Urban Meyer's son Nate to walk on to Cincinnati Bearcats football team

May 15 (UPI) -- Nate Meyer, the son of former Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer, will walk on to the University of Cincinnati football team this season as a wide receiver.

Bearcats Coach Luke Fickell told Yahoo Sports and ESPN about the roster move. Fickell worked under Urban Meyer as the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator and linebackers coach from 2012 to 2016. Urban Meyer played as a defensive back at Cincinnati prior to his career as a coach.

Nate Meyer worked out with Ohio State's football team the summer before his freshman year at the University of Cincinnati.

"I fell in love with the whole environment and the people there," Nate Meyer told Yahoo Sports. "I developed great relationships. After that, I had a fall season that didn't have football. It hit me hard that I missed football."

Nate Meyer, who has played as an outfielder for the Bearcats' baseball team, will be a junior this fall. He played football at Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus, Ohio, and plans to become a coach after his athletic career ends.

"He loved football and became enamored with it in high school, went to a very good program and had a very good experience," Urban Meyer said of his son. "As a young kid, he wasn't really interested in football at all. My daughters were more into the football scene than he was, but then he really got enamored with it.

"He started training with the team, and that's when he fell in love with the locker room, the people, the intensity, the weight training."

Urban Meyer retired in December 2018 after 17 seasons of coaching, during which he posted a 187-32 regular season record and 12-3 bowl game record at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State. He coached the Gators to two national titles and the Buckeyes to one.

Meyer and his wife Shelley also have two daughters, Gisela and Nicole.

Fickell coached the Bearcats to an 11-3 record and a final ranking of No. 21 last season after losing to Memphis in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game and a victory over Boston College in the Birmingham Bowl.