COLUMBUS, Ohio — From the moment the clock struck zero and Ohio State was crowned the first College Football Playoff champion in January, Urban Meyer instantly reentered the conversation about the sport's top active head coach—which only Alabama's Nick Saban also belongs in.
In the six months that have followed the Buckeyes' national title run, Meyer appears to have strengthened his case for that argument.
The fourth-year Ohio State head coach still trails Saban when it comes to college football's ultimate measuring stick—national titles—with the Crimson Tide head man holding a 4-3 advantage over his former SEC foe.
But looking at the future that Meyer has made for himself in Columbus, it's hard to imagine Saban's championship lead over him lasting much longer.
Especially when taking into consideration that Meyer's third championship season—which included a Sugar Bowl win over Saban and Alabama in the CFP semifinal—came a year earlier than even he expected.
"We're a young program—a team where if you had told me this in August, I would have said, 'Not yet,'" Meyer said after the Buckeyes were selected for the College Football Playoff. "Maybe next year, but not this year because we're just so young."
But those young Buckeyes—whose starting lineup included 13 freshmen and sophomores in 2014—got the job done, knocking off the Crimson Tide before defeating Oregon in the national title game.
And with Ohio State kicking off fall camp for the 2015 season in less than two weeks, that highly anticipated "next year" that Meyer spoke of is just about here.
With 14 returning starters, including either the reigning Big Ten Quarterback of the Year in J.T. Barrett or the Buckeyes' national title-winning signal-caller in Cardale Jones, Ohio State is a heavy preseason favorite to repeat in 2015.
Bovada (h/t Odds Shark) lists the Buckeyes' odds of capturing college football's crown this year at 3-1, and when the preseason polls are released in the coming weeks, it'd be a shock if anybody but Ohio State is sitting atop them.
In football-crazed Columbus, "championship or bust" is usually the expectation. But that motto rings especially true this season, with all of the talent the Buckeyes return and all that they've already accomplished.
"We have a target on our back," Ohio State senior linebacker Joshua Perry said during spring football. "It's also a bit of a pride thing, being here and knowing what we've done and then knowing the guys that we have, that we could be special this year."
Whether or not the 2015 Buckeyes live up to the lofty expectations set by last year's team will be determined in the coming months.
But win or lose, Meyer's promising future in Columbus remains.
Even though Ohio State is prepared to lose what could be an unprecedented haul of first-round talent to the 2016 NFL draft, Meyer has positioned the Buckeyes to reload rather than rebuild.
In his first four recruiting cycles since arriving at Ohio State in late 2011, Meyer has never had a class rank lower than seventh nationally, including threetop-fivefinishes while maintaining the Big Ten's top-ranked class for all four years.
And with the Buckeyes coming off last season's national title run, that's not a train that appears to be slowing down anytime soon, with Ohio State currently laying claim to the nation's top-ranked classes for both 2016 and 2017.
"You move to the front of the line," Meyer said the day after the national title game when asked how the championship would affect his program's recruiting efforts. "[If] you can't recruit to this now, you're officially a bad recruiter."
Meyer's recent run isn't unheard of, as Saban capitalized on three national titles in four seasons at Alabama by capturing the country's top-ranked classes in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. But unlike Alabama, Ohio State has created a clear succession plan at the sport's most important position, setting up long-term success that could conceivably last throughout Meyer's tenure.
Between Barrett, who has three years of eligibility remaining, and incoming 4-star freshmen Torrance Gibson and Joe Burrow—all of whom the Ohio State staff is high on—the Buckeyes' quarterback position appears to be in good hands through at least 2018.
Add in 2016 4-star quarterback Tristen Wallace and 2017 4-star quarterback Danny Clark, who has been committed to Ohio State since he was a freshman in high school, and it's possible the Buckeyes could be set at signal-caller through the 2020 season.
It's not just at quarterback that Meyer is stockpiling talent either, with Ohio State laying claim to top commits in both 2016 and 2017 at running back, wide receiver, the offensive line and all over the defensive side of the ball.
The Buckeyes' 2016 class is currently headlined by 5-star defensive end Nick Bosa, 4-star defensive end Jonathon Cooper, 4-star running back Kareem Walker and 4-star receiver Austin Mack, while Meyer's top-ranked 2017 class features 5-star offensive tackle Josh Myers, 5-star cornerback Shaun Wade, 4-star safety Isaiah Pryor and 4-star running back Todd Sibley.
Across the board, it's nearly impossible to find a position that the Buckeyes aren't seemingly set at—both in the present and in the future.
Of course, Ohio State's prospects have to develop in order for that plan to stand, and Meyer saw with his own eyes how quickly a potential dynasty can fall apart during his time at Florida. But perhaps it's not a coincidence that the Buckeyes head coach's latest contract extension runs through 2020, which could be the culmination of a historic recruiting haul.
And by that time, the question may no longer be whether or not Meyer is the greatest active coach in college football.
With the run that he appears to be embarking on, bigger accolades may be in order.
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.
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