Urban Meyer’s Health: What’s Wrong With Ohio State Coach?

urban meyer health headaches

Getty Urban Meyer has been battling sever headaches.

Urban Meyer’s health challenges have become more apparent as the Ohio State coach appears to be in pain, at times, during games. During an October press conference, Meyer noted that he suffers headaches because of a cyst on his brain per Yahoo Sports. According to ESPN, Meyer was first diagnosed with the condition in 1998, but it has gotten worse in recent years.

Meyer’s physician Dr. Andrew Thomas released a statement on some of the coach’s health challenges.

The past four years, we’ve been working closely with Coach Meyer to monitor and manage the symptoms that have risen from his enlarged congenital arachnoid cyst. This includes aggressive headaches, which have particularly flared up the past two years.

The video below shows Meyer in pain on the sideline during Ohio State’s matchup with Maryland.

Meyer’s stress level undoubtedly went up since the Zach Smith investigation. While the report did not specify health conditions, it did note Meyer was on medicine that could impair his memory. Here’s how CBS Sports described the report.

Investigators learned that Meyer “has sometimes had significant memory issues in other situations where he had prior extensive knowledge of events. He has also periodically taken medicine that can negatively impair his memory, concentration and focused.” They accepted that as a legitimate reason for him not remembering past events, such as the details of the 2015 incident.


Meyer Said He Plans on Coaching Ohio State in 2019

There has been some speculation that Meyer’s health could cause the coach to retire, but Meyer denied this earlier this season. While Meyer has noted he plans on coaching next season, he did not provide an elaborate response.

“I plan on coaching,” Meyer told Sports Illustrated.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith noted he has worked with Meyer to put a plan in place to help him balance his work responsibilities while also being cognizant of his health condition.

“He and I have talked about his health,” Smith said per Buckeye Extra. “He’s shared with me that he wants to continue coaching. He has a management plan for what he’s dealing with. I think he’s done exceptionally well with it. I go by his lead 100 percent. We have unbelievable medical support at the university. So I don’t have the concerns everyone else seems to be raising.”

During a 2016 interview with Bleacher Report, Meyer opened up about some of his health issues during his time as the head coach at Florida. Meyer was taking sleeping pills such as Ambien to allow him to rest at night.

He weaned himself off the Ambien. That took a full six months. From two pills a night to one, then from one to a half of one, until, finally, he stopped needing them…The only help Urban took was Ambien for his sleep. One a night at first, and then two, washing them down with beer. “Every night,” Shelley says. “And it’s highly addictive. He couldn’t sleep without it.”

Even with it, he didn’t sleep much—maybe four hours a night—and it was a feverish, desperate sort of sleep, his mind incapable of stopping its search for problems to worry over and try to solve. He often woke up to find that, sometime in the night, he had filled dozens of pages with football plays and motivational speeches. He remembered writing none of it.

READ NEXT: Urban Meyer’s Kids: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know