Building a legacy: Meyer, Stoops are on the fast track to greatness

MIAMI — Urban Meyer was about 8 years old when he knew he wanted to be a football coach.

Bob Stoops is the son of a coach, so you might say coaching is in his genes.

Now, at relatively young ages, Meyer and Stoops have risen to the top of their profession. Their salaries top $3 million per year. Their teams have won more than 80 percent of their games.

They're both on the fast track to the Hall of Fame, and one will take another giant step in that direction Thursday night, when Stoops' Oklahoma Sooners and Meyer's Florida Gators play in the BCS national championship game.

The winning coach will have two national titles on his resume before he turns 50.

With so much success so soon — and no signs of slowing down — Meyer and Stoops could be racking up victories for decades to come.

They could even become this generation's Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden, the winningest coaches in major college history. At 82 and 79 respectively, they're each within 20 wins of 400 career victories.

Or maybe not.

"There will be no chance I'm doing this in my 70s or 80s," the 44-year-old Meyer said Wednesday in his final news conference before the championship game.

The 48-year-old Stoops laughed off the idea, too.

"I don't know if I'll make it to 60," he said.

Meyer is 82-17 (.828) in eight seasons as a head coach with Bowling Green, Utah and the Gators. He's 43-9 since taking over a Florida program in 2005 that had taken a downward turn after Steve Spurrier left.

When the Ol' Ball Coach surprisingly decided to try the NFL in 2002, Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley reached out to Stoops, the Gators' former defensive coordinator, to come back Gainesville.

Stoops had only been at Oklahoma for three seasons. Like Meyer later did with Florida, he had won a national title in his second season with the Sooners — restoring pride to a football program that had long been searching for a Barry Switzer replacement.

When the Gators came calling, the chance to follow Spurrier, a mentor and good friend, piqued Stoops' interest, but that was about it.

"I don't think he was ever close to taking the job," Foley said.

Foley ended up hiring Ron Zook and the Gators fell from their place at the top of the Southeastern Conference.

Zook was fired in 2004 and Florida hired Meyer away from Utah, where he had just led the Utes to an undefeated season using his spread offense.

Before he took the job, Meyer spoke to Stoops to get the scoop on Florida. The two weren't close, but both were from Ohio, in their 40s and married with three kids. Meyer figured Stoops would have a similar perspective.