This is normally where I would be writing a postgame story about the #6 Buckeyes’ 55-24 implosion against unranked Iowa. It would include some information about the game and quotes from OSU players and coaches that might help illuminate what just happened.
As the game ended, and overjoyed Iowa fans streamed out of the stands to my left and dejected Buckeyes trudged off the field to my right, that was still the plan.
Unfortunately, this type of coverage requires some input from the team. Last week, in the wake of the Buckeyes’ 39-38 win over Penn State, a parade of smiling players and coaches met with the media to talk about the game. It’s easy to do when the news is good.
Tonight, it wasn’t so easy, and the parade was much shorter. Urban Meyer came out, repeatedly said he needed to go back and watch the film to figure out what happened, and headed out. Our Facebook Live stream of the entire thing lasted a total of 3:33.
Center Billy Price, as steady and unshakable a leader as this program has had in years, came out next. Then DE Tyquan Lewis, who was clearly shaken by the loss, but who provided thoughtful responses to some very tough questions.
And then that was it. No J.T. Barrett, who had a nightmare of a day with four interceptions. But even more glaringly, no offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson. No defensive coordinator Greg Schiano.
Barrett is understandable. After four years in the center of the spotlight, he may seem like a grizzled NFL veteran, but he’s 22 years old. Barrett came out after the Oklahoma game and faced the grilling he must have known was coming.
For him to not come out tonight was either a coaches’ decision or the result of him being in a very bad place. Anyone with an ounce of humanity should understand either one.
For Wilson and Schiano… ESPECIALLY Schiano… there’s nothing to understand. They’re not 22. Both have served as the head coach of major conference programs in the past, and both almost certainly aspire to do so again. This is what you do. This is your job.
Wilson’s offense didn’t exactly cover itself in glory at Kinnick Stadium. It put up 24 points and 371 yards, at an average of 5.8 per play. None of those numbers is great, but they’re not a total tire fire either.
It would have been nice to know why freshman RB sensation J.K. Dobbins vanished from the run game yet again this week. He averaged 9.4 yards per rush in the first half, but only got five carries. He only got the ball once in the second half.
A week earlier, Dobbins didn’t play at all during the second quarter after putting up 50 yards on four carries in the first. Why? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But while Wilson’s offense sputtered some, Schiano’s defense spent the entire day stepping on rake after rake: 55 points, 487 yards, and just a hair shy of 7.0 yards per play. This, against an offense with a reputation for being outdated, and populated almost entirely with players the OSU coaching staff wouldn’t have considered recruiting.
On play after play, 4-and-5-star Buckeye linebackers flailed helplessly as 3-star Iowa tight ends raced past them. Highly-touted Buckeye defensive backs got repeatedly toasted by largely-overlooked Hawkeyes. On one touchdown, an OSU defensive end was seemingly trying to cover an Iowa tight end. Was that really the plan? Tonight, an angry fanbase got no answers.
With a personnel advantage as big as OSU’s, the only explanations for the three-hour controlled implosion that happened Saturday are scheme or attitude. Both of those fall on coaches.
We don’t know whose decision it was to have Wilson and Schiano slink out of Kinnick Stadium without talking. It’s possible that the directive came from Urban Meyer, but that would be an odd choice for a coach who preaches about the importance of accountability. Saturday night, his big-money assistants had none.
Schiano is not 22, he’s 51 years old. He’s also the highest-paid OSU assistant, earning $700,000 this season. It’s not exactly a secret that he will very likely be looking for a head coaching job this offseason, after he completes the customary two-year term under Urban Meyer.
If I was the athletic director at Tennessee or Florida or Ole Miss or any other school likely to be in the market this offseason, the on-field performance from Schiano’s unit might give me a bit of pause. But the postgame disappearing act would be a big red flag.
What kind of program are you signing up for if you’re handing control over to a guy who heads for the bus when the going gets tough?
