Ryan Day, Kyle Whittingham discuss impact of Urban Meyer on careers

The Rose Bowl features an intriguing matchup between Utah and Ohio State. What’s even more interesting is the connection between the two coaches — many of which go back to Urban Meyer.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day and Utah coach Kyle Whittingham both coached under Meyer. Day worked with Meyer from 2017-18 at Ohio State and Whittingham was Meyer’s defensive coordinator at Utah from 2003-04.

Whittingham talked about the situation at Utah when Meyer took over. He had been with the program since 1994 and appeared to be the head coach-in-waiting. As it turned out, bringing Meyer in worked out for the better.

“It was kind of a weird situation,” Whittingham told reporters in a joint press conference with Day this week. “I had been at the university, what, seven or eight years. Our head coach was let go. I thought I should be the guy. Urban got the job. Turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me as a football coach because after two years with him, I realized that I wasn’t ready two years prior. It was a great learning experience.

“I would say the one thing, if [I] had to … pinpoint one thing, I would say his complete organization of the entire program, just on a day-to-day basis, mapping out the entire year. Nothing was left to chance. Everything was organized meticulously, and that really is the thing that I took away is just how he day-to-day ran the football program just from an organizational standpoint.”

Ryan Day on lessons learned from Urban Meyer

Day was in a different situation than Whittingham when he coached under Meyer. He spent two years in the NFL coaching ranks before going to Ohio State as offensive coordinator in 2018.

That said, the lessons were pretty similar.

“I thought [it was] very unique that [Whittingham] and I both were handed the whistle after the game and took over for [Meyer],” Day said. “I would agree with [Whittingham], just the overall organization of the whole program, certainly in recruiting and the way he drives the coaches and drives recruiting on a daily basis and has a great feel for the team and what the team needs at that moment and motivation, I think, were the things I took most from him.”

The Meyer ties will be on full display in the Rose Bowl between Ohio State and Utah on Saturday. Kickoff is coming up at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN.