Urban Meyer Beat Jim Harbaugh for Mike Weber, but at What Cost?

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Standing at his signing day press conference, having just inked a fourth consecutive top-10 class, Urban Meyer was asked if he ever takes pride in beating a particular opposing coach for a prospect.

Initially, Meyer downplayed the premise. But as he realized that the inquiry was in reference to Ohio State besting Michigan and new head coach Jim Harbaugh for 4-star running back Michael Weber, Meyer saw fit to take aim.

"We do keep score against the rival in everything we do," Meyer said. "That's gone on for long before us and will take place long after us. Absolutely you keep score on that one."

It's Meyer 1, Harbaugh 0, and the Buckeyes head coach had every right to puff his chest. Despite already possessing a loaded backfield—both now and for the foreseeable future—Meyer walked into the Wolverines' backyard and took a one-time Michigan commit from one of its pipeline schools.

But at what cost?

Just one day after Weber made his gut-wrenching decision—the Detroit Cass Tech product was clearly torn between Ohio State and Michigan before announcing he'd be a Buckeye around 11 a.m.—OSU running backs coach Stan Drayton announced he'd accepted a job with the Chicago Bears.

Taking to Twitter, Weber's reaction spoke for itself.

The timeline of Drayton's departure remains unclear. ElevenWarriors.com reported that he interviewed with the Bears on Thursday—one day after signing day—and accepted a job in Chicago shortly thereafter.

It's hard to imagine him making a life-altering decision in such a short amount of time, and it doesn't seem coincidental Drayton left Columbus one day after signing day as opposed to one day before. But regardless of how long the now-former Ohio State assistant had been talking to the Bears—or what Meyer knew of it—the timing of his move isn't a good look for the Buckeyes, especially when it's dealing with a kid who was clearly as torn as Weber was.

OSU assistant Kerry Coombs led the charge in Weber's recruitment alongside Drayton and admitted that even he didn't know where the prized prospect would land until he told the Buckeyes staff shortly before announcing his intentions.

“It was close,” Coombs said on signing day. "But that just is what it is when you get down to these battles and you’re fighting and you’re scratching until the name is on the paper. So, yeah, I expected it to be close like that all morning and it was.”

"Even at 8:00, 9:00 this morning we all weren't sure," Meyer admitted. "Up until about an hour before he announced, we weren't sure."

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Drayton was well-aware of Weber's concerns when it came to leaving his home state for its archrival.

"Just being a Michigan kid that’s going to graduate with an Ohio State degree, and he wants to be able to live in his state again one day and wants to have success,” Drayton answered when asked why Weber was wavering. 

“He wants to represent Detroit wearing scarlet and gray, and he absolutely can do that. He absolutely will do that. I have a wife from Detroit, and I told him, ‘If I sit here and I coach you and I don’t let you represent Detroit, my wife is probably going to divorce me. There’s no way in this world I’m not going to let you represent where you’re from.'"

Assuming Weber doesn't ask for a release from his scholarship—and there's no reason to believe he will at this point—he'll still more than likely have a successful college career in Columbus. After all, the Buckeyes have produced back-to-back 1,000-yard running backs in the past two seasons, and Meyer has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to hiring assistants and getting the most out of his players.

"The last two tailbacks are as good as anybody in America," Meyer said, referencing Carlos Hyde and Ezekiel Elliott. "We have a fantastic offensive line, and we believe in our tailback. It's not theory. It's real. You watch it on film."

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And as Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee wrote earlier, kids should commit to a program, not a coach. Simply too much can change within a program on any given day, and Weber wasn't the only signee around the country to find that out this week.

But that doesn't change the fact that fewer than 48 hours after Weber inked his national letter of intent, the position coach who he figured he'd be playing for and trusted throughout the recruitment process left for the NFL. That won't be lost on Harbaugh, who will go head-to-head with Meyer on multiple occasions throughout the 2016 recruiting cycle and for the foreseeable future.

Whether that will yield tangible results for Harbaugh remains to be seen, but in recruiting, every edge can make a difference. Which is why the timing of Drayton's departure doesn't seem coincidental, as it very well could have resulted in a different choice for Weber on Wednesday.

Meyer won the first battle and knows it. But his war with Harbaugh is just getting started.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Ohio State Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.