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Urban Meyer’s extension should end any Dabo Swinney-like comments for the foreseeable future
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Dabo Swinney did what he felt he had to do in order to land a 5-star recruit.
According to that 5-star recruit, Jackson Carman, the Clemson coach said that Urban Meyer was “on the back end of his career” in terms of years left. That came as a bit of a surprise considering Swinney was just five years Meyer’s junior.
Call it negative recruiting or whatever you want, but it worked. Carman, the No. 1 recruit in the state of Ohio, signed with Clemson over Ohio State and said that comment wasn’t everything but that it was “an underlying factor” in his decision.
Well, Carman is probably the last recruit that trick should work on.
On Thursday, it was announced that Meyer’s two-year extension to keep him in Columbus through 2022 was approved. Quietly, Meyer got a $1.2 million raise to $7.6 million annually that’ll make him the highest-paid coach in the B1G and the third highest-paid coach in all of college football behind just Swinney and Nick Saban.
I say quietly because even at National Signing Day, Meyer let the media know that an extension would be done soon and that they were just settling on the terms.
To no one’s surprise, the two parties didn’t have much of a need to resist one another. After all, Meyer is an absurd 47-3 in B1G play since arriving in Columbus in 2012. And though he hasn’t been able to recapture the magic from that 2014 team, a 35-5 overall mark (23-3 in B1G play) with three straight top-six finishes wasn’t a sign that he was “on the back end of his career.”
Of course Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith gave Meyer a raise. There were questions about just how much that would be when Smith claimed that Jimbo Fisher’s $75 million guaranteed at Texas A&M was “ridiculous” and that OSU wouldn’t use it as a comparison for Meyer.
By the way, Meyer’s $7.6 million salary just so happens to be slightly above Fisher’s $7.5 million salary. In case you were wondering.
But in all seriousness, the nature of these negotiations and terms suggests the exact opposite of Swinney’s claim. Coaches who see the finish line aren’t open about extensions that haven’t been agreed upon yet. No recruit should have any reason to believe that Meyer won’t be in Columbus at least through 2022 and beyond.
Nobody would be surprised if he got a couple extra years tacked on after 2019. That’s the way things work. Ironically enough, it’s all for recruiting. It’s so Swinney can’t come into Ohio and say, “Ya know, Jackson. I’m not sure if you’ve seen but Meyer is only under contract through 2020. He’s been a head coach for 17 years and he’s already quit once…”
Nothing about that hypothetical comment from Swinney was #FakeNews. Adding in a line about Meyer being on “the back end of his career” probably isn’t wrong, either. Technically, Meyer coaching for another decade would mean that right now, he’s on the “back end” of his career.
Still, you don’t say something like that without trying to send an obvious message. That is, there’s no guarantee that Meyer will be there when you graduate, kid.
Now, Meyer is at least under contract to see all four or even five years of his 2018 class. In all likelihood, Smith will give Meyer a raise every couple years to make sure that he’s still one of the top 3-4 highest-paid coaches in America. That’s because even though the last three years didn’t end in a national title, Meyer doesn’t look like someone who’s slowing down.
He’s still expected to win the B1G, earn a Playoff spot and crank out a top-2 recruiting class on a yearly basis, regardless of who he loses early to the NFL draft. That’s about all you can ask for.
Meyer, Swinney and Saban are all at that level. Throw in Kirby Smart, who’s the youngest of them all. There’s a realistic chance that those four coaches could take turns winning national titles for another decade. We might not see any of them slow down.
Of course crazy things can happen. It is college football. Nobody in their right mind thought at this time last year that Fisher would leave Florida State after 2017 for Texas A&M.
But given his relationship with Smith, Meyer staying in Columbus for the foreseeable future looks like as safe of a bet as there is. Maybe coaches will continue to suggest that another Florida-like breakdown is on the horizon or that at age 53, Meyer’s best days are behind him.
For now, though, that looks like a bunch of #FakeNews.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.