Big Ten Spotlight: Hard for me to say, but Urban Meyer deserves props

It’s still echoing in my head, two days later.

“If not now, when?”

We all wrote off Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes. Many were Johnny-come-lately’s, but I was on that bandwagon back in the summer, when I picked Michigan — and not the favorite, Ohio State — to win the Big Ten. It was time. Now.

I was the outlier then, maybe just one of six or seven or so on average who were leaning toward the Wolverines. And throughout Michigan’s 10-game winning streak and a month of struggles by Ohio State, I was firmly convinced that Michigan was going to win “The Game” on Saturday.

And I was so wrong, for one very obvious.

That would be Mr. Urban Frank Meyer III.

I have to admit that in the non-writing gaps in my life, I’ve always been a big college football “fan” too. I’ve sent two kid through Florida State and have been a Seminoles fans for years and years. So when Urban Meyer was hired at Florida and beat “us” five years in a row, I gnashed my teeth over the man and what he did in running Florida’s program. I was glad when he walked away, and “we” then proceeded to win seven of the next eight games in the series.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Harbaugh family, and I’ve rooted for Jim for years — and John and Jack and Joani, and her husband, Tom Crean — because of his time in getting to know him when he quarterbacked at Michigan, then the Bears and Colts in the NFL. So I root for Michigan against Ohio State now, though it used to be the other way around.

Meyer is a great coach, but I still don’t like his smugness and his willingness to take marginal characters, especially at Florida.

I didn’t like his handling of this whole Zach Smith thing, and I didn’t think a three-game suspension was enough.

And when Ohio State played so horribly for a month, I thought the players were packing it in. Meyer doesn’t feel well, and I really thought this season was going to come to a crashing halt.

But I was so, so wrong.

Meyer and his coaching staff had a perfect game plan for beating Michigan and they completely outcoached Harbaugh and his staff. And what Meyer does best is getting his players to play at a fever pitch in the most important moments.

They did that Saturday, and hung 62 on Michigan. Yep, 62! The most-ever in this rivalry.

“I’m extremely proud of our players, the way they’ve fought through it,” Meyer said. “And like someone was saying, nothing’s ever good enough. Obviously, we had some adversity earlier in the year — not some, but big-time adversity. And to come back against your rival and play like that, that’s a focused team that loves each other and cares about each other.”

Meyer knows how to beat his rivals. He was 16-2 at Florida against Florida State, Tennessee and Georgia. He’s 38-5 in his career counting his time at Ohio State against Michigan, Penn State and Michigan State and Utah against BYU and Utah State.

The big moments? It’s Meyer time, as much as I hate to say it.

Ohio State wide receiver Parris Campbell knew his coaches had them ready.

“We’re never going to give up no matter what anybody on the outside says,” Campbell said. “We’ve been through tons of adversity all year. We’ve heard the doubt. We’ve heard the hate. But we stay in tune with ourselves. We stay close and keep swinging, and today was the result of everything we’ve been through.

“From my viewpoint, I felt like we could do anything we wanted on offense,” Campbell said. “We had momentum. We were rolling. Everything was open, and going into the second half, we carried that and rolled with it.”

Next up for Ohio State is the Big Ten Championship Game against Northwestern on Saturday night in Indianapolis. There’s a potential playoff spot available after that. So he’s going right back to work, and his players are coming along for the ride.

“I’m going to be really hard on everybody this week,” Meyer said. “We cannot see anything other than the same effort we gave last week.

“When you start using terms like national championship and playoffs, that’s very rare air. That’s why we have a job to do, and that’s to get ready for our Tuesday practice and go win the Big Ten championship and worry about that down the road.”

Tom Brew

Tom Brew has been a recognized reporter in Big Ten sports for decades. Among other projects, he writes about Big Ten football for Saturday Tradition.