Armour: Urban Meyer maintains balance as pressure to repeat builds

CHICAGO — If ever there was a time for Urban Meyer to revert back to the single-minded focus that was so all-consuming, so self-destructive it briefly drove him out of coaching, now was it.

His summer had officially ended the minute he boarded the plane for Big Ten media days here. His Ohio State Buckeyes were a near-unanimous No. 1 in the Amway coaches preseason poll, making them an even bigger target than they already were as defending national champions. He's got three starting quarterbacks, each of whom is exceptional, and no way to play all of them.

Add to all that the news that four players, including All-American defensive end Joey Bosa, would be suspended for what was already going to be a brutal season opener at Virginia Tech, the only team to hand the Buckeyes a loss last season.

As Meyer and three of his seniors rode in from the airport, the coach checked his phone repeatedly. And that, linebacker Josh Perry said, tells you everything you need to know about how Meyer is handling the pressures of success this third time around.

“He’s getting updates from his son’s baseball tournament in Virginia,” Perry said.

"That's the kind of stuff you want to see," Perry added. "You can tell there's really that family balance, and he's spending time on other things."

Make no mistake, Meyer is still obsessive in the way the best coaches are. He'll send players back into the locker room and make them come out again if he doesn't think they're taking the field in the right frame of mind. Ohio State no longer practices on back-to-back days in the spring after Meyer did a deep dive into his previous teams' concussion stats.

There is not a single thing the Ohio State players do on the field – and off, for that matter – that isn't charted and analyzed. Usually over and over again.

"Kind of nuts," is how Perry describes him.

But it's a measured kind of nuts now.

After Florida claimed its second championship in three seasons, Meyer nearly collapsed under the weight of the pressure he put upon himself. Sleep, a rare commodity for a coach in the best of circumstances, became even more elusive. Always thin, he became downright gaunt.

Scariest of all were the chest pains that had both Meyer and his wife fearing he would have a heart attack before he had his 50th birthday.

"We won 22 straight games, we went undefeated in the Southeastern Conference and it was a miserable year according to people, including myself. That's my fault," Meyer said, referring to the 2009 season at Florida.

"If we win every game this year, it's not going to be miserable, I assure you," he said. "We're not going to play that game. I'm not talking about the outside influence. The inside influence will not be that."

Citing health reasons, Meyer took a brief leave of absence in December 2009. He returned to Florida for the 2010 season, but announced his retirement at the end of the year, again citing his health.

After a year out of coaching, a year in which he spent time with his family and realized that work-life balance isn't something that exists only in books and fairy tales, Ohio State came calling. But before Meyer signed on, his family made him sign a contract in which he agreed not to fall back into his old ways. He promised to keep the job in perspective. To make time for them.

To make time for himself.

So as the Ohio State players toiled in the weight room this summer with their eyes on a second consecutive title, Meyer watched baseball with his son. He spent quality time with his younger daughter, Gigi, who had just finished her senior year at Florida Gulf Coast University.

"It was the summer of Gigi," Meyer cracked.

"I've been watching it very closely, and others I'm close to have," he said. "I've learned how to delegate, learned how to shut things off when it's time to shut it off and move forward and not concern yourselves with things you can't have control over. So it's been great."

Now you know this Urban Meyer 2.0 is for real. The old version would have scowled on a day when four players got suspended, not made jokes and said life was great.

Maybe Nick Saban should take note.

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