Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer beefed over the biggest rivalry in college football... and milk.
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00:00For a long time, Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh
00:02weren't all that different.
00:04In fact, both men were born six months apart
00:06in the same hospital in the same town, Toledo, Ohio,
00:10a crucial border town in college football's greatest rivalry.
00:13Meyer is the true Ohioan who grew up dreaming
00:16of playing Buckeye football.
00:17He made it to Cincinnati as a player,
00:19but landed in Columbus as a graduate assistant in 1986
00:22for legendary Buckeyes head coach Earl Bruce.
00:25And for the rest of his career,
00:27Meyer's goal was to one day return
00:29to his childhood favorite team.
00:31Harbaugh was born into Wolverine royalty.
00:34His father, Jack, was an assistant coach
00:36for Michigan's Bo Schimbechler.
00:38Even at an early age,
00:39Jim was assumed to be Coach Bo's favorite Harbaugh child.
00:43And eventually, Jim became the quarterback
00:45of the Wolverines, guiding Michigan to a Rose Bowl
00:47before spending 14 seasons as an NFL quarterback.
00:50Then he joined the family business,
00:52first as a volunteer assistant to help his dad
00:54during budget cuts at Western Kentucky.
00:57But while Meyer and Harbaugh surely carried their love
01:00of the home team throughout their successful careers,
01:03it didn't define their identity.
01:05That is, until they chose to define themselves by it.
01:09And if you know anything about Michigan and Ohio State,
01:11you know their beef wasn't just inevitable,
01:14it was mandatory.
01:19Both Meyer and Harbaugh led successful
01:21and near complete coaching lives
01:23before they found themselves representing
01:25the rivalry they grew up in.
01:26With an ascendant career that produced
01:28two national titles at Florida, one over Ohio State,
01:32and a Heisman-winning quarterback,
01:33Urban could have retired a college coaching legend
01:36before he ever arrived in Columbus,
01:38which is exactly what he did in January of 2011.
01:41But 11 months later, his dream job called him back to work.
01:46And despite the shadow of controversies
01:48he left behind in Florida,
01:49Meyer hit the ground running to rebuild the Buckeyes.
01:53That same year, coach Jim Harbaugh was hired
01:56by the NFL's San Francisco 49ers
01:58after creating a blueprint that turned
02:00an awful Stanford program into a legit Pac-10 power.
02:04And if not for a brutal clash with his own front office,
02:07Harbaugh seemed on track to coach out his days in the league,
02:10nowhere near the Big Ten.
02:12In fact, in January of 2013,
02:14then-Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer
02:17complimented the offensive scheme of the 49ers,
02:20even crediting Harbaugh specifically.
02:24The San Francisco team,
02:24they actually do something we don't do.
02:27I can assure you we're gonna do it next year.
02:29I mean, that's how good they were,
02:31and I just give credit to guys like Harbaugh.
02:34But two years removed from an NFC championship,
02:37Harbaugh was out of the bay by 2014,
02:39lured back to college to fix his alma mater
02:42after nearly a decade of mediocrity
02:44and Ohio State dominance, thanks in large part to Meyer.
02:48Meyer didn't offer much more
02:49than a boilerplate pleasantry when Jim came home
02:52because why would he?
02:53Ohio State was rolling.
02:55Things were good for Urban.
02:57By his third season in Columbus,
02:58Meyer was 38-3 overall and coached the Buckeyes
03:01to their first national championship since 2002.
03:05Remember, it takes two to beef,
03:07and one side of this epic rivalry
03:09had no reason to speak off the field.
03:11But the scoreboard wouldn't stop Harbaugh.
03:14In the 2015 recruiting cycle,
03:16Ohio State scored a win over Michigan
03:18by signing four-star Detroit running back Mike Weber.
03:21In college football's other game,
03:23this was Meyer's first win over Harbaugh,
03:26and he made note of it on National Signing Day.
03:29But as soon as Weber signed with Ohio State,
03:32the Buckeye assistant who recruited him
03:33left for a job with the Chicago Bears,
03:36leaving Weber feeling misled.
03:38Harbaugh, eager to establish a rebuilding Michigan
03:41as the moral superior in the rivalry,
03:43fired off a subtweet at Meyer.
03:46Without having coached a game for the U of M,
03:48Harbaugh was eager to set a narrative
03:50for both the national perception of his program
03:53and a rabid fan base starved
03:55for something to feel superior about.
03:57Urban Meyer gets dirty and finds controversy,
04:00and that's how Ohio State wins.
