Ohio State learned its bowl fate on Sunday afternoon, along with the rest of the college football teams that earned a postseason bid. And though the Buckeyes were denied a College Football Playoff bid, they do have a really interesting Cotton Bowl matchup against USC.

Sunday night, both Urban Meyer and Clay Helton were on the Cotton Bowl coaches teleconference to talk about this head-to-head clash that features the No. 5 Buckeyes and No. 8 Trojans.

Most of the conversation was spent complimenting each others team and talking about the tremendous matchup we’ll see on Dec. 30. But Helton had a few more things to say about Meyer and the impact he has had on college football.

“The guy’s a legend,” Helton said of Meyer. “As a young coach coming up, I think all of us tried to model ourselves after coach Meyer.”

Helton also complimented Meyer for the strong bonds he builds with his players and says he tries to “emulate” that at USC.

Both Meyer and Helton were hoping to be in the College Football Playoff conversation on Selection Sunday, but the committee opted to give Alabama the No. 4 spot.

Still, both coaches should be pleased about this Cotton Bowl matchup. This will be one of the marquee bowl games in college football and could serve as a springboard into the 2018 season.