Urban Meyer Hired: Why Ohio State Will Win 2013 BCS Championship

The worst kept secret in the college football coaching carousel became a reality this evening as Ohio State introduced Urban Meyer as its next head football coach. Meyer grew up in Toledo and worked as a graduate assistant at Ohio State before moving into the head coaching ranks 10 years ago. 

Meyer brings the best pedigree possible for a lateral coaching hire with two national championships, a 4-0 BCS bowl record, and more than an 81 percent win percentage to Columbus.

Meyer is already making some correct moves in Columbus by announcing that he will retain Luke Fickell on his staff following a tough year at the helm for Fickell.

Fickell was named the assistant coach of the year just two years ago and led the dominant Buckeye defense for the past five years before taking over for Jim Tressel this weekend.  T

he deck was stacked against him, yet he led the team through a troubled season to a respectable 6-6 finish.

Fickell fills a need that Meyer cannot immediately fill on the defensive coaching side because most of Meyer's defensive coaches have moved on (Greg Mattison to Michigan, Charlie Strong to Louisville). 

Plus, keeping Fickell on the staff could let him become the coach-in-waiting once again with little risk of another Big Ten rival stealing a good young coach away from the Buckeyes.

Meyer is already having an immediate impact on the recruiting trail, which was the one big loss sustained since Tressel retired on Memorial Day weekend. Expect Meyer to bring in a big class of his style of athletes for 2013, which is also the year that Meyer will bring a national title back to Columbus.

Ohio State fans should be familiar with the script after watching Tressel win a national championship in his second season. A new coach comes in and brings a couple recruiting classes to go with a talented stock of players already at Columbus, and success ensues. 

Many coaches have followed this path to success in their second year all over college football, but at a place like Ohio State, the sky is the limit.

2013 also shapes up nicely on the schedule after the Buckeyes are able to remove Michigan State and Nebraska from the cross-division schedule. Next year Ohio State must still play the best three teams in the opposite division, which could cause similar problems as this year.  The Spartans and the Cornhuskers will be replaced by Iowa and Northwestern, a far more manageable conference schedule.

Additionally, the current 11 games on the 2013 schedule are all fairly easy, outside of a season closing game at Ann Arbor. Wisconsin, Penn State and Iowa all must come to Columbus, and the Buckeyes will only face a moderately touch road schedule against California, Northwestern, Purdue and Illinois. 

The schedule ramps up nicely to the game against Wisconsin and then sets up for an easy finish with Illinois and Indiana leading into the Michigan game. Thus, the Buckeyes should be well rested for the Big Game.

Meyer will be able to maximize the new recruits he finds, as well as the great young talent that had to step up with all the injuries and suspensions to upperclassmen this season. The defense should be loaded with Ryan Shazier entering his junior year at linebacker and Jonathan "Big Hank" Hankins anchoring the defensive line as a senior. 

The offense will be a strength under Meyer, and they will have a banner season with Braxton Miller as a junior throwing to much-more-experienced receivers Corey Brown and Chris Fields.  Running backs Carlos Hyde and Rod Smith will also take over that side of the offense with two years of experience on the field. 

Assuming some talent and speed comes in to supplement these players, the Ohio State offense will be tough to stop in 2013.

Although the radical adjustment in schemes between the conservative Tresselball and Meyer's game plans will take a while for the team to get used to, two full offseasons and the 2012 regular season will be enough time for the evolving spread offense to work its way into full form at Ohio State. 

Considering the addition of great running backs to the wide open Meyer offense, the Buckeyes will threaten defenses on all fronts.

The one overriding concern is how much Meyer can work to win national championships after working to his health's detriment at Florida. However, Meyer sounds like a changed man and is now in his dream job, which will allow him a chance to relax a little bit despite the high expectations. 

In any event, Meyer will likely not burn himself out in just a year or two, so the Buckeyes will have the coach well rested and in his prime right away.

Just like many other second-year head coaches, Meyer will have a huge splash in his second year at Columbus. Unlike other second year coaches, Meyer has a team with enough talent and intangibles to reach the pinnacle once again in just his second year in the Big Ten.

If nothing else, the Big Ten just gained a huge credibility boost. Assuming Penn State and Illinois also make solid hires, the conference should be back in the national title mix quickly. But the first of those national titles will be delivered in 2013 to the Ohio State Buckeyes.