04:03But Jim Harbaugh takes the high road and a harder path,
04:07because that's how a Michigan man finds success.
04:10And even if you're a Buckeye fan,
04:12it's kinda hard to argue that assessment of Meyer.
04:15And Harbaugh, well, hold that thought.
04:17Despite a 10-win debut as Michigan head coach,
04:20Harbaugh and the Wolverines were blown out by Meyer
04:22in Ohio State in 2015.
04:24Before the game, Jim offered a boring quote about Meyer,
04:27and then he smashed a Buckeye
04:29on Bo Schembechler's frozen tombstone,
04:31which is a totally normal thing to do in this sport,
04:34if we're being honest.
04:35In their second offseason as rivals,
04:37Harbaugh went straight after Meyer in the media,
04:40over his choice of milk.
04:42First, it's important to note here
04:44that Jim Harbaugh loves milk.
04:47Jim Harbaugh loves it more than you do.
04:50Jim Harbaugh loves milk more than a toddler or a cow.
04:54Honestly, he makes it weird.
04:56While speaking on the Dan Patrick Show,
04:58Harbaugh assailed Meyer's alleged
05:00Moo Juice preference of 1%.
05:02Urban Meyer drinks 1%, by the way.
05:05Well, we refuse to drink the candy-ass skim milk,
05:12or the 1%.
05:13We refuse.
05:15We won't have any of that.
05:17When Meyer and Ohio State won the game again in 2016,
05:21after an overtime controversy that knocked Michigan
05:24out of Big Ten Championship consideration
05:26and college football playoff contention,
05:28Meyer milked the moment when his wife called him
05:31during the post-game press conference.
05:34And for the next two years,
05:35which was the remainder of their on-field rivalry,
05:38Meyer did all the talking and winning.
05:41Urban was curt when ESPN asked him
05:43about his relationship with Harbaugh in 2017,
05:45and that year's game rolled past
05:48with another Ohio State win and without any fun soundbites.
05:51But in 2018, Meyer spoke to a youth football camp
05:54with Harbaugh present and watching,
05:56and rubbed his undefeated success over Michigan
05:59in the Michigan man's face, almost literally,
06:03claiming that when NFL coaches
06:04like Bill Belichick scout players,
06:06they wanna know, how does he perform in the big game?
06:10I wanna see it in your rivalry game.
06:11I wanna see it on fourth down, when the team needs you.
06:14The big game, man, the big one, the one that matters.
06:19In his final season as OSU's coach,
06:21Meyer served a three-game suspension
06:23after an investigation determined
06:25he mishandled domestic assault allegations
06:27against one of his assistants,
06:28certifying the narrative Harbaugh and Michigan
06:31had pushed all along.
06:33Again, in control of their conference
06:35and national title destiny entering the game,
06:37Michigan was blown out when Ohio State scored 62 points.
06:42That high road the Michigan man was determined to take,
06:46it was a long and winding one.
06:48Meyer retired again in 2019,
06:49but this time with a perfect 7-0 record against Michigan
06:53and 4-0 specifically against Harbaugh.
06:56Now with an unassailable legacy in the game intact,
07:00Urban offered some friendly comments
07:02about his vanquished rival and his family,
07:05calling Harbaugh an excellent coach
07:07and a really good person.
07:09Okay.
07:10A few weeks later, Harbaugh,
07:11now relieved of Meyer's dominance,
07:13but burdened with a Michigan fan base
07:15furious at his inability to beat their rival
07:17and bring the program back to glory,
07:19well, he wasn't as kind.
07:21Urban Myers had a winning record,
07:23but also controversy follows everywhere he's been.
07:27There it was.
07:29After years of table setting and dancing around his intent,
07:32Harbaugh said the thing.
07:34And just a few days after his comments,
07:36he doubled down at a media event.
07:38I don't think it was anything that was new
07:40or anything of a bombshell.
07:43It's a thing that you all understand
07:44and have written about.
07:45It was me saying what I think.
07:47I don't see why people are so afraid to say what they think.
07:51That same summer, Harbaugh expanded his attack
07:53beyond Meyer and Ohio State,
07:55telling Michigan writer John U. Bacon,
07:57quote, it's hard to beat the cheaters,
08:00in reference to recruiting players
08:01against the Southeastern Conference.
08:03That season, Meyer's former offensive coordinator,
08:05Ryan Day, led the Buckeyes to a 56-27 win over Harbaugh.
08:09Now 0-5 against Ohio State.
