There’s no doubt Meyer is a great coach. One of the greatest. But it’s not like he started out with a high school team and took them the championship in two years. Tressel left him a very talented bunch of players. The only limitations on him were the number of scholarships. And that’s no different than another team whose coach can’t recruit or evaluate.
Meyer has a way to go to get to the real total number of national titles Alabama has. By the way Princeton leads all teams. Alabama once again has the top recruiting class coming in this year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_football_national_championships_in_NCAA_Division_I_FBS
I'm not a huge fan of his, or OSU, but his coaching most certainly DID show up over the course of the year. Managing a team that lost not one, but TWO, top QBs during the season... that takes skill. Keeping them on a pace to dominate all of college football during those trials and tribulations takes talent, too. Finally, their one loss, getting squished early in the year to Va Tech (gave up 7 sacks, O-line couldn't do anything right, their 3rd loss in 4 games after winning 29 straight, happened at home, 3 INTs with one returned for a TD, likely costing them a chance at a title shot, most experts writing them off for the season, etc etc etc)... getting past THAT, and coaching up that O-line to dominate for the rest of the year, most certainly DOES show coaching the excellent talent that he was handed.