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Urban Meyer made it abundantly clear that Penn State is NOT Ohio State's rival twice this week
Over the last three years, the Ohio State-Penn State game has been one of the must-see events of the college football season. Five points, yes FIVE, have separated the two teams in the last three matchups, with Penn State winning by three in 2016 and Ohio State winning by exactly one point in each of the last two years. Much like the Florida State-Clemson game just a few years ago, there's always a ton on the line in OSU-PSU, and the game always provides some fireworks.
This year will be no different, as No. 8 Penn State rolls into to Columbus to play the No. 2-ranked Buckeyes on Saturday, once again with everything—a trip to the Big Ten title game and a spot in the College Football Playoff—on the line. Outside of Alabama vs. LSU, it's the biggest regular season college football game of the year so far.
Just don't tell that to former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, who compiled a record of 6-1 against the Nittany Lions during his tenure. Meyer, who is now an analyst on FOX, shot a promo for the network for Saturday's game. He tweeted it out earlier this week with the caption "Two great programs meet again on Saturday. See you bright and early for @CFBONFOX, Buckeye Nation!" The video begins with Meyer saying "The Penn State-Ohio State rivalry is one that, for the last seven years that I've been around, has been extremely intense, even though it's not our rivalry." Ouch. His next subtle dagger came moments later:
"From everything I understand, we've become their rival." BURN.
This is the equivalent of Meyer patting the Nittany Lions on the head and telling them they've been a good boy these last seven years. When you win six out of seven, that's exactly what you should do.
Meyer wasn't done putting Penn State in its place either. A few days after this promo dropped, he did an interview on the Big Ten Network, and was asked about this "rivalry." He got in multiple ricochet shots, like when he said "it's a rivalry in a sense, but not in Ohio State, we know which one that is coming up next week." Toward the end of the interview (right around the 2:40 mark), host Dave Revsine suggested that Penn State was "the bigger game" than Michigan, at least for this year. Urban was having NONE of that:
"Well, stand corrected," Meyer says, adding "this is not the biggest game." Revsine interjects with "it's the biggest game to make it to Indy [the Big Ten Championship] though." He's not wrong, but still, Meyer made sure to set the record straight. "I know, that's a good point, but stand corrected this is not the biggest game. Next week is."
Unfortunately for Nittany Lions fans, he's not wrong. Michigan-Ohio State, which is literally called "THE GAME," has a 114-year history, as opposed to OSU-PSU's (checks notes) 33-year history. It kind of goes without saying which is the bigger game.