CFB notebook: Ohio State's Meyer to retire after Rose Bowl

Urban Meyer is retiring as Ohio State's head coach after the Rose Bowl, and offensive coordinator Ryan Day will assume that position beginning Jan. 2, the school announced Tuesday morning. Meyer has retired before, stepping down as Florida's head coach in 2010 before being hired by Ohio State in 2011. Whether Meyer will return to coaching following this retirement was a subject of his Tuesday press conference. "I believe I will not coach again," said Meyer, who added he was "certain" of that. The 54-year-old Meyer has served as coach of the Buckeyes for the past seven years, posting a 92-9 mark overall and 54-4 record in Big Ten play with seven division titles (shared or outright), three conference championships and a national championship after the 2014 season. Meyer has battled the effects of an arachnoid cyst on his brain, which causes severe headaches, especially when under stress. The cyst was diagnosed in 1998 but worsened the past few years. Day, 39, is in his second season with the Buckeyes after previously working for Chip Kelly with the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles. He turned down college head-coaching opportunities and the Tennessee Titans' offensive coordinator job after the 2017 season. Day was the Buckeyes' interim head coach for the first three games of the season as Meyer served a three-game suspension handed down from the university. The latter's ban stemmed from his handling of the employment and domestic assault allegations dealing with former wide receivers coach Zach Smith. --Quarterbacks Kyler Murray (Oklahoma), Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama) and Dwayne Haskins (Ohio State) were named the finalists for the 84th Heisman Trophy. The award for the most outstanding college football player will be presented Saturday (8 p.m. ET) in New York. Tagovailoa and Murray will meet again at the Orange Bowl on Dec. 29 when the No. 1 Crimson Tide and fourth-seeded Sooners square off in a College Football Playoff semifinal contest. --USC will name former Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury as its offensive coordinator, multiple media outlets reported. Kingsbury will replace Tee Martin, who was dismissed as the Trojans' offensive coordinator last week. The 39-year-old Kingsbury was fired by the Red Raiders last month following a third straight losing season. --Kentucky senior linebacker Josh Allen was named the winner of the Bronko Nagurski Trophy at the Charlotte (N.C.) Touchdown Club on Monday night. Allen became the first Kentucky player to win the award, which goes to the nation's top defensive player. --Mississippi receiver A.J. Brown announced on social media that he will forego his senior college season and make himself available for the 2019 NFL Draft. Since the Rebels did not qualify for a postseason game, Brown does not have to decide whether he would play in a bowl game. However, three other wide receivers did announce that they will sit out their teams' bowl games. North Carolina State's Kelvin Harmon, Arizona State's N'Keal Harry and South Carolina's Deebo Samuel confirmed that they will not play in their teams' bowl games and will instead focus on training for the 2019 NFL Draft. NFLDraftScout.com projects in its mock draft that Brown will be the 20th overall selection in the first round of the upcoming draft. --New Kansas head coach Les Miles has lured Auburn's offensive coordinator to Lawrence, Kansas. Kansas announced that Chip Lindsey, who has been Auburn's offensive coordinator the past two seasons, has joined the Jayhawks staff as Kansas' offensive coordinator.