Inside a Round of Golf with Urban Meyer and Nick Saban

As Urban Meyer and Nick Saban strolled to the first tee at the Reynolds Plantation resort on Lake Oconee just outside of Atlanta on Tuesday, college football's biggest coaching rivals found themselves in agreement.

"This pairing didn’t happen by mistake," Jeff Logan recalled both the Ohio State and Alabama head coaches saying.

No, it certainly didn't, as Meyer teamed up with Logan, a former Buckeyes running back, and Saban reunited with 2009 Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram to take part in the 2015 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Challenge. With 13 universities represented by a head coach and celebrity alumni, the annual golf charity event admittedly selected its pairings to highlight preexisiting rivalries.

And just four months removed from their showdown in the Sugar Bowl and the College Football Playoff, there wasn't a pairing that drew more attention on the tournament's front nine holes than the one featuring a combined seven national championships between the head coaches.

"There were a lot of eyes focused on Ohio State and Alabama, I can promise you that," Logan said.

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Unlike their battle in the Bayou on New Year's Day, it was the Crimson Tide who walked away victorious against the Buckeyes on Tuesday, scoring a six-under par on the front nine, compared to Meyer and Logan's four-under. Saban and Ingram would go on to lose to Team Georgia Tech—football coach Paul Johnson and former basketball star Jon Barry—in a four-hole playoff, although Meyer and Logan had some concerns about the legitimacy of Team Alabama's run on the first nine holes.

"There’s a little bit of handicap involved and both Urban and I had a little bit of a question as to maybe Alabama was getting a couple of extra shots that they didn’t deserve," Logan said. "But we’ll take our medicine. They got to six and we got to four.”

To be fair, Meyer, Saban and their respective partners weren't actually competing against each other as much as they were the entire field, which also included representatives from South Carolina, N.C. State, Arizona, Maryland, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Auburn, Clemson, Cincinnati and North Carolina. But you wouldn't know it being on the inside of the foursome, where Meyer and Saban each lived up to their reputations.

As evidenced by their unparalleled success, there might not be two more competitive coaches in the country than Meyer and Saban, who have gone head-to-head on the football field four times, each having won two apiece. And while the former SEC rivals were friendly—Logan insisted neither talked about football or, more specifically, January's Sugar Bowl during their round—both were on a mission to walk away from their de facto rubber match victorious on Tuesday.

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"It was all business. We were all trying to go out and win this thing," Logan said. "We certainly weren’t hitting like they were in the Ohio State-Alabama football game, but I can tell that you that the desire to go out there to win was just as much as it was during that football game.”

As for Meyer's ability as a golfer, Logan—a 1977 All-Big Ten selection from North Canton, Ohio—said that the fourth-year Ohio State head coach shoots somewhere between an 80 and 85 with his own ball, which isn't bad considering his hectic work schedule.

Earlier in the day, Meyer was much harder on himself, telling The Dan Patrick Show that he was just "very average."

"I kind of accepted the fact about five years ago that I'm not going to become a great one," Meyer said. "So I just enjoy it and have fun with it."

That would explain why Meyer no longer throws clubs as he did when he first started playing the game, although Logan said he's never seen such behavior from the Buckeyes coach while out on the links. This year marked the third time that the two have paired up for the Peach Bowl Challenge, and after a strong showing on the back nine—where they were paired with Team Maryland—Logan called it their best performance yet.

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"We finished seven-under par. Unfortunately we made a bogey on the last hole that would have put us within one of the lead," he said. "We can think back to a bunch of blown opportunities, but it’s the best finish we’ve ever had, so coach and I walked off 18 feeling pretty good.

"We can smell the finish line, we just gotta get it done.” 

The plan is for that to happen next year, although after losing to Alabama, Logan joked that he's concerned about his spot. After all, Meyer knows what it takes to beat Saban and the Crimson Tide, even if it means having to rely on a backup.

"I was worried that if I didn’t play my absolute best that he’d maybe call Cardale [Jones] in and have him take my spot," Logan said with a laugh. "That seems to be the answer to everybody’s problems.”

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand.