CHICAGO -- The last time Urban Meyer entered a season leading the No. 1 team in the country, it nearly cost him his life.
Fresh off Florida's 2008 national championship season -- its second title in three years -- Meyer was starting to feel the toll of success and heightened expectations. The Gators were overwhelming favorites in 2009, but the stress of it all got to Meyer.
He lost 37 pounds that season and twice suffered health scares that eventually led him to briefly step away from the program. He would return to coach one more season, but the damage was done. He was, in his words, "mentally broken."
Six years later, a different Urban Meyer sets to embark on a similar challenge leading an Ohio State team that won last season's national championship. This time around, Meyer said he is up for the test.
"If you remember back to '09 -- and I have -- we won 22 straight games, we went undefeated in the Southeastern Conference and it was a miserable year, according to people, including myself," Meyer said during Big Ten Media Days. "That's my fault. If we win every game this year, I can assure you, it's not going to be miserable."
Meyer doesn't call it "defending" a national championship, though. Instead, he sees it as a whole new year with a new set of challenges.
Much like his 2009 Gators, the Buckeyes return a tremendous amount of talent -- 14 starters to be exact -- including the Big Ten's top quarterback and defensive lineman from last season. Ohio State boasts 44 returning lettermen with plenty of experience at nearly every position on the team.
All in all, it's easy to see why Ohio State is expected to be a double-digit favorite in every game this season.
But that's not to say there won't be challenges.
First and foremost, Ohio State faces the battle of complacency.
"You really don't see any glaring weaknesses," Big Ten Network analyst Howard Griffith said of the Buckeyes. "I think what will be interesting, and it will be more of the meeting-room aspect of thing, is how do these guys handle being the front-runners?
"They're going to be expected to win every game and not by just a point. I think the mental aspect for young people is being able to stay hungry and being able to stay consistent. That's where Urban's biggest challenge will be."
And it appears Meyer has already imparted some of that to his players.
"He's had a chance to win back-to-back and he knows that it's hard to win back-to-back, so he's been grinding us -- constantly telling us to just stay focused and stay on the grind," Ohio State senior defensive lineman Aldophus Washington said.
Meyer admits that he and his coaching staff watch for signs his players are letting up.
"The indicators that you look for first are academics. In academics, we had the highest graduation rate in the history of Ohio State football," Meyer said. " ... Second thing is the weight room. I have the best strength coach in America. ... And then the social element, that's obviously the one that you keep one eye open.
" ... All we can do is watch the indicators, watch it closely, and then dive into it with a sledgehammer if we start to see something that's disrupting the team."
Even then there are bound to be slip-ups.
The first one popped up when the school announced All-American Joey Bosa, H-back Jalin Marshall, senior receiver Corey Smith and junior H-back Dontre Wilson were suspended for the season opener against Virginia Tech on Labor Day for "violating department of athletics policy."
It's a major hurdle for the Buckeyes to overcome, but the players seem prepared to handle the challenge.
"You have no choice but to embrace it if you want to get back," Washington said. "You can think of all of the hard times that we had last year, and we had people counting us out for games that we would win. Just think about those times, and I feel like that can get us through any situation."
Griffith added, "A team has to have a cause to win the national championship ... and this is the issue they face this year -- complacency. You think you've invented the game. Everybody's talking about last year instead of this year. They weren't in that position a year ago."
Nevertheless, Meyer has been here before. He's seen what can happen to a team, and he believes he's ready.
"The older I get and the more games I'm a part of, it's the ability to enter a storm, survive the storm and come out stronger," Meyer said. "And those are the teams that win."
Sports on 08/28/2015