Schiano and Wilson will likely be back out to talk to reporters this week. One or both usually speaks on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings. Presumably, we’ll get some answers then.
But tonight in Iowa City, when the Buckeye team mostly no-showed the game, their leaders largely did afterward as well.
As the chorus of “I Want To Go Back To Ohio State” says, “We’ll win the game or know the reason why.” Thanks to Wilson and Schiano, neither was true tonight.
urban is a great coach. you posters are spoiled rotten.
Your arrogant elitist comments regarding what number of stars these kids were out of high school is exactly why the Buckeyes list. You completely disregard Iowa’s coaches, players, and the quality of their program. Iowa is not some second rate farm team, in spite of being in rural Iowa. They have pride, grit, strength, resilience, and they do have talent. You underestimated the Hawkeyes, and the Hawkeyes knew you would. Nobody can sleep walk their way to victory in Kinnick, and that includes the home team. One would think highly ranked visitors would heed history. Good luck to you.
*lost
Gee Hawkgirl how about smack and trash talking on a site that you very rarely if even come to. Fee good about your win with your mediocre team, But that will probably go away WI blows IA way out, and I wouldn’t be surprised if IA loses two out of their next three games. IA has not been sniffed a National title since, ’85 and before anyone gets too excited the team that went to the Rose Bowl in 2015 was laughed out of Pasedena. OSU was outplayed, out coached and flat out embarrassed. However, never did anyone ever ridicule or down play IA as your smug and arrogant assessment indicates. IA’s win was more about OSU’s sleep walking more than anything. The reality is Hawkgirl that if OSU and IA would play ten times OSU would beat them 9/10. See I am an IA grad and know the heart of IA, it’s decent, but no less decent than OH, as I’ve lived in various parts of Ohio as well. So do us a favor, don’t slander us and historically OSU has beaten IA there in Kinnick over the decades, so if you want to heed history, relish this as IA usually beats OSU once very 15 years.
Thanks for showing us what little you know about football. Its always refreshing to see the unbridled ignorance of neophyte fans. All I can say is Ohio State will absolutely KILL Iowa when they come to Columbus. Fake punt up 31 Trust me, no one will forget that.
That was expected…Buckeyes are very overrated again this year. If Urban gets his head out of his rear end soon…He should begin looking at an Offensive Coord. And a Defensive Coord. soon. And get the back up QB for next year involved in these high profile games. The tone was set yesterday when the interception 8 seconds in was returned for a TD. Time for better coaching. Urban is a great head coach…Now stop hiring your buddies and hire qualified individuals to prepare these players. OSU wants the best players…Now get the best coaches there as well.
How many offensive coordinators do you want them to go through? Its Meyers offense that is the problem. Its 5 or 6 years behind the times. Alabame has had a new offensive coordinator for the last 3 years and they dont have a problem. The Big ten is weak and he has won 1 Big championship. He is not a great coach anymore because he hasnt changed wiyh the times. I will take Chtyst and Harbaugh over him in the Big Ten. Saban Swinney Shaw Patterson, I could name more.
This team needs a lot of discipline. You can see the lack of it in the penalties each game, you can see it in the way they are playing, “special teams”. The linebacker play is not good at all. Iowa took advantage of an aggressive d-line, “got out coached”. As i watched the game, the Buckeye coaching staff got out coached in all phases . When that happens you get blowouts. And as pointed out in a previous comment, i’m very tired of the way Myer pouts like a young kid when he loses. You should show maturity in both winning and losing. Get with the leadership and fix the problems, and install discipline in the players and coach’s.
Why don’t our coaches understand we are a running team
The comments about 3,4, and 5 star recruits are somewhat misguided because just like every investment cautions, past performance is not indicative of future performance. It’s also much more difficult to predict the future for a high school player in college than it is for a college player in the NFL and the history of high draft choice failures in the NFL is common knowledge. What is obvious is that Iowa played an almost perfect game and we played poorly. Pointing fingers is a useless exercise, we need to suck it up and prepare for a tough MSU team. We can still win the Big Ten although a national playoff appearance is very unlikely and also undeserved..
