The Ohio State Buckeyes are champions of the inaugural College Football Playoff. For those who wrote the Big Ten off in week two, let that just sink in a little bit. For those who were convinced OSU had no chance against the champion of the Southeastern Conference in the Sugar Bowl, let that sink in a little more. For those that were in complete denial that this team could upend a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback with a player in Cardale Jones making only his third career start at that position, I guess you weren’t the only one in the world with that sentiment.
In the end, what transpired on Monday night and into the early hours of Tuesday morning was the culmination of a national championship run of unprecedented proportions. You’ll be hard pressed to find any team in the history of college football whose quarterback situation was as fraught with uncertainty on multiple occasions the way Ohio State’s was. Sure, the defense was physically dominant and the Buckeyes gradually wore Oregon down at the line of scrimmage, but ultimately they got it done with someone who was third on the depth chart before the season started.
At the forefront of it all was Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer, who secured his third national title by virtue of the 42-20 victory over Oregon, tying a handful of legendary names in the college coaching profession that includes Bernie Bierman (Minnesota), Bud Wilkinson (Oklahoma), John McKay (USC) and Barry Switzer (Oklahoma). He joins current Alabama coach Nick Saban (you’ve heard of him, right?) as the only men to have won championships at multiple schools. Only Saban, Frank Leahy (four titles with Notre Dame) and the venerable Bear Bryant (five with Alabama) have more.
It all seemed to come together at the right time for the Scarlet and Gray. Meyer has repeatedly stressed the need to peak at the right time, particularly from the standpoint of being at your physical and mental best at game time. It’s a concept that can aptly be described as “easier said than done” yet based on the trajectory this team has followed down the stretch it appears to have translated to the season as a whole.
It’s not my intention to attempt to break down the details of Ohio State’s victory, but rather to attempt to ascertain whether or not this triumph for the Big Ten as a whole and the Buckeyes in particular is part of a paradigm shift of sorts in college football. Obviously when Meyer was hired, the objective for this program was to contend for and win national championships. Now that it’s been done for the first time in 12 years, what does the future hold? Is this an isolated incident so to speak or can we expect to see the Buckeyes figuring prominently in the College Football Playoff for years to come?
I know that I brought out a certain word in the title of my article that immediately might have you rolling your eyes at the mere suggestion that the OSU program is headed into that territory. The term dynasty in the world of sports is generally reserved for those special teams who established a multi-year period of not just winning a bunch of games, but adding championship trophies to their names. Obviously, this is the first title during the Urban Meyer era in Columbus, but there are factors indicating to me that more could be on the way in the future if the right things happen.
Let’s just take a look at what Meyer has done so far since he was named head coach of the Buckeyes. In his first season at the helm, they went 12-0 in the regular season but were ineligible for postseason play on account of the “Tattoogate” scandal that brought down his predecessor Jim Tressel. In the absence of those sanctions, they would’ve faced a Nebraska team in the Big Ten title game that ended up conceding 70 points to Wisconsin who entered the game with a 7-5 record. A win there would’ve likely seen Ohio State face Notre Dame for the national championship that year.
Last season, the Buckeyes once again finished the regular season unblemished. Had they not lost 34-24 to former Ohio State assistant Mark Dantonio and Michigan State, Florida State would’ve probably faced off with OSU in Pasadena for the final championship trophy of the BCS era instead of one-loss Auburn.
With his third season as head coach complete, these are the numbers: 41 games coached with an overall record of 38-3, a Big Ten regular season record of 24-0, topping it off with a conference title and the first championship trophy of the playoff era. Plus, it could be argued however far-fetched it may seem that Meyer could’ve appeared in college football’s title game in all three seasons so far for the Buckeyes.
Meyer’s recruiting philosophy is well-suited to sustaining this kind of success over long periods of time. Nowadays, kids coming out of high school, especially the four and five-star recruits, aren’t interested in redshirting. They’re chomping at the bit to make immediate contributions to the schools they commit to.
Leading up to Monday’s game, Meyer’s comments on this aspect of the game were telling. “We don’t redshirt. It’s not like we are going to say, hey, let’s save them for the ’17 year and let’s have a heck of a year. You can’t do that now because they are all gone, any ways, after three. If you’re a great player, you’re gone, so play them,” Meyer remarked.
Even though the two quarterbacks he used in 2014, Jones and J.T. Barrett, don’t fit this description, a handful of players instrumental to this title run came onto campus ready to not only get on the field immediately but assume starting roles very early on in their college careers. Examples include wide receiver/hybrid back Jalin Marshall and linebacker Raekwon McMillan, both true freshmen this year, as well as sensational defensive end Joey Bosa who collected numerous awards for his play as a true sophomore.
Monday’s triumph is a broad testament to Meyer’s success on the recruiting trail and if his fourth class is any indication, it’s primed to continue. All three of his classes have been rated as consensus top ten by recruiting sites such as Scout and Rivals and 2015’s incoming group of prospects is ranked sixth and seventh respectively by those two outlets.
If the Big Ten was ever going to emerge as a major player on the national scene, it was going to need a school that could extend its reach from a recruiting standpoint. The conference desperately needed to tap into those hotbeds of talent in Florida and Texas to supplement the already existing pipeline in the state of Ohio and throughout the Midwest that leads to Columbus.
Meyer has done this as well as any other coach in the league. Team speed and physicality on defense was a major component of the SEC’s run of dominance over the past decade, and you had to have noticed while watching the game on Monday that the Buckeyes possess elite athletes all over the defensive side of the ball.
Over the past few weeks as well as earlier on in this piece, I’ve continuously harped on the narrative that the balance of power is beginning to shift in college football. Ohio State’s recent string of success that includes the school’s eighth claimed championship is just one of many examples. Jim Harbaugh is coming to coach Michigan and should bring the Wolverine program back towards national relevance. Brian Kelly has returned Notre Dame back to respectability. Oregon disappointment aside, the Pac-12 had the best bowl record amongst the Power Five conferences this year.
Let me emphasize that despite these developments, the SEC is going nowhere. With a national title under their belt, Meyer and company will now have a huge target on their back and should expect to get their opponents’ best shot, especially in the postseason. Fresh off one of the great coaching jobs of all time, the next evolution is to pull a Nick Saban and establish the next great run of dominance in college football.
In this ultra-competitive era of the game which will only increase as a result of the CFP, it’s a daunting proposition that has only been accomplished by a select few. Nevertheless, the Buckeyes have their man to get to the task at hand of making it happen.
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