Reporters crawled to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on the coldest day of the year Thursday for Ohio State's Fiesta Bowl Media Day. The Buckeyes sit 17 days out from facing Clemson in a national semifinal.
Urban Meyer met with the media in the team room for the first time since Ohio State found out they made the College Football Playoff on Dec. 4.
Notes:
- Meyer said Ohio State has kept a similar schedule as two years ago: "Gotta give our guys credit. They're working hard, man."
- On Torrance Gibson: "We'll do what we always do. We'll do what is in the best interest of the student-athlete ... I don't think anything has been finalized yet."
- On Luke Fickell taking the Cincinnati job: "Luke's a pro."
- More on Fickell: "I did not want to keep him when I first got here. I met him a few times, nice guy ... then in our meeting, it was over the top. But one of the best things I've ever done is keep Luke Fickell."
- On Tyler Durbin's rough kicking day against Michigan: "We didn't get too much into it. I learned a long time ago that if I trust a guy we'll go with him."
- Kerry Coombs "will be expanded" in Ohio State's passing defense: "He's earned that."
- Meyer shasn't finalized what his future staff will look like after Fickell departs for Cincinnati but said Greg Schiano "will be very involved" when it comes to the entire defensive unit.
- Malcolm Pridgeon isn't ready to play in the Playoff even though he recently got his black stripe off: "But he's going to be a very good player for us here. He still has two years left and he will play for us."
- On preparing for Clemson's multiple scheme defense: "It's tough to prepare for ... I'm glad we have this much time because we're spending a lot of time on all of those multiple looks."
- Asked about the potential for teams to play more than 15 games, thus expanding the Playoff: "I always come back to recruiting, class schedules, the NFL ... we went 14-1 that one year then if someone had to tap us on the shoulder and say, 'One more,' that'd be tough."
- "Here's what I've learned about bowl trips: Give them (the players) the best gifts possible. The best food and as much money in their pockets ... that's fun for 19-year-olds."
- Meyer noted that most of Ohio State's younger players are already playing key roles this season, so keeping them over longer after bowl practices doesn't make sense: "They're already getting the work."
- "Early in the offseason, we're going to become a good throwing team. We're good now, but I want to start expanding it and doing it more."
- Meyer said Raekwon McMillan is "probably among the top two or three" players he's ever been around in terms of taking care of business: "I've had very few like that. From Day One when he walked on campus, he was a grown man."
- Meyer joked he's going to speak with "good friend" NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about repealing the third-year barrier for players to declare for the draft.
- Meyer thought Ohio State would be better at throwing the ball this season: "It's just a focus that we're going to work on and we'll get there."
- Asked about if there was ever a chance the regular season would only be 11 games in order to expand the Playoff to eight teams: "Beat Clemson ... I haven't thought about that."
- Meyer has never seen a player work harder than right tackle Isaiah Prince has the last two weeks: "Even on days off he's coming in here and getting after it."
- Meyer on first-team All-American offensive linemen Billy Price and Pat Elflein: "Zero probability that Ohio State is where we are now without those guys."
- On Clemson's defensive line: "They're gigantic."
- Clemson's defense is similar to Ohio State's in the sense that they do their best to stop the running game and short passes but sometimes that allows for deep passes.
- Meyerstudied what Dabo Swinney and Clemson did with their social media approach to recruiting as well as looked at how Alabama's Nick Saban and Washington's Chris Peterson go about their business: "I admire them. They're all great coaches."
- He added the Buckeyes hired someone specifically for social media after seeing how Clemson handled it.
- Meyer admitted J.T. Barrett holds the ball a little too long looking for a receiver to break wide open: "But that does help make him one of the most efficient passers in Ohio State history." He added that Ohio State quarterbacks won't be "gunslingers" because of the risk of turnovers.
- Ohio State needs to target Noah Brown a little more and work to get him in better situations so as to recapture what happened at Oklahoma when he caught four touchdowns.
- They took the time to look at where they thought all the young players that played this season would be after the Michigan game: "Never thought it'd be like this."
