The Ohio State Buckeyes and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are gearing up for a national championship showdown on Monday night, but three-time national champion head coach Urban Meyer does not seem to think that this is a game between equally-matched teams.
In the latest episode of his “The Triple Option” podcast with Rob Stone and Mark Ingram, Meyer – who served as the head coach at Ohio State from 2012 to 2018 – opened up a little bit on coaching what he calls “talent-equated” games, when both teams have about equal talent.
“Yeah, I’ve always used the term ‘talent-equated’ because that’s pretty clear. That means they got what you got and sometimes a little better and that’s the way you game plan,” Meyer explained via On3. “I’d always meet with the staff after I did a thorough evaluation because, man, that changes the whole world of how you plan a game. If that team across the sideline has better dudes than you got then, once again, that changes it. And I look at roster-roster.”
However, when it comes to Monday’s national championship game showdown, Meyer does not view this matchup as a clash of “talent-equated” teams. Meyer thinks Ohio State is clearly more talented, particularly on offense.
“Remember, Notre Dame lost either three or four really good players on – their defense is phenomenal. Al Golden, the defensive coordinator, is a phenomenal coach. They got great players on defense. But, remember, they’ve lost four players on defense,” Meyer said. “Offensively? I just – this is not a talent-equated game on paper. It’s not. And, on film, I would say it’s not.”
Still, Meyer acknowledged that Notre Dame has the potential to pull off an upset, citing their win over Georgia as an example of how Notre Dame was able to win with less talent.
“I would say that the Fighting Irish – those gold helmets, the way they play? Sometimes talent, you know – rarely does the less-talented team beat a more-talented team. But this is one of those teams that’s got a refuse-to-lose mentality,” Meyer noted.
“When they beat Georgia? Remember, now, how they beat Georgia. They scored – they got a short-field, a six, eight-yard field. Next thing you know, they get a kickoff return for a touchdown and then the game flipped like that. It was not they lined up toe-to-toe and swung and hit and hit and hit because Georgia, on film, probably, and on paper, probably, had the better roster.”
That said, he reiterated that Ohio State is clearly the more talented team.
“I say that with respect, that things happen…Things happen,” Meyer said. “But, when I saw that point spread? Vegas, you know, is not wrong very often. But I would say this is a non-equated talent game and I know that watching it and looking at – I watched the film before I said that and I also did the study of the personnel.”
Needless to say, this is a pretty brutal truth from Meyer, and it led to a lot of reactions from fans on social media.
“As an ND fan I am worried about this scenario too. Really depends which OSU team shows up and how well Denbrock can gameplan to keep us in the game,” one fan wrote on X.
“Oh the beauty of playing on the field and none of this talk matters,” another fan added.
“I think its over by the first quarter,” someone else said.
“I listened to it, respect his opinion as a former coach who has studied the film. He’s right that on paper OSU is more talented. Good thing the games are played on grass, because on paper UGA and PSU were more also talented than ND on paper,” another fan added.
“Thankfully, we don’t play football on paper,” someone else quipped.
“I guess that’s why they play the games,” another person wrote.
We’ll have to see who emerges victorious on Monday night.
