Urban Meyer

Apparently, former Florida coach Urban Meyer is not interested in working at Penn State. The TV analyst released this statement Thursday: "I am very happy with my role at ESPN. I have no plans to return to coaching at this time. " Meanwhile, in a conference call with recruits, interim coach Tom Bradley and acting athletic director Mark Sherburne said the school had begun a national search for Joe Paterno's successor.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Their pregame handshake was brief and perfunctory. Don't read any animosity into the on-field exchange between Bill O'Brien and Urban Meyer. These two guys are all business. With Penn State and Ohio State tied before halftime Saturday night, a smart guy in the Beaver Stadium press box pointed out, "If O'Brien doesn't beat Urban now, he may never beat him. " Given the recruiting advantages Meyer and Ohio State will hold over O'Brien and Penn State, the observation wasn't snarky, merely accurate.

Every recruiting trip, Sharrif Floyd got the VIP treatment. He'd earned it. After tearing apart the competition at various scouting combines, the George Washington High senior was generally rated the top defensive tackle in his class nationally. When Floyd visited one big-time football school, the defensive-line coach even carried his bags. "Don't get used to this," George Washington head coach Ron Cohen remembers telling Floyd. "If you go to this school, I wouldn't want to be you the first day. You'll pay the price, believe me. " Floyd plans to sign a letter of intent Wednesday with Florida - choosing the Gators over Ohio State, North Carolina, and South Carolina, with serious recruiting heat also coming from Southern California and Penn State, and dozens of other scholarship offers.

Temple football coach Al Golden hired his seventh assistant yesterday. Ryan Day, 26, will work with the Owls' offense, coaching either the tight ends or wide receivers. He was the offensive graduate assistant coach at Florida this season. "Ryan Day joins our staff after serving as a graduate assistant for one of the most innovative offensive minds in college football, Urban Meyer," Golden said of Day, the former New Hampshire quarterback, in a statement. "He is bright, energetic, articulate and an outstanding communicator.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Florida's Jaye Howard timed the snap perfectly, blew through two defenders and violently slammed Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller to the ground. "I had a lot of frustrations, man," Howard said. "Urban brought it out in me today. " Urban Meyer's future team got a good look at his former team, and the Buckeyes learned just how fast the Gators can be. Florida's defense and special teams came up big in the Gator Bowl, recording six sacks and scoring twice as the Gators beat Ohio State yesterday, 24-17.

SHREVEPORT, La. - Missouri made sure its final football game as a member of the Big 12 Conference was decided early. James Franklin ran for two touchdowns and threw for another, and the Tigers easily beat North Carolina, 41-24, on Monday night in the Independence Bowl. Missouri (8-5) ended the season on a four-game winning streak for the first time since 1965. The Tigers will join the Southeastern Conference next fall, and they showed one reason they should be a factor immediately: the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Franklin, a sophomore who was named the game's most valuable player on offense.

Noah Spence, the five-star defensive line recruit out of Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg, orally committed to Ohio State on Sunday night, according to Bob Lichtenfels, the East regional recruiting manager for Scout.com. Minutes after Lichtenfels broke the news on Twitter, Spence tweeted from his personal account (@nspence94): "Ohio State buckeye nation lets go!!" Penn State had been one of the favorites to land Spence before a child sex-abuse scandal rocked the university last month.

TEMPLE'S FOOTBALL coaching staff lost one member and retained another yesterday. Zach Smith, the Owls' wide receivers coach and special-teams coordinator, was named the wide receivers coach at Ohio State. Offensive coordinator Scot Loefler, who seemed to be a favorite for the head-coaching job at Akron, reportedly told the Zips he couldn't accept the job, and they instead selected former Auburn coach Terry Bowden. Smith spent the 2010 season at Marshall as the wide receivers and special teams coach.

From: Joe Juliano We find some really good matchups as we enter the new month. It seems strange to me that Oklahoma-Texas, which is usually the best game on the day that it's played, has lost some luster to the games between Alabama and Florida, and Oregon and Stanford. Maybe it's because Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy are gone, or maybe it's because the Crimson Tide and the Gators are playing for the first time in the regular season since 2006. In any case, which game will you be paying the most attention to?

