Let’s be clear. Urban Meyer is a jerk. With Ohio State up by 15 points with mere seconds left in the national championship game last night and his offense on Oregon’s 2 yardline, he chose to not run out the clock by taking a knee and instead to try to score. Aaaaand the Buckeyes won 42-20 –– despite his arrogance. In executing plays, he risked a fumble, a fumble that could have been returned for 6. And then the onside kick, and then who the hell knows! Now. Did that pompous ass have a point? Grrr. Yes. Yes, I must admit, he did.
First, a little quick background. Meyer went from winning two national championships with the Florida Gators to some sort of unexplained illness to taking over OSU after the former coach, Jim Tressel (whose Youngstown State team I played against in college, Brian “King Troll” Martin), was bounced after his players were caught *gasp!* exchanging Buckeye memorabilia for tattoos. Sigh. Anyway, though an SEC guy, Meyer is from the mean streets of suburban Ohio, and as his new program was in transition, boy, didn’t the SEC and the Pac-12 get beyond-good? They sure did, and pretty much every talking head in existence not only wrote off every other conference but also went out of his or her way to disparage the Big 10. And you know every blue chipper was listening. (ESPN is a monopoly. OK, a monopoly lite.) Well, good ol’ civically proud Urban apparently didn’t like that too much, and so when the time came for him to pile on the points and make a point, he took advantage.
A quick Google search will reveal a fun fact. During the regular season, when, unfortunately, style points matter, Oregon won by an average of 26 and, versus South Dakota, by 49. Do we know when in games all of those Duck touchdowns and field goals came? No, and, believe me, two months from now –– heck, two days from now –– not many people will remember how Ohio State’s last score went down. All we will recall is 42-20. And Meyer knows that. And he also, wisely, knows that, got-dangit, if you keep losing recruits to the south and west, you’re not going to have a job very much longer (and your local economies are going to suffer). I don’t know for sure, of course, but I can guess, and my guess is that all of those big, fast, and big/fast highs school studs who normally gravitate toward the Alabamas and LSUs of the world are going to give serious consideration to business envelopes emblazoned with the return address of The Ohio State University that arrive in their mailboxes.
All of those big, fast, and big/fast kids just have to ask themselves one simple question:
Do I want to spend the best years of my life in the cold, rainy, snowy, gray, cold, soul-destroying, cold, heartbreaking (have I said “cold”?) Rust Belt or in the m’fuckin’ suuuuunshiiine, yeee-ah?!
Meyer still has a lot of work ahead of him.
I don’t think you could say Meyer is from the “means street of suburban Ohio” even if it is in jest. Makes no sense on any level. He grew up in Ashtabula Ohio. Use to be a busy Great Lakes port, but not any more and really hasn’t been in his lifetime. Population 19,000. 60 Miles from Cleveland. 50 miles from Erie PA. Nothing around it. Not a suburb. Not mean streets. And the term “Rust Belt” is out of fashion now. Should be back in about 20 years.
A Dan McGraw sighting! Hooray!