Ohio State Football: Breaking Down Odds Urban Meyer Wins 2012 Coach of the Year

Urban Meyer has come home to Ohio State after a meteoric rise up the coaching ladder from Bowling Green to Utah, and then to Florida where he won two national championships in three years.

He has all sorts of obstacles to deal with, including figuring out how to keep a team motivated and hungry with no postseason possibility due to NCAA sanctions.

He also must restore the Ohio State mystique that won or shared six straight Big Ten championships—one of which was vacated—and played in multiple BCS bowls, going 2-3 in five non-vacated bowl games.

So far, so good.

In nine months, he has brought in a top-flight recruiting class, laid the groundwork for another strong class, brought in a strong staff still loaded with potential and started to install a new offensive system.

The only downside of his tenure so far is the domestic incidents which forced Meyer to revoke the summer scholarships from TE Jake Stoneburner and OT Jack Mewhort. And for a coach who was criticized for his handling of players at Florida, this is a sign that he is not going to take these things lightly.

What a difference a year truly makes.

This time last year, Ohio State was in a state of total flux, with its former legendary coach disgraced and its most talented—albeit polarizing—player off to the supplemental draft, and eventually to the Oakland Raiders.

Now, Ohio State looks like they are truly a year away from being back to being a title contender, and Meyer deserves full credit for that.

The beauty of this season is there are few tangible expectations because fans really have no idea what to expect at this point.

What we all hope to see is the compete level that Meyer pushes for, along with a crisp new offensive scheme and a more exciting brand of football.

If they can do all of that, and win 10 or 11 games, there is certainly a high chance Meyer can be named the Coach of the Year not only in the Big Ten but in college football as well.

The only other coach that might be able to challenge him at this time could be Penn State's Bill O'Brien, who deserves a ton of credit for withstanding all sorts of negative attention from the school after the Jerry Sandusky scandal. He seems to have the Nittany Lions back on track.

Their problem is they aren't as talented just yet to make a big impact this year. Ohio State is.

Meyer's team has the ability to play the spoiler role all season long since that's really the most they can do this year outside of positioning themselves for a national title shot in 2013.

If they can do that, there's no reason why Urban Meyer won't be the Coach of the Year this year.

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