So we're all understandably peeved about the blowout loss to Iowa, and there have been plenty of threads (justifiably so) questioning Urban Meyer, JT Barrett, the defensive back 7, Bill Davis, recruiting focus, and all other sorts of things. I'm not here to question any of those questions or even disagree with many of them, but I was looking into some stats about Ohio State and its coaches and wanted to share them with you all. The stats below come from sports-reference.com
| Stat | Urban Meyer | Jim Tressel | John Cooper | Earle Bruce | Woody Hayes |
| Wins | 68 | 106 | 111 | 81 | 205 |
| Losses | 8 | 22 | 43 | 26 | 61 |
| Win Percentage | .895 | .828 | .721 | .757 | .771 |
| Games Coached | 76 | 128 | 154 | 107 | 266 |
| Bowl Wins | 3 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| Bowl Losses | 2 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 6 |
| Bowl Win % | 60% | 60% | 27% | 63% | 45% |
| Through 6 Seasons | Urban Meyer | Jim Tressel | John Cooper | Earle Bruce | Woody Hayes |
| Wins | 68 | 62 | 45 | 56 | 39 |
| Losses | 8 | 14 | 22 | 12 | 14 |
| Win Percentage | .895 | .816 | .672 | .778 | .736 |
| Games Coached | 76 | 76 | 67 | 72 | 53 |
| Bowl Wins | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Bowl Losses | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Bowl Win % | 60% | 67% | 20% | 50% | 100% |
The only thing to point out, other than saying Earle Bruce was a great bowl coach, is to say that Urban Meyer is as good, or better than, our previous coaches in almost every single stat. He only trails Jim Tressel in bowls won through 6 seasons, but also suffered a bowl ban in year 1 due to problems that occurred under Jim Tressel's leadership. Take that for what you will.
Recruiting
Looking at the recruiting class for Tressel & Meyer I wanted to look at the general class rankings as well as the focus on the state of Ohio. I looked at Meyer's three most recent recruiting rankings as well as the last 3 recruiting classes under Jim Tressel. I wanted to do Tressel's three years after the 2002 championship so I could compare the three years post championship for both coaches, but unfortunately big time recruit tracking wasn't really a thing back then so it's tough to measure. These stats come from 247sports.com
| 2017 | Urban Meyer | 2010 | Jim Tressel | |
| Natl Rank | 2 | Natl Rank | 18 | |
| B1G Rank | 1 | B1G Rank | 3 | |
| From Ohio | 29% | From Ohio | 55% | |
| 2016 | Urban Meyer | 2009 | Jim Tressel | |
| Natl Rank | 4 | Natl Rank | 5 | |
| B1G Rank | 1 | B1G Rank | 1 | |
| From Ohio | 40% | From Ohio | 67% | |
| 2015 | Urban Meyer | 2008 | Jim Tressel | |
| Natl Rank | 7 | Natl Rank | 10 | |
| B1G Rank | 1 | B1G Rank | 1 | |
| From Ohio | 46% | From Ohio | 48% |
We all know Meyer has a bigger focus on the national recruiting space, but I'm honestly surprised it wasn't a bigger gap between him and Tressel (with the notable exception of the 2017 class). I was interested to see that Urban Meyer's % from Ohio has trended downward while his national ranking has trended upward so I looked at his other 3 classes for a reference. 2012 was 5th nationally with 65% from Ohio, 2013 was 2nd nationally with 45% from Ohio, and 2014 was 3rd nationally with 52% from Ohio. Once again, take that for what you will.
Looking at the losses
| Stat | Urban Meyer | Jim Tressel |
| Avg Points For | 19 | 17 |
| Avg Points Against | 33 | 27 |
| Avg Point Diff. | -14 | -10 |
| Worst Loss (PD) | -31 (Iowa & Clemson) | -32 (USC) |
Both Meyer and Tressel have served up some stinkers in their tenure, Iowa certainly being at or near the top of the list (game results from jhowell.net). I did find it interesting that Urban Meyer loses by more than Tressel did on average, but Tressel was incredibly focused on defense and bleeding teams out, so it does make sense based on coaching philosophy.
Anyways, there are other things I wanted to look and in regards to Urban Meyer's place in OSU history, but this post is already pretty long so I may make another in the future comparing Meyer to other major coaches (Saban, Sweeney, Fisher, Harbaugh, Franklin, Dantonio, etc) if there's any interest. Overall, I think Meyer is one hell of a coach. He's not without fault, and he's certainly going to get caught with his pants around his ankles from time to time, but I'm pretty damn happy to have him at OSU. Hopefully you all like this breakdown, but please let me know your thoughts.
Go Bucks, Beat Sparty, Michigan does, has, and always will suck.
