- Sep 8, 2014
- 25,448
- 59,460
This is a good read on Meyer's tenure at OSU. It makes me sick thinking of the last 8 years of disaster we've watched since he left. I hope Mullen consults w/ him regularly! Read about his philosophy on taking Ohio HS kids (bolded below) and ask if the last 2 kids that committed to Mullen (at Junior Day) are "takes":
Taver Johnson returns to a ‘brand new’ Ohio State: A look at how Urban Meyer has transformed the program in the last six years
https://theathletic.com/261761/2018...ransformed-the-program-in-the-last-six-years/
Standing in the back of the team meeting room in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center last week as he awaited his introductory news conference, Taver Johnson found his eyes wandering up and down the walls as he attempted to add up everything that's different about the building with which he was once so familiar.
The walls are now filled with inspirational quotes and Urban Meyer's mantras — “4-to-6, A-to-B” and “competitive excellence” and “power of the unit” — and there's a wooden lectern with the red “Block O” perfectly carved into the middle that faces a sea of black leather seats with the Ohio State logo sewn into the backrests.
“Really different,” Johnson said. “It feels brand new.”
Six years is an eternity in the current world of college football where renovations to facilities are never-ending, but the newly updated walls of the Woody are just a reminder that this place isn't what it was when Johnson was a defensive assistant for Jim Tressel from 2007-11. Imagine what Johnson thought when he saw the waterfall in the locker room.
The Ohio State that Johnson left in 2011 was a Big Ten power and a national program. That's always been the case, and it always will be.
But the Ohio State to which Johnson returned is Alabama North.
This Ohio State has a superstar head coach who constantly demands excellence from his assistants. It has a national recruiting philosophy that requires assistants to live on airplanes and in hotel rooms and, as a result, has produced in the unprecedented accumulation of talent that comes from coast to coast. It has the first-ever national championship in the College Football Playoff era. And it is coming off a season in which it won the Big Ten championship and beat USC in the Cotton Bowl, yet a large portion of the fan base feels as if the season were a letdown.
Johnson knows Ohio State. He knows what this place is. But even he'd tell you there's a learning curve before completely understanding what it means to be a Buckeyes assistant in 2018. This isn't Tressel's Ohio State anymore.
To borrow Johnson's words, it is brand new.
Here's how:
1. Meyer's relentless nature: Co-defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and Johnson were both formally introduced last week, and they echoed each other's statements when asked what strikes them about Meyer.
“When you walk in the door every day you’re going 100 miles an hour,” Johnson said. “We were able to do some really good things when I was here with coach Tressel. … But the ongoing (pace) of everything we do at such a high rate and high expectations every day is constant. It’s good. It challenges you as a person and as a coach. The last (few weeks) I’ve been here has already made me better overall.”
This isn't to say Tressel's leadership style was ineffective. Far from it. Tressel won a national title in 2002 and six Big Ten championships in his decadelong run, but the standard just feels different. It's just more intense.
Meyer drove himself crazy at Florida with his “nothing is enough” approach, which led to health issues and his eventual downfall in Gainesville, so before leaving his cushy ESPN gig to take the Ohio State job, he vowed to his family that he'd be better at balancing his personal and professional life. Meyer has evidently done that — and it was still clear as recently as December with how he viewed Ohio State being left out of the College Football Playoff — but that doesn't mean his nonstop approach to building a college football power has wavered. He just goes about it differently now. How?
At Florida, Meyer would push his body to the brink by personally handling every single task that came across his desk. That's exhausting and impossible. At Ohio State, Meyer has taken more of a CEO-type role, which means more delegation to assistants and thus more expectation for results. Maybe it was hard for Meyer to let go of handling everything with his hands, but his intense personality has pushed assistant coaches all the way to their limits — which is likely why Buckeyes assistants are always very attractive candidates for other jobs.
There's one thing about Meyer that's undeniable: Whoever steps in his presence — whether it's one of his assistants or a teenager at one of Ohio State's instructional summer camps — everyone wants to be their best version of themselves. It's a remarkable, innate aura, one that breeds success and results.
Johnson is learning that expectations are astronomically high, and if they're met, the bar raises. That goes for coaching and development of the current roster, but it manifests the most in the world of recruiting.
