The Concerning Similarities Between Urban Meyer's 2009 UF and 2015 OSU Teams

COLUMBUS, Ohio — When J.T. Barrett was cited for operating a vehicle while impaired and subsequently suspended for Ohio State's Nov. 7 matchup with Minnesota, it left the future of the Buckeyes' quarterback position in question.

For Urban Meyer, Barrett's incident likely conjured up memories of the fourth-year Ohio State head coach's last national championship defense in 2009, which saw star defensive end Carlos Dunlap arrested for a similar offense just days before his Florida team was slated to play in the SEC Championship Game.

And unfortunately for Meyer, the similarities between his 2009 Gators and the 2015 Buckeyes haven't stopped there this season. Four weeks remain in the regular season, and the first College Football Playoff rankings of the year have yet to be revealed, but at this point, the parallel paths of Meyer's last two post-championship teams have been impossible to deny.

From a talent standpoint, that could be seen as a positive, as this Ohio State squad—much like the 2009 Florida team did—still finds itself in pole position for the postseason entering the final month of the regular season. But the issues the Buckeyes have already seen this season are also the same ones that ultimately cost those Gators, who saw their national championship dashed with a loss to Alabama in the SEC title game.

Whether or not Ohio State will suffer a similar fate this season remains to be seen. But at this point, the comparable red flags seen by both teams have been impossible to ignore.

Complacency Commonplace

Given his past experiences, it's possible that Meyer knew what was coming for his program in 2015. Perhaps that's why in the moments following the Buckeyes' win over Oregon in the College Football Playoff championship in January, Meyer was already guarding against the complacency that could accompany Ohio State's national title defense.

"We're going to watch that very closely," Meyer said. "This is a very complicated machine, college football, when you start thinking about all the different hurdles that are along the journey."

That would prove to be a theme that would follow the Buckeyes from spring practice, all the way through preseason camp and into the start of the season. But no matter how often Meyer preached to his team the importance of not resting on its past laurels, perhaps it was inevitable that Ohio State would get off to the sluggish start that it did this season.

Despite returning a combined 15 starters on both sides of the ball from last year's championship team, the Buckeyes eked through its first five games of the season, pulling off seven-point victories against Northern Illinois and Indiana, both of which possessed distinct talent disadvantages against Ohio State. Following the Buckeyes' closer-than-expected call against the Hoosiers, Meyer admitted that the preseason forecasts for his team may have been too optimistic.

"It's impossible to live up to expectations," Meyer said. "But that's not our job. Our job is to win."

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That's a mindset that Meyer admittedly didn't possess six years ago, when Florida—like this year's Ohio State team—remained undefeated and ranked first overall for the better part of the season, but perhaps didn't arrive there as impressively as many prognosticators expected the Gators to.

On a recent appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, the three-time national champion head coach admitted that the 2009 season wasn't as enjoyable for him as it should have been, as he and star quarterback Tim Tebow obsessed over remaining unbeaten.

"Florida had never been undefeated. I remember Tebow and I—Tebow was our quarterback obviously—all we would talk about is, 'We have to be undefeated. We have to be undefeated,'" Meyer said. "We kind of drained the enjoyment out of it."

While this year's Buckeyes team may also have to go undefeated in order to have a shot at defending it's national title this winter, its head coach now understands that it's the substance of those wins that matter much more than their style. Nevertheless, it's hard not to look at the results of the 2009 Gators and see similarities to 2015 Ohio State, with neither team putting together the dominant performances that were expected of them on a consistent basis.

Just don't tell that to Meyer.

"We won 22 straight games, we went undefeated in the Southeastern Conference and it was a miserable year, according to people, including myself," Meyer said at Big Ten media days in July. "That’s my fault. If we win every game this year, I can assure you, it’s not going to be miserable."

Coaching Changes

While complacency may have been the first place Meyer turned his attention toward following Ohio State's national championship victory last January, the upcoming changes on his coaching staff were a close second. At that point, Meyer already knew he was losing offensive coordinator Tom Herman to be the new head coach at Houston, and would later lose running backs coach Stan Drayton to the NFL's Chicago Bears.

The departures resulted in a shift on the Buckeyes staff, with offensive line coach Ed Warinner assuming offensive coordinator duties, Tim Beck being brought on as quarterbacks coach and Tony Alford replacing Drayton's role with the running backs.

In September, Meyer admitted the changes were still taking time to adjust to.

"We're not quite there yet," Meyer said of the cohesiveness of his staff following Ohio State's 20-13 win over Northern Illinois in the third week of the season. "We're playing defense on offense right now."

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Perhaps it's not a coincidence that in 2009, Meyer was dealing with a similar transition, as offensive coordinator Dan Mullen had just left Gainesville to take over as the head coach of Mississippi State. In his absence, Florida, despite possessing a plethora of NFL talent around Tebow in his senior season, scored fewer than 30 points in six of its first 10 games.

Upon arriving at Ohio State, Meyer admitted that he may have unsuccessfully tried to overcompensate for the continued losses of assistants—defensive coordinator Charlie Strong left the Gators for the Louisville head coaching job in 2009—while at Florida.

At this point in the Buckeyes' season, the offensive staff appears to have gelled, despite the loss of Herman, whose Houston team is currently 8-0 and ranked 18th in the most recent AP Top 25. Of course, a lot of the Ohio State's offense's recent success can be attributed to the play of Barrett, whose future for the remainder of the season remains in question following last weekend's citation.

Concerning Clouds

Although Barrett's bye-weekend blip is the most recent on the Buckeyes' radar, the disciplinary issues for Ohio State started in the preseason when four players were suspended for the season-opening trip to Virginia Tech. Star defensive end Joey Bosa and wide receivers Jalin Marshall, Dontre Wilson and Corey Smith each missed the Buckeyes' 42-24 win over the Hokies due to violations of the Ohio State athletic department policy.

"It's disappointing," Meyer said upon the announcement of the suspensions. "It's not the first time a program has dealt with stuff."

The same could have been said at Florida, where Meyer's history with player discipline has been well documented. In 2009, defensive back Janoris Jenkins and linebacker Dustin Doe each missed the Gators' season opener after offseason issues, and linebacker Brandon Spikes was suspended for the first half of a November game against Vanderbilt after attempting to gouge the eyes of a Georgia player the previous week.

But the biggest blow to Florida's championship hopes six years ago came when Dunlap was arrested, four days before the Crimson Tide beat the Gators 32-13 in the SEC Championship Game.

While Barrett's citation was similar to Dunlap's in its nature, its timing still leaves a month for the Ohio State quarterback to rectify the situation on the field. At the moment, all we know is that Barrett will sit for the Buckeyes' upcoming game with the Golden Gophers, as Cardale Jones reclaims his spot in the starting lineup after having started the first seven games of the season before being benched in favor of Barrett.

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Unlike Florida in 2009, these Buckeyes could very well bounce back from their latest off-field issue and successfully defend their championship, especially with Barrett expected to be back for season-defining games against Michigan State and Michigan.

Only time will tell how this year's Ohio State team responds, but if its head coach's comments about complacency are any indication, at the very least, Meyer will have a different mindset when it comes to Barrett's situation than he would have six years ago.

"There's no perfect team. There's no perfect program. And everyone deals with 'stuff.' You know, when you're Ohio State or some of these other big-time programs, 'stuff' becomes a major deal," Meyer said in July. "Every team is different. And every day is different...tomorrow is another day. And so we just keep pushing forward."

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. All statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com. Odds provided by Odds Shark. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.