I’m a Buckeye fan but my husband is a Badger fan and it certainly seems to me that WI HC Paul Cryst gets far more production out of his 3 star players than Meyer does out of his 4-5 star players. We both don’t remember a buckeye defense looking so pathetic…heads should roll!!
I live in Wisconsin and you are exactly right about Cryst. You give Cryst and meyer the same talent and the game is not even close.
I was wrong.
Despite the points given up to Penn State I thought that the pressure the front four got at the end of the game and the “mostly control” of Barkley was the result of a great defense rising to the occasion in a big game when it mattered. It was barely-controlled aggression that got lucky at the right moment.
I was also wrong about a receiving corps that happened to find a nut at the right time.
I predicted almost exactly the opposite score for this game (I had it 56 – 14 Buckeyes) because I was fooled by lucky breaks that weren’t the result of consistency or coaching after all but really talented players having a great part of a game at the right moment.
I feel bad for the kids because this is one that’s gonna live with them the rest of their lives. The worst beating any Jim Tressel team took was by 27 points. You have to go all the way back to John Cooper when Penn State had a national championship contender and a 63 – 14 beatdown of the Buckeyes to get this bad.
The questions remaining are can this team even beat Michigan State, which is similar to Iowa in many ways? Can it beat TTUN which doesn’t look like world-beaters, but neither did Iowa before Saturday?
Two final “points” before I sign off, the first is someone else aptly observed that Saban might lose a game a year or so, but doesn’t get blown out. I have lots of reservations about the SEC, but yeah. Blown out is blown out and it doesn’t happen there. The other is the J.T. boo-birds back in full force. Yes, he’s never had a game like this (without checking I’m pretty sure 4 INTs is the most he’s thrown in a game). I agree his Hypesman moment lasted just under a week but you armchair QBs don’t appreciate just how hard it is to win a championship and some pretty great QBs didn’t win one (Marino comes to mind immediately but there are quite a few examples). This proves that at least ONE thing Meyer has been saying is correct: too much credit, too much blame. Montana or that Patriots QB couldn’t have won Saturday with the stinking pile of play that the entire rest of the team was playing.
J.K. Dobbins deserved a better freshman year and I don’t for the life of me understand why the insistence on playing the serviceable-but-not-great Weber persists?
Commenters and writer should all go back and read the 5 predictions article and ensuing comments/predictions and…….GET OUT OF THE PREDICTION BUSINESS!!!!!!!
Sorry to ruin your day. Thanks for reading.
You didn’t ruin my day…the Buckeyes did!!! That being said, you have ruined a few.
Didn’t see you gainsaying any of us then, Jim. Hindsight and all that. Have a mint!
I was being nice
I said it last week after Ped State and I say it again this week…Urby needs a BIG mirror. He IS the problem right now. I don’t know if that means he’s lost it as a HC or not, but he clearly needs a reality check and a reset.
He is a recruiter extraordinaire right now, pure and simple. But what he does with that talent is underwhelming to say the least. It’s very difficult to criticize someone with his overall record but when you look a little deeper, there are cracks. He is in charge of hiring his coaches. Herman was clearly a home run, but then came Beck/Warinner…Beck who was just incompetent and in over his head and Warinner, who was Peter-Principled to his highest level of incompetence. Ash was a home run, Schiano…not so much. Davis? The good-old-boy network at work. I still think Smith is a case of nepotism as WR coach.
Urby is responsible for this. He gets the credit when things go well, he should get the heat when they fall apart. This column is very unusual in giving him that heat. My question is: why did it take so long to see this? You get paid too and you have been wearing rose-colored glasses for too long. These cracks have been showing for awhile. Thanks for writing this, even if it is a delayed reaction. Now…on to how to fix it.
