Ohio State football rumors: Urban Meyer to coach Ohio State?

Keep in mind that I am not normally a rumor guys, but was sent this info from a trusted sources, who ripped it straight from a Buckeye message board. Thought everyone should have a read.

Here is the message in full detail:

Urban Meyer talk

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright, been doing some more digging on this and here is what I have right now...

- First let me preface all of this by saying that I have absolutely NO CLUE how the death of Urban's Dad has affected or will effect this situation. I would really prefer to not speculate on that aspect anyway but at this time I just don't know if this has impacted things in either direction.

So with that out of the way...

There are A TON of moving parts here, an absolute ton. The aforementioned death of Meyer's Father, the NCAA ruling, Meyer's family, the results over the final few weeks of the season. Because of that, it's really hard to try and peg an exact date that this could all go down if in fact Meyer takes the job.

What is clear is that the administration is pushing really hard to get the verdict from the NCAA as soon as possible and that they are, behind closed doors, pushing really hard to get Meyer in the fold just as quickly.

I would not expect to see an announcement of Meyer or any other outside candidate before the NCAA verdict comes down. That is going to be a major factor in the hiring process and I just can't see a coach jumping on board publicly until the NCAA situation is over.

Now, IF they can get some of this stuff moved up, things could move VERY quickly from there. As a public job, the opening has to be posted for one week. It has not been posted yet, and my gut feeling is that it will not be posted until at least Thanksgiving Weekend. That would make sense on a lot of levels and would open up the door for what I think is the most likely announcement date (IF Meyer accepts) which is Monday December 5th.

Now I am not necessarily predicting that it is all going to go down on the 5th because if the NCAA hasn't ruled, you can bet this will drag into at least Mid-December but if they can get this pushed up to the 28th, that lines up perfectly to open the job to the public, go through the minimum requirements for making a hire, and then make a December 5th announcement.

Again, tons of moving parts here. The NCAA verdict not happening until the 10th would push this back, Meyer getting cold feet would obviously push this back, but I think if the people calling the shots here had their way, that this would all be over with very early in December.

There is a real sense of urgency here to get some positive momentum going for the program and combining that with wanting the permanent coach to have two full months to recruit and that is why I think that would be the ideal date in the minds of the people that are really making the decisions here.

Also I was told last week the ante was upped by the people at OSU. I did make a post hinting at a base salary in the ballpark of 6 million dollars and I think that is probably the ballpark figure you will see if Meyer takes the job. Also, look for a major boost to the budget in terms of assistant coaches salaries. I've said it all along here, money is NOT going to be the hold-up on this one. The money is there and it's going to be tossed around. There are many other things that could make this all fall through, it won't be cash.