The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

‘That’s one of my all-time favorite people’

 

Urban Meyer is here with Ohio State, readying for tomorrow’s Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame, but Urban Meyer is here and not broadcasting games or embedded with his family because he was lured out of an early retirement and assured the Buckeyes were right for him and the shifted lifestyle he was made to live.

Leading the recruiting effort back in 2011? That’d be Gordon Gee, who today is WVU’s president but was the commander in chief at Ohio State when the scandal-stricken football program needed and found a football coach.

“He had experienced health problems, and it was important for us to explore and understand those, and I think it was important for him to feel that he could get back into the coaching business,” Gee said.

OSU athletic director Gene Smith did much of the homework, and the Buckeyes were encouraged to go ahead and ask Meyer. Gee and a small group of Ohio State envoys met with Meyer and his wife in a hotel in Atlanta and began to discuss the job.

Everything went well, and the two sides would stay in touch, Smith speaking to Meyer about football matters, Gee handling other areas.

“We never talked football,” Gee said. “The reason is I don’t know a darn thing about football.”

Gee was instead intent on making sure Meyer would be comfortable. Gee understood the culture of Ohio State football and how fans obsess over it and the participants. Meyer grasped all that, and he knew about the tradition he’d be expected to uphold and elevate.

But Meyer also shared with Ohio State a contract he’d signed with his family. If he was going to return to the sideline, he’d have to make promises to improve his health and his relationship with his wife, his two daughters and his son.

Family would come first. He’d take trips with them and keep the lake house. He’d eat three times a day and spend no more than nine hours at the office. He’d find a way to communicate with his kids every day and he’d silence his cell phone when he went to bed.

Gee remembered it as a “powerful” moment, and he’d consistently assure Meyer and his wife he could live that way as Ohio State’s coach.

“I remember every word he said, all of our conversations,” Meyer said.