Urban Meyer parting with Ohio State would not be shocking

Urban Meyer's Ohio State took an ugly loss at Purdue in Week 8. The Buckeyes got blasted all the way out of West Lafayette, giving up four touchdowns of 40-plus yards in the fourth quarter alone. It was one of the most shocking routs ever of a top-two team.

Every Ohio State is its own drama, and this one has fans all shades of furious.

It did not create questions about Meyer's leadership of the program, but it brought them into focus.

Teams like Ohio State are not supposed to lose by 29 to teams like Purdue. Beyond that, they are not supposed to get upset blowouts by four-touchdowns in three straight seasons, as Meyer's now done.

It's not unreasonable to ask if Ohio State's coach in 2019. And wondering about it is not specifically a knee-jerk response to a 7-0 team taking a single, colossal defeat.

Meyer's already doing a good job.

FootballScoop reported after the Purdue loss:

FootballScoop issues at Ohio State between football and athletics leadership. Multiple times, the term "friction" has been used to describe issues between Urban Meyer and Gene Smith (and their respective key lieutenants). Within the football program itself, it has been said that there is a tension that has not been present in previous years.

Meyer and Smith have been denied they are not getting along.

There are also unresolved differences between Meyer's version of events and Zach Smith's and the one's school's investigators, and Meyer strongly objected to his suspension, a punishment school president's Michael Drake fought for. Smith's attorney characterized it as Meyer "falling on the sword" for the school.

Ohio State did not seem to be interested in moving from a few months prior. One interpretation of a clause in his contract could have led to a $ 38 million buyout, but OSU did not try that.

Meyer's theoretical departure could take many different forms.

He left Bowling Green for Utah after promising he would not. He left Utah for Florida after promising he would not. He retired from UF after two different seasons.

Maybe he'd leave Ohio State on his own, for any number of reasons. Perhaps he could win the Rose Bowl and decide on a big one, like Bob Stoops did at Oklahoma after 2016.

When asked about retirement rumors, he did not exactly shoot them down with ferocity.

It's not like Meyer's career moves forward, though.

Meyer's medical history, but simply put, he had had chronic health problems.

His mental health has suffered at different points. He's been diagnosed with an arachnoid cyst in his brain and dropped to the ground on the sideline during one 2018 game.

One of Ohio State's rationales for not firing Meyer was that the researchers found he did not make a press conference about his knowledge of abuse allegations against Smith. The investigators can proceed as far as possible.

Meyer is 54 years old and has spent all of the last 18 years as an FBS head coach, working absurd hours.

If he stays, he's got his work cut out in order to bring things back to his, and Ohio State's, historical standards.

• On the field, the Buckeyes do not look like the Buckeyes. Their running game is shockingly inept due to poor offensive line play. The defense was a million miles from what it should be, even before it got blasted into the sun by Purdue.
• Former blue-chip recruits have failed to provide answers to their needs.
• Meyer's filled his staff with old friends, a few of whom have produced badly underperforming units. The biggest example is defensive coordinator Greg Schiano.
• Ohio State's recruiting firewall in Ohio does not look like it's too much.

A lot of this is not new. Ohio State's offense has struggled periodically over the last few years, with a top-10 finish in 2017. And when the Buckeyes finally developed a downfield passing game this year, their run game went to hell.

Some in the coaching community have voiced similar views …

… have this prominent form Ohio State QB:

Meyer's shortcomings as a manager are now obvious, given his handling of the Zach Smith story that became public knowledge. But they've manifested themselves in less serious situations, too.

Smith, the trainer Buckeye receivers coach, absolutely should have been fired even before any consideration of the multiple domestic abuse allegations made against him.

He was frequent late to meetings and sloppy in his job performance, according to internal documents the school's hired investigators surfaced in August. Those investigators who are suspected Smith on staff because Smith is the grandson of Bruce Earle, the Ohio State trainer coach and a mentor of Meyer's.

The end result was that Meyer had Smith on his State for six years, all while Smith had been accused of ex-wife.

There's no comparing the stakes of the Smith story with making the usual bad wager and keeping those coaches in their jobs too long.

But the latter has made for a knock on Meyer for years, going back to when he replaced Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen with Steve Addazio. He's arguably doing it again with several coaches on his current staff.

At some point, do staffing decisions become more of a source of tension?

If Ohio State did not find a job, it was a reasonable candidate already on staff, and the job would be attractive if the program hired externally.

The school's reportedly considered making offensive coordinator Ryan Day, who filled in during Meyer's 2018 suspension, the "head coach in waiting." OSU blog Land-Grant Holy Land thinks that's a great idea:

During Meyer's six-week suspension, Day represented the program with grace and class.

Chip Kelly said that Day was "built for this," and said that he is "elite." Those who do not know when he wants to be in the head of the Ohio State football program, no matter when he takes over.

Ohio State does not need to make it happen in the future, and it does not necessarily need to be in the 2019 job.

This is a developing story, and of course Meyer's not automatically gone.

But the idea that he can not be farfetched at all.