Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer and OSU athletic director Gene Smith announced an extension to Meyer’s coaching contract on Wednesday.
The discussions for a contract extension began when reports of negative recruiting against the Buckeyes came out, specifically with rumors that Meyer would not be coaching at Ohio State much longer.
“I don’t know where that’s coming from,” Meyer said on Wednesday. “That’s never come from me and we’re going to sign an extension here soon because the university has been good enough to extend something to me.
“And so I think that that’s all down the road news, but I plan on — I feel great and I don’t know, once again, for someone to bring that up in recruiting, I don’t, that’s easy to fight against because it’s not true. So I don’t know where — how many more years are you going to coach and all that, I feel fantastic. The program’s healthy and we’re going, so — and I’m going to, I’m going to get some more years put on my contract.”
Smith said on Wednesday that they are in the process of adding a two-year extension to Meyer’s contract, and it has been approved by OSU president Dr. Michael Drake to move forward.
“The decision hasn’t yet been approved by the board and will go to the board in April,” Smith said. “There will also be a recommendation on his salary. The extension will be for two years, making it five years total for his contract.”
Smith also said that they are in the process of looking at assistant coaches’ salaries and contracts. He said that he received approval from President Drake to increase their salaries, one will even break the $1 million barrier for the first time, though he wouldn’t say which assistant that would be.
Meyer’s contract salary will not put him in the realm of Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher, however. Smith has recently expressed his feelings on salaries getting out of hand.
The decision to extend Meyer’s contract was addressed after the Cotton Bowl. Smith said he heard the rumors and decided to bring it up to Meyer to alleviate some of those concerns. He said that what people were thinking and saying in regard to how long Meyer will stay is huge in recruiting and is a big focus.
“Anytime someone goes south of four years, that’s when you have the challenges that we have now,” Smith said. “Once we got south of that four years, it’s typical, I don’t care where you are, for that issue to come up about he’s not going to be there when you’re a senior.”
This fear played a role in one recruitment process when Ohio State was unable to secure the commitment from 5-star offensive tackle recruit Jackson Carman. When Carman was asked about his decision, he was told by Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney that Meyer would soon be retiring because he is on the back end of his career.
Meyer assured everyone that he is not leaving coaching at Ohio State anytime soon and the actions by Smith further guaranteed that there should be no concern when it comes to whether or not Urban Meyer will be the coach throughout a recruit’s college career.