COLUMBUS, Ohio — Along with his three children, Urban Meyer stood in the northeast corner of Arlington’s AT&T Stadium on Monday night, the familiar feeling of confetti falling accenting his team’s latest rendition of “Carmen Ohio.”
But as soon as the singing of Ohio State’s signature song had concluded, the family of five realized that they were short one, as the Meyer matriarch, Shelley, had gone missing in the sea of celebration.
With tears—the good kind—in her eyes, 24-year-old Nicki Meyer scurried off off to find her mother, while her younger sister Gigi paved an opening among a sea of reporters-turned-paparazzi. Once reunited, the five Meyers—son Nate included—locked in embrace, celebrating the family’s third national championship in the past eight years.
Only this one was a little sweeter, and not just because it was their first at the premier program in Urban and Shelley’s home state. The Meyers had not enjoyed such elation since Urban’s last national title at Florida in 2008, and that “celebration” went a little differently than this one did.
“Urban Meyer stood on the field with his second national championship team, the 2008 Gators, singing the fight song,” ESPN’s Wright Thompson wrote in his 2012 profile of Meyer. “After the last line, he rushed into the tunnel and locked himself in the coaches’ locker room. He began calling recruits as his assistants pounded on the door, asking if everything was okay.”
As it turned out,…
Continue Reading: Ohio State Football: How Will Urban Meyer 2.0 Handle a National Championship?
