Shortly after naming champions from Ohio State's previous game as part of his routine during his Monday press conference, Urban Meyer wanted to get past his team's 77-10 thrashing of Bowling Green quickly.
"It's time to move on. I would not take anything more than the guys played pretty good," Ohio State's head coach said on Monday. "We've got a tough one coming up this week, a team that beat San Jose soundly from the get-go."
 |
| TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE |
|
1-0 ROSTER / SCHEDULE |
|
|
|
3:30 P.M. – SATURDAY, SEPT. 10 OHIO STADIUM COLUMBUS, OHIO |
|
|
|
ABC WATCHESPN |
Tulsa's margin of victory against the Spartans pales in comparison to what Ohio State did to the Falcons, but the Golden Hurricane scored on offense, defense and special teams in its 45-10 victory. The first road game of the season for Philip Montgomery's crew is a visit to Columbus and the No. 4 team in the country.
"Obviously, Ohio State and Coach Meyer, they’ve got a great program," Montgomery said on Tuesday. "He’s done a great job wherever he’s been. They’re always well-disciplined, they always execute at a high level and they’re doing it with great players.
"It’s going to be a tremendous challenge for us, especially going up there and playing them at their place."
A small, private institution and American Athletic Conference member, Tulsa's current undergraduate enrollment is just 3,473. For many on its football team, the opportunity to compete at a venue like Ohio Stadium only lives in their dreams. Tulsa's Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium reaches its capacity at 30,000 people. Ohio Stadium is more than three times larger.
"Is it a big game? Sure," Montgomery said. "It’s going to be on a big stage, (but) take all of those things out it, they get 11 on offense and 11 on defense just like we do."
The Buckeyes expect a tougher challenge against Tulsa than what they saw last week against Bowling Green. The Golden Hurricane can score points in bunches and its roster returns 48 lettermen in addition to 14 starters. With a massive matchup against Oklahoma waiting on the horizon, Meyer and his staff cannot allow a young roster to suffer a letdown or look ahead. Not with the high-scoring attack on deck led by a man that served as one of the architects to Baylor's offensive rise over the last decade.
"You always worry about tackling in space because this is one of those Baylor-type offenses where they take a split out by the sideline," Meyer said. "Miss a tackle and that's a bad day."
Tulsa Breakdown
A spread offense sage, Montgomery's offense is predicated first on running the ball before taking chances in the hope of securing big plays down the field. The Golden Hurricane rushed for 305 yards against San Jose State, and quarterback Dane Evans recorded 198 through the air while hitting on just 12-of-23 attempts.
"We want to run the football," Montgomery said. "We want to be able to do both things well."
Tulsa finished 11th in the nation last season in passing yards per game with 333.2. Evans threw 25 touchdown passes against eight interceptions and the Golden Hurricane had two 1,000-yard receivers for only the second time in school history. One of those receivers, Keyarris Garrett, is now on the Carolina Panthers' practice squad.
The other is Josh Atkinson, who teams up with a healthy Keevan Lucas to give Evans two excellent options on the outside. Lucas missed nine games in 2015 with a torn patella tendon but returned to lead Tulsa with 112 receiving yards last week. He is a player Montgomery says "makes your heart beat" once he gets the ball in his hands.
 |
 |
|||
| OFFENSE | ||||
| 77.0 | 1st | POINTS FOR | 45.0 | 35th |
| 359.0 | 8th | RUSHING OFFENSE | 305.0 | 15th |
| 417.0 | 12th | PASSING OFFENSE | 207.0 | 74th |
| 776.0 | 1st | TOTAL OFFENSE | 512.0 | 36th |
| .846 | 2nd | 3rd DOWNS | .438 | 63rd |
| 1.00 | 1st | RED ZONE | 1.00 | 1st |
| DEFENSE | ||||
| 10.0 | 24th | POINTS ALLOWED | 10.0 | 24th |
| 69.0 | 21st | RUSH DEFENSE | 53.0 | 13th |
| 175.0 | 52nd | PASS DEFENSE | 234.0 | 81st |
| 67.5 | 14th | PASS EFFICIENCY DEFENSE | 134.8 | 71st |
| 244.0 | 27th | TOTAL DEFENSE | 287.0 | 45th |
| .188 | 17th | 3rd DOWNS | .438 | 87th |
| .500 | 20th | RED ZONE | .500 | 20th |
| SPECIAL TEAMS | ||||
| 3.3 | 72nd | PUNT RETURN | 5.5 | 61st |
| 17.0 | 92nd | KICKOFF RETURN | ----- | ----- |
| 48.0 | 2nd | NET PUNTING | 42.8 | 24th |
| MISCELLANEOUS | ||||
| + 2.0 | 10th | TURNOVER MARGIN | + 3.0 | 2nd |
| 9.0 | 101st | PENALTIES | 2.0 | 1st |
| 14 | EDGE | 7 | ||
"It's a fastbreak offense," Meyer said. "They just force you to play in space and so did Bowling Green. They have two NFL-caliber receivers, which you have to cover."
