The Expectations of Urban Meyer

I expect at least 3 retirements in the next 5 years

Meant to make this a Diary post.  Also-- I formatted all of the above pics to be small and compact at the top of the page... and Drupal laughed at me like I was a peasant boy at the foot of the king.

Stupid Drupal...

I've said this all along, Meyer will do a great job for them while he's there, but there is absolutely no way he replicates Tressel's success there.  Buckeye fans are going to expect him to be even better than Tressel, but no one could live up to that hype.  The Buckeye dominance of the past decade or so will not happen again for any team for a long, long time.

are getting married in the first picture. And Meyer doesn't scare anyone. We're ready.

I have a very neutral opinion of Urban Meyer.  Good coach, seems like a nice guy.

I expect for him to say something to make me hate him very soon.

Then he won't be winning any MNCs. The bowl ban they SHOULD get will be 2 or 3 years plus scholarship reductions. I don't care who the coach is. He ain't winning any MNCs within 4 or 5 years from now with what osu has coming down the pike.

He'll be successful and leave the school in better shape than when he got there.  I'm assuming that they'll get a pretty lame slap on the wrist from the NCAA, so even with a two year bowl ban, I see them being in the same position that USC is in now.  

He'll be able to recruit kids in Ohio on three things:

1. Tradition
2. Us against the world (RE: Weak NCAA sanctions)
3. Success putting players in the NFL

The only thing that can hurt Urban is if they hit them with scholarship reductions.  If that happens, he might only last four or five years because I don't think he has the patience to rebuild a program.  

...do the sanctions reduce expectations for him? That is, might the fans and administration give him a "mulligan" the first year ir two, depending on the severity of the sanctions?

Not sayin, just sayin

My expectation is that tOhio will lose to Michigan regularly.

That Saban has done it prompts a lot of us to forget how hard it is for college coaches to walk away from programs they built and then reenter the coaching ranks a year or three later.  Everyone talks about Meyer having that oil painting of Woody in his house.  He might want to put another one of Saban up next to it.  Because the alternative scenario is Steve Spurrier (who's having an admittedly good year, but after a bunch of 8-4 mediocrity).  Or Lou Holtz.  And look at the NFL: Parcells isn't sporting a bunch of Super Bowl rings from his stint with the Cowboys, nor Holmgren with the Seahawks, or Gibbs with the 'Skins the 2d time around.  I'm sure there are a zillion other examples.  We all care about this game so much -- too much? -- and that prompts us to look for ready-made super saviors.  But the legends, the guys with statues and stadiums named after them, they tend to be the guys who start with nothing, or near nothing, and put something special together brick by brick.  Your move, Coach Meyer.         

What is it about the BIG attracting coaches ill-equipped to handle the stresses of the job (Dantonio, Meyer, Kill)?

I think he's just doing it for personal reasons.  Has a losing record as a coach against Michigan.  He promised he would avenge St. Tebow's bowl loss.

Todd McShay just got on ESPN and said he expects Ohio to win the Big Ten next year and compete for a national championship the year after.

All of this in the face of upcoming NCAA sanctions (I don't expect much, but still), a 6-6 team, an underwhelming (compared to the Tressel years) incoming recruiting class, and a Michiganesque Michigan. I think Meyer is a good coach, but come on.

Also, he's never beaten Michigan. 

Also, he quit on Florida twice in one year.

Also, his heart and/or head might explode from all the stress.

Chill out, Ohio. Congratulations, but chill out.

Ohio is going to get a lot of media love. It's just the nature of the beast. We are building something here at Michigan. At Ohio, they don't care about building anything, they just want to win. It'll be harder than they think. I'm not sold on that offense playing an entire Big Ten season.

He'll win a bunch of games because virtually every OSU coach wins a bunch of games.  He'll beat UM a couple of times, and vice-versa.  I do think that he'll be out within 5-6 years, especially if his spread offense (funny how OSU fans killed RR for running a type of spread offense while openly rooting for Meyer's new system) fails to ignite the Big 10 and he loses a couple of games.  Meyer's Florida teams won with defense, and so his DC choice will be huge.  If it winds up being Stoops from Arizona, that will hurt the OSU unit that has been the bedrock of that team for over a decade.  

He'll be successful, but we've seen big-time coaches coach at elite programs before and struggled, and Meyer may be no different.  

Meyer has been in line for the OSU job for the past 3 years now. He knew what was going on at OSU, and knew that Tressel would be done shortly. All that health/family time BS was just that - BS. This was his dream job and he did what it took to get that job.

Meyer has lost one bowl game - to Michigan. He does not scare me at all.

All the 'experts' thought Rich Rod would bring UM to new heights. All the 'experts' thought Tressel was not the right hire because he didn't have enough experience. All the 'experts' thought Hoke was in over his head.

Bottom line - finding the right coaching fit is very hard to do. Let's just see how this plays out before we panic.

But how will this affect male grad students at Ohio? They just got some serious competition

I am also concerned with the NCAA becoming lax with OSU due to Meyer's arrival.

Presser is on ESPNEWS/ESPNU now.

original link:  http://menofthescarletandgray.com/2008/01/04/good-coach-bad-coach/

excerpt:

So, you’re the head coach of a team that just played its last game. You’re asked to say a few words to (or about) your seniors – your captains – that have sacrificed so much for your program. Young men that have worked hard for you. Men that could have played for other coaches, but chose you to be their mentor, to be the person that honed their skills, the one they trusted to prepared them for the future.

How do you handle it?

Like Lloyd Carr?

<embedded video of Carr's post-game speech at the Capital One Bowl (YTC1B)>

…or like Urban Meyer?

“Well, for those [seniors] who just put in their time and didn’t make any real contributions, it’s time for you to go. It won’t be hard to say goodbye to some of those guys who just went through the motions.

Now for those kids who actually bought into the program, and who made some sacrifices and contributions — you know, like Bubba Caldwell….he’s a graduate of UF and had a great career — you’ll really miss those guys. But just because you’re a senior doesn’t mean you have any value.”

The differences in coaching couldn’t be more black and white. “Thank you for everything, I’ll always be here for you, I encourage you to finish your degrees,” vs. “You only won one title, and didn’t win enough games, so don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

Oh, the cognitive dissonance.... it hurts.  It hurts so bad....

The only thing he walked away from in Gainsville was not being nearly as good as he was with Tebow.  He knew that run was over.  We also know he wasn't taking the ND job without significant exceptions to their admissions standards.  He looked around and picked the place most likely to let him skirt the rules and succeed.  Let's see if he NCAA has it in them to rein him in.  If he has to play fair Ohio is in for a big disapointment.

And oh yeah, that's JMO :)

It’s been 1427 days since Michigan last beat Urban Meyer.

Actually the best that could be said about the tOSU situation is that we have a short time frame to take advantage of this situation for recruiting, and to give Hoke a chance to get us in the (good) news instead of them. So far he's done all that can be expected. Hes done a great recruiting class, given us a 10-2 season, and attracted a lot of attention. He should be the leader in the " Coach of the year" award. The only thing he has yet to do is win a bowl game, but that would be asking a lot. We've made as much hay as possible here while tosu has sufferred. Given the incredible advantages any coach has at tosu, we must assume Meyer will be successful. Given the NCAA's inconsistency ( USC vs how they treat the SEC ), I expect NO meaningful punishment.

The Axis power must be defeated.  So go rent the movie "Patton" and take from it your instructions.  I'll personally shoot that paper-hanging sumbitch Urban Meyer if the troops have enough gasoline to get me there.  Hell, I'll grease the treads of my tanks with the Borens if they let me.  And there is plenty of grease down Columbus Way.  Trust me on this latter contention, it's why WhiteCastle headquarters down there - abundant grease.  Urban Meyer will absorb the greasiness and get relegated down to his paper-hanging greasiness by the rest of that institution.  Now, Wolverines, go and make Patton proud.

while we've all heard whisperd rumors about Urban Meyer's affairs with grad students at the University of Florida, there in no substantiated evidence that  URBAN MEYER CHEATED ON HIS WIFE WITH 5 COEDS WHILE AT FLORIDA.

More heart issues. I hope he does ok as far as health goes. Sorry, I am not sorry.