2011 College Football: Is Urban Meyer to Ohio State a Realistic Possibility?

As soon as the news came down on Memorial Day that Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel had stepped down, rumors began spreading about the future of that job.

Most started and ended with Urban Meyer.

The reasons for that are many: he grew up in Ashtabula, Ohio as a Buckeye fan, he still has family living in the state and, more than anything, he is available.

However, there also are a myriad of reasons why the man who led Florida to two BCS national championships in the span of three years wouldn't want to coach OSU, where he was an assistant during the 1986 and '87 seasons.

First, there is his personal well-being.

Meyer announced he was leaving UF twice (the first for just a day) and each time there were two reasons—he had multiple health scares (which he rarely discusses) and he wanted to spend more time with his family (which he has been open about).

While Meyer—who will turn 47 on July 10—hasn't gone into detail about his physical issues, it's pretty fair to assume they are at least partially stress-related and gave he and his family at least one major scare. And he has acknowledged that when he arrived in Gainesville from Utah in 2005 he had no idea the differences and demands that came with coaching in the nation's toughest conference and in quite possibly the most football-crazed state in the country.

Second, there is OSU itself.

After all, if school administration decides to go a different direction after Luke Fickell leads the Buckeyes as its interim coach in 2011, the new boss won't exactly be walking into the kind of immediate future one expects from The Ohio State University.

It would be stunning if the NCAA didn't tattoo the Buckeyes for repeated violations and cover-ups under Tressel. It won't be pretty, and while many at UF say Meyer "rebuilt" the Gators after Ron Zook's tenure ended, the truth is Zook recruited awfully well and left Meyer with a lot of talent.

Florida just needed the right man to coach those players.

Meticulous, creative and bright, Meyer very well could be the "right man" to fix the mess Tressel is leaving behind. However, with scholarships pulled and television and bowls limited, it is going to be more and more difficult to convince blue chippers to come to Columbus. And Meyer has never been shy about saying that it is the kids in pads, and not the men in headsets, who win championships.

The truth is if Ohio State has any shot to land Meyer, it is best that it won't be going after him right now. The risk does exist he will love being a television analyst more than he possibly could have imagined—and based on his well-known work ethic, he probably will be very good at it.

But if he was willing to leave Florida—arguably the best job in the country—he has no intentions of coaching anywhere in the upcoming season. So, that could—and I stress could—work to the Buckeyes' benefit.

Through the years I have gotten to know Urban and his family somewhat well. In addition to covering his football teams, I also spent a lot of time writing about his oldest daughter, Nicki, an outstanding volleyball player now at Georgia Tech, and some (but not as much) on her younger sister, Gigi, a talented setter who will play for Florida Gulf Coast next year.

I also have shared a few emails and conversations with Urban's wife, Shelley, and I can tell you Nicki and Shelley have very strong opinions about what they would like to see in the future for the man of the Meyer house.

Don't get me wrong, both are very proud of Urban, and I have no doubt they have an understanding as to why Urban-Meyer-to-Ohio-State has been talked up.

But Nicki has been adamant in recent tweets that her father won't be going to OSU, and it's no secret that Nicki and Shelley were perhaps the two most vocal family members pushing Urban to either retire from coaching or at least take a good amount of time off.

To the public, he is "Coach Meyer." To Nicki, he is "Dad." And while Urban admits it took him a while to realize he would rather be defined by what kind of husband and father he is than by how successful he is on the sidelines, he has a clear understanding of that now.

For his part, Meyer issued a statement talking about how he is committed to being a commentator for ESPN. However, it doesn't take any kind of superior intellect to notice he ended his first two sentences with the words "this fall."

So, the door appears to be closed, but not locked.

And who knows what a year of battery recharging could do for Meyer. He loves to win and there is little doubt that will be one of the first things he misses on Saturday afternoons (probably right after the kinship he has developed with his players and staff).

After all, this is a man so competitive that Nicki joked to me in a youtube video interview that her father has been known to cheat in friendly two-on-two volleyball matches she and her former coach at Gainesville's Buchholz High School, Jeff Reavis, would have against Urban and Shelley.

The speculation is going to continue to build up just like the points did when UF throttled OSU, 41-14, for the BCS national championship on Jan. 8, 2007.

But for now until the end of the 2011 season, that's all it is.

Let the man be a husband, father and analyst. Let Luke Fickell coach Ohio State.

And if the Buckeyes lose five or six games next season, let the speculation begin again.