Urban Meyer Says College Football's Coach Of The Year Choice Is Easy
11/06/2024 04:05 PM
During his illustrious coaching career, Urban Meyer won multiple national Coach of the Year trophies.
In 2003, Meyer was named The Sporting News Coach of the Year after leading Utah to a 10-2 record and Liberty Bowl win. The following year, Meyer steered the Utes to an undefeated 12-0 season and Fiesta Bowl victory, taking home four Coach of the Year awards in the process.
This year, there are several viable candidates to win Coach of the Year, but like many people, Meyer is focused on Indiana's Curt Cignetti. So far, in his first season at IU, Cignetti has the Hoosiers off to a 9-0 start and top 10 rankings in both polls and the College Football Playoff top 25.
"So Curt Cignetti is absolutely, obviously a candidate and unless something changes, he gets it," Meyer said Wednesday on "The Triple Option," via On3.
This weekend, Indiana will look to move to 10-0 with a win over Michigan, the defending national champions.
The Wolverines, who went 15-0 in 2023, are only 5-4 this season, and Meyer couldn't help but notice the change of fortunes for both programs since last year.
"And I'm going to talk about this because they're playing each other: Who would've thought, 365 removed from the worst team in the Big Ten, they're playing the best team in the Big Ten a year ago, and they're a 14.5-point favorite. I'll tell you what, if someone — if Big Bear, if Bears Bites was throwing a couple bucks on that one Mark, he'd be flying private to Big Noon," Meyer said, referring to his FOX Sports' colleague, Chris "The Bear" Fallica.
Should Indiana handle Michigan this Saturday, they will face their stiffest test on Nov. 23: Ohio State, which is 7-1 and ranked No. 3 in the AP poll entering Saturday's game against Purdue.
Earlier today, Meyer said he fully believes in the Buckeyes as a national title contender after the way they closed out their 20-13 win over Penn State last week.
"The most physical team will win the national championship," Meyer said. "I used to say this to our players, the team that punches the hardest will win the national title. It's historic. I mean, it's time tested. That's what happens. Ohio State, there were concerns. I don't have any more concerns. I saw what I saw. We were live there. That was the best four minute drill I can remember seeing.
"There's five minutes and 13 seconds left. They ran the ball 10 straight times for 59 yards on the road of Penn State from the one yard line. And they basically said, we're running the ball. Stop us."
Related: Urban Meyer Has No More Concerns About Ohio State After Penn State Win
