Urban Meyer describes experience of golfing with President Donald Trump, Nick Saban, Governor Ron DeSantis

Former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer joined Nick Saban, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump for a golf game last week. During a recent episode of The Triple Option podcast, Meyer reflected on the day.

“What brought this on is just conversation about the positives and negatives of not just college football, college sports,” Meyer said. “The Governor of the State, our Governor, I live in the State of Florida, played baseball at Yale. The President of the United States has been very interested in sports and just listened.

“And, obviously, Coach Saban, already being the greatest coach of all time, has a hell of a golf swing, Mark. You know that. He doesn’t swing it like he used to, but he’s got a hell of a swing, and obviously a great person, so we had a great day.”

Meyer said the four men discussed the current state of college sports, along with NIL. Saban has previously met with Trump and discussed federal regulation of NIL in college athletics.

Meyer also has a previous connection to Trump. In 2020, Trump appointed Meyer to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. Despite the men’s political backgrounds, Meyer insisted that their conversations remained bipartisan.

“It was an awesome day. Awesome. Sense of humor and also real serious conversation,” Meyer said. “It’s interesting to get Coach Saban’s take, my take, who has been in it for so long. And then Governor DeSantis, I think he told me he was the first governor that signed NIL, allowing that to happen, so he’s got his hands on a lot of stuff.

“This conversation is all bipartisan. It happens that one is a Republican president, one’s a very conservative governor of our state. Coach Saban and I were there as guests, and it was all about our thoughts on how to make this thing better.”

Meyer said he played well while also raving about Trump’s golf skills. The 79-year-old is an avid golfer and has received compliments on his game from others before, including 2024 U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau. Though Urban Meyer believes college football can be improved, he also emphasized what an excellent place the sport is in.

“It’s never been better, college football,” Meyer said. “… Television is up, viewership is up, national interest. The playoff has been a huge hit. There’s parity in the sport. However, there are some things behind the scenes that there are some alarms going off.”