Meyer told the media this week how he stressed with his defensive staff, linebackers and secondary the importance of wrapping up Lucas and Atkinson. The same goes for star running back D'Angelo Brewer. He ran for 164 yards and three touchdowns while averaging 7.5 yards per carry last week. San Jose State failed to keep up with Tulsa's pace and allowed Brewer to break free for rushes of 38 and 40 yards.
"Their tempo is crazy," Ohio State defensive end Jalyn Holmes said Wednesday. "You’ve just got to stop them on first down to slow down the game. They’ve got an experienced O-line, an experienced quarterback coming back. It’s a new challenge so we’ve just gotta do what we do as far as our defense."
Montgomery likes to get the ball out of Evans' hands as quickly as possible, hoping to create mismatches for Lucas and Atkinson while preventing opponents to substitute. He knows thos two especially must perform at a high level to keep Tulsa in the game, just like last season when Atkinson, Lucas and Garrett combined for 377 receiving yards and four touchdowns in a 52-38 loss at Oklahoma. Tulsa trailed by just seven late in the third quarter of that game.
"Our guys have to do a good job of beating man coverage when it’s presented to us, knowing what they’re getting from a coverage standpoint," Montgomery said.
In each of the Golden Hurricane's six victories a year ago, it scored at least 34 points. In its seven losses: 38, 24, 17, 42, 38, 21 and 52 points.
"They score a lot of points, so we've got a challenge on Saturday," Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson said.
On the other side of the ball, former Buckeye defensive coordinator Bill Young — who worked under John Cooper from 1988-95 — leads a unit that allowed 518 points in 2015, the most in school history. Tulsa also faced four of the nation's top-20 offenses — Oklahoma, Houston, Cincinnati and Memphis — assisting the narrative that the AAC puts defense on the back burner. But San Jose State struggled to move the ball at times last week and defensive tackle Jesse Brubaker even took a tipped pass back 24 yards for a touchdown to give Tulsa a lead 24-7 near the end of the first quarter.
But the defense's penchant for allowing the big play still hurt it against the Spartans. Rahshead Johnson hauled in a 64-yard touchdown catch and run to tie the game early, and two other receivers recorded receptions of at least 24 yards. It didn't matter because of what the scoreboard said, mainly a result of mistakes by San Jose State. The Spartans muffed a punt that Tulsa recovered for a score in addition to Brubaker's pick-six.
"They're very sound, very good tacklers as you can imagine an old school guy like Bill Young would do," Meyer said. "It's not Star Wars defense or anything like that. They're very sound in what they do. I've coached against him a couple times. I remember he was at Miami when I was at Florida and they did a great job against us. Just a very sound defense."
Young's Miami defense held Meyer's eventual national champion Gators to 345 yards and only 17 first downs in Florida's 26-3 victory in 2008. He does not have the athletes at Tulsa like he did at Miami, facing an uphill battle against an Ohio State offense that set a program record for total yards in a game against Bowling Green with 776. Additionally, Tulsa allowed 160 big plays (10+ yard runs and 20+ yard passes) last season, most in the country.
"It’s the Buckeyes, everybody knows it’s the Buckeyes. But getting out there and understanding it’s the Golden Hurricane," Brubaker said. "We’re playing for the name on our chest just like they’re playing for the name on theirs."
Buckeye Breakdown
How do you follow up literally the best offensive performance in school history from a statistical standpoint? You push your team's mistakes to the forefront and stress the misses that could have led to even more points.
"I would not take anything more than the guys played pretty good," Meyer said.
Ohio State did commit nine penalties against Bowling Green and J.T. Barrett threw an interception that Falcon linebacker Brandon Harris returned for a touchdown on its first drive. The Buckeyes claim the offense had opportunities to score more points but failed to because of off timing and some poor route running.
"There were some times when we had some missed assignments out there, which we could have scored," Barrett said on Monday. "It was kind of like — I guess it was bad timing. So when they had their MAs, there were opportunities to score when those times happened."
Meyer called out the wide receivers during his press conference, namely Corey Smith, for not utilizing the proper technique at all times. He will continue to nitpick considering such a dominant performance came in the first game of the season against a porous defense. Ohio State doesn't want that to be its ceiling in 2016.
"What happens is, and you'll hear the old adage that people get better between one and two and that's because you get your game legs back," Meyer said.
Plus, the Buckeyes only graded center Pat Elflein out as a champion from its offensive line. Twelve receivers saw time (if you count Dontre Wilson and Curtis Samuel), and six players ran the ball as Meyer emptied the bench in the fourth quarter.
