Ohio State welcomed an opponent to Ohio Stadium Saturday that had six points to its name from its last two outings and an all but soon to be unemployed coach roaming the sidelines.
Maryland scored more points than it had in its last three games combined against No. 1 Ohio State Saturday, eventually bowing out against the Buckeyes, 49-28.
"Credit to Maryland. I know there's a lot of stuff out there, and I just can't stand hearing that stuff. I just respect coaches, respect players. I know one thing, they played their hearts out," Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said.
"It was a good win. As a matter of fact, it was a great win. We're going to enjoy that one and get back to work next week."
Rumors of Randy Edsall's imminent firing began fluttering Thursday afternoon, and all but culminated with the coach storming out of his postgame press conference after getting asked if his pregame handshakes with players were part of his normal routine.
"Have you been to any games here, since I've been the head coach at the University of Maryland?" Edsall asked the reporter. "Because you would notice I do that every single game. Every. Single. Game. Out of the respect of that I have for these kids and what they go through. Every. Single. Game."
Brief applause pattered the visitor's press area when Edsall left the stage for the man that all but needed a big upset against the No. 1 team in the country to save his job.
He didn't earn that against Ohio State, despite the stellar effort of junior quarterback Perry Hills. Hills ran for 170 yards and two touchdowns against Ohio State, including a 75-yard scamper late in the second quarter that put him in prime position to score a touchdown just before halftime to cut his team's deficit to 21-14 at intermission.
"You can't sleep on him, I'll tell you that," Ohio State safety Vonn Bell said of Hills. "He's got a little quickness to him, but he opened it up a little bit today. Hats off to him. "
Hills scored on the ground to end Maryland's first drive of the second half and tie the game, but the Terrapins eventually ran out of gas and didn't have an answer for the shiny new red zone package Ohio State and Meyer implemented. J.T. Barrett took over at quarterback for Cardale Jones once the Buckeyes entered prime real estate and reaped the benefits. The Buckeyes finished 6-for-6 on red zone opportunities and the efficient Barrett kick started a unit that settled for two field goals in six trips last week at Indiana.
"Our program is a very open and honest program," Jones said. "(Meyer) said he was going on his Monday walk and he was just thinking that he decided to actually ask us about it and see how we feel about it. Then let us think about it for a couple hours and call us back up to the facility and we gave him what we thought about it. We said we were for it and he was right."
A reporter prompted Meyer with that red zone efficiency stat following the game, and the head coach asked him to repeat it.
"I heard you the first time. I just wanted you to say it again: 6-for-6, no turnovers, worked very hard with a bunch of guys that listened very well and executed very good down there."
That was large part due to Barrett, who ran for three touchdowns and 62 yards, the last score coming with just under six minutes to play from 18 yards out to give the Buckeyes a 49-21 advantage.
"It felt great," wide receiver Michael Thomas said of the new package. "I think they both played tremendously and I think we keep getting better week in and week out."
"It’s real specific in terms of red zone and these were the playlists we worked on in the red zone and this was the guy who got most of the reps doing that," offensive coordinator Ed Warinner said. "That’s one of his strengths so we just decided to go that direction. That’s the decision Coach Meyer and the staff made."
Added Meyer: "J.T. is just a very good player. We've been having some red zone issues and the Q run, everything condenses so much in there. Either you have to be extremely accurate, which we're going to continue to work at that. In the throwing game — or the run game, you have to somehow find an extra hat. That's only done a couple of ways, that's option football or Q run to equate numbers. He provided an obvious spark for us in there. Of course, he's a leader and a guy that needs to be on the field."
It is a brand new role for Barrett at Ohio State, and the back-and-forth between the quarterbacks could be over in Columbus. The season is more than a month old, but some of the struggles that have plagued the offense so far in 2015 were masked by Meyer's insertion of Barrett into the red zone and presumptive scores that followed.
"The attention to this thing, I'm exhausted from it," Meyer said. "I can imagine — I don't read my phone very often, so I can imagine what those two young guys — they stay pretty focused, and they've got a support group that's really, really strong, and that's down in that locker room."
Barrett wasn't the only player to re-assert himself into Ohio State's offense against Maryland, as Braxton Miller finished the day with 90 total yards and a 19-yard touchdown catch from Jones. The play piggybacked off a diving snag from the two-time Big Ten Player of the Year quarterback turned H-back one play before, as the offense hurried to the line and caught Maryland on its heels.
"That's what we saw up top and we were talking about it on the sideline for about two possessions," Jones said. "We kind of want to save certain plays for the perfect look that we're going to get on defense and hats go off to Coach (Tim) Beck, Coach Meyer and Coach Warinner for setting them up and knowing what to expect at certain times."
Outside of Ohio State's quarterbacks, the Terrapins did well to mostly shut down Ezekiel Elliott on the ground Saturday. He finished with 106 yards and two touchdowns, barely keeping his streak of 11 consecutive 100-yard games intact.
"It was definitely something I was thinking about," Elliott said of the streak. "I probably shouldn't be, I really didn't have the best game today. I had a lot of misreads and I was impatient on a lot of runs. Have a lot to get better on for next week. But, the O-line saved my butt and the opened up some big holes in the second half to get me to the 100-yard mark."
Though Ohio State's defense struggled to keep Hills in the pocket, it did prevent him from having much success through the air, save for the very first drive of the game. Bell bit on a play-action fake, then watched D.J. Moore reel in a 52-yard strike to put the Terrapins up early. Hills finished 10-for-27 for 133 yards and that one score, getting sacked four times and throwing a pair of interceptions.
Redshirt freshman defensive end Sam Hubbard was responsible for one of those interceptions in the fourth quarter with Ohio State leading 49-21. Hubbard dropped into zone coverage and Hills didn't see him, all but throwing the ball right to him.
"That felt good," Hubbard said. "I was next to Gareon Conley, he threw it into double coverage and got in my hands and wasn't letting go. It was a great moment for me, hopefully not my last one. Keep working on the ball skills. It was a special moment."
On the ensuing drive, Ohio State wanted more despite leading by four touchdowns and the clock reading less than five minutes. A false start and snap over Barrett's head on 4th-and-3 killed Ohio State's chance to break 50, though, and the Terrapins responded by running right down the field and getting into the end zone against the backups.
"That last quarter is not on our defense. I'm so angry at that thing that that happened. Defense is done," Meyer said. "Stay on the bench and just grind it out. We snap the darn thing like a high school team over the guy's head. That shouldn't have happened. I'm not putting that on defense at all."
Maryland finished with 386 total yards and 28 points after struggling to break 100 yards and failing to score against Michigan last Saturday, but this day was about the new development in the seemingly never-ending Ohio State quarterback quandary.
Why, if Barrett is the answer in the red zone like Tim Tebow was under Meyer at Florida in 2006, isn't he the answer all the time?
"We just won, man. I'm going to go enjoy a nice Gatorade tonight," Meyer said. "That's a good question, and J.T. is — they're both very good quarterbacks. They both played well. I'm going to hug them both and say great job, well done. Let's go to work tomorrow and find a way to get better."
