On a brisk, yet sunny morning Monday Urban Meyer met with the Columbus media at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center to close the book on Ohio State's 38-0 victory against Hawai'i.
The Buckeye head coach was upbeat and ready to get his team back to work following a somewhat sluggish performance in the home opener Saturday. Ohio State hosts 2-0 MAC foe Northern Illinois Saturday at Ohio Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m.
Notes:
- Urban Meyer: "I don't think we played particularly well, but I'll never let that take away from a win. That bothers me when we take away from how hard the other team plays."
- Defensive champions: Eli Apple, Gareon Conley, Tyvis Powell, Raekwon McMillan, Tyquan Lewis, Joshua Perry. Players of the game were Vonn Bell and Darron Lee
- "There weren't too many" offensive champions, Meyer said, but the two who earned the honor were Curtis Samuel and Ezekiel Elliott, who was player of the game: "He’s the best back in the country without the ball in his hand. Pretty damn good with it in his hands, too."
- Special teams champions: Gareon Conley and Terry McLaurin
- Meyer said Parris Campbell is "coming on like wildfire." He also said Conley really started making his turn to be a contributor for the team last year on special teams. Meyer said Conley's No. 1 on Ohio State's list of playmakers.
- Mike Weber should be back this week, Meyer said: "He's a guy who will probably play."
- Meyer said Kyle Berger re-tweaked his knee and is unsure on his status.
- Meyer spoke on recruiting in the MAC, which he did at his first head coaching job at Bowling Green: "They usually have to redshirt their offensive linemen."
- "Northern Illinois is a top MAC school, so is Western Michigan." — Meyer on his time at Bowling Green. Said he hasn't changed his tune much, either.
- Meyer said it's not hard during the week dealing with getting the two quarterbacks reps: "Cardale is the starting quarterback. J.T. hasn't beat him out yet, but he's going to continue to get the opportunity to do so." He added neither guy played particularly well Saturday, but some of that was due to circumstances outside of their control.
- Meyer said he doesn't pay any attention to what other coaches say outside of Ohio State, particularly about scheduling: "I don't know what anyone else's schedule is, and I don't care."
- "It's good to be back in a routine." Meyer again added that he doesn't care about other people's opinions on his team: "I'm sure everybody's got opinions, we won 38-0 and 'what the heck happened?' We didn't play very well, but we'll get better."
- The offensive line is a concern at the moment for Meyer, but said he gives the unit all the credit when Ohio State plays well, too: "The good thing is, we have an outstanding offensive line coach."
- Meyer talked about former player David Givens being upset after Notre Dame beat No. 1-ranked Nebraska because he didn't touch the ball in the game. The coach said that devastated him, and he vowed never to let it happen again.
- Notre Dame quarterback Malik Zaire's broken ankle is similar to the injury Barrett suffered last year, and Meyer said that is what gives him pause at times to run the quarterback: "But the pocket is actually the most dangerous area for a quarterback. You expose them more in the pocket."
- Northern Illinois has had great success in the last few years, winning at least 11 games the last five seasons. Meyer: "Isn't that something?" He added that because of how good the film is, his team will understand how good the Huskies are, so it won't take them lightly.
- Meyer said there's still "healthy competition" every day for the defense in order to push for improvement, and that will continue even after pitching a shutout Saturday.
- More on the lack of offensive execution, Meyer said the outside perimeter run blocking and blocking at the second level "not very good" Saturday. "When we're cooking, those are the ones that come out."
- Meyer wouldn't call Barrett's performance Saturday disappointing. "I don't like that word. We just gotta better prepare them."
