Can Urban Meyer Save Himself from Irrelevance?
We still believe in Urban Meyer because, well, he's Urban Meyer. And we still believe in Ohio State because history tells us to and because, well, he's the coach.
It isn't time to give up on either of those truths yet, but at some point, a little evidence would be nice. And scoring 50 points on Illinois, Rutgers or Kent State doesn't count.
| 2001 | Bowling Green | 8-3 | |
| 2002 | Bowling Green | 9-3 | |
| 2003 | Utah | 10-2 | Liberty-W |
| 2004 | Utah | 12-0 | Fiesta-W |
| 2005 | Florida | 9-3 | Outback-W |
| 2006 | Florida | 13-1 | BCS Championship-W |
| 2007 | Florida | 9-4 | Capital One-L |
| 2008 | Florida | 13-1 | BCS Championship-W |
| 2009 | Florida | 13-1 | Sugar-W |
| 2010 | Florida | 8-5 | Outback-W |
| 2012 | Ohio State | 12-0 | |
| 2013 | Ohio State | 12-2 | Orange-L |
| 2014 | Ohio State | 7-1 |
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Meyer has opened up about the unhealthy obsession he had with winning when he was at Florida. Every chance he gets, he now insists that he has changed. He smells the roses.
I wonder: Does a guy obsessed with winning championships find less pressure in being irrelevant? Or more?
If we're being honest, that's where Meyer stands now. It's why this this weekend's game at No. 8 Michigan State means so much to him. It is the only marquee game of the season for the entire Big Ten.
Meyer needs a big win Saturday. It would be his first at Ohio State.
He has had few big-game opportunities with the Buckeyes, thanks to the mess Jim Tressel left and the weakness of the Big Ten. He's also had to play this year without his No. 1 quarterback. Still, in nearly three years at Ohio State, guess how many teams ranked in the Top 10 he has beaten. That's right, zero.
Doesn't a winning addict feel pressure from that?
"I could give you the coachspeak and say I don't feel it,'' Meyer said this week on the conference coaches teleconference with reporters. "I feel it. I won't say personal pressure. Ohio State pressure. That has been brought up a couple times.''
This cannot be what Meyer had in mind when he came to Ohio State. It seems almost impossible, but he and the Buckeyes aren't getting any national attention. They are ranked 14th in the College Football Playoff poll, second lowest among one-loss teams in the power five conferences.
Meyer is a big-game coach, even if the one he lost to Alabama in the SEC title game sent him to the hospital. He won two national championships at Florida and then left to work on his health. The Gators have yet to recover.
And when Meyer decided to return to coaching a year later, the feeling was that he'd be able to bring the SEC to the Big Ten. But the Big Ten is absolutely killing Ohio State by not providing decent competition. It has rendered Meyer irrelevant.
Just a theory, but the only thing worse than losing for a winning addict is not competing at all. Boredom is stressful.
Ohio State 66, Kent State 0
Ohio State 50, Cincinnati 28.
Ohio State 56, Rutgers 17
And last week, Ohio State 55, Illinois 14.
Meyer told Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel that late in the Illinois game, he was already thinking about Michigan State and talking to an assistant coach about plans for the big-game week.
He hasn't had many of these opportunities at Ohio State. But when he's had them, he hasn't won.
For most of his first two years at Ohio State, Meyer came across like the coaching legend he is. He took a team on probation and won 24 straight games. Then, the Buckeyes lost the Big Ten championship game to Michigan State last year.
Since then, everything has gone backward.
That might sound like an overstatement, but after losing to Michigan State, the Buckeyes lost to Clemson in the Orange Bowl and then lost quarterback Braxton Miller for the season with a shoulder injury before the 2014 opener. And in the second game this year, they lost at home to Virginia Tech. That was three losses in four games.
Sure, you can argue that Meyer has done a great job of holding things together while developing freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett. But how do you know that, considering the row of patsies Ohio State has beaten?
It's hard to know what's real and what's just image with Ohio State and Meyer. I mean, are we sure the Buckeyes aren't dropping off like the rest of the Big Ten? But just when you ask a question like that, or start to doubt Meyer, he comes up with something. Barrett has been improving and Michigan State's defensive backs aren't as good as they were last year.
Meanwhile, Meyer needs Michigan to rebuild itself. That used to be a national spotlight game for Ohio State, too. A Big Game Week. But the Wolverines have not held up their end of the bargain. Meyer said this week that Michigan is Ohio State's rival, not Michigan State.
He might want to adjust his thinking on that. Michigan State is the only substantial thing the Big Ten can send his way.
The players are revving up the hype. Michigan State linebacker Taiwan Jones said at the Spartans' weekly press conference that Barrett is better than Miller at QB. That sent Miller into a Twitter rant, and he tweeted:
"Never heard of the kid #34 ☕️ 4 yrs unnoticed. pic.twitter.com/D5einZv6RS
— BRAXTON MILLER (@BraxtonMiller5) November 5, 2014"
If it helps, Jones led Michigan State with eight tackles in the Rose Bowl. Stanford noticed.
The little back and forth is only good for the Big Ten. Anything to draw eyeballs to a Michigan State-Ohio State contest that will make or break the teams' playoff hopes.
It's also Meyer's only chance left this year to remind us that, well, he's Urban Meyer.
Greg Couch covers college football for Bleacher Report. He also writes for The New York Times and was formerly a scribe for FoxSports.com and the Chicago Sun-Times. Follow him on Twitter @gregcouch.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
