Urban Meyer, Kevin Wilson, Greg Schiano, and several Buckeye players spoke with the media following Ohio State’s disappointing 31-16 loss at home to the Oklahoma Sooners. Here are the “highlights”.
Urban Meyer Updates
+ “It was awful.”
+ Baker Mayfield was dynamic. The defense hung in there.
+ Meyer said he had some ideas about the problems with the passing game, but he’s not going to share it with the media.
+ J.T. Barrett is the starting quarterback and a lot of the struggles are on him, but “I’m never gonna point the finger at the quarterback.”
+ All three phases of the passing game need to improve — passing, blocking, catching.
+ OU basically dropped into coverage all game long, which made it difficult to throw the ball.
+ He was not happy with the way the offensive playcalling went. “Just not getting into a flow.”
+ Meyer will not consider a quarterback change.
+ “Let me watch the film first” before putting too much blame on any one area.
+ “Let me just digest it. I feel the pressure.” “We’ve got to get the damn thing fixed.”
Greg Schiano Updates
+ “We played a good football team.”
+ The problems tonight in the secondary were different than the problems last week. It wasn’t coverage this week it was mistakes, and that’s the fault of the coaches.
+ There were different reasons that the offense was having so much success, but there’s never any reason to have guys that wide open.
+ “We have to evaluate everything.”
+ “You look in the mirror first.”
Kevin Wilson Updates
+ Disappointed and there is work to do. Protection, spacing, and timing were all issues. Credit Oklahoma. Everything can be improved.
+ “Just out of rhythm.” Even when they tried to go fast there just wasn’t a lot to it. “Tonight we were very disjointed.”
+ OSU made some adjustments at halftime, but so did OU. The Sooners made some adjustments in the red zone and Wilson made some bad calls inside the 10-yard line. “They kind of got us off guard today.”
+ It’s on him to make adjustments with the offense. They found some things in the second half to equate the box, but it didn’t last.
+ They need to put J.T. Barrett in better situations. This was Oklahoma’s opening game, basically. They had a lot of time to prepare for J.T. Barrett.
+ The adjustments won’t need to be radical. They need to protect better and equate the numbers better from a formation standpoint. They need to fix some spacing and find a rhythm. “J.T. Barrett is a really good quarterback when the surrounding parts are there.”
+ J.T. Barrett will have a great week of practice. The whole team will.
+ “I think we have a good handle on our personnel.”
+ We’ve got to play faster.
+ “Those other quarterbacks are very talented, but (J.T. Barrett) is our guy.”
+ “We got schemed up well.”
+ The tailback needs to be the featured runner, but Oklahoma was making him keep the ball on the read game. He needs to be a complement, not the featured guy.
J.T. Barrett Updates
+ The offense didn’t finish or play their best.
+ He missed some throws, like the pass in the corner of the end zone to K.J. Hill. Not by a lot, but by a little.
+ We’ll grow from this and not point fingers.
+ Oklahoma played a lot of zone coverage.
+ He can’t be late against zone and you have to trust your throws. He did neither.
+ On Meyer saying he wouldn’t consider a quarterback change: “He’s confident in me.” Barrett said he’s been here before, citing the 2014 Virginia Tech game.
Chris Worley Updates
+ Oklahoma didn’t do anything on offense that they weren’t expecting.
+ This is not a sprint, it is a marathon.
+ On Oklahoma: “They made plays.”
Billy Price Updates
+ The standard at Ohio State is to win and they fell short of that tonight.
+ “You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Oklahoma.”
+ They probably could have run the tailbacks more, but that’s the coaches’ decision.
Mike Weber Updates
+ Weber was not 100%, but he wanted to help in any way he could.
+ He left the game after his second carry and limped off. He was told to expect that to happen this season.
+ He doesn’t think about losing his job to J.K. Dobbins, he only thinks about helping this team.
+ What will the running game look like with both of them when he is 100%? “We’ll look scary, actually.”
+ Meyer told the team after the game to keep their heads up.