Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer spoke with the media on Monday to recap the Buckeyes’ 49-21 win over Indiana and to also look ahead to Saturday night’s matchup against the Oklahoma Sooners. Here are the highlights.
+ Meyer named the Champions from the Indiana game.
+ Jalyn Holmes had seven quarterback hurries and two hurries. Had a heck of a day. Sam Hubbard had seven hurries and six knockdowns along with his two sacks.
+ On J.T. Barrett: “He just played very well.”
+ Parris Campbell played very well without the ball. J.K. Dobbins graded out at 91%.
+ Austin Mack and Amir Riep had special mentions for their special teams play in kick coverage.
+ “A lot of work to be done as a great football team comes in here.” They have great respect for Oklahoma.
+ Disappointed in a few areas, but they tightened up on defense in the second half. The balance on offense was good to see.
+ Indiana’s offense humbled OSU’s corners. They needed to have that happen. Does them no good to win 70-7 before Oklahoma.
+ Tate Martell may be used as a scout-team Baker Mayfield. It’s an interesting comparison, but Meyer hasn’t thought much about it.
+ Meyer said Ohio State follows Ohio recruits who go elsewhere to see if his staff ended up making a mistake in not going after a kid. They also monitor the schools who are landing these kids. They want to know where and why they are making mistakes.
+ Oklahoma has the same coordinators on both sides of the ball, so there’s no concern about the unknown with new head coach Lincoln Riley.
+ Meyer has talked to Bob Stoops since he retired. He didn’t see the retirement coming. “I’m really happy for him.”
+ The OSU defensive line negated the run. Dre’Mont Jones played a good game. They played so many plays, and they were able to keep up because of their depth. The rotation makes them good against the run and the pass.
+ They’re not yet ready for Oklahoma. It’s just Monday practice. The secondary has to knock some more balls down. The offensive line needs to get movement early in the game.
+ Mike Weber will play. Haven’t figured out the rotation with him and J.K. Dobbins. Weber had a good practice today. He is full speed.
+ Meyer said he was a nutjob as a young head coach. He has matured with age and hired quality assistant coaches. You hire them to coach, so you have to let them do their jobs.
+ J.T. Barrett can be a more accurate quarterback. He was very good on Thursday. They had some drops. The accuracy of a quarterback has to do with the timing of the receivers and the routes they run as well.
+ Barrett shoulders all of the blame when it comes to incompletions. They shoot for 60% on deep balls in terms of accuracy, and he was higher than that on Saturday.
+ Eric Glover-Williams is no longer part of the program due to a “school conduct issue.”
+ You can see the major emphasis on crossing routes. Ryan Day brought that to them. Catching and running for 60 or 70 yards excites Meyer as much as the deep balls.
Why throw the ball 50 yards with a lower completion rate if you can throw it for 20 and get 50 YACs?
Because you need to stretch the defense. Even missing on two or three deep balls will do that. When you run crossing routs you still send a guy deep that is what pulls the safety and allows running room after the catch.