Standing 6-1 and with Northwestern on tap, Urban Meyer took to 97.1 The Fan's airwaves to discuss all things Buckeye football with Paul Keels and Jim Lachey.
For the first time this year, no live calls were taken. Skip Mosic, a 31-year show producer, shouldered full blame afterwards.
"The best part about this situation is you get to go out and perform with people you care about. That's been the message this week."
"I'd say they're doing 'very good.' Today is a Thursday practice so we have to clean some things up and go play a good Northwestern team."
Linebacker Dante Booker, who Meyer said would play last week, "is getting close to ready. We're not going to force that one."
Wide receiver Corey Smith will play with a cast.
"This is the most I've spent talking about a previous week," Meyer lamented. "That game is gone. Let's get on to the next one."
COFFEE WITH THE COACH QUESTION from DICK in CONNEAUT: How did the leadership training with Tim Kight come together?
- Meyer always taught leadership, but there was no set structure.
- When John Simon and Zach Boren left the program, OSU had talented players but no leadership training.
- Tim Kight provided the structure.
- Meyer trains his staff as well as his players.
- "It helps you live your life. It lets you hit pause and step up."
- "The rewards have been phenomenal." Said players in the NFL routinely cite their "R-factor" training.
Meyer said he doesn't watch a lot of high school tape where a team is getting blown out. He's more interested how players play in the fourth quarter of a close game or on 4th and 2.
On Marcus Baugh's touchdown catch and run:
- "That was a well-executed play, a flood pass in the boundary."
- "Marcus is a very talented guy. He's been banged up with a shoulder and ankle. He hasn't been 100-percent yet."
- "It was good to see him do that."
On the development of the "H-Back":
- Everyone is looking for guys that can catch and block.
- "We're looking for big strong guys that can catch the ball and run the ball. They're hard to fine."
- Curtis Samuel is the best guy Urban Meyer has had at Ohio State.
- Samuel is "an all-purpose player." Most fans don't see the smaller things he does.
On Northwestern:
- "Offensively is where they've changed. The quarterback has come into his own."
- Defensively, they've been "solid" all year.
- Northwestern runs 4-3 on Northwestern, 300-pounds-plus up front. "Big, thick, heavy guys who play with good technique up front. They try to let the linebackers run free."
- Is it the same schemes they went up against in 2013? "Yeah."
Meyer's former quarterback at Bowling Green, Josh Harris, was inducted into the athletics Hall of Fame. "He was a gentleman off the field and a war-daddy on it." Meyer and Rich Rodriguez were the only two college coaches running the spread in 2002. "Bowling Green had never been ranked. We got all the way up to No. 16."
Meyer wasn't sold until he watched him play and Hooker laid down "the most dominating basketball performance I've ever seen." Hooker finished with 35 points, and Meyer had to have him.
Meyer said it's tough recruiting Ohio because so many players, who are without four-years of spring football, are late developers. Meyer again used the point to rail against an early signing period, which he feels would kill a chance for late developers to catch on at Ohio State. Also cited Malik Hooker, who didn't play very well his junior year.
Eli Apple couldn't finish workouts after his redshirt year. Apple had slipped in classes and was going to quit. "We wouldn't have been mad about it, either." Mickey Marotti found an iron deficiency, however, which allowed Apple to prosper all the way to winning a national title. Marshon Lattimore's hamstrings were another issue fixed by the staff, though Meyer only cited "technology today," without specifics.
