Courtesy of the Herald-Star, comes this video of Ohio State coach Urban Meyer speaking at the Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame banquet.
Meyer shares stories about Notre Dame, Bowling Green, Lou Holtz and some colorful language from Earle Bruce. Meyer also shared the story of how he prepared to keep his team after the NCAA hit Ohio State with a bowl ban. Nothing new, really, but an interesting insight:
"So, back in December, we're hired and I actually hired someone to look into this NCAA thing and they came back and said 'Coach, we don't believe you'll lose a bowl game. We believe there will be probation and you'll move on.' And I said, 'Okay,' because I understand momentum in college football and once you get behind the eight ball, it's hard to get back. When they start taking bowl games from you, you lose recruits and you start struggling and it's just hard to get it back.
"I get the phone call and I get the meeting when they tell me [Ohio State would face a bowl ban]. I sit down for about five minutes. Then I jump up and said, 'Okay, we're not worried. That's something in the past. I'm not worried about it.' I had a staff meeting within two minutes and within five minutes I had my seniors there. I called them in – I didn't know one of them, but I had high expectations for Ohio State kids because of the type of player that you normally get – and I started selling them on the program. It was pure faith. They had no idea. We're a new staff coming in, there were some great things done prior to our staff coming here and the NCAA says this about the rule: if you're on probation or lose a bowl game, you can stand up and walk and you can walk out that door without penalty and go play for any school in America.
"Obviously, I was panicked because we had some pretty good players in that senior class – from what I was told. I didn't know them. And so I started talking to them, and not one of them left. And I didn't quite understand why. I didn't understand why – here are these people, these young guys that basically had their intercollegiate careers ripped apart. You come to Ohio State to play in bowl games. You get a great degree as well, and that's the No. 1 reason, but you come to play in championships. You come to get rings. And they came in and told our players that you couldn't go. And I added this: 'Oh, by the way, you did nothing wrong.' Think about that for a minute – a group of players sat there right in front of me that did nothing wrong, but had their dreams taken away from them and the trump card was that they could get up and go. So we started our journey together."
Our coach.
Inducted into the 2013 class was Bridgeport native and knuckleball hero Phil Nekro, and Marianna Milajecki of Wellsville, a long-time teacher at Bowling Green's St. Aloysius School.
Source: youtube.com/watch?v=D9uFyNtPAyA
