The height of Urban Meyer's seven-year tenure as Ohio State's head coach came more than 1,000 miles southwest of Columbus inside of Arlington's AT&T Stadium, where the Buckeyes beat Oregon to win the first-ever College Football Playoff championship.
But according to one sportsbook, the 3-time national champion may not have coached his final game inside of "Jerry's World."
Following the Dallas Cowboy's loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday and subsequent comments made by team owner Jerry Jones, many have begun to speculate about head coach Jason Garrett's job status. So much so, that online sportsbook BetOnline has released odds on who the Cowboys' head coach will be in the first week of the 2020 season, and at 3-1 odds, Meyer's name tops the list.
While being a 3-1 favorite hardly guarantees Meyer will be taking over America's Team, it's worth noting that the former Ohio State head coach admitted last month he would have had interest in the opening if Jones came calling.
"That’s New York Yankees, that’s the Dallas Cowboys. That’s the one," Meyer said of the Cowboys' during an appearance on Colin Cowherd's 'The Herd.' "Great city. They got Dak Prescott, Zeke Elliott. You got a loaded team. And I can’t speak for him obviously, I hate to even speculate because I don’t know him, that’s really not fair, but to me, that’s the one job in professional football that you say, ‘I got to go do that.’”
Asked specifically if he would have had interest in the job, Meyer replied: “Absolutely. Absolutely. That one? Yes."
Although it remains unclear whether or not Meyer's hypothetical interest in the Cowboys' job remains nearly a year after his departure from Ohio State, the same sportsbook seems to believe that the 55-year-old's retirement will be short-lived. Offering odds on if Meyer will be a head coach -- at either the NFL or college level -- in 2020, BetOnline has made him a -1000 favorite to return, with Meyer not returning receiving +500 odds.
(For the betting uninitiated, one would have to risk $1,000 to net a $100 profit on Meyer returning, with a successful $100 bet on him not returning netting $500.)
For what it's worth, such odds are typically created in order to generate attention for sportsbooks, which are often only willing to accept low limit bets on them. But while Meyer -- who now works as a TV analyst for Fox -- has insisted he remains happily retired from coaching, the current odds suggest otherwise.