Ranking all 31 of Urban Meyer’s most painful losses in 16 seasons as a head coach

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Forgettable foundation-layers
31. Miami (Ohio) 24, Bowling Green 21 (2001)
30. Western Michigan 37, Bowling Green 28 (2001)
29. Marshall 37, Bowling Green 31 (2001)
28. Toledo 42, Bowling Green 24 (2002)
27. South Florida 29, Bowling Green 7 (2002)
26. Texas A&M 28, Utah 26 (2003)

Early upsets
25. Northern Illinois 26, No. 20 Bowling Green 17 (2002)
24. New Mexico 47, No. 24 Utah 35 (2003)

Oh right, this happened
23. Mississippi State 10, No. 22 Florida 7 (2010)

*shakes fist* SPURRIER!!
22. South Carolina 30, No. 19 Florida 22 (2005)
21. No. 22 South Carolina 36, No. 24 Florida 14 (2010)

*shakes fist* BAMA!!
20. No. 1 Alabama 31, No. 7 Florida 6 (2010)
19. No. 15 Alabama 31, No. 5 Florida 3 (2005)

*shakes fist* MILES!!
18. No. 1 LSU 28, No. 9 Florida 24 (2007)
17. No. 10 LSU 21, No. 11 Florida 17 (2005)

Not good, but not all-time awful
16. No. 5 Oklahoma 31, No. 2 Ohio State 16 (2017)

Table setters
15. Michigan 41, No. 9 Florida 35 (2007)
14. No. 12 Clemson 40, No. 7 Ohio State 35 (2013)

The rare rivalry loss
13. No. 22 Florida State 31, Florida 7 (2010)
12. Penn State 24, No. 2 Ohio State 21 (2016)

The dumbest, most wonderful fake
11. No. 12 LSU 33, No. 14 Florida 29 (2010)

The Gator Stomp
10. No. 20 Georgia 42, No. 9 Florida 30 (2007)

The Gator Chomp
9. Auburn 20, No. 4 Florida 17 (2007)

Painful, but won the national title anyway
8. Virginia Tech 35, No. 8 Ohio State 21 (2014)
7. No. 11 Auburn 27, No. 2 Florida 17 (2006)
6. Ole Miss 31, No. 4 Florida 30 (2008)

Few teams have been better with their backs against the wall than Meyer teams. In each of his three national title runs, his team suffered a loss in September or mid-October, forcing them to win out to reach the promised land. They succeeded each time.

*shakes fist* DANTONIO!!
5. No. 10 Michigan State 34, No. 2 Ohio State 24 (2013)
4. No. 9 Michigan State 17, No. 2 Ohio State 14 (2015)

Death, taxes, and Michigan State playing its best game of the year against Ohio State. Mark Dantonio’s Spartans wrecked national title dreams in the 2013 Big Ten title game, then pulled a repeat two years later ... with a backup quarterback.

Hell, they almost did it again in 2016 with Dantonio’s worst team.

Painful, but ... what?
3. Iowa 55, No. 3 Ohio State 24 (2017)

Shut out in the Playoff
2. No. 3 Clemson 31, No. 2 Ohio State 0 (2016)

The 2015 coronation went awry with an out-of-nowhere loss to Michigan State. The 2016 campaign almost did as well with the loss to Penn State, but the Buckeyes won out down the stretch and eked out their second College Football Playoff bid.

They were three-point favorites against Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers. The spread was 34 points off.

Still the standard bearer
1. No. 2 Alabama 32, No. 1 Florida 13 (2009)

Meyer has landed a couple of shots on Saban. His 2008 Gators pulled away from Saban’s first great Bama team in the SEC title game on the way to the national championship, and his 2014 Buckeyes took down the favored Tide in the CFP semis.

But he’ll never get 2009 back. Tim Tebow’s senior season was all but ordained to be the Gators’ third title run in four years. Tebow was meant to go out on top, right?

Wrong.

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