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© Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports Alabama coach Nick Saban and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer speak on the field before the 2015 Sugar Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
As most of the country was watching Alabama’s fearsome front seven shut down LSU tailback Leonard Fournette, there was another top-ranked team in action a few hundred miles to the north looking to make a little history.
It wasn’t a walk in the park like so many other contests in its 22-game win streak, but Ohio State used a late Cardale Jones touchdown run to keep the margin at a comfortable spot in a 28-14 win over Minnesota that wasn’t quite as close as the final score indicated.
The victory kept the Buckeyes’ record perfect and furthered hopes of defending their national title later this season. The win also added to a long line of superlatives for Ohio State and head coach Urban Meyer, none more eye-popping than this one the school’s sports information staff passed along: Meyer’s 47-3 record at Ohio State is the best start with one school ever in modern college football history and third best all time.
Fielding Yost went 49-0-1 in his first 50 games at Michigan between 1901-05, while Gil Dobie went 48-0-2 in his first 50 at Washington from 1908-15. That’s it. Those are the only two coaches, both over 100 years ago, who have bettered what Meyer has done in Columbus over the past few seasons.
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Add in his third national title, an undefeated season and an NCAA-record tying 29-game conference win streak and Meyer is, to quote the esteemed Larry David, pretty, pretty, pretty good. His 151-26 career record is also good for the highest winning percentage (.853) among active coaches.
While it was undoubtedly a storyline last year prior to their semifinal matchup at the Sugar Bowl, between Meyer and Alabama’s Nick Saban, it has to be repeated in the middle of the 2015 season that college football fans are lucky to witness two all-time greats work at their craft up close and personal.
Despite the lack of end-game management by other coaches and a host of issues stemming from bad management in the sport, thanks to Meyer and Saban, we really are in a golden age of coaches, thanks mostly to the two guys at the top.
Saban, of course, has an equally impressive resume on hand, even if he can’t quite match Meyer’s record-setting start at Ohio State. The veteran head coach will likely surpass the 200-wins mark next season and goes for victory No. 100 at Alabama alone this weekend against Mississippi State.
That’s not even mentioning three national titles in four seasons from 2009-12, giving him four total. That allows Saban and Meyer each to occupy a very select group of coaches—consisting solely of themselves—who have won national championships at a pair of different schools.
There have been great coaches to share the sidelines before in college football, of course. There was the infamous “Ten Year War” between Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler. Barry Switzer and Tom Osborne’s annual matchups almost always had national title implications. Ara Parseghian and John McKay also delivered some classics in the greatest intersectional rivalry around.
But Saban and Meyer are the modern form of those coaching rivalries. For most younger college football fans, it’s as close to a pair of great coaches as they’ve known. And sure, we’re not discounting the efforts of Les Miles, Bob Stoops and others, but the records and rings of the top two in the sport put them into another class.
Heck, there was a time where Meyer nearly worked for Saban when the latter took over at Toledo. The Crimson Tide coach recounted last December how he very nearly hired the Buckeyes’ head man roughly 25 years ago.
"I was so kind of caught up and busy in what I was doing [in the NFL], I never followed up on that,” Saban said at the Sugar Bowl of a phone call Meyer placed to his wife, Terry, inquiring about a job on the Rockets staff. “And obviously that was a huge mistake on my part because he's a fantastic coach and has done a really, really good job."
Oh, what might have been. Instead, the two find a way to square off in big games every few seasons and may be on a collision course for another in 2015.
Winning games in college football is difficult to do. Those two know more than any other what it’s like to walk off the field victorious. They also know how difficult it is to suffer a crushing defeat.
There’s a reason the coaching profession is so tumultuous, after all. Sure, the pay is great for most at big-time schools, but with that comes a price: relying on 18- to 24-year-olds for job security, long hours, little family time and frequent moving.
Saban and Meyer have navigated all of that with aplomb and come out on top.
So even if you despise one or both of Saban and Meyer, just be grateful you’re around to watch them work every Saturday. They’re two of the best to ever coach in college football, and seeing history up close is never a bad thing. The question facing Football aficionados is whether upcoming UM Butch Davis joins this club? Bryan Fischer is a national college football columnist
© Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports Alabama coach Nick Saban and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer speak on the field before the 2015 Sugar Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
As most of the country was watching Alabama’s fearsome front seven shut down LSU tailback Leonard Fournette, there was another top-ranked team in action a few hundred miles to the north looking to make a little history.