Meyer knew he young roster would be anxious to see the field for the first time. Nine true freshmen played. More than 25 guys saw their first live action either due to injuries or redshirt.
"A lot of young guys got anxiety out of the way. I thought they played really well," Meyer said Thursday on his radio show. "I didn’t anticipate that happening."
Mike Weber ran for 136 yards on 19 carries in his first start in place of Ezekiel Elliott. Curtis Samuel touched the ball 22 times and showed an explosion not many possess. Dontre Wilson returned finally healthy from a broken foot and in style, scoring twice and racking up 101 all-purpose yards.
Mike Weber and Curtis Samuel showed they can be integral parts to Ohio State's offense against Bowling Green.
The results were extremely positive — it's hard to be disappointed in 77 points, 41 first downs and all those yards. But Meyer isn't about to let his team dwell on the past, especially with how Tulsa will provide a new challenge with its experience at quarterback, wide receiver and running back.
"One lineman graded out a winner. Our starting receivers did not grade out a winner, I believe. There's some great teachable moments in there," Meyer said. "You have a kickoff unit that's expected to be the best. We had one good one and two or three bad ones. So there's incredible moments. So it's a lot more enjoyable to coach after a big win than the opposite."
Barrett and the Buckeyes tried to do that this week, as the quarterback is expected to move on from a record day himself. His six touchdown passes tied a record held by both Barrett and Kenny Guiton. Barrett's rushing score set a new mark for total visits to the end zone by one player in a single game.
He appeared in control of everything, audibling the protection and play "at least 10 times" against the Falcons according to Meyer and displaying a downfield touch the Buckeyes desperately missed in 2015.
"After the game, I felt good about how I played. Of course, wish I had a couple of balls back," Barrett said on Monday. "But other than that, I was at a good place on how I performed."
If Barrett continues his assault on the record book Saturday the Buckeyes shouldn't have too much trouble with Tulsa. But if Evans gets rolling and Ohio State fails to bring down Lucas, Atkinson and Brewer in space the score will be much closer than last weekend.
"You want the greatest challenge so you can overcome it. That’s how you get better, when you get challenges," Ohio State cornerback Gareon Conley said. "You don’t get better doing easy things so it’s just getting that challenge from that tempo and an experienced offense. It’s going to be a great challenge to overcome."
Johnson said Ohio State will have to adjust its pass rush again this week after facing an offense that got the ball out of the quarterback's hands instantly against Bowling Green. Evans will use more play-action and look down the field as he orchestrates Tulsa's offense, so Meyer hopes to see more than two sacks from his defensive line rotation.
"This one they'll maybe have a better chance at getting to the quarterback because they do, the Bowling Green team just didn't hold the ball at all," Meyer said. "They got it out so fast."
Added Johnson: "It was a good start. Certainly want to be better. There's some things that you want to do better rushing and that's what we'll work on this week."
The Buckeyes say they need to put forth a better effort than the 77-point performance in the opener to defeat Tulsa. With the major showdown against Oklahoma looming next weekend in Norman, the Golden Hurricane provide a step up in competition before the giant leap comes against the Sooners.
"I'd say they got better players than BG does. They're a step up," Elflein said Wednesday. "They run some more stuff. They have different looks. They'll go in the Bear a little bit, they're going to blitz us more."
"I think this will be more of a test Saturday," Meyer added.
How It Plays Out
While Meyer and Ohio State can talk up Tulsa's offensive firepower and ability to score — which it certainly can — the Buckeyes shouldn't have much of a problem dispatching the Golden Hurricane on Saturday. While 776 yards of offense and 77 points set a striking precedent in Week 1, expecting that each game is reckless. Particularly with the wind and rainy weather forecasted for Saturday after in Columbus.
It is what Ohio State strives for, however, and the Buckeye offense torched Bowling Green from all angles. Samuel exploded and showed his potential as a special player as the Buckeyes took their first step at returning to the College Football Playoff. Any sort of a slip-up or step back against a team with inferior talent like Tulsa will threaten to change the national narrative that the Buckeyes are loaded and primed for another run with Barrett at the helm.
Welcome to Meyer's focus for Week 2: Convincing his players a 67-point victory is not good enough.
"I think it was good," Meyer said. "It wasn't great."
Tulsa does pose a stiffer challenge for the Buckeyes with experience at wide receiver, tailback and quarterback and seven returning starters in its offense's second year with Philip Montgomery's system. Plus, the Golden Hurricane has nothing to lose.
"We gotta be free. We can’t go in there and be hesitant about what we do," Montgomery said. "I don’t want to walk off the field and still have bullets left. We’re going to shoot them and see what happens."
How Ohio State handles Tulsa's offensive ammunition will determine the outcome Saturday.
ELEVEN WARRIORS STAFF PREDICTION: Ohio State 51, Tulsa 17
