When the quest for a championship that Urban Meyer and Ohio State long labeled “The Chase,” was finally over, Urban Meyer reascended to college football royalty and the Buckeyes became the sport’s ruling power.
This is a place Meyer, who claimed his third national championship after beating Oregon last Monday, is familiar with. It’s also a place that birthed the highest of highs for the coach and where the lowest of lows were conceived.
The last time Meyer was here, it was with Florida in 2009 in Miami before he started to personally and professionally unravel in Gainesville. He quit the Gators two seasons later.
And when he took over Ohio State a year later, Meyer said he wasn’t sure if he’d ever climb back to the pinnacle that turned into a modern coaching icon.
“I think I just was obviously chomping at the bit to get back in it, but to sit there and say I thought that we could somehow get back to the national title, it's everybody's dream and goal, but it's very complicated and everything has to align perfectly for this to happen," he said the day before the national title game.
"So no, it never really crossed my mind."
Yet as the confetti fell from the rafters at AT&T Stadium after beating the Ducks, 42-20, last week, Meyer appeared to return to an old and familiar form compared to his last moments at Florida and even his first two years with the Buckeyes.
"He wasn't really himself then,” Steve Spurrier, South Carolina’s coach and College Football Hall-of-Famer, told ESPN Monday. “But he's back to being himself, and I suspect he'll win a few more."
Still, Meyer’s struggle with what he once called the “pursuit of perfection” and how it nearly consumed him back then raises questions over whether a similar plight will come back to haunt him in Columbus.
After all, after delivering Ohio State its first national championship in 12 seasons eight days ago, the Buckeyes are charged with doing it all over again.
At a news conference hours after winning the title and getting back to the team's hotel early in the morning, Meyer laughed off the notion.
“We're still reveling in the win and no sleep and I want these players to really appreciate it, because I am,” he said. “It's something I've learned over my journey is going to enjoy this darned thing."
So maybe, as he hoisted the national championship trophy midfield and smiled and hugged his players, Meyer did return to an old, familiar form that made him into one of the sport's true rockstars.
Maybe it’s just stripped of some of its impurities now.
