The Big Ten Network is wrapping up its efforts to identify and name Big Ten All-Decade Teams for both college basketball and football. Ohio State had more representation on the hoops squad than any other Big Ten program, and the same is true for football as things were unveiled.
And on that note, as a part of its last announcement, the BTN panelist picked its Coach of the Decade, and to really nobody’s surprise, former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer was selected.
Meyer came to Columbus on the tails of some hard times for the program, at least to Buckeye standards. Jim Tressel had just been sent packing for his role in “tattoogate” and lying to investigators in other matters. You know the story well, but Luke Fickell took over the program in a transition year that resulted in a 6-7 season after a bowl loss to Florida.
In came Meyer and instantly restored the program to an elite level. His first team somehow went 12-0 but had nowhere to go for the postseason because of sanctions imposed by the NCAA as a result of all the things discussed earlier. From there, he continued the winning ways, laying down a ridiculous 83-9 (.902) overall record, and an even better 54-4 (.931) record in conference games. Let that sink in.
Now, realize he went 7-0 against Michigan. That’s pretty amazing stuff, and BTN wrapped it up all nicely with the below summary video it shared on Twitter.
If there’s any knock on Meyer, it’s the notion that he probably should have won more Big Ten Championships (just three), and national titles (just one) at Ohio State with all that winning.
Still, nobody came close in the Big Ten, and Meyer will forever go down as one of the best to ever coach in the conference.
