Former 5-star recruit BJ Johnson accuses $35 million worth Urban Meyer of pay-for-play-offer: "Asked me straight up no bullsh*t"

Former Texas wide receiver BJ Johnson has accused Urban Meyer of extending a pay-for-play offer to him while Meyer was wide receivers coach at Notre Dame. Johnson, who was a five-star recruit in high school, told the story about his encounter with Meyer on an episode of the "On Texas Football" podcast.

"Hell, Urban Meyer locked me in an office in my school, and no bullsh*t asked me straight up. He was like, 'BJ. How much?'" Johnson said. "And this was when he was at Notre Dame at the time. And, it caught me off guard because I just thought we (were) talking football. And he was like, 'Nah, how much?' So, it's been going on."

Meyer was the wide receivers coach for Notre Dame from 1996 to 2000. He went on to win three national championships as head coach at Florida and Ohio State and is now worth $35 million per Celebrity Net Worth.

As for Johnson, he did not go to Meyer's Notre Dame. Instead, he chose to play for Texas, where he had 2,389 receiving yards on 152 catches with 16 touchdowns from 2000 to 2003.

Before the arrival of NIL (Name, Image and likeness) in 2021, it was prohibited by the NCAA for student-athletes to earn from their athletic abilities. In extreme cases, like the one involving former USC Trojans star Reggie Bush, they have had to vacate records and even lose individual awards like the Heisman Trophy.

Urban Meyer criticized for lack of integrity by analyst

The controversial Urban Meyer has had a see-saw last few weeks. Before the accusations from BJ Johnson came to light, he appeared on the "Lou Holtz Show" and blasted the current state of college sports for NIL, calling it cheating.

"If Lou Holtz or Urban Meyer or Marvin Harrison Jr., or C.J. Stroud, they want to go use their name and help sell cars, help a business, that's great," Meyer said. "But to have a 17-year-old demand money for a visit, to pay these players a lot of money to go visit a charity for 20 minutes and they write you a check for $50,000, that's cheating. That's not what this is all about. I'm very disappointed in where it went."

During an appearance on "The Opening Kickoff," popular sports analyst Paul Finebaum spoke critically of the former Ohio State Buckeyes coach while comparing him to former Alabama coach Nick Saban.

" One coach has won seven national championships and has been exemplary in everything that he’s done and stood for,” Finebaum said, “He’s been someone who is a beacon for integrity.

"The other one is basically the worst of everything imaginable,” Finebaum said. “He has lied, he has misled, he has quit several different times to spend time with his family. I realize Urban Meyer has won three national championships, but, beyond that, it’s embarrassing for him to even be mentioned in the same sentence as Nick Saban.”

The college football world is still digesting the confession by BJ Jackson regarding Urban Meyer. But it's a new era of college sports with student-athletes being compensated for NIL, so it remains to be seen what the repercussions will be.