In light of recent discussions about #Zone6 members and recruits, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the evolution of the WR under Urban Meyer, which might hint at an evolving offense for the future. My personal feeling (mainly by looking at the roster and recruits coming in) is that we are going to be seeing an evolving offense with less QB run, less H-back sweeps/wildcat/etc., and more of a traditional passing game in the next few years. I think Meyer is finding it harder and harder to get his smaller H-back guys the ball in space as defenses evolve, which is why I think his approach to recruiting those guys is changing.
Let's take a look at his WR recruits/top targets since he's been here:
| Class | Name | Height |
| 2013 | Jalin Marshall | 6'0" |
| 2013 | Dontre Wilson | 5'10" |
| 2013 | James Clark | 5'10" |
| 2013 | Corey Smith | 5'11" |
| 2014 | Curtis Samuel | 6'0" |
| 2014 | Johnnie Dixon | 5'10" |
| 2014 | Parris Campbell | 6'0" |
| 2014 | Noah Brown | 6'2" |
| 2014 | Terry McLaurin | 6'0" |
| 2015 | Torrance Gibson | 6'4" |
| 2015 | K.J. Hill | 6'0" |
| 2016 | Austin Mack | 6'2" |
| 2016 | Binjimen Victor | 6'4" |
| 2016 | Demario McCall | 5'9" |
| 2016 | Kierre Hawkins | 6'4" |
| 2017 | Donovan Peoples-Jones | 6'2" |
| 2017 | Trevon Grimes | 6'3" |
| 2017 | Jaylen Harris | 6'5" |
In case it's hard to see what's going on here, here's the average height by class:
| Class | Avg Height |
| 2013 | 70.75" |
| 2014 | 72" |
| 2015 | 74" |
| 2016 | 73.75" |
| 2017 | 75.3" |
And I would argue 2016's numbers are skewed by McCall, who is an Ohio guy that you just can't say no to. I'm not saying we said no to Bruce because he was small, but it may have made the decision a little easier on Urban and Co. if they truly are aiming at an evolving offense for the future (and with McCall already in the fold).
For the most part, the way Ohio State has used the H-back/slot position under Meyer has been underwhelming. Just do an 11W search on "h back" and you'll find countless unmet expectations. Outside of Jalin's monster game against Indiana, I can't think of any example where the position really took over games the way it did with Percy Harvin at Florida. Even Meyer's Florida H-backs post-Percy were underwhelming.
Another indication of evolution is a look at the QB depth chart behind JT. Joe Burrow, Dwayne Haskins, and Danny Clark don't exactly scream dual-threat QB, and maybe that's on purpose. Maybe Urban is a little tired of seeing his QBs take a beating on all the designed QB runs (I know I am). It's more a matter of "when" and "how bad" than "if" the QB is going to get injured during the season. What better way to stop that from happening than to evolve your offense into one that doesn't rely on the QB run? I'm sure we won't see the death of it, as I do think Urban likes the numbers advantage, but he might prefer it to be an element of surprise rather than a staple.
Perhaps this is all a pipe dream of mine and Urban is going to try and run the same offense with different players, but I sure hope not. Michael Thomas was vastly underutilized this past season and it's a damn shame. Give it a couple years, but I have a feeling change is on the way.
