Urban Meyer could make his coaching future official after Big Ten Championship game

Speculation about his future has ramped up this year, but Urban Meyer may be ready to announce he’s nearing the end at Ohio State.

A 62-39 win over Michigan last Saturday, and a renewed chance to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff, led to Urban Meyer saying he planned to coach at Ohio State next season. But his overall brevity on the matter was open to dissection, and according to Football Scoop Meyer is expected to make an announcement on his future in the days following Saturday night’s Big Ten Championship Game against Northwestern.

More specifically, Meyer has reportedly told athletic director Gene Smith he doesn’t expect to coach beyond the 2019 season. Offensive coordinator Ryan Day will also reportedly be taken off the job market, with a significant pay raise and an informal (unwritten) understanding he’s in line to become Ohio State’s head coach when Meyer steps down.

The idea Day would become the coach-in-waiting at Ohio State got pushed to the forefront when he went 3-0 as interim head coach to start this season, during Meyer’s stint on paid leave. He has been a rumored candidate for multiple other head coaching openings as this season winds down, and few have been filled as of Friday afternoon. So Ohio State has to move to keep Day around if there’s any doubt about Meyer’s future, and even then there’s no guarantee he’d stay.

With how open Meyer has been about a brain cyst that has caused him headaches, and visible discomfort on the sideline at times this season, he is clearly nearing the end of his coaching run. Knowing when to quit is hard to do, but Meyer has been here before as health concerns forced him to resign at Florida.

If it were truly open, and without some sort of formal guarantee to Day, it technically will be at some point fairly soon, Ohio State will be a great job with plenty of candidates stepping over themselves to take it. So it’s easy to see a short-sighted move in just making Day the coach-in-waiting, and those arrangements don’t always pan out as expected.

Meyer’s looming declaration on his future may be being pushed from above him to some degree, so a transition can be more smoothly made one way or another. Regardless, some clarity is apparently coming soon.