COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Urban Meyer-era at Ohio State is coming to an end as the Rose Bowl will be Meyer’s last game as Ohio State’s head coach after a successful seven-season tenure in charge of the Buckeyes. Ryan Day will be elevated to the head coach position after the game and will lead the Buckeyes into 2019 and beyond.
Meyer's record speaks for itself with the Buckeyes, three Big Ten titles, two trips to the College Football Playoff and a 2014 National Championship all along with an 82-9 overall record including a 7-0 record against Michigan.
The Buckeyes have sent player after player after player to the NFL under Meyer's watch including the draft class of 2016, a class that saw two Buckeyes (Joey Bosa, Zeke Elliott) go in the top-five and five go in the top-20.
2018 was a tumultuous season for Meyer and the Buckeyes, a season that really started to become abnormal when allegations of former wide receivers coach Zach Smith and his dealings with his ex-wife started to surface. The result of that investigation drew a three-game suspension for Meyer to start the season, a time where Day stepped into the head coaching role for the Buckeyes in Meyer's absence.
Then Meyer would see his best defensive player, Nick Bosa, injured during the TCU game, a game where Meyer was not in attendance as the third game of his suspension. That would change the complexion of the team for the rest of the season.
Meyer would return in week four and the Buckeyes would get back into the swing of things but his 2018 team just never seemed to have the defensive chops of his previous teams and that would come home to roost in the game at Purdue, Ohio State's only loss of the season but a bad one at that, by 29 points.
Ohio State was never able to overcome that loss in the eye of the College Football Playoff committee and despite winning the Big Ten this year, Ohio State found itself No. 6 in the final CFP rankings, and off to the Rose Bowl.
Little did Ohio State fans know that this would end up being Meyer's final season and the Rose Bowl his final game. It had become well-documented that Meyer had been dealing with a cyst issue in his head that had brought him great discomfort through the years and it appears now that medication alone is not getting the job done on headaches that are triggered by extreme stress, something that coaching is synonymous with.
Ohio State's upcoming trip to the Rose Bowl will be Urban Meyer's first game as head coach at the Granddaddy of them All. It almost seems fitting that he gets to check this last accomplishment off of his bucket list of games but does not feel right that he does not have a chance to win a fourth National Championship as a result of the game.
As a native Ohioan, Meyer understands the significance of the Rose Bowl, especially in terms of Ohio State lore.
"I remember watching the Rose Bowl and watching the Rose Bowl Parade, and Woody Hayes and the great players of the Buckeyes going out there," Meyer said during a Sunday news conference after the Ohio State bowl destination had been announced. "I dreamt of it. We came close a few times. I know Florida one time I thought we were close to going. Then here in '14 I thought we were going. There was one other time that I thought we were going, and we didn't. And no disrespect to the other Bowl games, because they're awesome, but the Rose is the one we've always looked forward to."
Meyer will go down as one of the best to ever coach once it is all said and done. His overall record of 186-32 is staggering and Meyer-led teams have made bowl games every season of his career from the moment he took his second head coaching job at Utah to now, save 2012, a year where the Buckeyes were unable to go to a bowl game due to NCAA sanctions.
What may be even more impressive is the record of 54-4, Meyer's record in Big Ten regular season games with the Buckeyes. Meyer has never lost more than one regular league game in a season with the Buckeyes, and started his Ohio State career with three perfect 8-0 league records.
There will always be the 'what-if' when it comes to those four losses. A loss this season to Purdue this season absolutely kept the Buckeyes out of the CFP and a loss last season to Iowa likely kept the Buckeyes out as well. While Meyer's legacy will be remembered as one of the all-time greats, the Buckeyes came oh-so-close a couple of more times to getting into the playoff. That will be left for a discussion another day.
There will be a press conference at 2pm today with Ohio State Director of Athletics Gene Smith, Meyer and Day. We will learn a lot more about what went into this decision, the timing and the future of the Buckeyes at that time. Keep it here at BuckeyeGrove.com as we will have full coverage of the event.
