"Don't bother me": When Lou Holtz recalled dismissing Urban Meyer initially before coming around

Lou Holtz had Urban Meyer on his podcast “The Lou Holtz Show” in May 2024 and he had the opportunity to disclose how Meyer became part of his staff at Notre Dame. Meyer was the Fighting Irish’s wide receiver coach from 1996 to 2000, his last assistant coaching job.

In his narration, Holtz met Meyer through his son Skip. With Skip heading out of his offensive coordinator role at Notre Dame, he asked his father to hire Meyer as his replacement. While the father outrightly rejected the idea, Skip set the two up for lunch in Chicago.

“I've got to bring people up to date on how Urban ended up on my staff,” Holtz said (Timestamp 4:00). "Skip was on my staff. He coached at Colorado State under Earl Bruce and was going to become head coach of Connecticut.”

“We're at a convention. I want to say it's in Chicago, and he said ‘Dad, you need to talk to Urban Meyer, he replaced me at Colorado State.’ I said ‘I don't need to talk to anybody. I know who I'm going to hire. I know what I'm going to do. Don't bother me.”

“He finally said to me ‘Okay, have lunch with me tomorrow.’ I said ‘If we have it early enough, cause I'm leaving.’ We go to lunch the next day, [and] he said ‘Dad I want you to meet Urban Meyer.’ And that's when I met Urban Meyer and ... ended up hiring him. One of the best hires I've ever made.”

How the meeting between Lou Holtz and Urban Meyer went

Urban Meyer and Skip Holtz came against each other when Florida faced South Florida early in the 2010 season. Ahead of the game, Meyer detailed what occurred in his 1995 meeting with Lou Holtz after Skip had set them up. It was a turning point in his career.

“I was real young,'' Meyer said. “Nervous is probably an inappropriate word. It's not strong enough. I was kind of hoping [Skip] would stay. I remember [former Wisconsin coach] Barry Alvarez was sitting there, and Coach Holtz."

“We had just had a great year at Colorado State, and Coach Holtz asked me about some of the things we do on offense, so I grab some napkins and started drawing a lot of the plays right on the napkins there.''

Whatever those plays entailed, they left a strong impression on Lou Holtz. Shortly after, Meyer made his way to South Bend, stepping into a more prominent role as Notre Dame's receivers coach. It helped him build his profile in the landscape while earning him his first head coaching job.