As promised, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer addressed his team and their standing in a chaotic national picture after five of the top eight teams in the Associated Press poll went down last Saturday.
And after a dominating win against Maryland, the Buckeyes suddenly find themselves as fringe contenders in a rat race to make the first-ever college football playoff.
As such, Meyer gave what he calls his “state of the union” address.
“When you look at it, everything’s wide open. College football is a pretty open year. So we had a five-minute discussion because I know I can hear it: you walk around campus or your watch TV so why not address it. So we address it and move on,” he said Wednesday after practice.
“I don’t want to make it bigger than it is, we talk about it briefly and move on and then we’re getting ready for practice. I don’t think these kids care, I think — I’m hoping — that they just want to get better. I think we’re most concerned about is we have momentum and it’s been taken away so we have to keep that momentum somehow.”
Notes:
- Meyer couldn’t recall who he voted as the No. 1 team in the weekly coaches poll, but said he thinks it was Florida State.
- Meyer said senior defensive end Steve Miller “had his best game” since replacing an indefinitely suspended Noah Spence. “Sure did. He’s played OK this season — I don’t want to say great, but he played his best game. No question. And he has to, he didn’t have to play his best game before because he didn’t play much. I really like Steve.”
- Meyer said he’s not worried about the hits redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett takes when he runs the football. “He actually does a pretty good job of getting down.” Barrett had 71 yards on 16 carries in a 52-24 blowout of Maryland Saturday.
- Meyer on having two bye weeks relatively early in the season: “The first week, I think, came at the right time. You can see we played pretty well afterwards. This one, I don’t know: it always remains to be seen. It’s uncomfortable to be honest with you. I’m not used to the two (bye weeks) in the first six/seven weeks of the season.”
- This week has been a balance between getting younger players experience and resting starters. “I’m giving (freshman defensive end) Jalyn Holmes a million reps right now and some of the players that we have to get ready to go. Some of them though, we’re pulling them back. Mike Bennett, we pulled off of him. Joey Bosa, we pulled off of him a little bit. We didn’t do that two weeks ago or three weeks ago.”
