Urban Meyer and Randy Shannon Land Gigs on ESPN

By Kyle Munzenrieder Tue., Feb. 1 2011 at 1:51 PM

Categories: Media Watch, Sports

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Former UF coach Urban Meyer and former UM coach Randy Shannon saw their careers as heads of two of Florida's big three college football teams come to an end after this season for very different reasons, but they both appear to be headed to the same place: ESPN of course. Meyer, who won two national championships, is getting a permanent gig, while Shannon, who didn't even muster a conference title, is getting a temporary gig, at least for now.

Meyer signed a deal to be a college football game analyst and will appear on several of the network's shows including SportsCenter, College GameDay and College Football Live. Meyer stepped down at Florida due to ongoing health concerns, so the switch to the world of occasional television appearances ins't that surprising.

He'll make his debut tomorrow during ESPN's coverage of Signing Day when Shannon will also be pulling analyst duties.

Shannon will be featured "extensively," according to the AP, throughout the day's ten hour coverage. Coincidentally, Shannon's replacement in Coral Gables, Al Golden, will be appearing via telephone, but it's not likely Shannon and Golden will share screen time.

Shannon had recently interviewed for UCLA's open defensive coordinator job. He appeared to be the front runner, but the Bruins haven't made an announcement yet, and it appears that Shannon is open to the possibility of staying out of the coaching world in 2011 to take a TV role.

"I see a lot of guys, they go around when they're out of coaching, see spring practices, see spring games, and they stay involved that way," Shannon told the AP. "You see how people develop and things like that. I'm making a transition. But I want to still be involved. With me, it's still fun to be around football. You watch games, you make a comment on this or that. That's fun."

Shannon also put in a strong performance during an ESPN town hall broadcast on African Americans in Sports, but it's unknown if the network has future plans for Shannon following signing day.

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