Urban Meyer's Call-In Show: "People ask, 'Are you Satisfied with the Offensive Line?' No, I'm not"

By D.J. Byrnes on October 16, 2014 at 1:01 pm
Urban Meyer vs. Virginia Tech
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With Ohio State's bye weeks over, and Rutgers coming to town, Urban Meyer joined former All-American Jim Lachey and the voice of the Buckeyes, Paul Keels, on the airwaves of 97.1 The Fan for Urban Meyer Coach's Call-In Show.


Urban said two bye weeks in three weeks was "a little bit bizarre," but he feels his team is ready to face Rutgers. His big worry is keeping receivers and J.T. Barrett on the same page on timing plays.

People ask Urban, "Do you feel good about the offensive line?" "No, I don't."

"No, I don't like the [offensive line] depth. There are guys in our program who need to start to play. Ohio State should have ten guys who could go play."

OSU changed their bye week schedule; Urban made it sound they didn't practice as many "game reps" as they did during the first bye-week.

Curtis Samuel is ready to go after suffering a thigh bruise and a high ankle sprain.

Urban said his goal for every game is 250 yards rushing and 250 yards passing. "There were times in our first year when it was 31 rushes and six passes, and that's not good."

Urban said we'll see more tempo out of the 12-personnel package (two tight ends one running back). It's dictated, however, on the defense deployed by Rutgers.

Chris Rock is a "stud," who Urban "loves to death," but he's fourth on the tight end chart behind Marcus Baugh.

J.T. Barrett has more freedom at the line of scrimmage. He has "kills," which means if he sees something in the defense, he can "kill" the play and switch to something else. Urban cited Devin Smith's touchdown against Maryland as an example of when Barrett did this against a defense he recognized. "That's just good quarterback play."

Rutgers is "probably the most improved team in the country." They're "much better on defense than they were last year." Urban lauded Rutgers' offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen, whom he called an "excellent coach" and cited his work with the improved Gary Nova. "They're a well coached team; you can tell by their special teams."

Urban called his kick coverage team "heroes within the program." He said their kick return team is No. 1 in the country, and "that's the most important stat" to him.

Ron Tanner, a special teams boss, won't play Saturday to "a sprained foot." Cam Burrows will take his spot.

OSU's offense is ranked No. 2, "which is very good," according to Meyer, but "that's helped by our special teams."

Urban, who has personally performed bed checks for 13 years, admitted there have been times where he doesn't like what he saw in a player's eyes the night before a game. "Fortunately, I haven't seen that lately." Urban also said there have been times where people ask "Why didn't Soandso play as much?" and it's because he didn't like what he saw the night prior at bedcheck. "I tell them, if you don't have high energy... you better fake it."

Sean Neurnberger's maximum range is about 55 yards, but that depends on the wind and other elements. "40, 45-yards we're comfortable." Neurnberger's future is "bright" according to Urban, but OSU's coach emphasized, "We get paid to score touchdowns."

On his quest for faster starts: "We do script plays, but [through five games] we've had to deal with different defenses." "For some reason, we see a bunch of different stuff on defense than we're seeing on tape."

Urban said Ohio State's offense is doing good on limiting three-and-outs. (He's heard their number 1 fewest three-and-outs.) "That's when you lose, when a tempo team has too many three-and-outs."

Urban said he'll call teams he knows — like Cincinnati — and ask them if they found any tendencies within Ohio State's offense, and share similar information with them. (He stressed this doesn't happen with rivals.) During the Cincinnati game, the Bearcats picked up on an OSU tendency: every time OSU lined up in a "stack" or "off-set" position, it signaled a play-action pass was coming. "Obviously, we fixed that."

On ongoing autograph scandals: "It's a real problem, but Ohio State's compliance department is on it." But, "It's a real problem, and it's out there."


Full replay can be found here.

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