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ROSE BOWL GAME: OHIO STATE VS WASHINGTON

December 30, 2018

Urban Meyer

Pasadena, California

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Urban Meyer.

Q. Coach, what's the anticipation like for you now as we get close?
URBAN MEYER: I was hoping today we'd get to see the field. I've never been here. I have been here one time. I pulled up when I was recruiting for Colorado State University, and I was told to leave. They said, hey, bud, you've got to get out of here. I said okay.

I've never seen the field. And really anxious to see and see the atmosphere, because I've heard so much about it for all these years.

Q. Now you have an all-access pass?
URBAN MEYER: Not yet. We're still in here.

Q. Through your childhood, you have dreamed about this place?
URBAN MEYER: I have. I dreamt a lot about Ohio State, the rivalry game, the Rose Bowl. Seems like every year in the '70s when I was at that age where everybody is watching it, the parade, the game, and then watching Archie Griffin score touchdowns in the Rose Bowl.

Q. It's hard to believe that this is only Ohio State's first trip here in the last 30 years.
URBAN MEYER: I was shocked. I remember I was at Ohio State in 1986 and 1987, and that was always the target, to go to the Rose Bowl. That was well before the BCS or College Football Playoff. And we came close the one year and we went to the Cotton Bowl.

It was shocking when I looked up at the post -- we have a Rose Bowl sign up in our facility. I looked up there, and it was hard to believe that we haven't been here in so many years.

Q. What's it mean to you and your program to play in the Rose Bowl?
URBAN MEYER: It means the world to me and our staff, because the older guys remember the Rose Bowl and being a premier bowl game in college football with Keith Jackson calling the plays, and all the great players, it seemed like, USC and Ohio State and UCLA and Washington, and you would always just watch those games.

But I was pleasantly surprised that our players knew about it, too. I was really thinking we were going to have to motivate them and maybe guys would sit out, maybe this, maybe that, they'd all be -- but the minute we were in the Rose Bowl -- I mean, there was disappointment that we weren't in a playoff, but it quickly shifted to respect to the Rose Bowl.

Q. What have these last few weeks been like to you knowing that this is the end of the road?
URBAN MEYER: I wouldn't say it's the end of the road.

Q. To a certain extent.
URBAN MEYER: Yeah, to a certain extent. It's actually been -- it's been great. And I really am so grateful for Gene Smith, our friendship and support. He's one of my closest friends, and my love for Ohio State, knowing that we did a job well done and we still have one more to do.

Q. How do you think Dwayne's handled all the things that are kind of crashing on him?
URBAN MEYER: It's a credit to his mom and dad now. Because the average person I'm not sure they could handle it the way he's handling it. You can say he's awful mature. I don't buy that. I buy that's a product of two wonderful parents that are very involved in a person's life and humility and respect, respect for his teammates. The humility, realizes that God gave him great tools, and he's worked real hard. I credit his mother and father with the way he's handling it.

Q. You were talking about when he was here at 11 years old just the quarterback camp, were you aware of that?
URBAN MEYER: I was aware. I don't really talk to Dwayne much about it. I talk to him more about the thing you mentioned before, about humility and about just leading, his leadership skill set has gone from very average to way above average in the last month and a half, and I'm so proud of that.

Q. What do you think the difference has been?
URBAN MEYER: I think Coach Day is as good as I've ever been around. I think Coach Marotti, our support staff around him. He's got -- I always encourage that amongst players of that magnitude, have a very small circle of influence and listen to them, and make sure the circle of influence doesn't benefit from your -- don't use you. And I think he's done a phenomenal job of that keeping a very small circle.

Q. Physically and mentally ready for the NFL?
URBAN MEYER: That's a tough question. I think our focus is on this game. And I imagine we'll all sit down -- for me to answer that would be unfair to you, because I haven't given the amount of thought and research that I'll need to do after this game.

Q. Has it surprised you with how quick he came on the scene with all the passing records and everything?
URBAN MEYER: Yeah, I actually thought J.T.'s record, when he broke Drew Brees' record, I thought there's no way, and then this guy crushes it. And that's a product, first of all, of Dwayne, but Ryan Day, you've got to give him -- he's really influenced our offense. And especially in the passing game.

And he's added so many -- I've learned so much football from Coach Day in the last year and a half, how he's enhanced it. And our offensive line has protected him very well for the most part and he's probably thrown to the best group of receivers in Ohio State history.

So I talk about the humility that Dwayne has, he understands that more than anyone. And so it does surprise me, but the cast he had to work with, the coach he had to work with, and then obviously it's him. He's really refined his skill set.

Q. You've had some great leaders, J.T., Tim, Chris Leak, where does he compare on the leadership scale?
URBAN MEYER: Great question. I would say a year ago not even the same. It's not fair to Dwayne because he's not that. I would say as we get ready to play the Rose Bowl, he's getting close.

Q. When you look at physical aspect of what Dwayne does, more of a throw-first quarterback (indiscernible), do you anticipate that being the model that Ryan Day will do in recruiting a quarterback?
URBAN MEYER: No, I think he's going to recruit the best quarter -- it's kind of what we've done. If you look at the history from Josh Harris to Alex Smith, Alex Smith was a throw-first, but he was also a good enough athlete, to Chris Leak was a throw-first pretty much all the way. Tim Tebow was more of a run dual-threat quarterback. Braxton Miller, run dual-threat quarterback. J.T. Barrett, run first, dual-threat quarterback. Cardale Jones, no, really -- he scrambled, but we never had designed Q runs.

We've always tried to recruit the best possible player and adapt the offense to him. And I think Ryan, we've talked about this, he's going to recruit the best player possible and adapt the offense and adjust the offense to him, which is kind of what we've always done. But I think we're more equipped with a throwing quarterback now with what Ryan's brought to our offense.

Q. How do you avoid that, this final day, final game, final -- you just said it's not the end of the road. What do you mean by that?
URBAN MEYER: It means I'm 54 years old. I'm going to teach a class. I'm going to be around Ohio State. I'm going to do others things. My passion is the student-athlete. And other than hoisting trophies, the next best thing is watching a young person come up to me and say that Goldman Sachs just hired me or that I got a job opportunity at -- Brady Taylor, who was never a starter, told me that he's got three job offers waiting for him because of the internship program we put together.

So that's only going to be enhanced.

Q. That's a huge win, is it not?
URBAN MEYER: Other than -- that's the best win there is. And you know what, that's our job. And I'm glad to see college football has taken -- everyone's doing it. People said everyone's trying to do what we started, no.

Q. It's good for the game.
URBAN MEYER: Athletes have been, in my opinion, used for a long time. The programs that are doing this aren't being used anymore. They're using the system, which is what this is all about.

Q. (Indiscernible) have you thought about maybe going back into broadcasting?
URBAN MEYER: To be honest, I've tried to really lock in on this game. As my wife has always said, God has a plan. We'll see what happens. And I know I enjoyed my time when I was doing that, but we'll see down the road.

Q. In your study or watch of Coach Petersen, what do you see about the program that (indiscernible)?
URBAN MEYER: I've known Chris Petersen for a long time. My one year at ESPN I flew out there and spent two days and studied Boise State, what makes Boise State. And obviously it's an incredible, but it's also what he did to elevate Boise State, and Coach Harsin has continued that, was phenomenal.

He's a guy that you always have to make sure you're crossing every T and dotting every I. If he sees a weakness, he'll expose you.

I always tell the story we were getting ready to play Ohio State in '06, actually January of '07, and it's a few days before our game, they're playing Oklahoma, I'm trying to sleep. And Boise State runs a hook and ladder and they run a statue for score, and I remember Shelley hitting me, saying why don't we do some of this fun stuff. You never do fun stuff like Chris Petersen. It's like, okay. We have to make sure we're on our game.

Q. National media seems to boil it down to a high-powered passing attack versus a high-powered secondary. Is it as simple as that?
URBAN MEYER: No, no, no. The first thing I'm going to say for people who cover us is the field position on how you -- how you cover kicks, how you execute your punt, and do you follow the plan to win.

They're very good in the back end of their defense. We're very good throwing the ball, but I also think they have a running back that rushed for 5,000 yards. If you don't tackle them, it's going to be a bad day for Ohio State. They have a quarterback that's played four years and is an NFL prospect. If you don't contain him, it's going to be a bad day for Ohio State. It's much deeper than that.

Q. The more you go through practice when you're around these guys, do you think there's going to be something similar?
URBAN MEYER: I am. I think when it all -- as I made a comment, it was not a split-second decision. So after we did it and after it's -- I was -- I think I've done and Coach Stoops has done what -- he was the model, he handed it off. Support staff and everybody never lost their jobs, the program is extremely strong. And more than that, you're handing off to a guy that can make it stronger. And so I'm very much at peace about that.

Q. Do you think if Ryan Day weren't in the picture, it would be tougher for you to walk away?
URBAN MEYER: Yeah, I don't think I could. Because there's too many -- there's head coaches here but you also have these teammates, support staff and everyone has made -- I dare to say one of the best, if not the best, top-to-bottom program. I'm talking about academically, life after football, on and off the field behavior, arguably the top program in America.

Q. How much have you talked to Bob about your decision, the handing off and everything? How much did you talk to maybe Bob Stoops?
URBAN MEYER: I think that's kind of private, but I'll say we did have -- we're very close, and I've made it clear over the years that I have much respect for him. So I listen to him. We've talked quite a bit.

