Urban Meyer Is A Buckeye - But For How Long?

It didn't take Ohio State long to get over their first loss in football to Michigan since 2003.  Urban Meyer, who actually beat Ohio State in the 2007 BCS Championship Game as the head coach at Florida, returns to the sidelines as the Buckeye's head coach after taking a year off to spend time with family and regain his health.

After appointing Luke Fickell as the interim coach just prior to the 2011 season after controversial coach Jim Tressel was forced out largely due to a "failure to monitor" his program, Ohio State was eager to turn the page to the Ohio native, Urban Meyer.  Meyer is taking over a program loaded with talent, but that will likely face NCAA sanctions due to violations during Tressel's reign.  In order to deal with any upcoming NCAA sanctions Ohio State will be smart to incentivize Meyer to stabilize the program in the short-term, but more importantly, keep him around for the long-term.

In 10 seasons as a head coach Urban Meyer has an impressive 104-23 record while also racking up a 7-1 record in bowl games, including 2 BCS National Championships at Florida.  However, along with the winning success Meyer has brought with him to Bowling Green, Utah, and Florida during those 10 seasons, a lower winning percentage and a depleted roster of talent have followed him on his way out.  In each case, Meyer has either left for greener pastures (See Bowling Green and Utah) or left immediately after a star, first-round quarterback went to the NFL (See Utah-Alex Smith and Florida-Tim Tebow).  Meyer was lured back to Florida after Tebow left in 2010 after taking a leave of absence in 2009 only to step down again after the season giving way to a new coaching staff to lead Florida to a 6-6 record (3-5 in the SEC) in 2011.

Now you might say that each team, including Florida in 2011, has suffered from Urban's departure because of a step-down in coaching talent and/or a transition to a new staff, but count me as an outside observer who thinks that Urban Meyer is a smart, smart football coach, and he has been even smarter in how he has managed his career path.  Each of Urban's arrivals (including Ohio State) have come with a talented and experienced football team while each of his departures has been uncoincidentally timed with a weaker group of up-and-coming underclassmen.  Meyer will become one of the highest paid coaches in college football as he will receive a six-year contract that pays $4 million annually, but more importantly, another $2.4 million total in "retention payments."  Apparently, someone at Ohio State may share my concerns about OSU being another stop on Urban Meyer's path to the top of the coaching world.

If I'm an Ohio State fan, of course I'm interested in winning national championships, and I do think Urban Meyer has the potential to be VERY successful at OSU, but after Tressel's issues (Remember, Tressel won a national championship in 2002), I'd be more concerned about maintaining stability in the program and retaining Meyer to bring respectability and long-term success back to Columbus.