Ohio State wasn't even supposed to be there. After enduring massive roster turnover during the offseason, Urban Meyer's squad made a surprise run to the 2016 College Football Playoff.
Suddenly, the Buckeyes belonged. The youth-infused roster was on the brink of something special. But championship dreams quickly turned to one of the worst memories in both recent program history and Meyer's career.
Clemson throttled Ohio State 31-0 in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl, completely overwhelming the offense and handling a feisty defense. It was the largest margin of defeat in Meyer's 15-year head coach career, the Buckeyes' first shutout loss since 1993 and the program's first bowl shutout since its first postseason game ever in 1921.
Given the national stage and that his team entered the game as the favorite, Saturday marked perhaps the lowest point of Meyer's coaching career—and unquestionably the bottom at Ohio State.
"I'm not used to it," Meyer said after the loss, according to Bill Rabinowitz of the Columbus Dispatch. "They're not used to it. That's not going to happen again."
Success has followed Meyer through all four of his career stops, and the 2016 campaign as a whole was no different. To this point, he's amassed a 165-29 record. That 85.1 winning percentage ranks third-best in history among coaches with 10-plus years, per Sports-Reference.com.
Of those 29 losses, 14 were decided by one possession. Seven others ended as two-score margins, and eight games finished in 17-plus-point blowout differences.
The health scare in 2009 that led to Meyer's resignation at Florida was a trying time for him on a personal level. Strictly on the field, though, there isn't a comparable moment to the loss against Clemson—largely due to Meyer not having a large catalog of shortcomings and also because of what was at stake Saturday.
Clemson so thoroughly dismantled the Buckeyes that they never officially snapped the ball inside the 20-yard line. Curtis Samuel took Ohio State inside the red zone once before a false start, negative run and sack pushed the offense back, back, back.
The drive ended in an interception. Fitting, perhaps.
Even in Meyer's previous worst losses, his teams achieved some semblance of success on both sides of the ball.
Getting held to 3.8 yards per play on offense while allowing 5.5 resulted in the largest negative per-play discrepancy (minus-1.7) of his career since a pair of two-plus-yard differences against Alabama and LSU in 2005—Meyer's first year at Florida, which had at least five losses in three straight years prior to his arrival.
According to ASAP Sports, Meyer said he's "going to take a hard look at some things" on offense. The last time Meyer did something similar was following a loss to Clemson in the 2014 Orange Bowl, after which the Buckeyes revamped their defensive philosophy.
But the big difference? Clemson entered that postseason matchup as the favorite, and Ohio State only lost by five points.
The Fiesta Bowl, however, was a slowly ending nightmare.
Yes, Ohio State was a year ahead of schedule. A young roster walloped Big 12 champion Oklahoma on the road, knocked off a veteran-heavy Michigan team and reached the playoff. Buckeyes supporters will likely take solace in that eventually.
Quite frankly, being one victory away from reaching the College Football Playoff National Championship is a heck of a place to experience a career low point. If Meyer and Ohio State can only go up from here, well, that's pretty good.
Knowing his history as a coach, the Fiesta Bowl may serve as another landmark in Meyer's ever-evolving career. As a result of the loss, changes are coming to the passing game and likely to the staff.
Meyer has adapted and engineered rapid responses to challenges throughout his time on the sideline. He's on track to be remembered as one of this era's greatest coaches, let alone all time. Expecting anything different this time around would be foolish.
Still, for good reason, Meyer and the Buckeyes might never truly overcome the bitterness of the 31-point defeat. Favored teams aren't supposed to get annihilated in that manner, in that game.
Ohio State isn't going anywhere. The young, talented roster should compete for the national championship in 2017. While this painful memory may linger, it's not going to derail the program.
But for Meyer, a loss has never been worse than that.
All recruiting information via Scout. Stats from cfbstats.com or B/R research. Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow Bleacher Report CFB Writer David Kenyon on Twitter @Kenyon19_BR.
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