Urban Meyer's Best Recruit of the Offseason Is New DC Greg Schiano

COLUMBUS, Ohio — It was less than one week ago that Urban Meyer's staff suffered its biggest blow possible with Rutgers hiring Ohio State defensive coordinator Chris Ash to be its new head coach.

On Friday, however, Meyer once again proved why he's one of the best recruiters in America.

Having overhauled a defense that ranked 47th in the nation in 2013 into a national championship-caliber unit in 2014 and the country's 10th-best defense in 2015, Ash appeared to be an irreplaceable piece on the Buckeyes' staff.

Only adding to the damage done by Ash's departure was the fact that no obvious in-house hire at Ohio State existed to fill his void.

But with Friday's announcement that the Buckeyes have hired Greg Schiano as their new co-defensive coordinator (alongside Luke Fickell)—pending completion of a background check and approval from university's Board of Trustees—Ohio State finds itself adding not only an established name, but an NFL-caliber head coach to its staff to replace Ash.

In retrospect, the Buckeyes' interest in Schiano should have been obvious, given Meyer's pre-existing relationship with the former Rutgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach. But the fit also would have seemed almost too ideal, considering that Schiano was in the running for head coaching jobs of his own this offseason.

That best-case scenario for the Buckeyes appears to have come to fruition, though.

"Greg Schiano is an excellent coach," Meyer said in a team statement. "He is someone I have known for quite some time now and someone who is going to align with our staff extremely well. I think he will be outstanding as a coach and mentor in our program and I am pleased to have him on our staff."

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

The 49-year-old Schiano is no stranger to Columbus, having visited with the Buckeyes program in the offseason after being fired by the Buccaneers at the conclusion of the 2013 season.

Schiano actually helped advise Ash in his first spring practice at Ohio State, as Meyer sought to improve a pass defense that ranked 112th in the nation in 2013.

"Great friend of mine," Meyer said at the time. "He's spent some time with me about defense."

On multiple occasions, Meyer has referred to his relationship with Schiano, which dates back to the late 1990s when the former was a wide receivers coach at Notre Dame and the latter was the Chicago Bears' defensive backs coach.

A decade later, they were two of the hottest head coaches in the country—Meyer at Florida, Schiano at Rutgers—and traded turns speaking at each other's camps and coaching clinics.

Two years removed from his last stint in football, Schiano is not without baggage. His personality wore thin on players during a two-year stop in Tampa Bay, where he compiled an 11-21 record as a head coach. But as a coach on the field, his resume speaks for itself, particularly when it comes to his work at the college level.

Having served as Miami Hurricanes defensive coordinator from 1999-2000, Schiano helped return the team to national prominence while overseeing a defense with no shortage of future NFL Pro Bowl talent.

That was enough to land him the head coaching job at Rutgers in 2001, with the Scarlet Knights nine years removed from their last winning season and in the midst of a 23-year bowl game drought.

Yet despite it being a seemingly impossible task, Schiano had Rutgers winning again within five seasons, with the Scarlet Knights recording a 5-1 bowl game record from 2005-11. Perhaps more impressively, the New Jersey native turned around the recruiting in Piscataway as well, inking the nation's 28th-ranked class in 2007.

Schiano appears to already be making his pitch to the Buckeyes, according to this picture from BuckeyeGrove.com's Ryan Donnelly:

Having already been attached to head coaching jobs this season, Schiano's stay in Columbus could be a short one, although Meyer typically asks for a two-year commitment when hiring assistant coaches.

In the meantime, his return to the college football ranks will begin by hitting the recruiting trail—although it will be tough to top the catch that his new boss just made.

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. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.