Meyer’s Buckeyes on a roll, but critics aren’t satisfied

Urban Meyer’s first 20 games as Ohio State’s football coach have really opened my eyes.

And it hasn’t just been because the Ashtabula native has yet to lose a game with the Buckeyes.

Meyer’s 20-0 start in Columbus is impressive, despite the critics who can’t wait to point out that Ohio State hasn’t played a top-10 team during the run. Even more impressive is the fact that this is Meyer’s third streak of at last 20 consecutive victories. He is the only coach in history to do that with three different programs — Utah, Florida and Ohio State.

Eye-opening, to be sure.

But something else about Meyer has become obvious since he took the Buckeyes’ coaching job in the wake of Ohio State’s tattoo-related scandal:

Some people really don’t like Meyer.

And the more the Buckeyes keep winning, the more he seems to get under their skin.

It’s not that I didn’t recognize that Meyer could be difficult. I watched the 2010 video of him at Florida berating a Gators beat reporter over a blog item that quoted — correctly — one of his players talking about Tim Tebow in a way some viewed as critical.

Florida fans loved Meyer’s prickly side when he was winning national titles in Gainesville.

But a lot of Gators fans turned on him after he left Gainesville and their feelings of abandonment only intensified when it became clear in late 2011 that Meyer was going to end up in Columbus.

All he’s done since then is win, even if critics view the Buckeyes’ current run with disdain because of a schedule they consider unimpressive.

I’m not saying there is a huge bias against Ohio State, but no one seemed to care when the Buckeyes went 12-0 last season, when they were ineligible for the Big Ten title game and a bowl game.

But now that they’re back in the mix and are 8-0 and challenging for a BCS berth and perhaps a spot in the final title game of the BCS era, hating on Ohio State is back in vogue.

OK, maybe I am saying people outside Ohio love to hate the Buckeyes.

Meyer’s persona appears to be part of it, too. A national columnist ripped him for asking for a review after a clearly bad spot by the officials gave Penn State a first down on a fourth-down play last week.

Meyer was correct in challenging the call and the replay proved it. The spot was correctly reversed and Ohio State took over at its 20-yard line.

Problem? The Buckeyes led, 56-7, at the time. Of course, the tools available to get calls right should only be used when everyone agrees it won’t make the other team feel bad.

Maybe Ohio State should have let Penn State score a few times so the Nittany Lions would feel better about themselves. But something tells me that even if they had, their coach would still be the guy in the black hat.

And you know what? Maybe Meyer likes it that way.

Write Vindicator Sports Editor Ed Puskas at epuskas@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter, @edpuskas85.