Urban Meyer Contract: Buckeyes Get Great Head Coach at Discounted Rate

The Ohio State Buckeyes got the Black Friday special with Urban Meyer.

They must have been waiting in the long lines hoping to get a Meyer before the stores ran out. The university signed the two-time national champion to a six-year deal worth $24 million on Monday and now a new era begins.

That’s less money than Alabama’s Nick Saban ($5.99 million per year), Texas’ Mack Brown ($5.16 million), Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops ($4.37 million) and USC’s Lane Kiffin ($4.1 million). Jim Tressel made $3.88 million in his final year in Columbus. Considering that the school only had to pay an extra $120,000, it’s a steal.

Tressel was the most conservative coach on the face of the earth and it backfired in some of the Buckeyes biggest moments this past decade (remember the beat down Ohio State took against Meyer’s Florida Gators in the ’07 championship game?).

Meyer brings a completely different style to the program and a fresh voice. He was born and raised in Cincinnati and has plenty of coaching experience in the Buckeye State. He was an OSU assistant in the 1980's and was the head honcho at Bowling Green in the early 2000s.

The man has won at every stop in his career and now he has the sort of recruiting setup that would make any coach jealous. His Ohio roots and connections give him the ability to recruit all of the best players from the state. Cincinnati is one of the most fertile high school football areas in the nation and Meyer coached at one of the powerhouses in the 1980’s (St. Xavier).

He has Ohio covered.

Then he has all of his SEC connections down south. Sure, he lost a decent amount of followers with his departure from Florida, but his name still carries some serious cache down there and you can bet Meyer will be pitching the incredible opportunities these southern players have once they aren’t playing in the ridiculously tough SEC.

He has experience, a clean track record, championships and deep-rooted Ohio connections…this is the perfect get for Ohio State.

Giving him just a few thousand dollar raise over Tressel makes this the discount signing of the year…and they didn’t have to stand in line outside of a Best Buy to do it.