If Urban Meyer is unhappy with a specific player or position group, the Ohio State head coach is not afraid to say it publicly. He never has been, and probably never will be.
So when Meyer was asked Tuesday on the Big Ten coaches weekly teleconference how he felt the Buckeyes’ wide receivers had performed throughout the first three weeks of the season, he had no problem expressing his feelings of displeasure.
“They have not performed well,” Meyer said. “Mike Thomas has played pretty well, but we’ve gotta play much better. There’s going to be a high, high emphasis on that this week.”
Meyer has a point: Outside of Thomas, Ohio State’s wide receivers have been a bit underwhelming thus far. Thomas has 10 catches for 158 yards and two touchdowns so far for the Buckeyes. The rest of the players at wide receiver have 26 receptions for 311 yards and a pair of scores.
A large portion of those catches, though, have come from pop passes in the jet sweep to players like Curtis Samuel, Braxton Miller, Jalin Marshall and Dontre Wilson occupying that H-receiver position. Meyer wants more production from his wideouts on the outside.
“[The wide receivers] have not performed well. Mike Thomas has played pretty well, but we’ve gotta play much better. There’s going to be a high, high emphasis on that this week.”– Urban Meyer
With the departures of Devin Smith and Evan Spencer, who were both selected in the NFL Draft, and the loss of Noah Brown to a season-ending leg injury in fall camp, it’s probably fair to say there would be a slight drop in production, at least at the beginning of the season. Meyer cited replacing Smith was his No. 1 concern with Ohio State’s offense, and to this point, the Buckeyes still haven’t found anyone to fill that void.
But in addition to the lack of production from a sheer receptions and yards standpoint, Meyer also cited Ohio State’s perimeter blocking as a reason why the Buckeyes haven’t really had any explosive plays, particularly in the running game, since their season-opener against Virginia Tech.
“We’re not controlling the line of scrimmage and when we do we’re not perimeter blocking like we normally do,” Meyer said. “You look at those big hits last year, he was barely touched on the famous 85-yard run against Alabama because the wide receiver did a phenomenal job and the offensive line got to the second level.”
Perhaps the play of Ohio State’s wide receivers has been part of the reason Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett haven’t looked right at quarterback, too. Both have combined to complete just over 50 percent of their passes — it’s even lower if you don’t include those pop passes — and have thrown four touchdowns versus four interceptions.
“When the quarterbacks have great games it’s because those around them are playing well,” Meyer said. “All the focus is on the quarterback, and that comes with it, but we have to play much better in all areas.”
It’s not all on the wide receivers, of course. There have been plenty of other issues as Ohio State is trying to live up to the massive hype it had entering the 2015 season. The Buckeyes haven’t looked like themselves yet since that first game against the Hokies, but the good news for Ohio State fans is they’ve got time to get everything fixed.
