|
|
|
|
Meyer to take OSU job
By buckeyegrove.com
Arguably the most successful current coach in college football, Urban
Meyer will be announced as the 24th head coach of the Ohio State
football program Monday afternoon, BuckeyeGrove.com has learned.
Meyer comes to Ohio State after a year of broadcasting college football
for ESPN. Prior to his sabbatical, Meyer was the head coach at Florida
for six seasons where he won two national championships - one a 41-14
win against Ohio State - and two SEC titles.
“He’s a Hall of Fame coach,” former Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti
said after Meyer’s retirement last season. “What he’s accomplished, two
national championships, the undefeated season at Utah, just some
amazing things. When he had it going he was playing and coaching as
good a football as there was in college.”
In December of 2009, Meyer retired from Florida, citing health
concerns, before changing his mind the next day. Following the 2009 SEC
Championship Game, Meyer was hospitalized with chest pains, an issue
that turned out to be esophageal spasms.
He returned to coach the Gators in 2010, but the passion was gone and
Florida limped to an 8-5 record. When Meyer stepped down for good
following the 2010 season, he left open the possibility of returning to
the sideline but said it was not going to happen in the near future.
His health and family were the main priorities.
Meyer, 47, and his wife, Shelley, have three children. Their two
daughters play college volleyball, one at Georgia Tech and the other at
Florida Gulf Coast. They also have a son in middle school.
Meyer inherits an Ohio State program that has been under siege since
December of 2010. The 2011 season was overshadowed by NCAA violations
and the departure of former head coach Jim Tressel and quarterback
Terrelle Pryor. Six players were involved in a memorabilia-for-tattoos
scandal and suspended from one to five games.
Luke Fickell was elevated to the head coaching position in June after
Tressel’s resignation. He led to the Buckeyes to a 6-6 regular season,
which ended Saturday with a 40-34 loss to arch-rival Michigan.
Ohio State had subsequent violations and suspensions involving now
disgraced Cleveland area booster Bobby DiGeronimo. The issues led the
NCAA to levy a “failure to monitor” charge against the athletic
department, the second-most serious charge that can be levied against a
school.
After going before the Committee on Infractions in August, Ohio State
received a second notice of allegations to which it has responded. The
NCAA ruling is expected in the near future.
Ohio State has already vacated the 2010 season, paid back $339,000 in
bowl revenue, been placed on two years’ probation and given up five
scholarships over the next three years.
Meyer took over a downtrodden Florida program in 2005 that had lost at
least four games in its previous three seasons under former head coach
Ron Zook. Meyer tallied a 36-12 conference record at the helm of the
Gators, the best in the SEC during that stretch. He also reached 50
wins faster than any SEC coach in the conference’s history.
“Because of what Steve Spurrier did for an extended period of time (12
years, six SEC championships), he will always be Florida’s greatest
coach,” Tony Barnhart, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution
and authority on all things SEC, said. “Meyer’s legacy will be the two
national championships and the family atmosphere that he and Shelley
built around this program.”
Meyer accumulated one of the best home records in the country during
his six seasons in Gainesville, leading the Gators to a 57-10 mark at
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. He also led Florida to a 5-1 record against
arch-rival Florida State.
Meyer has only been a head coach for 10 seasons. In that decade,
though, he accomplished as much as anyone ever has in the sport in that
amount of time. His achievements include being the first coach to win
two BCS titles and being named the national coach of the year on three
separate occasions and at multiple schools.
Meyer’s overall record is 104-23. His winning percentage of 81.9 is the
highest among active coaches with at least five years’ experience.
Interestingly, he is 7-1 in bowl games with the lone loss coming to
Michigan. A master recruiter, Meyer recruited and coached one of
college football’s greatest players in 2008 Heisman Trophy winner Tim
Tebow.
In two seasons at Bowling Green, Meyer was 17-6, including a perfect
5-0 against BCS schools. Meyer’s teams also defeated two ranked
opponents.
His famed spread offense got its start in Bowling Green. In 2002, they
finished third in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 40.8 points
per game. The Falcons, who became the highest scoring team in MAC
history, also finished ninth in the nation in total offense - 448.9
yards per game - and 11th in rushing offense - 219.1 yards per game.
Bowling Green was the only team in the nation to average at least 215
yards rushing and 215 yards passing per game.
A native of Ashtabula, Ohio, Meyer was a 13th-round draft pick of the
Atlanta Braves in the 1982 Major League Baseball Draft. He spent two
seasons in the Braves organization as a shortstop before opting for
another career.
Meyer was a defensive back for the University of Cincinnati in 1984. He
spent one season in 1985 at perennial powerhouse Saint Xavier High
School in Cincinnati coaching defensive backs before attending Ohio
State, where he earned a master’s degree in sports management. While at
Ohio State, Meyer served as a graduate assistant under Earle Bruce.
“I’ve never seen a coach so deep into (the game),” Bruce told Sports
Illustrated about Meyer in 2010. “Some coaches bitch about the hours
you put in, but the guys who like football don’t; they only bitch about
wasting hours. When it came time to recruit? He brought in more good
players than anybody we had there.”
Meyer then moved on to Illinois State to coach outside linebackers,
wide receivers and quarterbacks under Jim Heacock for two years before
being reunited with Bruce at Colorado State. Meyer spent six seasons in
Fort Collins coaching wide receivers. He then moved into the same
position at Notre Dame for five years until he got the call from
Bowling Green.
“My dad is first, Earle is second,” Meyer said about his mentors in the
SI profile. “He’s the ultimate man’s man, the ultimate person of
integrity and character, doing what’s right, teaching you how to be
faithful to your wife, being a good father.”
Meyer has coached under Bruce, Heacock, Sonny Lubick, Lou Holtz and Bob
Davie.
|
|
|
|
