A mostly cheerful Urban Meyer took the podium in Ohio State's postgame interview room, more than an hour later than normal for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff. An extended halftime due to a lightning delay caused that.
But Meyer had something bigger than football on his mind even though his Buckeyes just defeated Tulsa 48-3 behind a strong defensive effort to move to 2-0 on a young 2016 season.
"(Sunday) is the 15-year anniversary of (when) the unthinkable happened. I had a very good conversation with a dear friend this morning. And the message to our team was: Nothing is guaranteed. A whole bunch of people went to work that day, 15 years ago, in those beautiful buildings, and life changed for everybody.
So I want to tell — first start off saying thank you to this day prayers and thoughts for the families that were impacted that day. Prayers and thoughts for the men and women that serve this incredible country and protect us to be able to do what we did today, and the policemen and fire people and the service people that protect us. And it just made you think today, and I shared that message with our team, and I thought it inspired them somewhat."
Meyer hit on the tragic events of 9/11 during Saturday's Skull Session and J.T. Barrett carried an Ohio Fallen Heroes Memorial Flag out of the tunnel before the Buckeyes took on Tulsa. The message Meyer shared with his team led to a dominant performance from his defense and enough offense following a sluggish start to dispose of the Golden Hurricane.
Barrett and the Buckeyes didn't score an offensive touchdown until 9:42 remained in the third quarter when the quarterback cut off brilliant blocks by Curtis Samuel and K.J. Hill to trot into the end zone from 11 yards out. Fortunately for Ohio State, Malik Hooker and Marshon Lattimore jumped on opportunities to make "money plays."
"Denzel Ward and Marshon Lattimore, third year, and then obviously Gareon is a heck of a player," Meyer said. "But Malik Hooker, that was a great play. That was right in front of me. I saw him reach out, great ball skills. Greg Schiano certainly does have an impact on this. But it's obviously very talented players."
Schiano and Kerry Coombs head a secondary that has seven interceptions in two games, including four of Tulsa quarterback Dane Evans on Saturday. Gareon Conley grabbed one in the third quarter, Malik Hooker took one back 26 yards for a touchdown, and Marshon Lattimore returned one 40 yards to the end zone. Lattimore finished the day with two picks.
"It feels good. That’s what I said from Day 1, I want to contribute," he said. "The offense was going slow and we had to pick them up so me and the rest of the defense tried to give them that spark to keep going. It feels great."
"Here’s what I would tell you: Marshon was an extraordinary receiver in high school; he has gifted hands," Coombs said. "Malik Hooker is the best basketball player in the state of Pennsylvania, has got great hands. Gareon has always had that knack in being able to do that and was a receiver in high school. I think you have to catch the ball and really in man-to-man coverage you shouldn’t get this many. It’s unusual to have seven in two weeks, but a guy like Malik who is a ballhawking guy in the middle of the field can get that done."
Coombs added that Schiano is "coaching the tar" out of both Hooker and Damon Webb, two starters in Luke Fickell's defense that held Tulsa to just 85 yards in the final three quarters. It stuffed a 4th-and-goal attempt from the 1-yard line in the first quarter to pick up the slack for Ohio State's offense, then the two pick-sixes made it 20-3 as a driving rain engulfed The Horseshoe before, during and after halftime. Intermission lasted an extra 50 minutes because of lightning in the area.
"It was crazy, man," Dontre Wilson said. "Once we got in the locker room, first of all we started off bad. We weren't doing that much on offense. Then once we got in the locker room, they kept delaying the game. Coach Mick (Marotti) kept coming in and saying 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes. Then once we went back out there we had to get back in the mindset of playing again."
Time crawled and players and coaches waited in the locker room not knowing how long they would be there as the storm clouds rolled through.
"I had a PB&J, hydrated and waited for the lightning to pass," defensive end Sam Hubbard said.
"We got coached up the whole time," Lattimore said. "No break."
"To sit in a locker room for an hour and a half, that's a good sign of some maturity," Meyer said. "Saw some maturity in the locker room. I saw some disappointment with the way we played offensively in the first half."
Wilson scored Ohio State's final points in the game, a 5-yard touchdown run with just under 6 minutes left. He finished with 138 all-purpose yards — what Meyer called "a helluva day" — as the Buckeyes rode a powerful ground attack in the second half to win. Barrett ran for 55 yards and two touchdowns. Mike Weber led all ball carriers with 92 yards and also scored his first career touchdown.
Ohio State said Tulsa ran some stunts with its defensive line and linebackers that it did not show on film, the reason for such an anemic offensive performance in the first half. Once the running game got going and the rain kept falling, whatever enthusiasm remained on Tulsa's sideline even after the two pick-sixes quickly went down the drain.
"The main message was shake that off," Barrett said. "First half, it happened, can't go in the past and change that. So all we can do is handle the now and go out there and treat it like a new game.
"We just kind of shook that off and took the second half kind of as a new game."
Added Wilson: "As a player, we've been put in way tougher situations like that. We were prepared for it. I don't think Tulsa was prepared for it. That's why I think we ended the game the way we did."
"I don’t think the storm coming in was a big factor," Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery said. "Did it get wet in a hurry? Sure, but we have to adjust, we have to play in it, and we just didn’t execute at the level that we are used to executing at. You’ve got to give some of that credit to Ohio State."
For the second straight week, Samuel led the Buckeyes in receiving yards, this time with 62 on five catches. His back-to-back catches near the end of the third quarter set up Weber's 1-yard plunge. Samuel finished with 78 rushing yards as well, again showing the versatility at H-back as a very exciting part in Ohio State's offensive assault.
"That's kind of my baby. I try to spend a lot of time on that and be creative in how to get him involved. We threw a couple of wheel routes to him, he made a play. We gave him a push sweep. That's one neat thing about this offense: You can dictate where the ball goes sometimes. And at halftime we did have those conversations."
Samuel touched the ball nine times in the second half as opposed to four in the first. He continues to shine as a featured player and extremely talented weapon in Ohio State's offense.
"Curtis is a crazy talent," Wilson said. "Finally getting his shot to go out there and showcase what he was brought here to do. Great moves, great hands, great blocker, great runner. For him to come out there and actually showcase what he was brought here to do my hat goes off to him and I'm happy for him."
Samuel, Wilson, Barrett, Weber and another stout defensive effort eventually were enough for Ohio State to take care of business against Tulsa. The Buckeyes cannot expect to hang around next week at Oklahoma if their offense starts slow again with how Baker Mayfield, Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon light up the scoreboard.
"I feel like we'll be ready," Wilson said. "Everybody's antsy, we're going to play hard, play the way we always play. I feel like if we get a fast start, I feel like we'll finish the right way and we'll have a great game."
"They’re a good defense," Barrett said of the Sooners. "Got some players up front then on the back end have good DBs. I think it’s going to be an exciting football game. But they definitely have good players there."
"Our defense is playing so well right now," Meyer added. "Obviously, the challenge of challenges come next week against a very good team and we're going to jump on that one early and get ready to go."
There is a good chance the Buckeyes already jumped on some Oklahoma tape even though Tulsa sat on the schedule this weekend. But with another dominant victory complete, all focus turns to the Sooners.
