In the immediate aftermath, Urban Meyer had a difficult time explaining what just happened. There were only two things he seemed to be able to remember.
“Curtis scored,” Ohio State’s head coach said after his team’s stunning, 30-27 double-overtime victory against archrival Michigan on Saturday. “And I remember that Neil Diamond song. That was great.”
“Weird life, man.”
As thousands of Ohio State fans flooded the Ohio Stadium turf following Saturday’s victory against Michigan, 'Sweet Caroline' bellowed from the PA system. It was hard to find somebody who wasn’t singing along.
Somewhere in the masses was Meyer. He hugged his son, Nate. He probably hugged a bunch of people he didn’t know, too. It was pandemonium.
The celebration was certainly warranted, though, especially after what Ohio State just pulled off. It was the biggest game in this storied rivalry in a decade, with Big Ten and national championship hopes on the line, and the Buckeyes rallied to turn a 10-point second-half deficit into a thrilling come-from-behind win.
“I’m not saying it’s the greatest because that’s disrespectful for the other players that have played in it,” Meyer said. “But that’s an instant classic between two great teams.
“And we knew going in it was going to be that way.”
Meyer is now 5-0 against Michigan since arriving at Ohio State in 2012. He’s the only coach in program history to win his first five games against the archrival Wolverines. And that’s just one accomplishment on a long list throughout Meyer’s first five years in Columbus.
Ohio State is 61-5 over the last five years. That’s an almost unfathomable record. The 2014 national championship season is one that will always be remembered and the Buckeyes still have a shot to win another one this season should they be selected as one of the final four teams in the College Football Playoff.
It truly has been one of the best five-year spans in the history of the Ohio State program.
And everything started when Meyer arrived.
Saturday’s game had a chance to change the trajectory of this rivalry and of the Buckeyes’ season. Michigan had its best team in recent memory, a group of 40-plus seniors, and was playing an Ohio State team that, although talented, was still relatively young with 40-plus players on its roster with freshman eligibility.
Yet Meyer had his team playing at a high level all season long because that’s what fans of the Buckeyes have come to expect. Ohio State will have a championship-caliber team for as long as Meyer chooses to coach in Columbus.
And with the Buckeyes’ championship dreams hanging in the balance Saturday, Meyer’s team responded yet again and came out victorious.
“I just looked around and said, ‘Man, that just happened.,’” quarterback J.T. Barrett said. “We just played the team up north in double overtime and we just won.”
“I was just very thankful I could be a part of this.”
Saturday truly was a scene unlike any other in recent memory at Ohio Stadium. Meyer felt that. He showed it when he dropped to the turf after Curtis Samuel scored the game-winning touchdown in the second overtime.
It was arguably the most memorable moment, the most memorable game in Meyer’s tenure here — perhaps even more so than that national championship win two years ago, as crazy as it sounds.
There may still be much more to come.