You say he gets all of these great recruits and then still has problems. Obviously Im not at practice but this is what I see. He kisses their ass, He is more of a fan than a coach. Everytime he gets interviewed its this guy is a grown ass man, this guy is the greatest leader I have ever seen, this is the best receiver I have ever coached. Against Iowa Dremont Jones is 2 inches from the ball and he jumps off sides iwice. Do you think he took him out to think about it? NO. His team started 2 fights at the end because they got blown out, did he take them out of the game? No. Bosa made a stupid play and hurt the team, do you think anything will be done with that? No.He wants to be a fan . I had to add this. Campbell is hurt, I understand that, but you put a slow running back in to return kicks. Lets get us a young bright minded defensive guy to run this ship.
Yea they should hire Bret Beilema. Halfwits
In addition, I admire your temerity in even slightly criticizing the coaching staff. I saw how vindictive UFM was when he did not like the local coverage in Gainesville. Not pretty.
Meyer stated that this is a mature bunch of players before the IA game and that we had warriors. The entire game flipped on the first play the pick 6, OSU left the game after Bosa’s foolish targeting and ejection. This team resembles Cooper’s very talented but lack of discipline players who could not come back from any type of deficit. OSU played even worst than IA played well. This is an O that barely touched 20 pts. all season, and they looked like world beaters. This isn’t the end of the world, but it begins with the coaches stepping up and taking responsibility.
You guys just don’t get it do you? You think it’s your right to ask right after the game, all the things you think the coaches and players did wrong. Like they personally offended you by not wanting to talk about it. WATCH THE TAPE! You’re the experts, you’ll figure it out. When it comes down to it, you are nothing but Trolls. Wanting to bask in someones disappointment.
Hello Bo Cooney, is anyone home? Yeah, this is an OSU site in which people comment based on articles that are written about something they truly enjoy. You and I must be from different places, because I haven’t met a true fan who likes “basking” in OSU disappointment. True fans despise it and feel it. Not sure why you missed a pretty simple concept.
Also, by commenting you have become a “troll”, by your own interpretation.
“We are going to win with class and we are going to lose with class.” – James Franklin
Ped State is FAR too late for that, pal.
Props to Tom Orr for not holding back and calling out the Ivey payed under achieving coaches. This one is on them and them alone! $700,000 a year for the shit show of a defense that he rolls out there every week? The OSU is getting seriously bent over. Time for new leadership from top to bottom!
Food for thought. If OSU doesn’t win the conference this year, that will give Meyer one conference title in his six years here. Unacceptable given the level he has been recruiting.
Exactly
Over the years I’ve definitely seen us lay some eggs when we’ve had everything in our laps but that one takes the cake…..ass whoopin!!!!
In an earlier article today one of you wrote that we should have seen this coming, but I did not and I do not think many in Buckeye Nation saw this coming against Iowa with a conference record of 2-3. We did not lose we were crushed by 2-3 Iowa and they out coached us all game and then punked us at the end with a fake punt from their own end zone. I thought we had better coaching than this I really did. I could write forever on all the shortcoming but that will not due any of us any good as we all watched the games this year.
I know we are all hurting but it is better to be exposed in early November by an okay Iowa team than in the Playoffs on New Year Day by a great team. I do not like losing, but I can handle losing in competitive games, but I am just hoping we can make it thru this season without being embarrassed again. Who knows maybe will play a 3rd string QB who can throw vertical and actually try to run the ball again with RBs. (Don’t get your hopes up, but think about it the only reason we earned a national title was because of 2 qb injuries from a few seasons ago)
To our recruiting coordinator try to recruit a few more Ohio kids because all of these out of state stars are not working out. Toughness and pride over stars any day.
Go Bucks
If someone would have told me that I will not enjoy even a minute of the Iowa/ OSU game……………………..
