Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer spoke on Tuesday’s Big Ten coaches teleconference. He spent some time providing updates on his Buckeye football team and also looked ahead to Saturday’s matchup against Michigan State. Here are the highlights.
+ Meyer doesn’t think the issues this season is due to a lack of leadership.
+ Meyer would like to get back to using a featured back like they did in 2014. Defenses are taking the tailback out of the game, “so we’ve been working hard on that this week.”
+ The message this week is to keep moving forward. You have to rebound and put the loss behind you.
+ Meyer said he thought about calling a timeout on the fake field goal, but the defensive staff said they felt they could cover it.
+ Damon Webb is a very good player and a good person. He has done a pretty good job as a leader. It wasn’t a great week last week, but before that it’s been pretty good.
+ Parris Campbell has been cleared and should play this week. Not having him available is big. He’s one of the best returners in American and any time he’s not out there it hurts.
+ On the coverage issues against the tight ends, there were some mistakes on the defense. The answer is to address it in meetings and then practice it on the field.
+ The linebackers as a whole were not good this past week, but this season they have been very good at times.
+ The players have to be able to put last week behind them. Sunday was a very good and energized practice. The team knows what is at stake this week.
+ Michigan State quarterback Brian Lewerke is really starting to play well. The MSU rush defense is the best in the Big Ten. “They’ve just got some momentum right now.”
If defenses are taking away the tailback how is J.K. Dobbins averaging over 7yds/carry? Power run teams keep hammering until the D caves in. “We spread the field so we can run inside.” Really?
Not sure why everyone is blaming the LBs, when your D-line won’t hold the block on a running play and their O-line can get off and make a second block on our LBs… That’s nearly 10 yards per run… every time. I blame the D-line not the LBs. I saw the same thing at the OU game. All our D-line wants to do is get after the QB early in games, should be only at the end of games.
I do blame the LB in coverage though, they can’t seem to redirect a TE off the line… so all the timing plays work perfectly against us.
For those who are blaming the new coaches… you will always try to find excuses somewhere, even though I would say 100% of you wanted Tom Herman fired before the 2014 year… His play calling with Miller and Hyde had me going crazy, so I know I was one of them too. Herman didn’t become the best play caller in CFB history in 2014, he just had a masterful few games. That’s all it takes to win a national championship… a few great games. We all want to be Alabama right now, and be considered an automatic lock for the playoffs… but we aren’t there yet so no reason to cry about it.
If we expect the end of 2014 every year… we are spoiled brats who don’t deserve it. If we appreciate the hard work these boys put in, and all the man hours the coaches put in… regardless of the W/L record at the end of the year… I think that is what makes us the best fans in the country.
Go Bucks.
Allen- I recently addressed a comment similar to yours in another recent O-zone article. For what seems like the hundredth time, dedicated OSU fans are NOT “spoiled brats” and we are CERTAINLY NOT “excuse makers” (that one is truly strange, especially on this forum). True OSU fans do not expect their team to win every game merely by the act of showing up in Scarlet and Gray. There are times when the other team is better prepared/outexecutes OSU, or is simply the better team. The thing true fans will NOT accept is ineptitude, particularly from a VERY well paid coaching staff. Even worse is a pattern of ineptitude, which is the topic of conversation on my many recent articles on this site. It is clear you aren’t a diehard, which is absolutely fine. The problem is your comments come across as tone deaf to the large majority of this audience. Finger wagging and Kumbaya comments are wildly out of place- maybe they would work at bridge club?
Typo- I meant “on many recent articles” near the end of my comment, not “on my many recent articles”.
“true fans will NOT accept is ineptitude, particularly from a VERY well paid coaching staff”
You might want to look up how much Iowa pays their coach. If they lost, would they be crying about the same things you are?
Pretty sure there are a lot of well paid coaching staffs in the B1G that Urban makes look silly too. You sound like someone who can only see one side of an argument. Yours.
I see no lack of skill or ability from our players, and I also see no lack of skill or ability from their players (definition of ineptitude). Sure any Monday morning QB can pick a part every little thing that went wrong… But it’s a game, someone has to win and someone has to lose.
Also, challenging a fellow Buckeye fan to a “diehard” contest is a pretty dangerous thing to do. I know I wouldn’t do it. But I also know I’d fair pretty well in any contest that tried to judge my “fandom”. I bleed scarlet and grey like the rest of us. (OSU Grad, Alumni, Columbus tax payer)
Allen- it took me a few days to check previous articles and responses. So many absurd comments to address, so little time…
1) I don’t care how much Iowa pays their coach. I care about OSU.
2) I’m not “crying” about these issues, I am stating them clearly and providing substance in the meantime.
3) Thanks for defining a “game” for me, I had no idea what it meant…
4) My comment about ineptitude was directed at coaching in this case, NOT players. So, your point there is a miss too..
5) I didn’t challenge you to a diehard contest, whatever the heck that means.
Enjoy the Koolaid!
66-8. Name someone better??
Alabama 73-7…..that’s alllllllllll folks!!!!
