DALLAS – “Drink.”

That was the order from the Ohio State strength and conditioning staff to the Buckeyes at media day Saturday. As the players sat at tables for their one-hour session with reporters, the coaches wanted them to have water bottles in their hands, hydrating in preparation for Monday night.

They also wanted the players to be careful what they said.

“Don’t get diarrhea of the mouth,” one staffer told safety Tyvis Powell. The staffer then looked at fellow defensive back Armani Reeves, who shared a table with Powell, and said, “Hey, monitor him.”

This is part of the Urban Meyer Method – no detail is too small to overlook. From water bottles to watching your words, the Ohio State staff is on top of everything – an extension of Meyer’s obsession with maximizing the potential of everyone in his program.

Which is a huge reason why the Buckeyes are here, facing Oregon in search of an unlikely national championship.

“His plan is in total detail, start to finish, January 1st to December 31st, on how to win,” secondary coach Kerry Coombs said. “To work for him, you better be sharp. I worked with Brian Kelly and Butch Jones at Cincinnati. I’ve coached with really good people. But this guy here? He’s special. He’s not winning by accident.”

View photos Urban Meyer has the Buckeyes on the cusp of an unlikely national title. (Getty) More

And now he may be winning a third national title, putting himself in truly elite historical company. Since the polls began crowning champions in 1936, there are nine coaches with three or more consensus championships: Bear Bryant had five; Frank Leahy and Nick Saban each have four; Bernie Bierman, Bud Wilkinson, John McKay, Woody Hayes, Barry Switzer and Tom Osborne with three.

Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden? No. Darrell Royal and Bo Schembechler? No. Ara Parseghian and Robert Neyland? No. And Meyer can join Saban as the only coaches to win three or more titles with more than one team.

What happened twice at Florida is being replicated now at Ohio State after something of a personal and professional midlife crisis. Meyer burned himself out in Gainesville, but everyone knew he would be back. During his year away from coaching as a broadcaster, the flame was re-lit.

“I think I just was obviously chomping at the bit to get back in it, but to sit there and say I thought that we could somehow get back to the national title, it's everybody's dream and goal, but it's very complicated and everything has to align perfectly for this to happen,” Meyer said. “… When it really crossed my mind is when I had the ability to go watch Notre Dame against Alabama in the one in Florida, the national championship game [two years ago], and I was there with ESPN. … That's the day that I sent that text out to the entire team, every support staff member: ‘The chase is on.’ … That was the moment, that's the driving force, why we get up every day, and I just wanted to somehow share that experience with our players, and now we are.”

To complete the chase, Meyer painstakingly planned every element of the Ohio State program to championship-level specifications. And he brought in his old Florida strength and conditioning coach, Mickey Marotti, to set the tone.

The buy-in to the Meyer-Marotti intensity wasn’t automatic in the winter of 2012. In order to get the point across, there was one particularly brutal workout that resonates with the players who were there.

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