Why Urban Meyer would fix Michigan State football in the long run

Many Michigan State football fans want Urban Meyer in East Lansing while others are hesitant. Here’s why he’d be great for the program.

Here we are for a second week in a row. After last week’s epic Michigan State football meltdown against Rutgers, I talked myself into wanting Urban Meyer in East Lansing. Sure, it didn’t take much convincing, but I was still on the fence because for some reason, I cared what the national media felt about it.

No more.

After yet another on-field debacle that just went to show that our coaching staff is in over its head and the players have little to no direction, I’m even more convinced than ever before that Urban Meyer needs to be a Spartan.

Many of you might be confused because the last thing you heard about Meyer was that he told Tim May he had ‘no interest’ in leaving FOX Sports for the ranks of college football coaching. At least not at the moment.

But the crazy thing about coaching searches is that most of the twists and turns happen behind the scenes. While Urban is saying one thing publicly, he could very well be saying something completely opposite behind closed doors. And that seems to be the rumor lately. Even former Last Chance U coach and current podcast host Jason Brown believes that Urban will be a Spartan after speaking with his sources. He went on to say that he believed this was going to happen for weeks.

Now we’re here after a 49-0 blowout loss to Michigan and Meyer rumors are still circulating. Heck, they’re spreading even quicker than before.

And we all need to hope that there’s fire behind all of this smoke.

Urban would fix Michigan State for decades

Why should we hope these rumors are true? Well, for one, Urban is one of the top three head coaches that college football has seen over the past couple of decades. He’s won national titles at two different programs and has a career 187-32 record. But also because he can fix what seems to be a program in flames for the next decade-plus.

How is that possible seeing as he’ll be 60 by the start of next college football season? He only needs to be at Michigan State for 4-5 years to have a lasting impact. Urban would come in, immediately flip the roster into one of the best in the conference like he did at Utah, Florida, and Ohio State, and he’d leave the cupboard full for the next head coach. He would make Michigan State a very attractive destination for a top-tier head coach in 4-5 years. And let’s say that coach just keeps the ball rolling, the cupboard would then be full again when that coach moves on.

Essentially, Urban would fill the cupboard, turn Michigan State into a winner, have everyone buy back in, and set the program up for potentially decades with just a four or five-year stint.

Don’t believe me? Let’s see how his last four programs fared after he left.

• Bowling Green: 17-6 under Meyer; 20-6 the two years after
• Utah: 22-2 under Meyer; 57-20 the six years after (still competing for titles)
• Florida: 65-15 under Meyer; 18-8 the two years after (and Will Muschamp was a horrible head coach)
• Ohio State: 83-9 under Meyer; 49-6 since

And you might be saying, “Well, he took over solid programs most of the time.”

The seasons before he got to those programs were not ideal. Here’s how each program fared the year before Urban got there.

• Bowling Green: 2-9 (went 8-3 in Meyer’s first year)
• Utah: 5-6 (went 10-2 in Meyer’s first year)
• Florida: 7-5 (went 9-3 in Meyer’s first year)
• Ohio State: 6-7 (went 12-0 in Meyer’s first year)

All but one of the programs he inherited had a losing record before he got there. And the worst record in his first year was 8-3. So for anyone who believes “Meyer doesn’t want to rebuild a program”, just take a look at what he’s done. That’s all he’s known. And his rebuilds last less than a year.

Plus, with the transfer portal and NIL now available, he could rebuild even faster.

The combined record of programs he’s inherited the year before he took over is 20-27 and he is 39-8 in first seasons. And the long-term effects Urban Meyer has had on these programs has been impressive — especially Utah and Ohio State.

So for anyone who’s worried that “he may not live up to the hype” in East Lansing, he will at the very least rebuild the program to a respectable degree and set Michigan State up for the long term.

Hire this man.