Meyer said the defenses are taking away the tail back. I didnt know it was that easy. Why didnt our defense take away Iowas tail back. Why didnt everyone just take away Zeke in 2014? I think Meyer thinks fans are really stupid. The LBs made the same mistakes in this game that they made in the OK game but he keeps playing the same people. Booker cant play at this level, he is a MAC player. Worley and Baker are good athletes, but average football players. They can never take on a blocker and make a tackle. They run around blocks. Whoever had the idea that Worley should be in the middle should be fired.
Great points, Eric. The head coach almost seems to enjoy taking potshots at the intelligence of OSU’s fan base, which is both stupid and insulting at the same time. He is also throwing his staff under the bus with regularity, which probably means yet more changes this offseason- and the consequences of a lack of continuity AGAIN.
I feel like we have not had an offense since Tom Herman left. In 2014, his offense had JT Barrett looking like a Heisman candidate. Running that spread option, throwing the ball with accuracy. Then…Barrett goes down, and we change the entire offense for 3 games, and win it all. Notice…Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon, we didn’t use the option much at all. Cardale used play-action passing, and handing the ball off to Elliott. That IS an offensive coordinator. Warriner, Ball, Wilson, Studrawa…anyone with coordinator experience we have had since Herman left, has failed. Sure, we score 60+ in some games, must be the offense. No, that is just having that much better athletes than the teams we destroy. Sure, Kevin Wilson has had some great offenses in the past, some teams who really throw the ball well. but…I wasnt a fan of the hire. What has Kevin Wilson done besides? Not win, thats for sure. You can hire someone who puts up huge numbers…but in losses?? Not the way to do it.
Why wouldn’t we go look at teams who can score, rack up big numbers AND win? There are teams in the smaller conferences…that win. You can say, well…the defenses and competition is weaker. Well sure, it is. But, if your team can be great offensively, and win games and win the MAC or CONFUSA or Sun Belt…when you come to the B10, the players are better…and winning will translate. Not going out and getting a guy who could score a lot but lose 50% or more of the games at Indiana.
Id like them to take a serious look around the country at some offensive coordinators. Brian Wright of Toledo would be a start. Second season at Toledo. Last year had Kareen Hunt and the nations top passer, Logan Woodside. Woodside had two offers coming out of high school. He wasnt overlooked, Wright coached him up. They throw the ball very well, and wouldn’t neglect the run, since Hunt had a monster year.
Name someone better….and watch what you ask for. He is a top 5 coach in all of college football (you name the order). Pushing him to leave may just leave us with two or dare I say three losses a regular season. I personally don’t want the result of any OSU coach in the past 40 years. He is among the best there is in the country period.
Greg blockbuster video used to be all the rage too. They are an afterthought now because they didn’t adapt to change. either they didn’t know how to or were too stubborn to change. Just because something was once great doesn’t mean it will always be great. Not saying Meyer can’t be great again, but the team is not in harmony for one reason or another. Could be the AD or maybe coaches, but I don’t think it’s the players.
Blockbuster video is not still producing a top 5 team every year. This is not a reasonable comparison. So they haven’t won the National championship since 2014. They have been in the hunt every year. I agree that the last 3 years have not been the 2014 team but the drop is not even taken them out of single digit rankings at the end of the year. I would say that great to good difference has been the coaching carousel with the assistants.
Still no pass rush?
There is no pass rush because besides Bosa there isnt a defensive lineman with explosion. Im talking about the ones who are playing. I know Young has explosion and I think Cooper does. When Bosa was out of the game the line looked pathetic.
The linebackers have been good against VERY weak opponents. Against teams that can hurt them? Not so much. I think Coach Meyer should actually watch the game films for the defense. If he did his opinion would change.
Parris Campbell is a good return man. He’s not a good receiver. He just does NOT have the hands for it. You can call concrete blocks pillows all you want but anyone with eyes still knows that they’re concrete blocks. Those blocks happen to be Campbells hands beyond 5 yards. It’s been that way since his freshman year.
Lack of leadership? The players can only perform the tasks that are clearly relayed. The miscommunication and LACK of communication by the staff is horrible for the Buckeyes. I think the reason for that is that their HeadCoach is MIA. Too much time counting his dollars and not enough time earning them.
John Cooper did the same thing.
“Too many chiefs…” is most certainly contributing to a lack of leadership. Nine ‘captains’ is at least six too many. Nobody cares what comes as a prize in a Cracker Jack box.
Passing twice on 2nd and 7 from the 10 isn’t smart for any team, regardless of what kind of offense they run. Down, distance, and position on the field can tell any armchair quarterback that. The way you get a running back involved is to figure out when the read-option will work and when it will play into a defense’s hands by taking the RB effectively out of the game.
You call the timeout regardless of what your staff tells you. That’s why you earn the big bucks. That’s really minor as the game was beyond reach by that point but still.
The offense has major issues, but nothing like the defense has at this point. When one of the worst offenses in your conference looks like Mike Leach is their head coach you have to evaluate what you’re teaching, ’cause the kids aren’t executing, which on this scale means they’re not capable. Give them something to chew on.
When I heard there were going to be nine captains this year I was dubious. That’s a participation trophy. Are they afraid some of the little boys are going to cry if they don’t get to be a captain? That’s not genuine leadership and it cheapens the honor. Just another intangible that has perhaps made this team less than the sum of its parts and allowed the second half travesty with Iowa to occur. 55 points by an Iowa team that had previously had almost no offense (shaking my head). I’m especially not impressed with Schiano.