Urban Meyer will step down as Ohio State’s head football coach, effective at the end of the 2018 season.
Offensive coordinator Ryan Day will take over as the new head coach, effective on January 2, 2019.
The move doesn’t come as a shock – there had been significant speculation about Meyer’s future in the wake of health concerns, and the University’s response to the Zach Smith situation.
Still, it marks the end of the most successful era in Ohio State football history.
Following the Big Ten Championship Game, Meyer is 82-9 as the Buckeyes’ head coach, not counting the team’s 3-0 start during his suspension in 2018.
He won at least a share of the divisional title in all seven seasons with the program, finishes with a 7-0 record against arch-rival Michigan, a 3-1 mark in Big Ten Championship Games, and a 4-2 record in bowl and Playoff games.
His 2012 team finished the season a perfect 12-0, but was barred from postseason play due to NCAA infractions during the Jim Tressel era.
In 2013, he stretched his winning streak to a school-record 24 games before an upset loss to Michigan State in the 2013 Big Ten Championship game derailed the Buckeyes’ national title hopes.
It finally came together for him the following season. OSU overcame an early-season loss to Virginia Tech to run off 13 straight wins, including a 59-0 blowout of Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game, a 42-35 win over Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinal, and a 42-20 win over Oregon in the national championship game.
That would be the peak of the Meyer era at Ohio State, although no one knew it at the time.
His 2015 team was loaded with stars from the national championship season, but sputtered through an uneven year. Michigan State again played spoiler on a cold, raw evening in late November. The Buckeyes rebounded to pound Michigan and new head coach Jim Harbaugh, 42-13 and beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.
The 2016 Buckeyes looked dominant at times, but suffered a fluky loss at Penn State on a blocked field goal that was run back for a touchdown. They rebounded to win out the rest of their regular season games, including a dramatic 30-27 double-overtime showdown in a No. 2 vs. No. 3 battle with Michigan.
Despite losing a tie-breaker to Penn State for a berth in the Big Ten Championship Game, the Buckeyes earned a spot in the College Football Playoff anyway. However, they suffered the worst loss of the Meyer era in that game, falling 31-0.
The 2017 team rebounded to win the Big Ten Championship and the Cotton Bowl, but the season was marred by a blowout loss at Iowa.
The Buckeyes were expected to be national championship contenders again in 2018, but in July, a scandal broke involving wide receivers coach Zach Smith. Meyer was put on paid administrative leave and missed all of fall camp.
Although an Ohio State investigation ultimately cleared Meyer of the most significant allegations against him, he was still suspended for the first three games of the 2018 season.
The team got off to a hot start, but didn’t fully hit its stride for most of the year.
It struggled to close wins over teams like Indiana, Minnesota, and Maryland, but pulled it all together to destroy Michigan, 62-39 in the regular season finale.
That earned the Buckeyes a berth in the Big Ten Championship Game against Northwestern, which it won, 45-24.
Meyer’s career will end in the Rose Bowl.
Thank you for the great 7 years Coach! Good luck and God bless.
God bless the greatest coach in OSU history. Drake should be the one to leave, but that’s another story. Take care, coach, we’ll never forget you.
Coach Meyer by retiring shows what is most important in life….God and family! His faith helped him to persevere in time of trial, his loving and supportive wife through thick and thin. Best wishes for the future. Relax and enjoy some well deserved time off.
Best of everything to the best coach we ever had and we’ve had some great ones!
GO BUCKS
God bless and Thank you for 7 great years. You were a class act. Saw the stress during the year during the unfair media beat down, dealing with the loss of key assistants and the pain showed the most against MD. However, your last two wins are arguably the best two wins of any team in the nation.
His best accomplishments;
*Taking OSU to new heights.
*Winning the first BCS Playoff in convincing fashion.
*Beating the SEC and its signature program, AL.
*Winning three straight games to end 2014 which could be arguably the best and most impressive three game run in OSU’s illustrious history; WI, AL, OR.
*7-0 against TSUN.
*Consistent one or two loss seasons and constant New Year Six or elite Bowl games.
*Setting B1G records for continuous road wins in conference play.
*Outstanding record against Top Ten and ranked teams either at home or on the road.
*Beating, AL, OR, USC, ND, and hopefully WA in top notch post season bowls.
*Winning the B1G back to back and 3 B1G titles.
*Being the signature program of the B1G.
*Placing numerous first and second round and all pro and probably Hall of Famers in the NFL.
*Being a class act in good and bad times.
*Recruiting and coaching and forming class act players.
*Leaving the cupboard fuller then when you came.
When a job stops bringing you the joy it should bring, be it because of health reasons, lousy boss (read – Drake), or the constant drum beat of negativity from the sporting press, it’s okay to leave. Thanks for all the memories Coach – I just wish there would be another 10 years or so of them.
Best of luck, and best of health Coach Meyer. I pray God blesses you and your family while you get to rest.
The first coach at Ohio State in my lifetime who gets to retire on his own terms. Thanks for several years of Grade A Buckeye teams.
Wow, so grateful for what Urban Meyer has meant to this program. Best time to be a Buckeye fan during his tenure and the previous Tressel era. Now, if only Drake would get out. Lose this guy, Ohio State Powers-That-Be. With him still there, at least a partial dark cloud hangs over the program. Coach Meyer is a good man and it’s unconscionable the way he was treated by Drake. Absolute travesty! God bless Coach Meyer and the entire family, especially Shelley. Hard being a loyal coach’s wife at the highest level. Only a strong, dedicated woman can handle it.
Health and family first. Happy and LONG retirement, Coach Meyer!
Thank you Coach Meyer. It has been an awesome run the likes of which we may never see again. Enjoy your retirement. Please don’t show up again anywhere in the Big 10. And thank you to the Ohio State administration especially President Drake for all of your stupidity which was on full display last August.
I don’t blame him. After what the media did to him, the institution, the program and his players – I would leave too! There needs to be a piece written in defense of the Big10 and Ohio State. I believe much of the trials we have faced this year were exploited for national media attention.
Best of luck to Urban and his family. All of Buckeye Nation appreciates what you’ve done. And I doubt that college football has heard the last of Coach Meyer.
This is the right decision. I wish Meyer and his family well. Go Bucks!