Urban Meyer Ohio State: 5 Reasons Why Meyer Would Regret Joining Buckeyes

So, Urban Meyer to Ohio State is pretty much a done deal.

That is, it's a done deal as long as you ask anyone but Meyer. The Columbus Dispatch and just about every college football pundit with an ear to the ground have reported that the Buckeyes have hired Meyer, but he said in a statement that no deal is in place. In fact, he says he hasn't even been offered a job.

But let's face it. Where there's smoke, there's fire, and there's an awful lot of smoke coming from Columbus. The job is Meyer's if he wants it.

The Ohio State faithful will be just fine with the hiring of Meyer. He's an outstanding coach and a respectable one as well. The Buckeyes' football program needs a white knight, and he's it.

As for myself, I'm skeptical. Meyer and Ohio State may seem like a perfect fit for each other on a surface level, but I think there's a very real possibility that Meyer would come to regret forging a partnership with the university.

Come to think of it, here are five reasons why he will.

NCAA Hammer of Doom

With all respect to Urban Meyer and his tremendous reputation, let's not forget that Ohio State is still in the crosshairs of the NCAA. The memorabilia scandal that cost former coach Jim Tressel his job has died down a bit, but the NCAA has yet to punish Ohio State for it.

Make no mistake, sanctions are coming. The NCAA has already informed Ohio State that it showed a "failure to monitor" its football program, which is certainly a charge that could lead to some nasty penalties.

Sanctions similar to what USC got—namely a postseason ban and a reduction of football scholarships—are very much in the cards.

When the sanctions come, they will set Ohio State's football program back a year or two. In this period, the task at hand for Meyer will be a Sisyphean one.

Competition

Sanctions or no sanctions, I'm not about to suggest that Meyer is going to fail to stock the Buckeyes with top-flight talent. The dude can recruit, and his Florida ties should help him lure some talent from SEC country.

That said, I would be shocked if Meyer didn't draw the bulk of his recruits from the state of Ohio. You're not going to see a drastic change in the way Ohio State has traditionally done things.

The trouble is that there's plenty of balance in the Big Ten at the moment, and it just so happens Ohio State's biggest rival is on the rise.

Per Rivals.com, Michigan's 2012 recruiting class is the best in the Big Ten. The Wolverines are going to build on the success they've established in the first year of the Brady Hoke regime, and the coming sanctions against Ohio State will make it easier for Michigan to grab control of the Big Ten for the foreseeable future.

Under Tressel, winning the Big Ten and beating Michigan were pretty much mere formalities for the Buckeyes. If Meyer can't do either, he's going to hear about it. That's a nice lead-in to the next point...

Pressure, Pressure and More Pressure

If and when Meyer accepts the Ohio State job, my guess is that the majority of Buckeyes fans are going to take it easy on Meyer out of the gate. Reasonable Ohio State fans should realize that success will not come immediately.

Sooner or later, though, the pressure will be on Meyer to establish a championship culture in Columbus. At the absolute very least, he will be expected to beat Michigan and win the Big Ten, but the fans are going to want Meyer to replicate the success he had winning national championships at Florida.

That's going to be much easier said than done. Tressel only managed to win one national championship, and his teams were consistently bested by the cream of the crop from the SEC.

This is a trend that I think is going to continue, and that's not going to sit well with the Ohio State faithful. Ohio State is a big-name program with big expectations, and Meyer is a big-name coach who will be expected to do the big things he's done in the past. 

If he can't, he won't escape blame.

Health

Admittedly, I feel like a jerk for bringing Meyer's health into this discussion. But given his track record, you kinda have to.

Being a head coach in college football is a stressful job, make no mistake about that. All coaches have to put up with that reality, and they all deal with it in their own way. It just so happens that the stress of coaching at Florida had a significant impact on Meyer's health. He nearly had to walk away following the 2009 season, and his health once again cropped up when he made the decision to leave Florida last year.

My question is this: Why would things be any different in Columbus? Coaching at Ohio State is going to be incredibly stressful, and Meyer, to the best of my knowledge, has not swapped bodies.

Obviously, you can't wish bad health on a guy. You can, however, anticipate it. Given the circumstances, I'd say Meyer will be asking for more of the same if he joins Ohio State.

Other Options

Many have opined that being the head coach at Ohio State is a dream job for Urban Meyer. He's an Ohio native and he used to coach at Ohio State, so he's basically made for the job.

To say as much would be to ignore the fact that Meyer has a pretty sweet gig at ESPN. He's not a great analyst, but the stress of the job isn't nearly as severe, and he gets to have the family time that he professed to covet when he bowed out of Florida.

In addition, it's not like there aren't any other schools out there that would love to have a guy like Urban Meyer come aboard. If he decides not to take the Ohio State job, there are going to be plenty of other offers down the road. No doubt there will be coaching jobs that won't come with pending NCAA sanctions.

The point is that, if Meyer doesn't take the Ohio State job, he's not going to be stuck lamenting a missed opportunity. We're talking about the most coveted free agent coach in the land. All doors are open to him, and that means he doesn't have to enter the first one he sees, no matter how dreamy it may look.

Thanks for reading, folks. If you have thoughts, questions, comments or gripes, please feel free to share them below.