NEW ORLEANS — If we were honest with ourselves, if we were completely introspective and uniquely retrospective, it would fall off the lips so much easier.
Nick Saban and Urban Meyer: It’s a shame they both can’t lose.
“There’s a fine line,” says Ohio State wideout Evan Spencer, “between hate and envy.”
And there, everyone, is the foundation of the Nick and Urb hate outside the states of Alabama and Ohio.
We hate because they win and because they make it look easy. We hate because the spotlight is fixated on them and we can’t look away.
We hate because they’re idolized and deified within the comfortable, loving arms of their state borders. We hate because they’re larger than life and bigger and bolder with each passing season.
We hate, everyone, because we covet.
“All of those people who hate coach Saban,” says Alabama guard Arie Kouandjio, “ are the same people who would do anything for him to be their coach.”
We hate because no one does winning like these two.
Saban and Meyer have combined to win five of the last eight national championships; Saban with three at Alabama (2009, 2011-12) and Meyer with two at Florida (2006, 2008).
Since 2008, Saban is 54-7 in the toughest conference in college football, and those seven losses were by an average of seven points. Since 2004, Meyer has had three winning streaks of at least 20 games; one at Utah, one at Florida, one at Ohio State.
“America loves winners,” said Alabama center Ryan Kelly. “Until they win too much."
We hate because no one recruits better and no one develops talent quite like Saban and Meyer.
Case in point: 2014. Both teams entered the season with significant questions at the most important position on the field. Saban and his staff took forgotten career backup Blake Sims and turned him into the most valuable player in the SEC.
Meyer and his staff began the season with Heisman Trophy candidate Braxton Miller on the shelf with a shoulder injury, and took redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett and turned him into the Big Ten’s most valuable player and a top five Heisman finisher.
To go one step further, Meyer then took sophomore Cardale Jones – whose only claim to fame as a college football player was an infamous Twitter experience (“We didn’t come here to play school, we came to play football”) – and inserted him into the most important game of the season after Barrett’s season-ending ankle injury.
And beat Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big Ten Championship Game.
“I see two incredibly driven, successful coaches who know exactly what they want and how to get it,” said Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman. “How do you hate that?”
We hate because when you’re so good and when you have every advantage at your disposal because of two gigantic athletic departments, it just doesn’t seem fair when you get every break, too.
Alabama lost twice at home in November, in 2011 and 2012, and somehow found a way to win out and play for the national title. Both of Meyer’s championships at Florida were full of fortunate circumstances: from getting a huge upset of UCLA over USC in 2006 to clear the way to the BCS title game, to getting selected to the 2008 BCS title game despite losing at home to Ole Miss.
Then there’s this year’s fortunate break: somehow jumping both Baylor and TCU in the final weeks of the season, despite a worse resume, ugly wins over two bad teams (Indiana and Michigan) and an injury to their starting quarterback.
Asked if Ohio State’s brand name played any role in the Buckeyes landing in the College Football Playoff ahead of Baylor and TCU, Meyer said, “I don’t know, probably.”
Probably.
We hate because probably isn’t really probably. It’s definitely.
Or as Baylor coach Art Briles said, “You put those resumes up on the wall without any names beside them, and you tell me which one is best.”
We hate because no matter what we say or do, these two aren’t going away.
Meyer’s illness – or whatever you want to call it – that forced him from Florida didn’t keep him from winning again. Saban’s gut-wrenching end to 2013 – complete with strange coaching decisions, an unthinkable loss and yet another emasculation in a meaningless bowl game – wasn’t really the beginning of the end we all thought it would be.
“It was rewarding (this season) because everyone was saying what we built here was done, gone, after last season,” Saban said.
We hate because we were wrong – and someone has to win in Thursday night’s College Football Playoff semifinal. But take heart, America, they both could still lose.
There’s still one game left on Jan. 12.
We hate because it can’t get here soon enough.