'It's not a big deal. It's a gigantic deal.' Urban Meyer weighs in on Michigan scandal

For Urban Meyer, it’s insufficient to call Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal a big deal.

“No, it’s not a big deal,” the former Ohio State coach said on The Dispatch’s OSU football podcast. “It’s a gigantic deal. It’s huge.”

Meyer, who retired as the Buckeyes coach after the 2018 season, is now an analyst for Fox. He said he deliberately didn’t talk about the scandal when it first unfolded because he couldn’t believe the allegation was true.

Only when the Big Ten suspended Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh for three games did Meyer’s opinion change. Then the school dropped its request for a temporary restraining order that would have allowed Harbaugh to coach against Maryland last week and against Ohio State on Saturday.

“For coach Harbaugh to take the suspension and not coach in this game, there must be so much to it,” Meyer said. “I’d say in college football history, I’m not sure this kind of thing has ever happened.”

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He used similar words to describe the advantage that knowing an opponent’s signs would be.

“I can’t even give you the adjective to describe how big a deal that is,” Meyer said. “If the defensive line knows it’s screen pass – and I guess there’s video evidence of that – or if I’m an offensive player and I get a signal this is a blitz, of course it’s huge. If someone wants to debate me and say it’s really not that big a deal, give them my phone number because we can debate that all you want. It’s a huge deal.”

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Asked if the scandal casts suspicion on Michigan’s blowout wins over Ohio State the last two years, Meyer said, “That’s a really hard question because the minute you do that, you’re taking away so many incredible performances.”

But he said there will be an asterisk accompanying those wins because of the possibility the sign-stealing made a major difference.

Meyer said that trying to decode opponents’ signals from across the sideline is fair game, but he’s never heard of advance scouting and recording signals, which is what the Big Ten penalized Michigan for doing.

Meyer said the idea that a team could change its signals if it suspected a team had deciphered theirs was impractical.

“The plate’s already full for players,” he said. “To change signals the week of a game, you can’t do that.”

Meyer wouldn’t touch a question about whether it would be possible for a head coach to be unaware of a staffer illegally stealing signs. But he said if he were a head coach and found out one of his staffers did, “My head would come off my shoulders.”

Here are some of the other highlights from the podcast:

— Meyer won three national championships, two at Florida and one at Ohio State in 2014. But he said he considers his 7-0 record against Michigan his crowning achievement.

“It’s not really close,” he said. “But that’s how much I respected this rivalry.”

— Meyer expects Saturday’s game to be tight. He said Michigan is “an extremely talented team” but is dealing with injuries and has played a soft schedule. He said quarterback J.J. McCarthy hasn’t been the same player the last two weeks without Harbaugh on the sideline.

— Meyer said the advantage in offensive line play that Michigan might be considered to have isn’t as big as it was early in the year. He said Ohio State’s line has improved dramatically.

“I’d probably give a little bit of an edge to the Wolverines,” Meyer said. “Two months ago, it was a huge advantage. Not now.”

He said the return of running back TreVeyon Henderson is a big factor in that.

“Someone said it’s (like) a contract year for him,” Meyer said. “I always respected him as a player. He’s got track speed. But I never thought he was great at making people miss and breaking through tackles. Now he is. I think he’s arguably the best tailback in the country.”

— Meyer believes OSU’s biggest advantage is Marvin Harrison Jr.

“Certainly, they’ve got the best player in college football in No. 18,” he said.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 'It's a gigantic deal': Urban Meyer weighs in on Michigan scandal