As Ohio State continues its preparations for Saturday's game against Michigan State, looking to bounce back from last week's loss at Iowa, Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer met with the media on Wednesday evening for his final press conference of the week.
Meyer expects his team to have a bounce-back performance this week, believing the Buckeyes have had a good week of practice, but he also expects the Spartans to give his team a tough challenge. In particular, he expects the play of his offensive and defensive lines to be crucial to Saturday's outcome.
"These games are won and lost up front," Meyer said.
Here's what else you need to know from Meyer's press conference:
- Freshman wide receiver Trevon Grimes is still in Florida and away from the team for personal reasons. Grimes is taking classes online, and Meyer still expects him to return to the team.
- On lack of defensive touchdowns: "You can't worry about it, you just got to keep doing what you're doing."
- Meyer's son, Nate, signed his letter of intent to play baseball at Cincinnati this morning. "Nate's mom did a really good job."
- Meyer believes the team had a good week of practice and is ready to bounce back from last week's performance.
- On Michigan State's offense: "They do run some pro-style run game like we saw last week."
- On the back-and-forth nature of the series between Buckeyes and Spartans in recent years: "It's been a rivalry in its own mind ... It's been competitive as long as I can remember."
- "We will know more about our team as we continue on the journey."
- On teams throwing things at the Buckeyes that they were not expecting: "You have to adjust ... We had a couple issues (against Iowa) that we just kept making mistakes."
- On Michigan State quarterback Brian Lewerke: "I see a guy that's deceptively fast. He creates a lot of plays on his own ... He's a very accurate thrower."
- Meyer is pleased with the overall progress of Ohio State's deep passing game this season. "This has been one of our better years on the execution of the deep ball."
- On evaluating the loss to Iowa: "It's too easy to say it's just a bad day. Now you have to dig and peel back the onion and say why was it a bad day."
Check back with Eleven Warriors tonight for further coverage from the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, as offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, wide receiver Johnnie Dixon, offensive tackle Jamarco Jones, center Billy Price, defensive end Jalyn Holmes and linebacker Jerome Baker are also scheduled to meet with the media tonight.
