Urban Meyer enjoys coaching postseason games in the desert. He’s done it only twice as a head coach, including a 41-14 result that we shall not go into here, nor should we ever speak of it again.
But that wasn’t a Fiesta Bowl. I’ve written about the Fiesta Bowl before, but I’m doing it again.
Meyer will be coaching in the second Fiesta Bowl of his career as a head coach on Jan. 1, when the Buckeyes meet Notre Dame at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ. It will be his first time coaching in the Fiesta Bowl since 2005 — one year before the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish and 11 years to the day when Meyer last led a team into that prestigious bowl game.
That was three jobs (two in coaching and one in broadcasting) for Meyer, back when he was the main man at the University of Utah. Meyer was in his second season as head coach of the Utes, a year removed from a 10-2 season and a Liberty Bowl victory that made everyone sit up and take notice of his coaching talents.
In the 2004 season, Meyer made everyone aware of the Utah Utes. He led the team to an 11-0 regular season, including a 7-0 run through the Mountain West Conference and a Top 10 ranking at No. 5. Unfortunately for the Utes and for Meyer, there were no ranked teams on Utah’s schedule that season, which hampered the team’s chances to play for a shot at the national championship.
Utah had wins over a mediocre Texas A&M team (7-5), a bad Arizona squad (3-8), and average North Carolina (6-6). Even BYU was only 5-6 that season. Utah’s stiffest competition would come from No. 19 Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl, which wasn’t exactly the dream match-up the Utes were hoping for during the bowl season. By the time he got Utah to Arizona for its BCS match-up, it was already known that Meyer would be moving on to Florida the following season.
The Panthers were 8-3 (4-2 in the Big East) and were easily the least attractive major conference champions. Even Conference USA champ Louisville would have been a more interesting opponent.
Yet here was Utah, which had beaten every opponent on its schedule by at least two touchdowns, being disrespected in its BCS appearance by having to square off against Pitt in the desert, and you should never disrespect Urban Meyer. The Utes were 16-point favorites, entering the contest.
The Utes drew first blood late in the first quarter, on a Quinton Ganther four-yard run. Utah scored on five of its first seven possessions, with quarterback Alex Smith moving his team relentlessly down the field. Smith found receiver John Madsen from six yards out in the late stages of the second quarter to put the Utes up 14-0 at the half.
Smith tossed two more touchdowns in the third quarter to lead his team to a 28-0 lead before Tyler Palko got Pitt on the scoreboard with a 31-yard scoring strike to Greg Lee with 4:28 remaining before the fourth period. It was all academic for the Panthers, though. Smith led Utah right back down the field and then did this:
The Utes won, 35-7, easily covering the spread and taking out their disrespect on the Big East champs. Meyer was very complimentary of his undefeated team.
"This is the best group of young men I've ever been around," Meyer said. "It's going to be hard to say goodbye, but we're saying goodbye 12-0."
It’s been 11 years and now Meyer leads another team into Arizona looking for a 12th victory on the season. His 11-1 Buckeyes lost on the final play of their 11th game of the season, which cost his squad a shot at something bigger than a Fiesta Bowl. Meyer’s team won’t be the disrespected side this time around.
Where his team had a lot to prove the last time he coached in the Fiesta, this time around Meyer’s group fell short of its goals and shy of most people’s expectations. Ohio State was passed over by the Rose Bowl after coming up three points shy of a conference championship appearance that could have led to a CFP invitation.
Human nature suggests that a disappointed team may not get as pumped up for this type of game as an underdog that got a raw deal in its bowl selection. Meyer’s past history suggests he may be immune to that kind of bowl let-down. He is 8-2 in bowl games, after all.
Ohio State will have a stiff task on its hands with Notre Dame in the desert in 12 days, but having Meyer should give the Buckeyes a bit more confidence going in.
