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Each assistant received a manual, Meyer’s coaching bible, with tabs for “recruiting” and “schedules” and “weight training,” every detail laid out. He sat down the Assistants the first time they met and went through it all, page by page.

Image Tim Hinton, the tight ends and fullbacks coach. Credit... Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

He talked about alignment, one of his favorite words. He detailed his philosophy. He brought his staff out to the practice field and practiced how they would conduct practice. He cared little, through the spring of 2011, about schemes and actual plays.

“Last I checked, Urban Meyer is a pretty demanding guy,” said Stan Drayton, the assistant head coach for offense and the running backs coach. “He doesn’t trust real well. There has to be a series of events that confirm his feeling on something. That took time.”

Meyer hired two assistants who were previously interim head coaches and two assistants with vast high school experience; eight of his assistants had Ohio ties. He told them he did not plan to change what worked, only to enhance it. He wanted to avoid some of the problems from his time at Florida, where he won two national championships but where so many players were arrested that the local newspapers kept a database. He gave his Ohio State staff office hours, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. He scheduled a family night, in which players ate with the assistants’ wives, each Thursday, attendance mandatory.

Meyer then took them on a retreat, one of his annual traditions. No cellphones. No cell service. Just Meyer and his nine main assistants, sitting around talking football. They cap the weekend with a wives’ dinner. Meyer speaks, and the wives receive a gift, usually jewelry. The Last Supper, Meyer calls it.

For all that remained the same at Ohio State, Meyer changed, too. The health issues that sent him away from Florida and into broadcasting altered his approach. He knew this staff less, yet he delegated more. He had to. Or he tried to, anyway.