Take your time, Wisconsin.
As you can see, the Wolverines are taking theirs.
The hires those two schools make will determine how long Ohio State runs unopposed atop the Big Ten under coach Urban Meyer. After Gary Andersen split for Oregon State on Wednesday, the question becomes even harder to answer for the conference.
Who is going to step up and try to stop Urban Meyer?
There’s no doubt the Buckeyes are in position to dominate the conference for the next decade. Meyer hasn’t lost a regular-season Big Ten game since taking over in 2012. Ohio State is coming off a 59-0 win in the Big Ten championship game. It’s been an endless three-year chorus of “Hang on Sloopy” with no end in sight.
Michigan State got in the way — once. The Spartans are 74-31 under Mark Dantonio and did score a win in the 2013 Big Ten championship game, but the Buckeyes offered payback in a 49-37 win that wasn’t all that close at Spartan Stadium this season.
Consider that only three other Big Ten coaches — Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald and Rutgers’ Kyle Flood — have above .500 records with their current schools. Nebraska hired Mike Riley, who went 93-80 at Oregon State. That’s not going to scare anybody in Columbus.
None of those coaches with the exception of maybe Dantonio are a serious threat to Meyer's monarchy, or in this case, mockery, of the Big Ten.
That’s why either Wisconsin or Michigan — or both — must get it right. Who are the two coaches who at least came close to .500 against Ohio State in the last 25 years?
Barry Alvarez (5-7-1) and Lloyd Carr (6-7). They had teams that had the Buckeyes’ attention. Ohio State might have three or four more national championships if not for Alvarez and Carr. Dantonio is the closest match to those two, and he’s 2-4 against the Buckeyes.
Michigan and Wisconsin are a combined 2-13 against Ohio State since Alvarez and Carr left. They’ve tried a Big Ten traitor (Bret Bielema) a Big Ten loyalist (Brady Hoke) and two outsiders (Rich Rodriguez, Andersen) who landed on the West Coast. None of it worked.
That’s why these schools have to make the right hire now, otherwise Meyer is going to continue to leave the rest of the Big Ten so far behind it’s going to become known as “Ohio State and the Little 13.” If we’re not there already.
For Michigan, for the one billionth time that means Les Miles or Jim Harbaugh. Those are rock-star coaches. All of the rumored names so far: Jim Mora Jr., Greg Schiano, David Cutcliffe, etc. — don’t do anything in Ann Arbor. For Wisconsin, it means Alvarez finds a coach he can co-exist with. Will Paul Chryst or Dave Doeren be enough? Will they take a run at Darrell Bevell?
At this point, Carr and Alvarez returning to the sidelines would get more attention in Columbus, and that’s not going to happen. If Michigan gets Harbaugh and Wisconsin gets Bevell, it would be a different story. Why?
The difference between the Buckeyes and those two schools is quarterback. Ohio State just won a Big Ten championship with a third-string quarterback by 59 points. Michigan and Wisconsin quarterbacks combined for 24 TDs and 31 interceptions this season.
Bevell and Harbaugh are former quarterbacks who tormented the Buckeyes. They can develop a quarterback. They can raise the profile of their programs and the conference. They might even be able to stop Meyer a few times, just like Alvarez and Carr did to John Cooper and Jim Tressel.
The message is clear for Wisconsin and Michigan. Go all out and land those prodigal sons. Break out the checkbook. Take your time, but hurry up.
Meyer isn’t waiting for you to catch up.