You have a completely undisciplined, renegade team that is talented, but lacks any sort of maturity in all phases of the game. Granted, the Special Teams didn’t blow anything today, but you had a 4 turnovers, 100 yards in penalties and dropped balls that impacted the severity of the score. A team can only out due itself in self-sabotage and win in spite of itself for so long until running into a team that completely out coaches you and out schemes you in all phases of the game. When that happens and you continue to play with any sort of lack of discipline the result is what we just witnessed.
93 points given up in the last two games!
Americas best front four not!
Undisciplined out of position linebackers!
Safety play is third rate!
That defensive line is average. Besides Bosa there is not one gut with and explosion. Young and Cooper should be playing more, they are athletes.
Shame on you Meyer. That was a horrible press conference you gave after the game. You are always blabbering on about grown men and leadership, yet you act like a pouty schoolgirl. You ought to man up for God’s sake. That Billy Price could teach you a thing or 2 about leadership. You win so much, can’t you have some class when you inevitably lose ? You ought to admit you got your ass kicked. What an idiot.
Come on guys, posers, then hosers? Your better than that!
It’s not complicated on why 3 star players are embarrassing 4 and 5 star players over the years Sometimes players don’t pan out from the transition to college from HS. In this case highly recruited players year after year not achieving their potential is coaches not being able to develop these kids. Feel bad for the kids. They deserve better
Note to Coach Meyer. Bring an end to goofy YES MAN hires. People who lick your lap as they tell you how great his teachers pet is. Get some coaches with a set of balls and aren’t afraid to tell you when YOUR GUY sucks, and THEY need to get someone in there who doesn’t.
Amen, well written. Seems Buckeye Nation has been exposed to three blowout loses going back to the Clemson game. Are we going to have to get accustom to such loses? What i saw against Iowa , was very disappointing out of a team with so much talent. And i, also don’t understand why Dobbins doesn’t get more carries.
I’ll tell you EXACTLY why JK Dobbins is vanishing. Coach Meyer is dead set on making JT Barrett into something that he IS NOT. That’s a quarterback. Right back to Oklahoma fiasco. Most people KNEW he was going to light up the next group of weaklings. I’ll be honest. I was stunned by JT’s performance against Nebraska. But looking at the stat columns now, that wasn’t very impressive either. He torched PSU. But after today, PSU isn’t much either. JT showed back up. Looking scared in the pocket and throwing garbage passes.
The ones getting thrown under the bus. Guys like JK Dobbins had to be thoroughly hurt and felt let down. All he does against anyone in produce. All Coach Meyer does is try to force JT Barrett. It was all glowing accolades for “JT’S” big win against Penn State. After today I’m CERTAIN that it will be everyone else’s fault with Meyer eventually saying that maybe JT didn’t play as well as he could have with the caveat’s about the offensive line and receivers failures.
Coach Meyer is ultra predictable concerning his 3rd runningback, JT Barrett. When the Buckeyes win, it’s JT Barrett won. When they lose, well, nobody played well. Just take a look at the helmets sometime. Barretts is shrouded in BL decals. The rest of the team? Meh, not so much.
Sorry folks but those records JT has, are 100% bogus. Coach Meyer shrugs off the rest of the roster to make JT special and the rest of the team be damned. NO WAY Coach Meyer will ever allow a freshman sensation take top press billing. That place is ONLY made for JT in Meyers head.
Great post
Spot on – nicely done! Schiano and Wilson make well over a million a year combined – you would think they could stand up and face the music after an embarrassing beat down. SMH!!!
You are 100 percent right about HALF of the problem. Urban Meyer has been a passive aggressive blame shifter for quite some time – for example, “I don’t micromanage my coaches” is code speak for “Don’t blame me”- WITHOUT having the courage to say it. Too may folks have given this guy a pass because other team coaches have managed to overcome Meyer and almost force success despite the head guy. Great recruiter? Sure. Great coach? Hmmm… I’ll take a page out of ol Urban’s quotebook from tonight’s post game interview- if you are generous enough to call it that- and simply say, “I’ll get back to you later on that”. What a joke.
I agree. Great recruiter, good coach, not great.