"First and foremost is to earn trust" - When Urban Meyer revealed how he recruits 'complete strangers' from high school

Retired coach Urban Meyer had a glittering career during which he won three national titles with the Florida Gators and the Ohio State Buckeyes. Meyer was renowned for his recruitment nous, which allowed him to build talented teams that contended for the biggest prizes in college football.

During a 2019 segment of the "School of Greatness" episode, the passionate Meyer was asked about how he convinced recruits, who are "complete strangers," to buy into his vision as a coach.

"I used to live by this quote of my own definition of leadership and it used to be, 'Set a standard and demand that all live up to that standard,'" Meyer said (4:30). "And then you start to think of how shallow it is and that has nothing to do with leadership.

"There was much more to it than just set a standard. I teach our players, leadership, and I teach our coaches non-stop that the first job of a leader first and foremost is to earn trust.

"And you can only push and lead a person as far as he can trust you. The first thing that I do, and I've done this for a while with the best group of coaches, is to earn their trust. Because they understand that we care deeply about them.

"I didn't say it was gonna be warm and fuzzy but we cared deeply about them. Once those players realize that you care deeply about them, now you can really expound on that definition of leadership."

Meyer added that the important part of the process of "earning trust" starts with getting to know the players and their families. It also involves knowing what their dreams are after football.

Why Urban Meyer retired

Despite his successful career, Urban Meyer retired four times during his career, with the latest lasting longer than usual. The first time he retired was in 2009 as coach of the Florida Gators before reversing his decision and finishing the season.

He then retired in 2011 before going back on his decision in 2014 when he took the Ohio State job. He retired after the 2018 Rose Bowl but was tempted back as coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021 before retiring again.

During a 2018 segment of "First Take," Urban Meyer's former star player, Tim Tebow, revealed why the former coach retired as a football coach, paving the way for national championship-winning coach Ryan Day to take over.

"I wasn't that surprised," Tebow said. "I talked to him (Urban Meyer) a lot throughout the way and when the sickness started getting worse, we talked about it a lot and it was even something that we prayed about and encouraged him with and he got a lot of people's opinions.

"But, family was so important to him and he wanted to not make this worse by the stress of the job and some people said, 'Why don't you just take it easy and not coach so hard and not be as intense.' Well, that's not coach, that's not him.

"If he's in, it's all the way, so for him, if he believes that was the right thing, I believe that was the right thing for him. We talked a couple of hours two days ago about it and he's doing the right thing for his family."

Since his final retirement from football, Urban Meyer has maintained a presence in the media and currently hosts the "Triple Option" podcast, where he speaks about news in both college football and the NFL.