Standing at the podium after the win over Penn State, Urban Meyer said he wasn’t ready to talk about the special teams.
The Buckeyes had just secured the largest comeback win in Meyer’s tenure, but the kick coverage — or exceeding lack of it — was still a topic of discussion.
On the first play of the game, Nittany Lion running back Saquon Barkley went 97 yards and the Buckeyes trailed 7-0 after just 15 seconds of play. Later in the game, linebacker Koa Farmer took a kickoff that OSU was purposely trying to keep away from Barkley and he went 59 yards with it. The only reason he didn’t go further is because HE WAS A LINEBACKER.
Speaking with the media on Monday, Meyer was asked if he was ready to talk about special teams yet.
“Yeah, we blocked a punt and downed a ball at the 6-yard line,” he said with a wry smile.
The room erupted in laughter, but then the quite eventually came, and so did the unsaid, “But seriously, are you ready to talk about it?”
Meyer began by explaining one of the ongoing issues with the coverage.
“Whenever you have transition of players at a certain position or two, you think we’ve had some kids leave here in the back end of our defense. We’ve had some mistakes. And at some point you’ve got to pay the piper. We’re paying it right now.” he said.
The Buckeyes have seemingly had the piper on retainer this season, but he’s never been as costly as he was on Saturday.
“Some kids are playing kind of maybe out of position,” he said. “We’re having our struggles kicking the ball, and we’re taking the best kickoff team historically in this conference. We’re a very good one. Maybe it’s not the best. But we’ve always been top two or three, if I remember right. And it’s a joke right now.”
A few weeks back Meyer said they would be changing some things, and there may have been some personnel changes leading up to this game, but the opening kickoff looked a lot like what they have done all season long. It was only after that that they decided they needed to try to avoid Barkley as best they can.
After the game, Meyer said these troublesome returns “used to be uncharacteristic,” but he can no longer say that. And so things must finally change.
“So we had a meeting this morning,” he said on Monday. “You look at two things. You look at the scheme. We’ve adjusted the scheme somewhat. You look at our kickers, and someone said why don’t you just kick it out of the end zone. I’d kick it out of the end zone every time. We’re the only school in the America that can’t kick it out of the end zone, even with the wind at our back. So that’s a great question. I’m not a kicking expert but ‘kick the ball out of the end zone’ and we don’t do that. It’s not because of not telling them to kick the ball out of the end zone.”
The Buckeyes certainly do have kickers that can kick the ball out of the end zone, but it’s the consistency at which they do it that concerns Meyer the most. The problem is that they don’t all end up in the back of the end zone and some times they end up “on the 28-yard line, middle of the field.”
“I’m not blaming,” he said. “It’s just, I feel the same pain, man, let’s go.”
Expect Ohio State to make some personnel changes in hopes of fixing the coverage issues, but whether they will change any kicking schemes remains to be seen.
The good news for Buckeye fans is that Iowa is not a very good kickoff return team.
The bad news for Buckeye fans, however, is that they may look just find in coverage against Iowa, but it may not actually mean anything.