Over the last five years, Trinity Football has been one of the most dominant forces in the Southern Athletic Association, winning four of the last five conference championships and frequently earning national rankings. Though players come and go, one man has remained at the helm of the team he’s coached for over a decade: Jerheme Urban.
Urban, a 2003 Trinity graduate, has been a significant part of the team’s history as both a coach and a player, holding several receiving records that still stand today. Following a career at Trinity, Urban went to the NFL, where he played for three teams — the Seattle Seahawks, Arizona Cardinals and Kansas City Chiefs — for eight seasons. In one of the most high-profile Coach’s Corner articles yet, Urban discussed not only his success as a player, but the journey that led him back to the school he now calls home.
“You’re a former player here at Trinity. What made you kind of choose to come here out of high school?”
“It was a combination of factors. I knew I wanted to get a great degree. We did not win a lot in high school. We tried hard, I had great teammates, great coaches and just weren’t as talented as some of the other teams. So I wanted that combination of elite football with elite academics. This is a place that could provide both of those, and I couldn’t pass that opportunity up.”
“You got to go to the Division III championship in the 2002 season. What was that experience like?”
“Yeah, it was a phenomenal experience, and it was a great life lesson too. We came in that year very similarly to our 2023 football team — very experienced in a lot of areas and very explosive. We had a situation where our all-American quarterback was unable to play that game. I think the longer we get away from it, the more and more I appreciate the moment, the journey and all the teammates. It was a phenomenal experience.”
“How have you seen things change at Trinity from when you were a student here to now working here as a coach?”
“There’s a consistent commitment to improvement. When we walk recruits around, they can go into the [Center for Sciences and Innovation] or they can go to the new Chapman renovation and see the [Neidorff] School of Business to the new Dicke Hall, or Northrup Hall which was not there when I was here. I’m proud of what the school is doing, and I know that we’re committed to continuing to do that for our students and alums moving forward.”
“How did the process to get into the NFL go, and when was the first time that it kind of popped in your head, ‘Hey, the NFL could be something that happens?’”
“So Mike Burton, who was quarterback my freshman year, had a chance to go to a training camp with the San Diego Chargers. He made it through camp and was released, and he came back and started coaching with us. He said, ‘You know, you’re tall enough, you’re fast enough; you’re raw, but you look like some of those guys that I just went to camp with,’ and that really encouraged me in a big way.”
“What’s one fun story or experience that you had from your time in the league?”
“I didn’t enjoy some of it as much as people might think, because I was always a roster bubble guy. I never felt like I was secure. There was a ton of pressure with it. But having to choose one, in the 2008 season in Arizona, winning that NFC Championship game against Philly. I had a really big third-down conversion in that game. Being able to really feel like I did my part with the confetti falling was pretty cool.”
“What’s it like now to be back at the same school that you got to have all the experiences at, something that not a lot of former players get an opportunity to do?”
“It’s a passion project for me. So much of this place I attribute to just really changing my entire family’s trajectory in life experiences. I met my wife here. When I sit down and talk to recruits about this place, it just means something special to me.”
“If you could just single out one moment from the journey that you’ve had, what’s one moment that stands out to you?”
“I’d probably say the 2022 playoff win against Hardin-Simmons. One of my first ever playoff games was against Hardin-Simmons as a freshman, and then they beat us the next year. And for the longest time, that was our last playoff game. I think the game was a culmination of so many things in my life coming together. The way we won that game, overcoming the weather adversity and being the home team and still being the underdog, winning that first playoff game in 20 years with so many people who were part of it from high school through college to now was pretty cool.”
“What’s something you’re excited for?”
“I’m looking forward to putting the puzzle back together. There’s so many people who, from the outside, are looking at us as being in a rebuilding mode because we’ve graduated so many guys. I’m really excited about next year and putting it back together, so to speak. And maybe from the outside perspective, we’ll take some people by surprise.”
