NEW ORLEANS — When it was over, before the fireworks went off and the confetti fluttered to the turf, Urban Meyer shook hands with an old nemesis in Nick Saban before a sea of cameras and swallowed him up near midfield at the Superdome.
Not long after, his family, weaving through the chaos, rushed to his side. His wife, Shelley, threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Meyer found his children, Nicki, Gigi, and Nate, and pulled them in close for a group hug as the scene unfolding around them became exponentially more jubilant. There would be a time to celebrate with his coaches and players, but this moment came first.
These are, after all, the people who matter the most in his life and so it was fitting for them to be at the epicenter of what’s perhaps one of the biggest nights in the coach’s career.
It’s been two years and 364 days since Meyer took over Ohio State — a program that has little time for anything less than Big Ten and national championships — after signing a famous pink-paper contract that was a token of his family's blessing for him to once again enter into the meat-grinder world of coaching, one that chewed him up while at Florida.
This year, after a series of ups and downs, a humiliating loss, season-ending injuries, and tragedy, Meyer is on the cusp of reaching a zenith he was hired to bring the Buckeyes. This is a place he is familiar with.
After toppling No. 1 Alabama, 42-35, in the Sugar Bowl Thursday night, Ohio State will play for the national title in Dallas.
“I mean, just to think about, we actually went through the season that we went through and faced all that adversity that we went through and to know that we can actually go play for it all,” said safety Tyvis Powell, whose interception as time expired clinched the program’s first bowl win against a Southeastern Conference opponent.
“It’s like a dream come true, because every kid that comes to college wants to play for a national championship.”
And Meyer, who was once college football’s alpha male before Saban unseated him as such years ago, has a chance to regain a lost throne.
“That was actually my New Year’s resolution,” Powell said, “so I know he can go to sleep peacefully at night and not have to worry about that.”
As the world rings in new beginnings, perhaps it rings in a new era.
After the game, from Meyer to the equipment managers, anybody and everybody associated with the program wore black shirts that read: “WON. NOT DONE.”
This is more or less a mantra for Ohio State, a young team forced to cope with the loss of two star quarterbacks in Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett and a perception that deemed it as plodding inferiors to its southern brethren.
“We heard a lot about SEC speed, you guys can’t compete, you guys don’t have this guy, you don’t have that guy. You guys lost this, you lost that,” junior linebacker Joshua Perry said.
“But to be able to get up here and take the guys that we have and the guys that we bust our balls for, it means a lot for us.”
The Buckeyes have called upon third-stringer Cardale Jones, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound gunslinger nicknamed “12 gauge” to keep their hopes afloat. He passed for 243 yards and a touchdown and ran the ball 17 times, trucking Alabama defenders like a runaway freight train.
If it seemed like Jones and Ohio State played with an extra edge, it was not by accident. For so long, they said, they heard the talk of how Saban’s Alabama, winners of three of the last five national titles, was the “best team in the world.”
“I don’t know a single person outside of my family who picked us to win,” Powell said.
“I think like the whole world has us losing this one,” freshman linebacker Darron Lee said. “No shocker.”
After falling into a 21-6 hole in the first half, Ohio State smothered Alabama’s rebranded high-octane offense, turned wide receiver and Heisman Trophy finalist Amari Cooper into a mere mortal, and rolled up 537 yards on a defense that has struck fear into the hearts of its opponents for the last decade or so.
“Everybody called it a shock to the world,” Powell said. “I’m not shocked at all."
“I really believed in my heart that we were gonna get it done. Which is why I left my Big Ten Championship hat at the house just because I knew I was going to get this new hat.”
In New Orleans, and against the vaunted Crimson Tide, the Buckeyes entered as eight-point underdogs. They left the Superdome as conquerors in what might be a brave new world for college football as fellow SEC teams Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and LSU all suffered defeats in the postseason. Alabama, which has ruled over the conference, and its fall was perhaps the most damning.
And Meyer, who nearly jumped out of his seat to go watch film after being informed Oregon — who awaits Ohio State next — smacked Florida State by 39 points in Pasadena, has a chance to be its king again.
