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Ohio State’s Urban Meyer Should Win Coach of the Year

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Urban Meyer Should Be Coach of the Year

Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Imagine losing your starting quarterback for the year 10 days before the start of the season and having to start a redshirt freshman in his place. Then, imagine that quarterback getting injured right before the biggest game of the season with your entire season on the line and having to go to your third-string quarterback to get you into the College Football Playoff. These are all things that Urban Meyer had to deal with this season at Ohio State, but despite it all, they only lost one game early in the season and dominated the Wisconsin Badgers to get into the National Championship picture. This is why Meyer should be coach of the year.

The Buckeyes were ranked No. 5 in the AP poll to start the season, but dropped as low as 23rd in the week following their loss to the Virginia Tech Hokies. Redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett was still being broken in as the new starting quarterback and threw a costly pick-six to end the game, and in many experts’ eyes, end their National Championship hopes.

However, as the weeks went by, Barrett kept getting better, and even entered the picture for the Heisman Trophy near the end of the season. Under Meyer’s tutiledge, he led the Buckeyes back to relevance with key back-to-back road victories over the Michigan State Spartans and the Minnesota Golden Gophers. It was in their annual rivalry game with the Michigan Wolverines that tragedy struck.

Barrett broke his ankle after being tackled awkwardly, and once again it appeared the Buckeyes’ season was over. They would now be forced to play virtual unknown Cardale Jones at quarterback against Wisconsin. Many experts predicted even a win might keep Ohio State out of the playoffs because of stiff competition from the Baylor Bears and TCU Horned Frogs, and the prospect of having a third-string quarterback competing for the National Championship.

Meyer and Jones proved the skeptics wrong. An impressive offensive performance from Jones and a stout Buckeyes defense produced a 59-0 thrashing of Wisconsin and led the Buckeyes into the playoffs, where they will play the Alabama Crimson Tide on New Year’s Day in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

Other coaches may have had players put up more impressive stats or win bigger games, but no one had to deal with the adversity that Meyer had to at arguably the most important position of all — quarterback. To run through the Big Ten undefeated with a backup quarterback and then win the conference championship in that fashion with a third-string quarterback is a monumental feat of coaching.

As such, Meyer should be awarded the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award, which is voted on by the Football Writers Association of America. He already won the award in 2004 when he was coach of the Utah Utes, but he certainly deserves it again for the job he did getting the Buckeyes back into title contention when they were left for dead on more than one occasion.

Phillip Jacques is a Pac-12 Football writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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