What Urban Meyer’s retirement means for Rutgers | Politi - NJ.com

This was in the press box at Ohio Stadium, a couple hours after another 50-something-to-nothing shellacking that the Buckeyes had put on Rutgers. A colleague, Doug Lesmerises of Cleveland.com, had an idea for a point-counterpoint video with an interesting and timely topic:

“Rutgers will never beat Ohio State. Ever.”

Yes, I was the counterpoint.

His argument: That Ohio State was “the most indestructible program in college football,” and that given the lopsided series records against better programs -- a 31-1 record in the last 32 games against Northwestern, for example -- what hope did the struggling Scarlet Knights possibly have to ever compete? The Buckeyes had, after all, defeated them by a combined 163-24 score in their first three meetings.

My argument: Stuff happens. (Insert shrug emoji here.)

I was thinking back to that conversation on Tuesday when Urban Meyer, the architect of the latest incarnation of the Ohio State powerhouse, announced that he would retire at the end of the year. Ryan Day, who filled in for the longtime head coach, will take his place after the Rose Bowl -- a transition that all parties involved believe will be seamless and keep the program at the top of the Big Ten standings. And it probably will.

Still: Can anyone say for that for sure? Day, 39, is about to become a head coach for the first time, and college football history is filled with promising assistants who failed when they slid into a head coaching job. Day is essentially becoming CEO of a massive company now. Can he recruit like Meyer? Can he coach like him? Can he handle the media pressure and the inevitable controversies and everything else that goes with the job?

Can he win?

To be clear, Ohio State is still miles and miles ahead of Rutgers and will be for the foreseeable future. Chris Ash, the defensive coordinator when Meyer won a national title, has about a thousand things to worry about before anyone in Piscataway gets the tape measure out to see if the gap between here and the conference champs has closed.

But the idea that Ohio State is some impenetrable college football death star is just not true. The team was 6-7 in 2011, hit with NCAA sanctions at the end of that season. It went 21-15 from 1999-2001. The man heralded as a "brilliant leader of men” at a press conference in Columbus on Tuesday afternoon was mired in an ugly scandal this summer involving domestic abuse, one that should have led to his removal as head coach sooner.

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Ohio State has spent far more time at the top than anywhere in the same zip code as the bottom. The Buckeyes have the best facilities, a long tradition and a bottomless reservoir of resources. Day is getting tossed the keys of a Maserati, and unless he drives it into a wall, things are going to be fine in O-H-I-O.

That doesn’t change my original counterpoint. Stuff happens. Ohio State is shifting from a proven commodity to an unknown, and with that change comes uncertainty. That doesn’t mean Rutgers is going to beat the Buckeyes next season, but last time I checked, forever is a long time.

A few additional thoughts on the Ohio State news:

# It is clear that the episode in Tennessee and the unfair smearing of his reputation kept Greg Schiano from getting a shot at succeeding Meyer. Day heaped praise on the former Rutgers head coach for helping him during his three-game interim run, and given that Schiano hasn’t emerged as a candidate anywhere else, staying put in Columbus seems likely.

# This is only Day’s second season on the Ohio State staff. You wonder: Did Ash watch the press conference on Tuesday and not envision himself in that seat had he not jumped to Piscataway in 2015?

# Meyer didn’t exactly slam the door shut on resuming his coaching career. Remember, he “retired” once already because of health problems in Florida and couldn’t stay away. It is hard to believe that he’ll slide into a happy life of golf and public speaking gigs. He isn’t wired that way.

# Day will bring the Buckeyes to Piscataway for the first time on Nov. 16. He was the winning coach when the Scarlet Knights lost in Columbus, 52-3, in early September.

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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