Q. What was it about the early signing video, because it seemed like kind of social media passing of the torch with --
URBAN MEYER: The video thing? We thought it would be a good time to showcase our acting skills. (Smiling). Our video guy came up and asked me, and at first I said I'm not doing that. Then I started thinking, you know what? I said, What do you think? He said, I think it will be really cool. So we did it.

Q. This is probably well known, but how did you and Ryan first get connected?
URBAN MEYER: Dan Mullen, great fast fact that Dan Mullen, Chip Kelly and Ryan Day are all from New Hampshire. I want to say the same town or close to the same town. Ryan played for Chip Kelly. And Dan Mullen, when he was with me at Florida, came to me and said, I'd like to hire this guy. And Dan was the offensive coordinator. I said sure. That was the first time I met him. I want to say it was '05.

Q. How quickly, I guess, did you come to realize that he had (indiscernible)?
URBAN MEYER: He only stayed one year and got hired full-time, I believe. And then I really -- I went and spent a day with the Eagles when Chip was there and Ryan was a quarterback coach and actually Tim Tebow was there. I went and sat in meetings and I walked away and took a lot of notes on how he ran the meeting. I watched them on the field, and obviously it was much different being a quarterback coach at the Eagles than GA at Florida, and I just saw you could tell right then.

Q. Our audience are young people, and we use our words to inspire them. As a coach, as a mentor, what would you tell young people today, what are the ingredients they need to succeed?
URBAN MEYER: That's probably one I would need a half hour to cover. But I think I share with my son as well that everyone has dreams and goals. If your habits don't reflect those dreams and goals, then -- this is kind of a Kobe Bryant paraphrase a little bit -- change your habits, if they don't correlate with your dreams and goals.

But I go a step further. It's not that easy to change your habits, change your dreams and goals. And don't lie to yourself. My son wants to be a Major League Baseball player. Then why aren't you training harder than anybody else on the team? Some people want to be a doctor, but they've got a 2.3 GPA. It's not going to happen for you.

You can say it all you want. Change your habits or be honest with yourself and change your dreams and goals because it's not going to happen if you're doing some of those things you mentioned.

Q. Why should people watch the Rose Bowl on Tuesday?
URBAN MEYER: I think everybody watches it because it's "The Granddaddy of Them All." It's a bucket list, much-watched game that I think many -- I don't know the ratings, but...

Q. But in particular this one, why should people watch it, because of tradition?
URBAN MEYER: Sure, absolutely. Tradition's not maybe as important as it was years ago. You have two excellent teams. I believe both in the top 10. You have two premier quarterbacks. You have two conference champions. That's why they should watch it.

Q. When you first started at BG, what was your philosophy on how involved the head coach should be in calling plays and the offense, and how did that evolve throughout your career?
URBAN MEYER: I think that I used all -- always have used the word game manager. So I've called -- there's been games where I called 60 percent of the plays. There's been games that I've called 5 percent.

It's just my belief that you sometimes if you're -- Ryan and I have talked about this -- if you're the full-time play caller, that's not a job you show up on Saturdays and call. You've got to sit and eight-, ten-hour meetings a day to do that. I wasn't willing to do that. I was going to be in charge of punt and kickoff. I want my hands on the defense.

It's a slippery slope where you're the play caller, do the defensive players really know you. And I always say do you know them. And I mean do you actually physically touch the players, hug them up. And that was my way of coaching special teams because I wanted the same relationship with the Pete Werner as I had with Parris Campbell. And if you're a play caller, you've got to be very careful about that. We've had many conversations. I don't think you have many true play callers anymore.

Q. You were never the primary play caller in any of your head coaching jobs.
URBAN MEYER: No.

Q. You mentioned becoming a teacher at Ohio State. How did that all manifest, coalesce?
URBAN MEYER: We teach a class every fall. That's been going on for years and years and years. Really enjoyed that. It's a little difficult sometimes during the fall. And this Fisher School of Business, they've helped us recruit many great players over the years. And I was approached. A guy came up to me, Charles Buchanan, said, Can I talk to you about co-teaching a class with me?

And two years ago they started a leadership initiative in the Fisher School of Business. And I thought about it. I talked to Shelley about it. I talked to Gene about it. It was a no-brainer if I could do it. Grateful that I can.

Q. Why is it important to you to do that?
URBAN MEYER: Well, one of the issues I'm going to have is -- I did other things outside of coaching. You start to feel like you're not making an impact, you're not helping. And this is an opportunity to, especially you don't want to be in a 600-person class if you don't have a relationship with the students. So I think this is going to be good.

Q. They really want to win this for you. What do you think about that?
URBAN MEYER: I think that's media putting microphones in players' mouths. I think they're going to win, as we've said all along, for the brotherhood. Why does a fifth-year senior come back? For the brotherhood. Why does the team go on the road and when you're down by two scores they come back and win that game? It's not for a coach. It's not -- it's for the brotherhood. And that's why they're going to play well, I think.

Q. You mentioned Jake Browning and Myles Gaskin. Are there other Huskies players that you're taking note of by name?
URBAN MEYER: Yeah, I don't usually, just because I know those two by name because they're so well -- I know the middle linebacker is the leading tackler in the Pac-12. Met him at Disney. Great football player.

Two inside defensive tackles are two gap players. I don't know them by name, but I know them on film, and they're as good as we've faced. And their secondary has all four guys that are NFL prospects.

So I probably say you've got the running back, the quarterback, you've got the offensive line is very good, and the back end of their defense is not good; they're great.

Q. Talk about the relationship like the big classroom, the relationship with the players, you're obviously going to miss out on that relationship with the coaching staff. You've had a lot of assistants throughout the years. Can you talk about missing out, hanging out in the coach's room?
URBAN MEYER: Yeah, that's a big part of it as well. I've been very fortunate. If you look over the years, we have a bunch of head coaches bouncing around out there. Not doing good, doing great. And I'll keep those relationships. And once again, I plan on being around and assist Ryan in any way I can.

Q. Couple of your players (indiscernible) since you're staying at Ohio State how tough to simply not walk as special teams coach (indiscernible)?
URBAN MEYER: It's not going to be tough at all. I know the boundaries and I know that we are all are here for one reason, and that's to make Coach Day and the football program successful. And I look forward to that.

Q. What will the process be to determine what your role actually will be -- have you outlined exactly what your specific job responsibilities will be?
URBAN MEYER: No. Win the Rose Bowl and make sure our players are ready to go.

Q. Do you have a timeline for when you'll figure that stuff out?
URBAN MEYER: That's up to Gene and I'm sure after the bowl game.

Q. Can you talk about what you've seen with the safeties overall this year, how it's progressed moving into the Rose Bowl?
URBAN MEYER: Our safeties? Yeah, we've had an up-and-down year. Some players that have really improved throughout the year. That was really tough early on. We had some injuries. We had a targeting penalty at one point. We had a young player like Brendon White was not ready early on, made strides.

So that was a room that is playing much better now than they did earlier in the year. I look at the talent, Isaiah Pryor, Brendon White, Jordan Fuller, Shaun Wade now, those are all five guys that have a future in football if they keep improving. The future is bright.

Q. You mentioned earlier about growing up in the '70s, what this game means to college football, the fans and kids everywhere. Now mentioning you might have to give your guys a history lesson because it's not quite what it was. If you take all that look at what people say, it's been expanded, the teams, what does that mean for the Rose Bowl; do you take a step back -- how do you factor that into the whole debate?
URBAN MEYER: I'm worried about that. We've been on the outside looking in the last -- we've won our conference the last two years, and we didn't make it in. Devastating. But fortunately our guys took the bowl games very serious.

We went to the Fiesta Bowl, played a very good Notre Dame team and won. We had an excellent team, 2015. '16 we made it and didn't play well in the playoff. In '17 I thought we were in, and we went and played a very good USC team and beat them. Now we didn't make it in. And we're going out to the Rose Bowl.

So we've done a pretty good job with it. But when I start hearing expanding playoff, the one thing that I just don't hear enough and I will be and always will be a student-athlete advocate, what does it mean for them?

We don't care about the money for the conferences. When I hear that, I get a little upset. When I hear that television this -- what about Dre'Mont Jones? Can his body take another two games? Do you have to increase it to a 14-game schedule or whatever, 15, 16?

With the current model, you just can't. In my opinion, I don't think you can do that.

Q. When you're already pulling 14, from your experience -- when you're already playing the 14 --
URBAN MEYER: We played 15 in 2014.

Q. What's the difference for the player from your experience in seeing a season of 12 and 13 versus 14, 15?
URBAN MEYER: The difference is when you start getting to that level, you're playing, I mean, sledgehammers each week. And the wear and tear on bodies, injuries. You just start seeing -- you saw it a couple times yesterday. There's some teams playing without players, and all of a sudden that guy gets hurt. You're moving a guy that was an outside backer into inside backer, that might sound insignificant. But it's just -- I'm not saying don't do it. I'm saying student-athlete needs to be the number one conversation and then all the other stuff.

Q. There's a court case right now that could potentially lift the limits on the amount of money players can receive for cost of attendance, do you ever see it evolving where players should benefit financially from some of these big-time games?
URBAN MEYER: I think something's happening down the road. I haven't studied it enough. I just don't know enough about it right now.

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