PASADENA, Calif. — A colleague once advised Urban Meyer to find a moment amid each game to savor. At Ohio State, the regimented coach customarily would remove his headset between the third and fourth quarters to soak in the university marching band blasting the vintage rock tune “Hang On Sloopy.”

The better the Buckeyes were playing, the longer he would listen.

On Tuesday, as Meyer’s dominant squad built what appeared to be an irreversible lead over Washington in the 105th Rose Bowl, the coach was able to take in every last note.

“This has been on the bucket list,” Meyer said of winning his first Rose Bowl. “I love all the other bowls, but being a Big Ten guy from Ohio and watching the Rose Bowl in the ’70s with Archie Griffin, it’s everything everybody says it was.”

In what Meyer maintains was a football coaching farewell that came as a result of his own health concerns, the No. 6 Buckeyes withstood a late rally by No. 9 Washington to prevail, 28-23, and make a mild case that omitting them from the College Football Playoff in lieu of Oklahoma (slow out of the starting blocks against Alabama) and Notre Dame (glued to the blocks against Clemson) was an oversight.