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After four seasons as Tennessee State's head coach, Eddie George has left the Tigers to take over as the new head coach at Bowling Green University. The process moved swiftly—George reportedly interviewed for the position on Friday, was named a top candidate by ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Saturday, and was announced to have accepted the role on Sunday. By Monday, George was in Bowling Green for his introductory press conference.
Per George, Urban Meyer was instrumental in his interest in the position. He spoke with the former Bowling Green turned Ohio State coach on a drive back to Nashville from the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, he received a call from Urban Meyer about the opening at Bowling Green State University.
“I put the phone down and was like, ‘Oh boy,'” George said during the Monday press conference. “I was like, ‘What are you trying to say?'”
George appeared to have every intention to stay at Tennessee State, finishing the work he'd started in 2021 that resulted in a share of the OVC-Big South Championship and a birth in the FCS Playoffs. In a statement obtained by the Tennesseean, George detailed just this.
“There is never a good time for retirement or making a transition, moving on to a new coaching position. I had to really weigh my options and look at what I was walking away from and where I was going toward. There’s a lot of reasons why I made this decision,” George said. “My intentions were really to stay here at Tennessee State with hopes that things would definitely get better and so forth. And they will, eventually. But just not in this time frame. And I understand that.”
Though George had no plans to leave Tennessee State, his work with the team made him a sought-after name in the college football coaching carousel. To start the year, George had already interviewed with the Chicago Bears for the position of head coach. Now, he'd caught the eye of Meyer as a perfect next candidate to replace Scot Loeffler.
Per Bowling Green Athletic Director, Meyer connected the dots that led to George becoming the new Falcon's head coach.
“I said, ‘Give me names. Please give me as many names as you can,'” van der Merwe said during the press conference of his conversation with Meyer. “He said, ‘I have one name for you. I want you to talk to Eddie George. I said, ‘the Heisman Trophy winner, right?’ He says yeah. He says, ‘Don't look at anything. Don't read anything on him. Don't read his background. Talk to him. Talk to the human being.’
Meyer and George both share commonalities, with both of them having Ohio State ties and Meyer serving as head coach of the Falcons in the 2001 and 2002 seasons. His two seasons with Bowling Green were sensational, finishing with an overall 17-6 record before he departed to become the head coach of Bowling Green. Clearly, Meyer saw in George the potential to have a similar level of success.
“After meeting with Eddie George during the search process, it became very clear to me that Eddie checked every aspect of that profile that we created. Eddie is someone who cares about people, values personal growth and development. He defines himself by his ability to adapt, adjust, and have success in every aspect of his life.”
George expressed synergy with van der Merwe, which will certainly be important for his ambitions to win the MAC in his first year.
“We have like minds. Our vision is in harmony. Where he wants to take this program holistically and what I envision is our football program on and off the field…within our conversations, we realized there were more similarities (than not). I'm like, ‘Man, we can do some great things together.'”
