That Urban Meyer... he's so dang hot right now!
A day after becoming the sport's second-highest paid coach ($6,500,000 annually), Ohio State's fourth-year frontman is the subject of a Sports Illustrated Q&A in which he discusses his inability to party, #QBgeddon, and his vigilance against the "human element" in his star players.
From Pete Thamel of SI.com:
SI: To begin, catch everyone up with what you’ve been doing since winning the title. Has it been a whirlwind?
Urban Meyer: We won the game, the next day it was real late at night, you almost have the dreams of, I’m going to go celebrate and stay up all night. At 50 years old, that didn’t work. I stayed up for an hour, moseyed my way back to the room.
At 28-years-old, I'm perturbed at how much I can relate to this quote.
SI: A few people around the program have identified wide receiver Noah Brown as someone who could break out in the 2015 season. If you were to point to a player poised to take the next step, who would you start with?
UM: I’d probably start with him. Sam Hubbard, the defensive end. Johnnie Dixon, wide receiver. Michael Thomas is knocking the top off it right now at receiver. Curtis Samuel is one of the top five, eight playmakers on the team, so we have to play him. I’m moving him around. I’m going to move him to receiver just because he has to play 50 plays. When Ezekiel Elliott is full speed, Curtis isn’t playing [at tailback]. Zeke is pretty good.
It's good to see Johnnie Dixon — a talented redshirt freshman (which, in OSU parlance, means "Superman-in-Waiting") — get mentioned here. I was worried when I heard about an 18-year-old with tendinitis in both his knees, but it looks like Dixon is well on his way to being the kind of contributor everyone here knows he can be.
And at this point, if you haven't bought into Noah Brown's stock, you're already too late.
SI: What do you need to see out of this program in the spring?
UM: Just remember what got us here. Don’t all of a sudden be the stars. I worry about behavior because I’ve been down this road before, all of a sudden I’m the toast of High Street. No, you’re not. You’re a backup tailback that got a chance. You’re a third-string quarterback that got a chance. You’re not the toast. You live and you learn. That’s why I worry about Zeke. I love Zeke. He can join my family tomorrow. Great student, 3.0, great mom, great dad, two beautiful sisters, I just want him to be that same kid. I know how hard it is. It’s called the human element.
How do you keep a talented 19-year-old (Elliott doesn't turn 20 until July) with the world in the palm of his hand, humble? It's an age-old question, and one Urban admits he struggled with at Florida.
But oh yeah, he doesn't sound like a man looking forward to rendering judgment upon #QBgeddon:
UM: I don’t want to say I’m ignoring it, but I’m ignoring it. The hardest thing is going to be that there are two people that have done a lot for me, our program, Ohio State. They’re going to be watching the other guy play, and that’s going to be hard. That’s the only negative of the situation. Because they get along, they push each other, they’re completely different. They’re not cookie-cutter quarterbacks. Cardale can’t be more different than J.T., more different than Braxton.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown, indeed.
The full interview is over at SI.com. As with anything involving Urban Frank Meyer, it's worth the time.
