Gene Smith remembers the moment. It sticks out like a sore thumb in an otherwise unforgettable night at the Louisiana Superdome.
Urban Meyer, the man Smith hired barely three years prior to Ohio State's showdown with top-ranked Alabama in the first ever College Football Playoff, was irate with a call made by the officials midway through the fourth quarter against the Crimson Tide.
With the Buckeyes holding a slim six-point advantage, the officials whistled Alabama for a running into the kicker penalty — a five-yard offense — instead of roughing the kicker, a 15-yard penalty that would have awarded Ohio State a first down.
Meyer ripped off his headset and chucked it beyond the bench in disgust, voicing his displeasure with the call, a vital one in the field position battle.
"That was pretty cool, though," Smith chuckled in an interview with Eleven Warriors Thursday. "Got some height. But he's been pretty mellow."
Meyer's fling did get some height, but aside from that outburst his sideline eruptions are few and far between in his time at Ohio State compared to those he had at Florida.
Why is Meyer like that now? Why wasn't he like it back then? He's "evolved," Smith said.
"The greatest thing that we all will have, later in life you'll appreciate it even more, I think the greatest thing for him is the success he was able to enjoy," Smith said. "But the opportunity to take a break for one year."
That year was 2011 when the Buckeyes slugged through a 6-7 season following the departure of Jim Tressel in May. Meyer spent the year as an ESPN analyst and got his life in order after resigning from Florida, mostly due to the fact he'd lost 37 pounds a couple years before and spent time in the hospital overwhelmed with self-inflicted pressure to remain at the top of the sport.
"I think in him, I don't know that his intensity's changed but I think the consumption's changed," Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen, one of Meyer's closest friends and former offensive coordinator at Florida, said at Ohio State's coaching clinic April 17. "I think his intensity ... I don't think that's changed a lick.
"I think that that intensity doesn't consume him at 9 o'clock at night when he goes and has dinner with his family or he's at his son's baseball game. Where I think before it consumed him 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that intensity."
Speaking of his son, Nate, when Meyer was giving an introductory speech at the clinic he brought up the 16-year-old high school sophomore and retold a cherished story.
"Something happened last September," Meyer said, "and I sprinted out of practice one day and I went down and I got to see my son run on the field as a high school football player in the state of Ohio. How cool is that?"
Meyer, arguably the biggest proponent to the well-documented world of Ohio high school football, was there to thank a field full of coaches for what they do for the game in his home state. But he then had to clear his throat and issue an apology with tears creeping in. Seconds felt like hours ticking by and the coaches in attendance applauded the three-time national champion.
"I never saw this, I only heard the stories of what he went through at Florida and Utah where he blew up sometimes," Smith said. "But I haven't seen that (at Ohio State)."
But why? What is the reason for national title No. 3 being so different than No. 1 or No. 2? No. 2 spelled the beginning of a mighty tumble for Meyer at Florida, but No. 3 means he's still one away from catching his old nemesis, Nick Saban, on the ladder of active coaches.
"I've never seen him happier. I've never seen him more at peace. After we won down there, he still couldn't find peace," Boston College head coach Steve Addazio said at the clinic. "He's very happy here. This is his home."
“I think we were blessed to get a highly successful coach who had evolved and had a chance to be reflective. I think he's much more measured in how he deals with issues.”– Gene Smith
Addazio knows all about what home means to Meyer — he was hired by the coach at Florida and burnt the candle on both ends with him during a six-year stint in Gainesville, Fla. They won together, they lost together, they hurt together.
Addazio doesn't see the demons that were present in Meyer at Florida happening at a place like Ohio State.
"We were together and I just love how he, I can see in his eyes how he feels. He just loves it and he's more fired up today than he was," Addazio said. "He's at peace and he loves it. He's happy."
He's happy. Perhaps that is the biggest thing to Smith's point regarding Meyer's evolution not only as a football coach but as a father and person. The man is pleased and proud with what he's become and been able to do in his home state, at the only school that could have pulled him out of retirement.
"Life's little experiences I think provided him unique opportunities to grow. But then, you pause. Say, 'OK, I went through all that, let me take a year off,'" Smith said. "I think we were blessed to get a highly successful coach who had evolved and had a chance to be reflective. I think he's much more measured in how he deals with issues."
Dealing with issues better results in less headset tosses for the 50-year-old with a fresh extension and salary bonus that keeps him at Ohio State through 2020. He seems closer to his wife, Shelley, his two daughters, Nicki and Gigi and is even working to spend more time with Nate.
"To be back in this state you're so passionate about and witness your kid go out and play in this great state ..." Meyer said before again trailing off and taking a moment to gather himself.
"Yes, as you get older, I think you transition," Addazio said. "You're always learning, you're always transitioning, we all do."
The Ohio State Meyer is still one title short of the level the Florida Meyer achieved from a winning standpoint, but with a team set to run at the national championship again in 2015, the Buckeyes are plenty content to have the Meyer who's evolved.
"I think there is something to being home," Addazio said. "When he talked about Ohio State, he always talked about how it was special. He feels great about being here."
Ohio State feels great about having Meyer here, too.
