If there’s any question about the dominant sport in America, consider this: On the day the NBA Finals begin and the eve of Stanley Cup Finals game 1, sports pages are consumed with a college football head coaching position. On June 1. Almost three months before the 2011 season begins. Such is life in big-time college football, and Ohio State is about as big-time as it gets.
Ohio State football has gotten itself in a bit of trouble recently. Football players, big hitters and part time players alike, had been trading signed OSU merchandise to the owner of a local tattoo parlor in exchange for free tattoos, money, and marijuana. Here is a detailed timeline of the whole scandal from the Columbus Dispatch. When the story first broke, Coach Jim Tressel denied knowing anything about the scandal but said it would be handled internally. Only through various FIA requests and dogged reporting did Tressel’s complete knowledge of the situation come out. He had been tipped off from the beginning that the tattoo parlor dealings were going on, but he did not notify the NCAA of such violations as he is required to do. When Tressel’s alleged involvement came out, Ohio State suspended Tressel for two games to start the upcoming season. The suspension was then upped to five games to match the bans given to the involved players. When it became apparent that the NCAA was planning to come down hard, Ohio State asked for Tressel’s resignation.
If you don’t follow college football, I’ll give you a heads up: Ohio State is kind of a big deal. The program is fifth all-time in wins, just behind Notre Dame and Nebraska and just ahead of Alabama and Penn State. Under Tressel’s tenure, Ohio State was 106-22 overall, 66-14 in the Big 10 (of which they were champions or co-champions seven times), and played in three BCS national championship games, winning one. They beat Miami to win the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and with it the national championship in one of the best football games I’ve ever seen. Tressel returned Ohio State to consistent national relevance after taking over in 2001.
Ohio State named assistant Luke Fickell, who has coached in various capacities at OSU since 2002, as interim head coach when Tressel’s first suspension was announced. He is the presumed head coach for the 2011 season. For all I know, Fickell may be a nice guy and a good coach. But handing the reins of a program like Ohio State over to a guy with no head coaching experience is a bit like letting your 15 year old take his first spin in your Aston Martin. Ohio State isn’t a program in transition where losses can be afforded while a young coach gets his feet wet. Under Tressel, OSU has dominated recruiting in Ohio (a football state on par with Texas, Florida, California, or Pennsylvania) and expanded throughout the Midwest and southeast. The school will want someone with a similar reach and grasp to Tressel. They’ll want a strong figurehead to usher them through the coming wave of allegations and possible sanctions. Most of all, they’ll want someone who has proven they can win and who is Big Ten (and OHIO) to the core. If only such a coach existed!
Urban Meyer was born in Toledo, Ohio. He played college football at Cincinnati (in Ohio). He started his coaching career as an assistant with Ohio State. His first head coaching job was at Bowling Green in Ohio. His success at Bowling Green (17-6), then at Utah (22-2, won 2005 Fiesta Bowl, and finally at Florida (65-15, two national championships) have put him in the discussion of the best coaches of the generation. He’s also incredibly young for a coach of his stature, turning 47 this summer. Meyer left Florida amidst health reasons and to spend more time with his family. Going to a school with a world-class medical facility in a state where he still has family and friends would seem to cure both of these ailments.
A key difference between coaching at Florida and Ohio State is the dominance each has in its home state. Florida and Ohio are among the hottest hotbeds of high school football, each routinely churning out nationally ranked players. In Florida, UF fights tooth and nail for every recruit. Florida State and Miami are heavy hitters, and even smaller schools like South Florida and Central Florida can poach a recruit every now and then. Adding in that most other SEC schools recruit heavily in the state, and it’s not hard to see why Meyer had health problems.
Ohio State has a built-in recruiting advantage that no other program (except possibly USC) can match. They are the unquestioned dominant program in a state loaded with talent. Other schools recruit in the state, but OSU competes with Iowa and Minnesota not Alabama and LSU. Having the ability to recruit comfortably in his own backyard would be a boon to Meyer’s health and his family time.
Meyer has been very vocal about his family’s input into his coaching career, and many thought it was his wife who ultimately convinced Meyer to “retire” at 46. In his book, released in 2008, Meyer detailed some of the conversations he had with his wife when he first started coaching. In the book, he recalled telling his wife that Notre Dame, Michigan, and Ohio State were the head coaching jobs he’d have to accept no matter what. “If those ever call, then your majority now goes to a 49 percent veto,” he told her.
In 1954, legendary coach Bear Bryant took over the doormat Texas A&M football program. The remarkable turnaround job culminated with A&M beating Texas for the Southwest Conference championship in 1956. But in 1958, Bryant left to return to the team for which he’d played and had his first permanent assistant coaching position – Alabama. Bryant’s stature in Alabama is probably second only to God, and he led the Crimson Tide to six national championships and 232 wins in 25 years as head coach. When asked by the media why he chose to leave the program he’d created at A&M, Bryant simply said “When Mama calls, you just have to come runnin’.”
In the coming days and weeks, Urban Meyer, Ohio State, and ESPN will issue any number of strongly worded statements that no return to coaching is imminent. But rest assured, if Ohio State calls (and they should), Coach Meyer will come runnin’.