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - When Penn State running backs coach Charles London recruits in Ohio, he sees a startling trend. "A lot of these kids from Ohio, they don't know guys from Ohio even go to Penn State," London said Wednesday. "They think they all go to Ohio State. " The names Ki-Jana Carter (Westerville), O.J. McDuffie (Marion), and Michael Zordich (Youngstown) don't ring a bell? Apparently not. Bill O'Brien cemented his first recruiting class at Penn State on Wednesday, inking 17 players, including five-star quarterback Christian Hackenberg.

THE INDIANS called upon a proven recruiter to land free-agent outfielder Nick Swisher. Former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel was among a group who had lunch Tuesday at Progressive Field with Swisher, who is considering a multiyear contract offer from the Indians. Swisher would fill a hole in rightfield for Cleveland, which traded Shin-Soo Choo to Cincinnati last week and has been trying to improve a team that collapsed in August and finished 68-94. Swisher, 32, played his college ball at Ohio State.

STATE COLLEGE - At the start of Penn State's season, keeping up with all the players who transferred from the program could be a challenge. But now that it's over, keeping track of Bill O'Brien's Coach of the Year nominations is just as difficult. On Thursday, O'Brien will find out if he is the winner of the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award, selected by the Football Writers Association of America. O'Brien had quite the first season at the helm of the once-beleaguered Nittany Lions, leading the team to an 8-4 record (6-2 Big Ten)

Ten months ago, Bill O'Brien was an anonymous NFL assistant best known as the man who got into a sideline screaming match with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. On Tuesday night, the 43-year-old was named the Big Ten coach of the year. The award was voted on by coaches and news media who cover the conference. O'Brien squelched any rumors that he might be leaving the Nittany Lions. He told an Atlanta radio station Tuesday that he plans to return next season. Defensive end Deion Barnes, a Philadelphia native, was honored as the Big Ten's freshman of the year.

The only thing Urban Meyer lost during his first season at Ohio State was his cool - at the end of the last game. Carlos Hyde ran for 146 yards and the fourth-ranked Buckeyes' defense shut out No. 20 Michigan in the second half to as the Buckeyes grabbed a bruising 26-21 win in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, completing an improbable 12-0 season. Meyer got emotional as the final seconds ticked off, embracing his players on the floor of a raucous Ohio Stadium. Almost no one - up to and including Meyer - expected such a rapid turnaround for the Buckeyes, who were just 6-7 last season in a transitional year when they were facing heavy NCAA penalties.

The white-clad Penn State fans filed quietly out of Beaver Stadium, shocked that the game of the year to date in the Big Ten turned out so one-sided in Ohio State's favor. In the locker room, the players for the Nittany Lions were quiet as well, disappointed that they let a big chance slip through their fingers against Braxton Miller and a Buckeyes defense that carried the visitors to a 35-23 victory Saturday night. "Those guys are hurting in there right now," Penn State coach Bill O'Brien said.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Their pregame handshake was brief and perfunctory. Don't read any animosity into the on-field exchange between Bill O'Brien and Urban Meyer. These two guys are all business. With Penn State and Ohio State tied before halftime Saturday night, a smart guy in the Beaver Stadium press box pointed out, "If O'Brien doesn't beat Urban now, he may never beat him. " Given the recruiting advantages Meyer and Ohio State will hold over O'Brien and Penn State, the observation wasn't snarky, merely accurate.

Corey Brown has his tickets, about 25 in all, ready to distribute among his mother, cousins, other family members, and friends from the Philadelphia area and elsewhere for what should be a special atmosphere at Beaver Stadium when unbeaten Ohio State and Penn State do battle. But for Brown, the Cardinal O'Hara graduate who is the Buckeyes' leading receiver, Saturday night is just another day at the office. "It's real exciting to come back home," Brown said Wednesday night. "But then again, we're not going to treat this as any bigger than any other game.

WHEN OHIO STATE quarterback Braxton Miller first was hurt in Saturday's game against Purdue, he didn't know what to think. He'd never before been thrown down on his head and neck. "I didn't know what it was," he said of his injury. "I was just a little bit dizzy from the hit, whiplash. So they sent me to the hospital to see what it was. " Tests determined that Miller, a sophomore who ranks among the top rushers in the nation, did not have a concussion or any other serious injury.