In 2011, Mike Vrabel’s coaching career faced a rocky start that could have easily derailed his ambitions.
Known for his role as an All-American at Ohio State and a three-time Super Bowl champion with New England, Vrabel had just left a less-than-stellar period in Kansas City. He was about to face his first coaching interview at his beloved alma mater.
“I always share this with anyone I interview,” New England’s head coach remarked to reporters in Santa Clara, as his Patriots prepared for Super Bowl LX. “No one can top how badly I did in my first interview.”
Vrabel recounted, “I sat down with Urban Meyer and his staff, completely unprepared, and bombed the interview. I had no teaching progression to offer,” the now 50-year-old coach admitted.
Instead of showing Vrabel the door, Meyer invited him back the next morning. But this time, he was expected to come equipped with substantial answers.
Patriots coach Mike Vrabel admitted he was unprepared for his first coaching interview in 2011
Urban Meyer (left) is seen coaching on the Buckeyes sideline alongside Mike Vrabel in 2012
Vrabel’s task was to create a comprehensive lesson plan and detail to Meyer and his coaches how he would roll it out across an entire season.
‘He gave me about eight hours to go back in my office and [I] didn’t sleep, didn’t go home,’ said Vrabel, who was back in the interview room at 6am.
‘That’s probably the first adversity that I faced [as a coach] was like: “Am I really going to do this?”‘ Vrabel continued. ‘And I better go back and formulate my thoughts and have a teaching progression to what I was going to do.’
Meyer decided to give Vrabel the job and has since described his second effort as ‘an improvement.’
Vrabel remained a defensive assistant with the Buckeyes until 2013 before becoming the Houston Texans linebackers coach and defensive coordinator. Later he’d be named head coach in Tennessee, where he enjoyed three playoff berths, won Coach of the Year, and helped to end Tom Brady’s Patriots dynasty with a wild-card win over New England in January of 2020.
Obviously there have been setbacks for Vrabel, who was fired in Tennessee after the Titans finished 6-11 in 2023. And for all of Vrabel’s success, he claimed Meyer still struggled to recognize him in 2021 when the former OSU coach was in his doomed season in Jacksonville.
‘Do I know you?’ Meyer asked Vrabel, as the latter has since recalled to ESPN.
‘Yeah, I’m head coach of the Titans,’ Vrabel remembered telling Meyer. ‘And I worked for you for two years.’
However, Meyer rejected this version of events during a recent interview with the Daily Mail.
‘No, no… somebody told me that,’ Meyer said. ‘I don’t remember Mike Vrabel? I talk to Mike Vrabel all the time. So I don’t know if he was screwing around! I know who he is.’
Mike Vrabel is seen coaching the Titans in a 2020 playoff win over the Patriots
Regardless, If Vrabel is bitter about being fired or anything else, he’s not showing it. As he told reporters Tuesday, he’s still ‘grateful for the opportunity’ in Tennessee, regardless of how it ended.
But, as was the case when the Patriots traded him to the Chiefs, Vrabel is not forgetting anything.
‘I think there’s plenty of emotion, whether that’s being traded to Kansas City as a player or that’s being fired as a coach,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of emotions that you go through and sometimes that takes a little longer to get over than others.’
And just like his mulligan interview with Meyer, Vrabel has taken full advantage of his second chance at being a head coach in the NFL.
