be in the place they had seen many times on TV.

"I really didn't know much about Florida until the Steve Spurrier era, and I was a young coach watching the transformation in which Coach Spurrier and the Gators transformed college football," Meyer said.

"And like a lot of young coaches at the time, I said, 'Man, I want to be there.' I told her, 'It's a beautiful sunny day.'"

"So it's surreal that I had the opportunity, and now it's going to be forever."

The Ring of Honor induction caps a complicated legacy.