Few coaches in the history of the college football, even the legendary ones, have had the kind of success that Urban Meyer has had in his first year as head coach at all three of his previous coaching stops. Meyer’s early triumphs surprised media and fans alike as he was able to completely turn around Bowling Green, Utah and Florida.
In Paul “Bear” Bryant’s first season coaching Alabama, he had a 5-4-1 record and finished sixth in the Southeastern Conference. Joe Paterno was 5-5 his first year at Penn State, and Bobby Bowden was 5-6 in his inaugural campaign with the Seminoles. These three legends all rank in the top five in wins of all college football coaches, but none were able to see the fruits of their labor in their first season at the university where they gained fame.
Can Meyer step up at Ohio State, just a year after taking a sabbatical to focus on his health and family, and do what he has done at every stop along the way? Meyer’s body of work suggests he will.
In Meyer’s first head coaching position from 2001-2002, he led Bowling Green to a combined 17-6 (.739) record, eight wins his first year and nine his second. The Falcons hadn’t won 17 games combined in the four seasons prior to Meyer’s arrival.
After two years, Meyer left for the University of Utah. This time, Meyer inherited a marginally better Utes team that had won five games in 2002. He proceeded to lead them to a 10-2 record his first season and a perfect 12-0 in 2004, capped off with the destruction of Pittsburgh in the 2005 BCS Fiesta Bowl 35-7.
Finally, after earning multiple coach of the year awards, Meyer landed a high-profile dream job at the University of Florida. Taking over for Ron Zook (recently fired by Illinois), Meyer again improved the Gators’ record in his first season. Under Zook, the Gators were 7-5 in 2004, and Meyer led them to a 9-3 mark in 2005 before winning his first of two BCS National Championships in 2006 season.
The dramatic turnarounds and emphatic results speak for themselves, and with Ohio State’s hiring of Meyer, it is hard to imagine a scenario in which Meyer would fail at restoring Ohio State to the success it had under Jim Tressel prior to the improper benefits scandal.
The only gray spot in Ohio State’s outlook is if Meyer can’t find the work/life balance that forced him to retire from Florida. Expectations will be extremely high, and an inability to properly handle the pressures of coaching a premier program could force Meyer to once again collapse under the pressure.
Potential concerns aside, Meyer has shown an uncanny ability to motivate his players to new heights everywhere he has been, but there are several other key attributes Meyer brings to Ohio State that could catapult the Buckeyes from the mediocre season they just experienced to the national title contenders they were under Tressel.
Recruiting
Apart from Michigan, Ohio State easily has the best recruiting class year after year in the Big Ten. According to ESPN.com, the Buckeyes had the seventh-best class in 2011, one that included 14 four-star recruits. Nebraska was the only other Big Ten school in the top 25 at No. 17, and in the past five years, Ohio State has never been ranked outside the top 20 recruiting classes.
Michigan and Penn State currently sit higher in the 2012 rankings, with OSU not included at this point, but that may not remain static with Meyer’s introduction as the new “Vest.” Not only does Meyer’s hiring bring instant credibility back to the sidelines at the Horseshoe, especially in the Midwest, but don’t think for a second that Meyer has lost his touch with the Southeast.
Meyer’s presence will certainly retain more homegrown Ohioans for the Buckeyes, but should also gather a very talented group of recruits from states like Florida, because after all, Meyer was a Gator and can sweet talk with the best of them. In his time at Florida, Meyer had four recruiting classes ranked in the top three.
National Championship experience
Sure, bringing up the fact that he won two national championships at Florida will help the recruiting process, but it also helps the program as a whole. Meyer has proven he knows exactly what it takes to put together a squad and a staff top-to-bottom that can produce one of the best teams in the country.
Meyer’s decision to keep Luke Fickell (the current OSU head coach), presumably as the defensive coordinator, solidifies an already strong defense that ranks in the top 25 in total defense this year, but his championship rings will also attract eager, talented and up-and-coming coaches to fill the other open coaching spots as well.
Give Ohio State a clean slate
The Ohio State fan base will be able to breathe again after what must have felt like a season in hell. Ohio State not only lost to hated rival Michigan, snapping a seven-game winning streak against the Wolverines, but for the first time since 1999, the Buckeyes finished the regular season below .500 in the Big Ten conference standings.
All the failures were obviously predicated by the failure of Tressel to report (there seems to be a lot of that going around) the improper benefits that his players were receiving. In reality the loss of Tressel, star quarterback Terrelle Pryor and other starting players should have spelled doom from the start for the 2011 season, but much optimism remained.
Now, Meyer can be the man to go into Columbus and wipe away the tears of fans and the stain left by the former regime and become the hero that Ohio State has been coveting.
Will the Buckeyes threaten for a spot in the 2012 Big Ten Championship game or even a national championship? No one will know for sure until the end of next season rolls around, but no one should be surprised if they do.
Brett is a senior majoring in journalism. How fast do you think the Buckeyes will recover from this season with Urban Meyer at the helm? Let Brett know at [email protected] or let him know on Twitter @BAsportswriter.
