"Almost fell out of my chair": Urban Meyer recalls the exact moment he learned about Ohio State's massive setback

The Ohio State Buckeyes are preparing to face the Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal playoff game on Wednesday.

The Buckeyes come into the game as underdogs and will have to do without center Seth McLaughlin, who ruptured his Achilles tendon during a practice in late November, ending his season.

Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer talked on "The Herd" about how he found out about the injury (Timestamp: 7:15):

"Seth McLaughlin, the center, goes down. When I got that text, I almost fell out of my chair."

Seth McLaughlin has been a key part of the Ohio State offensive line protecting quarterback Will Howard this season. This was what he did when he was with the Alabama Crimson Tide for the previous four seasons.

However, the absence of McLaughlin has left a massive hole in the Ohio State offensive line, causing the Buckeyes to struggle against the Michigan Wolverines in the regular-season finale, a loss that kept them from the Big Ten Championship Game.

The absence had little impact in Ohio State's CFP win over the Tennessee Volunteers, but against the stronger Oregon Ducks, the lack of a star player like McLaughlin could be the difference between victory and a defeat.

Urban Meyer on the NIL

As well as talking about his former team's chances in the College Football Playoff, Meyer talked about the general state of college football, specifically how big programs are using NIL to extend their dominance.

Meyer said that some form of cap needs to be put on NIL deals, but he immediately shut down his own idea due to how he thinks some teams would react to it.

"Logically, you have to have some kind of guardrails, some kind of system set up," Meyer said. "I’m going to tell you this: I don’t think there’s any chance, though, because that would mean the upper-echelon schools would have to give up power.

"If you’re Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, Oregon, the teams with this ridiculous amount of money, you are the power player right now in college sports."

The idea would help smaller programs. Setting a limit on how much an NIL deal can be would theoretically allow for other schools to make these deals.

However, Meyer realizes that this rule would not be agreed on by the powerful schools. These teams can afford to offer star players not only the opportunity to play for a national championship but also a lot of NIL money.

This is another thing that the NIL has introduced into College Football. First, it has had (and still does have) a massive impact on the transfer portal. It's only extending the gap between the Big Ten and SEC teams and the rest of college football.