Upset win in championship helps cement Meyer’s legacy

ARLINGTON, Texas — The day before the national championship game, both coaches appeared together for a news conference.

The overwhelming number of questions were directed to Ohio State’s Urban Meyer, and one of the few asked of Oregon’s Mark Helfrich was about facing a great coach in Meyer.

Sure, it was a little insulting, but it’s also reality.

Meyer only added to his growing legend on Monday night at AT&T Stadium.

A third-string quarterback. A running back who wasn’t even second-team All-Big Ten Conference. Three fumbles lost and an interception.

All that against an Oregon team favored by nearly a touchdown.

Didn’t matter.

Fourth-ranked Ohio State led most of the game, dictated tempo and beat the No. 2 Ducks 42-20 to win the first College Football Playoff national championship before a partisan Buckeyes crowd. This was Ohio State’s eighth national title and first since 2002.

Meyer became the second Football Bowl Subdivision coach to win national titles at two schools, joining Alabama’s Nick Saban, who has three championships with the Crimson Tide and one with Louisiana State. This was the first at Ohio State for Meyer, who captured two at Florida.

His first title for the Gators came against Ohio State. As former Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips once said of the Miami Dolphins’ Don Shula, “He can take his’n and beat your’n, and he can take your’n and beat his’n.”

Meyer also is someone you shouldn’t bet against, now 6-0 with the Buckeyes as an underdog.

This championship run was left for dead when the Buckeyes lost at home to Virginia Tech just two weeks into the season, and with a lineup dotted with freshmen and sophomores, Ohio State always seemed at least a year away.

“This is as improved a football team” as possible, Meyer said. “I’ve watched football a long time. From Game 1 to Game 15, I’ve never seen anything like it.

“I certainly did not see this (title run) happening after spring practice and early in the season, but I didn’t understand the improvement this team could make.”

The Buckeyes (14-1) also lost two quarterbacks, one before the season and another in the regular-season finale. In stepped Cardale Jones, who led them to a 59-0 victory over Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship, 42-35 over Alabama in the national semifinals and then this victory over the Ducks.

It was over that same three-game stretch that running back Ezekiel Elliott — only an honorable-mention all-conference selection by the media and completely left off the Big Ten team by the coaches — emerged to thrust himself into Heisman talk for next season.

He could win just based on the past three games — 220 yards and two touchdowns against Wisconsin, 230 yards and two scores against Alabama and then 246 yards and four TDs against Oregon.

The Ducks (13-2) had no answer for Elliott, and by the third quarter it seemed all Jones had to do was hand off and the Buckeyes would move the ball at will.

“He’s a monster,” Meyer said. “He’s the most underrated back in America. He’s one of the best post-contact backs I’ve ever been around.”

They won despite four turnovers. Ohio State seemed to do everything in its power to give Oregon a chance, and the Ducks wouldn’t take it.

As masterful as Ohio State’s offensive plan was, the Buckeyes were even more impressive defensively in holding the Ducks 25 points below their average. Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota didn’t play poorly in passing for 333 yards and two touchdowns, but he clearly missed two receivers who could have made a difference, one suspended and another injured.

“We slowed that guy down, and he’s one of the best players in the country,” Meyer said. “We tackled well.”

The only time Oregon looked comfortable was on its opening 75-yard touchdown drive that took only 2:39. The Ducks’ famed high-tempo offense was knocked out of rhythm the rest of the night, and by midway through the final quarter, Helfrich elected to punt rather than go for a fourth-and-7 at Oregon’s 26-yard line.

If Helfrich had a towel nearby, he would’ve thrown it on to the field.

He didn’t have any answers for Meyer anyway, but Helfrich wasn’t alone. No one else did, either, including Saban.

What this game did was clarify something that was becoming obvious anyway. Meyer is the best college football coach in the country.

And one of the best ever.

“What he’s been able to accomplish on the field has been, whatever those adjectives are or descriptives, an icon, a Hall of Famer,” Helfrich said. “Ohio State is a tremendous program with a very proud tradition, and he’s added to it.”

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.