Urban Meyer solidifies his place as one of college football’s greatest coaches

ARLINGTON, Texas – If he wasn’t a member of the club before, he definitely is now.

Take a bow, Urban Meyer.

You’re one of the greatest coaches in college football history.

Meyer joined a very elite group – right up there with guys named Bryant and Leahy and Saban – by leading Ohio State to the national championship with a 42-20 win over Oregon on Monday night.

It is Meyer’s third national title. The first two came with Florida, this one with the Buckeyes – a program in disarray when he arrived in 2012 after taking a one-year sabbatical from coaching.

He said he needed the time away to take care of his health and re-connect with his family. But if anyone thought it would be a softer, kinder – and more beatable – Meyer when he returned, they were mistaken.

This was the 41st game he’s coached since taking over in Columbus. He’s won 38 of them, an astonishing turnaround for a team that was 6-7 in 2011, reeling from the forced ouster of longtime coach Jim Tressel and an NCAA investigation into tattoos and other illegal benefits doled out to the players.

“The chase is complete,” he said. “It’s done. It’s over. They accepted their final mission, their final assignment and their final directive, and they did it. That was our whole mantra this last couple of weeks. A job well done, and we’re very grateful.”

Meyer might be a little more willing to appreciate this title than the first two, but he won’t rest on his laurels by any means. It’s just not his style.

He’s still the same fierce competitor he always was – mercilessly poking players and coaches alike, all in a desire to get the best out of them. Before a Sugar Bowl victory over top-seeded Alabama, he talked about the need to make life uncomfortable for those around him, saying that’s often how you get the best out of people.

His methods aren’t for everyone, he acknowledged.

But he added, it’s the surest way to a championship.

He’ll get no complaints from the Buckeyes, whose victory signals a northward shift in the game’s power structure after years of dominance by the Southeastern Conference (in which Meyer also had a hand).

Meyer became only the sixth coach to win as many as three national championships, a club led by Bear Bryant with five. Frank Leahy and Nick Saban have four apiece, followed by Meyer, Bernie Bierman and John McKay, all with three.

Saban and Meyer are the only coaches to win championships at different schools.

By the time Meyer is done – he’s still only 50 – he might go down as the greatest of them all.

This was certainly his best coaching job yet, having to go through three quarterbacks before all was said and done.

“One of the great stories in college football history of closeness, of team, of selflessness and strain.” Meyer said. “This will go down as one of the great stories in college football history.”

When he was growing up in Ashtabula, a small town on Lake Erie, his family had a picture of the great Ohio State coach Woody Hayes hanging in the home. That must have been some sort of inspiration.

To this day, he still keeps a picture of Hayes in his home.