2. Recruiting philosophy: If Meyer and Tressel both were to explain their recruiting philosophies at Ohio State, the two would probably say similar things. Start in Ohio, take the best in the state, then branch out nationally to get elite-level players to round out the recruiting class. Both would be telling the truth.
But that doesn't mean the recruiting philosophies are the same.
They are actually quite different.
If you go back and look at Tressel's 10 recruiting classes between 2002-11, he averaged 12.2 Ohio prospects per class. In Meyer's first seven classes between 2012-18, he averaged 8.9 Ohio prospects per class. That might not seem significant, but it's dramatic to sign, on average, three fewer players from Ohio per year. That means there is an average of 12 fewer scholarship players from Ohio on any given roster, which is roughly 15 percent of the 85-player scholarship allotment.
Also, take into account these two things:
1. Meyer was forced to sign 16 Ohioans in 2012 when he came in late and took over a program dealing with NCAA issues. Recruiting nationally wasn't going to work on such a late start, especially in the face of concern that the Buckeyes were going to face penalties for the tattoo scandal that led to Tressel's demise.
2. Ohio State's recruiting classes are bigger now because roster turnover — mainly because of early entries into the NFL draft — is happening at a more accelerated rate.
In the 2018 class, Ohio State signed only five prospects from Ohio. In 2017, it was six. Meyer has signed 10 or more prospects from Ohio only twice in his first seven recruiting classes. Again, it's significant. It's up to you to decide whether you think that's good or bad for the program.
The numbers say it's good. Meyer just got done signing the No. 2 classes in consecutive years, classes that are among the best assembled in the history of modern-day recruiting. Since 2012, Ohio State has finished with a class outside of the top five nationally only once.
The recruiting standard is different now, and it impacts Ohio. Tressel was much more willing to take three-star development projects in the state of Ohio with the hopes they'd turn out to be eventual starters — and maybe NFL draft picks — by the time they were juniors. In Meyer's recruiting philosophy, he only accepts early commitments from the best of the best in Ohio, then branches out and recruits the most elite players in every other state. At the end of the recruiting cycle, Meyer might take a waiver on a fringe Ohio kid late because he has a spot to fill, but the standard for an Ohio prospect getting an Ohio State offer is astronomically different.
For assistants, that means more phone calls, more texts, more Twitter direct messages, more recruiting graphics, more airplanes, more hotels and more relationships. Meyer wants his assistants to know the receptionist's name from a high school in Southern California. That's the reality.
(continues....)
Taver Johnson returns to a ‘brand new’ Ohio State: A look at how Urban Meyer has transformed the program in the last six years
https://theathletic.com/261761/2018...ransformed-the-program-in-the-last-six-years/
Standing in the back of the team meeting room in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center last week as he awaited his introductory news conference, Taver Johnson found his eyes wandering up and down the walls as he attempted to add up everything that's different about the building with which he was once so familiar.
The walls are now filled with inspirational quotes and Urban Meyer's mantras — “4-to-6, A-to-B” and “competitive excellence” and “power of the unit” — and there's a wooden lectern with the red “Block O” perfectly carved into the middle that faces a sea of black leather seats with the Ohio State logo sewn into the backrests.
“Really different,” Johnson said. “It feels brand new.”
Six years is an eternity in the current world of college football where renovations to facilities are never-ending, but the newly updated walls of the Woody are just a reminder that this place isn't what it was when Johnson was a defensive assistant for Jim Tressel from 2007-11. Imagine what Johnson thought when he saw the waterfall in the locker room.
The Ohio State that Johnson left in 2011 was a Big Ten power and a national program. That's always been the case, and it always will be.
But the Ohio State to which Johnson returned is Alabama North.
This Ohio State has a superstar head coach who constantly demands excellence from his assistants. It has a national recruiting philosophy that requires assistants to live on airplanes and in hotel rooms and, as a result, has produced in the unprecedented accumulation of talent that comes from coast to coast. It has the first-ever national championship in the College Football Playoff era. And it is coming off a season in which it won the Big Ten championship and beat USC in the Cotton Bowl, yet a large portion of the fan base feels as if the season were a letdown.
Johnson knows Ohio State. He knows what this place is. But even he'd tell you there's a learning curve before completely understanding what it means to be a Buckeyes assistant in 2018. This isn't Tressel's Ohio State anymore.
To borrow Johnson's words, it is brand new.
Here's how:
1. Meyer's relentless nature: Co-defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and Johnson were both formally introduced last week, and they echoed each other's statements when asked what strikes them about Meyer.