08:13But even while two of his daughters
08:14mocked Harbaugh's controversy comment
08:16and OSU's latest win on social media,
08:19Meyer opted to say nothing in response.
08:21And why should he?
08:23The actual battle between coaches was over
08:25and Urban won in a blowout.
08:27Even as his dubious track record
08:28was accurately criticized during this period,
08:31Meyer never clapped back because scoreboard.
08:35The closest thing Meyer came to saying anything
08:37about Harbaugh after retirement came in 2020
08:39when he talked about letting his players
08:41run up the score in rivalry games.
08:43This is gonna create a lot of headlines, he admitted.
08:45And that could have been it.
08:47A clean and simple story
08:48of two easily understandable characters,
08:50a lopsided result,
08:52and a tale of doing most of your talking on the field.
08:55Until both men failed to become a version of the other.
08:59Meyer unretired again to become the head coach
09:03of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021.
09:06What followed was one of the worst head coaching tenures
09:09in the history of the modern game.
09:11Meyer didn't last a season,
09:13finishing two and 11 in a controversial campaign,
09:17to say the least.
09:18The move to coach Jacksonville offered Meyer no success,
09:21but did add a fresh coat of grime over his reputation.
09:25He quickly retreated back to his TV gig
09:27where a year later he declared,
09:29it's time to blow it up at Michigan.
09:31I think it's time to really evaluate the culture
09:33and dig deep.
09:34There's something going on.
09:36Meanwhile, Harbaugh finished just two and four
09:38in a COVID-shortened 2020 season.
09:40Thankfully for him, the game was canceled
09:42as Ohio State marched to the college football playoff.
09:45But then, finally, in 2021,
09:49Michigan beat Ohio State for the first time in six tries
09:54under Jim Harbaugh.
09:55And for good measure,
09:56the Wolverines went back to back in 22,
09:58thumping the Buckeyes in Columbus
10:00for the first time since 2000.
10:02In both seasons, U of M won the Big Ten Conference
10:05and secured a college football playoff berth,
10:07further advancing Harbaugh's quest
10:09to return the program to the top of the sport.
10:12And in 2023, Michigan did just that,
10:15beating Ohio State for a third straight time
10:18and defeating Alabama and Washington
10:20in the college football playoff
10:21to win the program's first national championship since 1997.
10:26Ever the Michigan man,
10:28Harbaugh's mission to restore his alma mater
10:30the right way had been realized.
10:34Except we need to back up a few months
10:36because the same man so quick
10:39to cast character aspersions at rivals
10:41spent half of the regular season suspended
10:45after it was realized Michigan football staffers
10:47orchestrated a years-long espionage operation
10:51to steal opposing teams' signals,
10:53including dressing in disguises
10:54and sending staffers to games of outcoming opponents.
10:57Suddenly, the man willing to call out the cheaters
11:01coached his first national championship season
11:04with controversy following him around everywhere.
11:07And it's that moment when the man least likely
11:10to defend Jim Harbaugh did exactly that.
11:13Urban Meyer told a national television audience,
11:15this is insanity, in reference to Harbaugh
11:18missing the Ohio State-Michigan game in 2023,
11:21and that he didn't trust the media
11:23when it came to reporting on Michigan's
11:25sign-stealing scandal.
11:27Granted, Urb's got a few light shots
11:29in at the Michigan fan base's stance
11:30that sign-stealing was a ubiquitous practice.
11:33I've never heard of that in 40 years
11:34of being around the game.
11:36If they know your signals, it is that important.
11:38You're changing the game.
11:40But even in that moment, Meyer refused to pile on Harbaugh,
11:44saying, that's very egregious if that's what happened.
11:47I'm not saying it did because I'm still skeptical it did.
11:50Call it honor amongst controversials.
11:54But the only aggressive comment Meyer made about Harbaugh
11:56in a moment dripping with irony at his expense
12:00was genuine concern that Jim wouldn't get to coach
12:03in the 2023 edition of the game.
12:06Honestly, it made sense Meyer would sidestep
12:08commenting about his rival and bring it back to the game.
12:12Because Jim Harbaugh was never wrong.
12:15Urban Meyer's hands stayed among the dirtiest
12:18in the entire sport during his multi-title run.
12:21But when it mattered most against the man
12:23who questioned his morals the loudest, Urban was spotless.
12:27That's where he won the argument.
12:34All right, thanks for watching.
12:36Thanks for supporting Secret Base.
12:38And I'll see you next time.
13:03And if you wanna check out more college football beefery,
13:08click here.