COLUMBUS — Urban Meyer plans to formally announce his retirement from coaching following Ohio State’s appearance in the Rose Bowl Game, according to a press release issued Tuesday morning by the school.
Athletics director Gene Smith will name offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ryan Day as the 25th head coach in the history of the program, beginning Jan. 2.
Meyer is only 54 but has suffered through a tumultuous season, including a health concern involving a cyst in his brain. He is the winningest active coach in college football with an .853 winning percentage. Meyer owns a career record of 186-32 and three national championships and leaves as one of the greatest coaches in the history of the sport.
He has coached the Buckeyes to an 82-9 record in seven seasons at the school and claimed the 2014 national title. His teams have won at least a Big Ten co-division championship every year of his tenure, and have posted an incredible 54-5 record in the conference.
Ohio State is coming off back-to-back Big Ten championships and has earned three conference titles in seven seasons. Meyer also has a 7-0 record against arch-rival Michigan. He has finished in the top 6 in the final AP poll in five seasons and sits sixth this year. The 2013 team capped a 12-2 mark ranked 13th in the final poll, the lowest mark in his OSU career. The 2012 team chalked up just the sixth perfect season in Ohio State history, but was unable to compete for a Big Ten or national championship due to the NCAA penalties incurred by former coach Jim Tressel.
Meyer, the only coach to win national championships coaching teams in two different conferences, is completing his seventh season as Ohio State head coach after also coaching at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida. His Ohio State teams are 82-9, including a 7-0 record vs. Michigan and a 54-4 record in the Big Ten Conference with seven consecutive divisional championships and three Big Ten championships.
Meyer’s teams have won back-to-back Big Ten titles, in 2017 and 2018. In his first season in 2012, Meyer guided the Buckeyes to a 12-0 season, just the sixth undefeated and untied season in school history, and in 2014 his Buckeyes captured a Big Ten title and the inaugural College Football Playoff national championship.
“It has been an honor to represent for the last seven years this football program, my home state of Ohio, this university and community that I care so deeply about,” Meyer said. “I am grateful to Buckeye Nation, the students, faculty, our administration and, most importantly, our student-athletes for their support and respect for this program during this time.”
Only Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy had higher winning percentages as a coach than Meyer, whose .785 winning percentage in bowl games – his teams are 11-3 – is second-highest in college football history. Meyer set the major college record with 165 wins through his first 15 seasons as a head coach and he is the only coach in major college history to have four different winning streaks of at least 20 games.