“When you walk in the door every day you’re going 100 miles an hour,” Johnson said. “We were able to do some really good things when I was here with coach Tressel. … But the ongoing (pace) of everything we do at such a high rate and high expectations every day is constant. It’s good. It challenges you as a person and as a coach. The last (few weeks) I’ve been here has already made me better overall.”
This isn't to say Tressel's leadership style was ineffective. Far from it. Tressel won a national title in 2002 and six Big Ten championships in his decadelong run, but the standard just feels different. It's just more intense.
Meyer drove himself crazy at Florida with his “nothing is enough” approach, which led to health issues and his eventual downfall in Gainesville, so before leaving his cushy ESPN gig to take the Ohio State job, he vowed to his family that he'd be better at balancing his personal and professional life. Meyer has evidently done that — and it was still clear as recently as December with how he viewed Ohio State being left out of the College Football Playoff — but that doesn't mean his nonstop approach to building a college football power has wavered. He just goes about it differently now. How?
At Florida, Meyer would push his body to the brink by personally handling every single task that came across his desk. That's exhausting and impossible. At Ohio State, Meyer has taken more of a CEO-type role, which means more delegation to assistants and thus more expectation for results. Maybe it was hard for Meyer to let go of handling everything with his hands, but his intense personality has pushed assistant coaches all the way to their limits — which is likely why Buckeyes assistants are always very attractive candidates for other jobs.
There's one thing about Meyer that's undeniable: Whoever steps in his presence — whether it's one of his assistants or a teenager at one of Ohio State's instructional summer camps — everyone wants to be their best version of themselves. It's a remarkable, innate aura, one that breeds success and results.
Johnson is learning that expectations are astronomically high, and if they're met, the bar raises. That goes for coaching and development of the current roster, but it manifests the most in the world of recruiting.
2. Recruiting philosophy: If Meyer and Tressel both were to explain their recruiting philosophies at Ohio State, the two would probably say similar things. Start in Ohio, take the best in the state, then branch out nationally to get elite-level players to round out the recruiting class. Both would be telling the truth.
But that doesn't mean the recruiting philosophies are the same.
They are actually quite different.
If you go back and look at Tressel's 10 recruiting classes between 2002-11, he averaged 12.2 Ohio prospects per class. In Meyer's first seven classes between 2012-18, he averaged 8.9 Ohio prospects per class. That might not seem significant, but it's dramatic to sign, on average, three fewer players from Ohio per year. That means there is an average of 12 fewer scholarship players from Ohio on any given roster, which is roughly 15 percent of the 85-player scholarship allotment.
Also, take into account these two things:
1. Meyer was forced to sign 16 Ohioans in 2012 when he came in late and took over a program dealing with NCAA issues. Recruiting nationally wasn't going to work on such a late start, especially in the face of concern that the Buckeyes were going to face penalties for the tattoo scandal that led to Tressel's demise.
2. Ohio State's recruiting classes are bigger now because roster turnover — mainly because of early entries into the NFL draft — is happening at a more accelerated rate.
In the 2018 class, Ohio State signed only five prospects from Ohio. In 2017, it was six. Meyer has signed 10 or more prospects from Ohio only twice in his first seven recruiting classes. Again, it's significant. It's up to you to decide whether you think that's good or bad for the program.
The numbers say it's good. Meyer just got done signing the No. 2 classes in consecutive years, classes that are among the best assembled in the history of modern-day recruiting. Since 2012, Ohio State has finished with a class outside of the top five nationally only once.
The recruiting standard is different now, and it impacts Ohio. Tressel was much more willing to take three-star development projects in the state of Ohio with the hopes they'd turn out to be eventual starters — and maybe NFL draft picks — by the time they were juniors. In Meyer's recruiting philosophy, he only accepts early commitments from the best of the best in Ohio, then branches out and recruits the most elite players in every other state. At the end of the recruiting cycle, Meyer might take a waiver on a fringe Ohio kid late because he has a spot to fill, but the standard for an Ohio prospect getting an Ohio State offer is astronomically different.
For assistants, that means more phone calls, more texts, more Twitter direct messages, more recruiting graphics, more airplanes, more hotels and more relationships. Meyer wants his assistants to know the receptionist's name from a high school in Southern California. That's the reality.
(continues....)