Ohio State acting head coach Ryan Day and defensive coordinator Greg Schiano will spend about an hour taking questions during the Urban Meyer call-in show. He will provide updates on the Buckeyes, including where they need to improve and where they are playing well. He will also preview Saturday’s upcoming matchup against Rutgers. We will provide live updates throughout the hour. Refresh for updates.
Greg Schiano
+ “I always tell our players that you don’t want to guess because you’re either all right or all wrong.” They do try to anticipate defensively how the offense is going to operate, however.
+ The Rutgers offense is “pro football.” It’s pro personnel and lots of shifting and changing personnel. They want the defense thinking up until the snap. There will be multiple tight end sets. They will take their time. The defense will need to see what’s coming and then get them the proper call.
+ Playing against a true freshman quarterback does impact how a defense attacks him, but Schiano knows Artur Sitkowski. “He’ll be prepared.” Schiano knows Rutgers’ offensive coordinator very well, having had him on his staff twice. But they will try to have Sitkowski distracted and show him some different things and try to impact him as much as possible.
+ “I think Pete Werner did a heck of a job.” He has played some, but to start and play quite a bit, he showed great promise.
+ They have a saying that if you are on the field, you are a starter, so mistakes aren’t acceptable. There were issues with angles. The quick slant that went for 49 yards was an issue. It’s okay when that pass gets caught, but there was nobody behind safety Isaiah Pryor to stop the receiver. The post player — the opposite safety — has to be the guy that “makes you right.”
+ Sometimes young players get curious, and you know what being curious gets you. Older guys aren’t as curious.
+ Dre’Mont Jones and Nick Bosa played about 31 plays, which was a good start and good number for them. Once they get into Big Ten, those numbers will increase.
+ The freshmen defensive line played well. “We’re very, very optimistic” about their future. Tyreke Smith did a decent job in the Rushmen package, but now they need to build on that. “I think that only comes with experience.”
+ The pitch count on Tuf Borland is set, “and it will be more than it was Saturday.” As long as there are no setbacks, they’ll continue upping that number. The good news is that Baron Browning played well there also. They will continue to play both players.
+ Shaun Wade played well. Wade could play anywhere in the secondary. “We’re going to move Shaun all over the place.”
Ryan Day
+ The young coaches do a great job with the scout teams. “That’s a role that is important.” No role is more important than any other.
+ Transfer quarterback Chris Chugunov hasn’t been able to take many reps because the quarterbacks are getting ready for games, so Dwayne Haskins and Tate Martell need those reps.
+ Quarterback Tate Martell provided some excitement. His pitch to C.J. Saunders “was a little off the script.” “He’s explosive in a lot of areas. First off, he’s hard to prepare for.”
+ Tight end Jeremy Ruckert looked comfortable last week on his one catch. He recognized a blitz on a naked bootleg, which was good to see.
+ Brian Snead and Master Teague are big-play guys. Lots of talent there. Both are strong, tough guys. They’ll make mistakes, but once they have the ball in their hands, they run hard.
+ Tuesday was one of the hottest practices the staff can remember. So they were monitoring things closely in terms of body temps, sickle cell tendencies, hydration, etc.
+ Great to have Urban Meyer back at practice. Had two good days of practice. “Yesterday was excellent.” The guys were happy to have him back.
+ His focus isn’t on being OSU’s head coach, it’s on keeping things going for Urban Meyer.
+ It was good to have his son out on the field with him before the game.
+ Still a little early to tell if the fair catch is going to be what most teams choose to do against Ohio State.
+ The special teams were solid last week, but it’s good to have Urban Meyer back to help out the special teams.
+ They look at Rutgers on film last week and last year. You know they’ve been working on new stuff as well, so you have to be able to adjust. But you focus on what they do and what they know. They may try to change up some looks, but everyone does that, including Ohio State. Defensively, this looks like “a Chris Ash operation.”
+ Rutgers will play 4-man and 3-man fronts. They move around a lot. They are veterans and they know the defense and all of the adjustments that need to be made. They can make those adjustments quickly. There are NFL players in the back end.
+ With Chris Ash returning, there is a fine line in terms of changing certain verbiage. “There’s still a lot of remnants” from his stay at Ohio State. If you overdo it too much then you start to get out of the what the kids know. You have to remain who you are. They take it into consideration, but don’t overdo it.
+ The communication was excellent from the coaches in the press box. The NCAA limited the number of people with headsets this season. The information being passed from coach to coach “was clean and accurate,” and the results showed up on the scoreboard.
+ When they play at the tempo they like, receivers and running backs can’t play more than six or seven plays before they have to be replaced. There were 88 gradeable plays last week and it’s unrealistic for one skill player to have 44 plays in that tempo last week. When you throw a fresh Mike Weber at a defense when they are tired from six or seven straight plays from J.K. Dobbins, it makes problems for the defense.
+ Binjimen Victor didn’t have a catch, but had some great blocks. Terry McLaurin has had quiet games with catches, but is always involved with blocking. Victor saving a touchdown on the interception return is the type of effort that wins games.
+ Dwayne Haskins is comfortable with all of the receivers. He has a great relationship with Austin Mack, and you saw that on Saturday.
+ The pass generally goes where the defense allows it. The H-backs will generally get more because they get more short passes and bubbles and touch passes.
+ It was good to see the ball spread out to so many players. It’s a veteran group of receivers and running backs, which allows Haskins to lean on their experience. They were able to stay fresh throughout the game because of the rotation. It could be a big game for any of the receivers on any given week.
+ Before each drive, the offense huddles on the sideline and they talk about what they’re going to do. But once the drive starts, there’s really no words for encouragement for the quarterback. The ball is being snapped too quick and the plays are coming in rapid fire.
+ Dwayne Haskins “has a great spirit about him. He is very even keeled. He is calm but confident.” He knows Haskins had nerves last week, but Haskins’ approach is that this was what he was meant to do. The tempo helped him get into the rhythm of the game as well.
+ They wanted to get out to a fast start with tempo last week and they did that. The staff communicated well and the offense got some rhythm, playing four or five consecutive plays, and then they’d substitute.
+ You can’t spend a lot of time calling plays when you’re going with up-tempo. You have to shorten the calls. Players have to give the ball to the refs to place the ball is also part of it. They practice trying to speed everything up in many different ways.
+ Dwayne Haskins is getting better every week at identifying protections and knowing where the pressure is coming from. He is improving at recognizing coverages. There is a pre-snap routine, then post-snap routine in terms of seeing what the defense is giving him and deciding where to go with the ball.
+ Offense did a nice job in the red zone. They were able to spread defenses and also pound them with the running game.
