Podcast: Vrabel Nearly Fought a Fellow Staff Member Early in Coaching Career

The incident took place when the current Tennessee Titans head coach was in charge of Ohio State's defensive line.

George Walker IV / Tennessean.com via Imagn Content Services, LLC

In Peter King's latest Football Morning in America column for NBC Sports, the long-time NFL reporter references a new Columbus-based podcast series, “Glory Days: Dreams and Nightmares,” about Ohio State’s 2014 national championship football team led by then-coach Urban Meyer.

An upcoming episode makes reference to 2013, when Titans coach Mike Vrabel, according to a couple of former Buckeyes, got into a heated exchange with a fellow member of the coaching staff, Tom Herman. Vrabel was Ohio State’s defensive line coach at the time, while Herman was the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach.

Here’s the mention in King's column:

I found this nugget interesting from a new podcast series (“Glory Days: Dreams and Nightmares”) about the 2014 Ohio State national championship team, from former Buckeyes Joshua Perry and Evan Spencer. Perry asks Spencer in episode two, dropping Wednesday, about an incident between two coaches on Urban Meyer’s staff in 2013: “Do you remember when [offensive coordinator] Tom Herman tried to fight [defensive line coach] Mike Vrabel? Mike Vrabel, a literal pitbull and Tom Herman, a Yorkshire terrier, ‘Hold me back. Hold me back.’ And Mike’s like, ‘No. If he wants to fight, don’t hold him back.’ Coaches get heated like players, too … Urban wanted to challenge the coaches as much as he wanted to challenge the players. He wanted them to feel backed into a corner, for them to be combative, for them to hash things out the way they needed to. Because ultimately that was going to make them a better staff.” Can’t see that working in the NFL, especially with Meyer not able to control the flow of info that emanates from the program as much.

Vrabel left Ohio State following the 2013 season to become linebackers coach with the Houston Texans. Herman left a year later to become head coach at the University of Houston.