Urban Meyer's coaching tree is one of the most impressive in recent college football history.
Meyer has been a head coach since 2001 and because of it, has had plenty of opportunities to coach against some of his former assistants. The first chance came in 2008, when former Florida assistant Dan Mullen was the head coach at Mississippi State. Meyer's Gators defeated the Bulldogs 29-19, and what started as just one win has become a tradition of sorts.
Since losing to Mullen in 2010, Meyer has rattled off nine straight wins against former assistants, including his first against a former Buckeye assistant. The Buckeyes have thrashed former defensive coordinator Chris Ash in back-to-back seasons at home and on the road against Rutgers and will get their third chance against the Scarlet Knights at home in Week 2 this year.
The other opportunity for Meyer to get a win against a former assistant will come Nov. 17 against DJ Durkin and the Terrapins. Durkin coached under Meyer at Florida, and is 0-2 against his former boss as a head coach, getting outscored 124-17 in the first two meetings.
| YEAR | COACH | TEAM | RESULT | SCORE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Dan Mullen | Mississippi State | W | 29-19 |
| 2010 | Dan Mullen | Mississippi State | L | 10-7 |
| 2012 | Tim Beckman | Illinois | W | 52-22 |
| 2013 | Gary Andersen | Wisconsin | W | 31-24 |
| 2013 | Tim Beckman | Illinois | W | 60-35 |
| 2014 | Tim Beckman | Illinois | W | 55-14 |
| 2014 | Gary Andersen | Wisconsin | W | 59-0 |
| 2016 | Chris Ash | Rutgers | W | 58-0 |
| 2016 | D.J. Durkin | Maryland | W | 62-3 |
| 2017 | Chris Ash | Rutgers | W | 56-0 |
| 2017 | D.J. Durkin | Maryland | W | 62-14 |
Meyer would have gotten a third chance at defeating a former assistant in the season opener had Gary Andersen remained at Oregon State. However, Andersen stepped down midway through the 2017 season after the Beavers managed just one win in the first six games of the season. Andersen is now an assistant back at Utah, where he coached under Meyer.
Meyer has not only beaten his former assistants recently, he has dominated them in embarrassing fashion. Meyer's Ohio State teams have outscored his former staffers 297-17 in the last five matchups, with only Durkin's teams getting on the board. Chris Ash's Rutgers team has yet to score on Ohio State in two attempts, while Andersen's last game as the head coach at Wisconsin ended in a 59-0 shellacking that sent Ohio State to the first ever college football playoff.
The next matchup against a former assistant in Ash figures to go the same way in the second week of the season. While Ash is looking at perhaps his best Scarlet Knight team since his arrival in 2016, Rutgers will likely be breaking in a freshman quarterback playing his first game on the road.
The Terrapins however, offer a much more intriguing matchup, assuming they are healthy at the quarterback position. Both Kasim Hill and Tyrrell Pigrome injured their ACL's in the first two weeks of the season last year, largely hampering the Terps offense. With both battling for the starting job this offseason, Maryland figures to be much more explosive on offense.
On the other side of the ball, Durkin, a defensive-minded coach, figures to have the Terps in a much better place than a season ago. Jesse Aniebonam is back from an ankle injury, giving Maryland the pass-rusher it desperately missed a season ago.
It isn't likely Meyer breaks his streak of dominating his former assistants this season, unless perhaps Ohio State reaches a bowl game against Florida, where Mullen has taken over in the Swamp, trying to resurrect a program that has been down since Meyer's departure in 2010.
