Urban Meyer Funny Face Ohio State Michigan Game 2018

In his first two seasons at Ohio State, Urban Meyer has tallied a 2-0 record against Michigan. Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In Urban Meyer's postgame press conference following Ohio State's 42-27 win over Indiana last Saturday, questions predictably focused on the Buckeyes' future opponent more than their most recent one.

"How does the pace for next week change around the Woody [Hayes Athletic Center]?" one reporter asked in reference to Ohio State turning its attention from the Hoosiers and toward archrival Michigan.

"Big time," Meyer answered. "Players will get tired of hearing the song I always play. It's nuts. Insane."

"The fight song?" the reporter inquired.

"No," Meyer said with a smirk. "It's another song."

That song, it turns out, is the 2008 LL Cool J anthem "It's Time For War." Not that Meyer could tell you where to find it on iTunes. He just likes the message that the song sends.

"LL Cool J?" the third-year Ohio State head coach responded when asked about the Buckeyes' soundtrack for the week. "I just know the song's name. He's really good at it. It's a good song."

While Meyer claims that he can't remember exactly how he stumbled upon the repetitive, bass-heavy banger—he claims it may have once been included in an OSU highlight reel—it seems to encapsulate everything that this week means to him. A native of Ashtabula, Ohio, Meyer grew up entrenched in "The Ten Year War," idolizing Woody Hayes and rooting on beloved Buckeyes Archie Griffin and Cornelius Greene against "That Team Up North."

"When I was real young I couldn't understand it, but my mother grabbed me, said we have to go run an errand or something. I looked at her like she was out of her mind," Meyer recalled. "We went to some outdoor area. It was an outdoor-like mall. They were playing the game over the loud speakers. I'll never forget that as long as I live."

Meyer's fascination with The Gamewould only increase in the late-1980s, when he found himself a part of one its most memorable editions.

A graduate assistant under former Buckeyes coach Earle Bruce, Meyer was a member of the Ohio State staff that was fired six days before the Buckeyes' 1987 clash with the Wolverines. Still permitted to take part in The Game, Meyer found himself standing outside of Ohio State's locker room, where another Michigan memory was soon made.

"I happened to be the guy at the door, I was just a G.A. so I had no impact—I was just a guy that made coffee—and coach Bruce says a few words to the team and it is freezing cold and I opened the tunnel doors, and their locker room's right across," Meyer said. "There's standing Bo Schembechler and a bunch of big players right behind him. I just remember I turned around—you know here's a guy who grew up with the rivalry, 21 years old. I just kind of froze.

"I'm six feet away from coach Schembechler and I remember that very well. I mean, it was one of those moments."

The Buckeyes would go on to beat the Wolverines 23-20 that day, with the Ohio State players carrying Bruce off the field to create one of the rivalry's most powerful images. Meyer would go on to continue his career as an assistant at Colorado State and Notre Dame, before landing the head-coaching job at Bowling Green in 2001.

And once he did, it didn't take long for Meyer to prove how much the importance of rivalries had stuck with him.

Embracing the Falcons' in-town rivalry with Toledo, Meyer made the most of the battle for the Peace Pipe Trophy, referring to the Rockets as "That (Other) School Up North." Meyer brought that same attitude to Utah's rivalry with Utah State ("That Team Down South"), and to Gainesville, where Florida lays claim to three primary foes.

"It's interesting at Florida you have three of them," Meyer said. "You have Tennessee early in the year. You have Georgia and you have 'The Team Out West' [Florida State]."

All together, Meyer has amassed a 22-3 record in rivalry games throughout his career as a head coach, including a 2-0 record against Michigan in his first two seasons at Ohio State. Of course, it's helped that the Wolverines have amassed a combined 15-11 record in the past two years, while the Buckeyes' win in last year's matchup marked their program's 24th straight victory.

But even if the two teams have been mismatched since he arrived in Columbus, that hasn't prevented Meyer from milking Ohio State's rivalry with Michigan for all it's worth. All across campus, the letter "M" has been crossed off of building signs and businesses, the color blue banned in a callback to Meyer's time as a G.A. nearly 30 years ago.

"It's always been that way. I remember that 1986, my first year here, driving in to work and sheets hanging outside the dorm. 'Muck Fichigan,'" Meyer recalled with a smile. "I thought that was really neat. Then they flipped the 'M' and the 'F' on Friday. It didn't stay up very long, but I did see it."

That may seem like fun and games, but to Meyer, it's anything but.

With the Buckeyes still in the hunt for a potential playoff spot, 5-6 Michigan again stands in the way of Ohio State having everything on the line that it can in the following week's Big Ten Championship Game. But to Meyer, the immediate implications of winning another rivalry game take a back seat, as he knows that there's only one way to validate this week's enhanced preparation.

"As long as I can remember, this game has been The Game," Meyer said. "When you say have fun, I'm not sure how to have fun. How to have fun is sing the fight song in the locker room after a win against your rival. That's how you have fun."

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Ohio State Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com and recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.

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Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2280864-inside-urban-meyers-approach-to-the-ohio-state-michigan-rivalry