Urban Meyer sees potential for Texas, Penn State to 'fall off the cliff'

The last week of college football action saw one of the most surprising results and two of the steepest drops in the polls in the first half of the season. Penn State lost to previously winless UCLA, while Texas fell to floundering Florida.

Both teams dropped out of the AP Top 25 as a result. Both have just two losses currently.

Even so, college football analyst and former coach Urban Meyer offered a potentially grave prediction for the two powerhouse programs. He called his shot on The Triple Option podcast.

“This is going to go one of two ways,” Urban Meyer said. “It’s not going to be medium. They’re either going to fall off the cliff and it’s going to be an embarrassment for both places, or they’ll fight back.”

In theory, having two losses doesn’t even drop you out of the College Football Playoff conversation. However, the losses have certainly dropped both teams from the public’s consciousness as the second half of the season approaches.

Urban Meyer isn’t quite sure how either team will respond. He’s seen it go both ways over the last year or two.

“I can’t tell you. I don’t know the locker rooms,” he said. “Ohio State lost a horrific game against the Wolverines last year and they had some grown men in the locker room flip it and turn it around. You saw Florida State two years ago have an awful locker room and as a result, they were an embarrassment to their school.”

At least with Penn State, Meyer seems to see some veterans in the locker room that could theoretically help turn things around. Then again, the Nittany Lions had the much more stunning loss between the two programs.

“Penn State followed the Buckeyes and the Wolverines,” he said. “The players said we’re going to come back, we have unfinished business. There’s a bunch of dudes, both those tailbacks could be playing in the NFL right now and they said, ‘We’re coming back.’ And as a result they get on a plane and that was the first time in 40 years, 45 years the Big Ten Network told me, that a team in the top 10 lost to an 0-4 team. Think about that.”

How much Penn State dwells on that versus focusing on the fixes could determine whether there’s a turnaround in Happy Valley. There’s plenty of work to be done at Texas, too.

For his part, after noting it’ll go one of two ways, Urban Meyer seemed to come down in the middle on both. He doesn’t see the cliff scenario.

“I don’t think it will happen,” he said. “I’m guessing at the end of the year it’ll be an eight, nine wins for each of these teams and they’ll go to some bowl game and try to go again.”