Former Florida football coach Urban Meyer was honored as a College Football Hall of Famer earlier this week.

But one honor has eluded the 60-year-old former coach that guided the Florida Gators to national championships in 2006 and 2008.

Meyer has yet to be inducted into the Gator Ring of Honor at The Swamp despite meeting the criteria as a coach that's won at least one national championship. He won SEC titles in 2006 and 2008 in addition to his two national titles at UF and led the Gators to a 65-15 record in six seasons.

"I'd be honored to do it," Meyer said. "I have incredible respect for Florida. Worked our ... off. Wish I didn't leave. That's one thing I regret for the rest of my life is the way I left."

Meyer and his wife, Shelley, returned to Gainesville on Friday night for a charity event at Spurrier's Gridiron Grille, with proceeds raised benefitting Desire Street Ministries (Danny Wuerffel's charity), the Tim Tebow Foundation and the HBC Foundation (Steve Spurrier's charity).

After leading Florida to the 2008 national title, Meyer faced coaching burnout in 2009 after UF lost to Nick Saban-led Alabama in the SEC title game. He briefly resigned in December of 2009 for health reasons but returned to coach the Gators in 2010 and tried to delegate more responsibility to his assistants. But after UF went 8-5 in 2010, Meyer called it quits from UF for good at the end of the season.

"It was just, I was blown out," Meyer said. "I had to take a year off. When someone says, 'Well, you had a plan to do something else.' That's not true. I mean, that's silly. We worked our tails off to the point where I got ill."

After an improper benefits NCAA scandal forced Ohio State coach Jim Tressel to resign in 2011, Meyer returned to the coaching ranks at OSU, where he led the Buckeyes to an 83-9 record in seven seasons. He resigned from OSU at the end of the 2018 season before his 55th birthday.

“I didn’t have a good succession plan here, because it happened so abruptly," Meyer said. "At Ohio State I knew when I hit 55 and so I was working toward that. Bob Stoops is a dear friend he had a really good plan at Oklahoma, and I tried to mirror that, make sure the infrastructure was so strong."

How Urban Meyer reflects on his time with Florida football

At Florida, Meyer demanded that himself and his coaches not look back, viewing it as a sign of weakness. But now, out of coaching as a television analyst for Fox and the Big Ten Network, the hyper-intense Meyer can look back on his time at UF with pride.

"I had Charlie Strong over to the house the other day," Meyer said of his former defensive coordinator. "Dan Mullen - obviously he hired my son - I talk to him all the time. Greg Mattison, some of the great coaches.

"And then you start looking at these players. I talked to Reggie Nelson two nights ago. (Brandon) Spikes, it's like he's a nose guard ... So if you had to say one thing I remember, and I was probably good at was surrounding myself with unbelievable players and coaches, because they were - Hall of Fame guys, certainly players. But look at the damn staff I had, too - great coaches."

Heisman winner Tim Tebow may have been Meyer's greatest recruit at UF, though he considers Percy Harvin 1A on list.

"Percy Harvin, there’s still nothing ever like him that I’ve seen, still to this day," Meyer said.

Meyer admitted it's special going into the College Football Hall of Fame in the same class with Saban, who was his main adversary during his time at UF and Ohio State. Though Saban trumps Meyer in national titles (7-3), Meyer owns a better career winning percentage (187-32, .854) than the former Alabama coach (292-71-1 .804).

"I was just with him at a charity event like three, four days ago," Meyer said. "We've always gotten along. We've had street fights. Obviously, he's the top of the food chain. So, yeah, it's great."

Urban Meyer still follows Florida football

Meyer has current connections with the Florida football program as his former receivers coach when he was at UF, Billy Gonzales, is currently a wide receivers coach at UF under Billy Napier. Spikes, who played for Meyer, also is on Napier's staff as a student assistant coach.

"I was really, really worried when they lost early because momentum is so fragile," Meyer said. "But it tells you, first of all, the character. I don’t know them. But there must be some really good guys up there. And Napier did a hell of a job, man, and the staff because they were dead and gone."

Florida won four in a row, including back-to-back wins at The Swamp over ranked teams LSU and Ole Miss, to finish the year 8-5 and post its first winning season since 2020. With that momentum, UF secured the 10th-ranked recruiting class in the country for 2025.

"That Ole Miss win might have been our Florida State win we had in ’05,," Meyer said. "Chuck Heater, I remember him looking at me ― and this is the first time we did this ― we just beat Florida State 34-7 after an average year and I remember these recruits – a lot of great players – I said ‘let them all in the locker room.’

"And everybody’s like, ‘what?’ And in come a hundred kids. I’m up there singing the fight song and guys are like, ‘I’m coming.’ And I said, ‘I’m taking them all.'"

Meyer also is high on the potential of UF quarterback DJ Lagway, who went 6-1 as a starter as a freshman.

"Here's what Steve Spurrier said, 'Everybody on the team loves that kid,'" Meyer said. "That's pretty cool. And that tells you. And then he's got a great release, anybody can see that. He's an athlete. I think in the preseason; they'll be in the middle of that thing."