It wasn’t a walk in the park like so many other contests in its 22-game win streak, but Ohio State used a late Cardale Jones touchdown run to keep the margin at a comfortable spot in a 28-14 win over Minnesota that wasn’t quite as close as the final score indicated.
The victory kept the Buckeyes’ record perfect and furthered hopes of defending their national title later this season. The win also added to a long line of superlatives for Ohio State and head coach Urban Meyer, none more eye-popping than this one the school’s sports information staff passed along: Meyer’s 47-3 record at Ohio State is the best start with one school ever in modern college football history and third best all time.
Fielding Yost went 49-0-1 in his first 50 games at Michigan between 1901-05, while Gil Dobie went 48-0-2 in his first 50 at Washington from 1908-15. That’s it. Those are the only two coaches, both over 100 years ago, who have bettered what Meyer has done in Columbus over the past few seasons.
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Add in his third national title, an undefeated season and an NCAA-record tying 29-game conference win streak and Meyer is, to quote the esteemed Larry David, pretty, pretty, pretty good. His 151-26 career record is also good for the highest winning percentage (.853) among active coaches.
While it was undoubtedly a storyline last year prior to their semifinal matchup at the Sugar Bowl, between Meyer and Alabama’s Nick Saban, it has to be repeated in the middle of the 2015 season that college football fans are lucky to witness two all-time greats work at their craft up close and personal.
Despite the lack of end-game management by other coaches and a host of issues stemming from bad management in the sport, thanks to Meyer and Saban, we really are in a golden age of coaches, thanks mostly to the two guys at the top.
Saban, of course, has an equally impressive resume on hand, even if he can’t quite match Meyer’s record-setting start at Ohio State. The veteran head coach will likely surpass the 200-wins mark next season and goes for victory No. 100 at Alabama alone this weekend against Mississippi State.
That’s not even mentioning three national titles in four seasons from 2009-12, giving him four total. That allows Saban and Meyer each to occupy a very select group of coaches—consisting solely of themselves—who have won national championships at a pair of different schools.
There have been great coaches to share the sidelines before in college football, of course. There was the infamous “Ten Year War” between Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler. Barry Switzer and Tom Osborne’s annual matchups almost always had national title implications. Ara Parseghian and John McKay also delivered some classics in the greatest intersectional rivalry around.
But Saban and Meyer are the modern form of those coaching rivalries. For most younger college football fans, it’s as close to a pair of great coaches as they’ve known. And sure, we’re not discounting the efforts of Les Miles, Bob Stoops and others, but the records and rings of the top two in the sport put them into another class.
Heck, there was a time where Meyer nearly worked for Saban when the latter took over at Toledo. The Crimson Tide coach recounted last December how he very nearly hired the Buckeyes’ head man roughly 25 years ago.
"I was so kind of caught up and busy in what I was doing [in the NFL], I never followed up on that,” Saban said at the Sugar Bowl of a phone call Meyer placed to his wife, Terry, inquiring about a job on the Rockets staff. “And obviously that was a huge mistake on my part because he's a fantastic coach and has done a really, really good job."
Oh, what might have been. Instead, the two find a way to square off in big games every few seasons and may be on a collision course for another in 2015.
Winning games in college football is difficult to do. Those two know more than any other what it’s like to walk off the field victorious. They also know how difficult it is to suffer a crushing defeat.
There’s a reason the coaching profession is so tumultuous, after all. Sure, the pay is great for most at big-time schools, but with that comes a price: relying on 18- to 24-year-olds for job security, long hours, little family time and frequent moving.
Saban and Meyer have navigated all of that with aplomb and come out on top.
So even if you despise one or both of Saban and Meyer, just be grateful you’re around to watch them work every Saturday. They’re two of the best to ever coach in college football, and seeing history up close is never a bad thing. The question facing Football aficionados is whether upcoming UM Butch Davis joins this club? Bryan Fischer is a national college football columnist
