Urban Meyer reveals most common thing between Ohio State, Michigan national championship teams

The past two seasons have seen different sides of an intense rivalry at the top of the college football world. Michigan won the national championship in 2023, only to be followed up by Ohio State this past season. Teams that had some similarity to them, if you ask former Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer.

“What I’ve witnessed the Wolverines and Buckeyes do the last two years — you’ve got grown ass men in that locker room,” Meyer said via The Triple Option podcast. “My best teams were when I had men, not boys, in the locker room. You look at the Wolverines and Buckeyes, all those kids came back. It’s not 17, 18. You’ve got 21-year-old dudes who have been through the war… My best teams were the same way… Guys who didn’t put up with shit. The locker room was the locker room because they were grown men.”

Both Jim Harbaugh and Ryan Day made roster retention a massive priority in the offseason prior to their championship runs. Guys who could have left in favor of the NFL Draft decided to come back for another year of school. Many entering at least their fourth year in the sport, if not fifth.

Even so, those individuals were rewarded eventually at the next level. Fourteen Ohio State players just heard their names called at the 2025 NFL Draft, tying the program’s own Big Ten record. The Buckeyes were one off from the national record, set by Georgia back in 2022.

Michigan was right up there as well. They saw 13 players drafted from their national championship team, some of whom are being coached by Harbaugh right now in Los Angeles with the Chargers.

Recruiting at a high level remains important in the landscape of college football. Keeping those players inside the building for multiple years, beyond the three years before leaving for the NFL, has become the name of the game, though. Michigan and Ohio State are living proof as such.

Meyer believes Penn State is looking to copy the same method heading into the 2025 season. After making the College Football Playoff semifinal last season, James Franklin has kept a few massive names in house while shoring up the roster via the NCAA transfer portal.

You know Penn State would love to become the third consecutive national champion from the Big Ten. But for now, it’s The Game where college football superiority reigns.