With two national titles and two undefeated seasons on his resume, Urban Meyer isn’t expected to just do a good job at Ohio State. He needs to win a national title for the Buckeyes, better sooner than later.
The 12-0 season in 2012 wasn’t planned. On his first year, Meyer still hasn’t showed all of that he can bring through recruitment, while waiting for Braxton Miller to continue his development and hopefully keep him for 2014 as well. Not a lot of people believe Meyer has enough talent under his hands to win a national title with Ohio State, presumably considerably weaker than the best teams in the SEC, but an undefeated season in the weak Big Ten isn’t too far fetched, and there’s always the second year syndrome when it comes to Meyer.
What is that? Meyer’s influence needs about a year to resonate with his players and his programs, but after the first season, which was much better than expected in Columbus, there’s only one more win (or actually two, including playing for the conference title) that could make 2013 even better.
Meyer, only 48, but on his fourth head coaching job, spent two seasons as the head coach at Bowling Green in the MAC. In that tenure he reached an overall record of 17-6, including 9-3 on his second season with the Falcons. Shortly afterwards he left to Utah. Bowling Green did win 11 games the next season under Gregg Brandon.
At Utah, it was pretty much the same. He finished with a 10-2 record on his first season, winning the MWC title. The next season, Utah were one of the three undefeated teams in the nation, but being a “small” school from a non-AQ conference, they had to settle for the Fiesta Bowl and not playing for the national championship. Those two years with the Utes were enough to put Meyer with a big program, moving on to Florida.
In Gainesville, Meyer had an incredible time, winning two national titles with Tim Tebow at the helm, three seasons of 13-1 and a total record of 65-15, including 5-1 in bowl games and 3-0 in BCS Bowl games. His first season was a 9-3 one, but after assembling the right crew around his type of quarterback, the second season ended with a national title, beating Ohio State.