After toppling Michigan State to earn perhaps the biggest win of the Urban Meyer era, Ohio State finds itself in precarious situation of handling the ever-ominous trap game.
"You celebrate and you learn from it, but good teams and championship level teams look forward to the new mission," Meyer said Monday.
For the Buckeyes, which now find themselves in the top 10 of both the Associated Press and coaches polls, that mission is a noon game against Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Notes:
- After a loss to Virginia Tech in September, Ohio State was cast off as afterthoughts in the national picture. After beating the Spartans, it finds itself firmly in the mix: “Early in the season, we were not a good team … This is the most improved team that I’ve been a part of.”
- Meyer confirmed sophomore Dontre Wilson broke his foot against Michigan State and that he will miss significant time.
- Meyer on the notion of having a team with Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett: “Competition brings out the best.” He later added: “I don’t use the term (a) crazy (situation). Fortunate … I think they’re both excellent quarterbacks. We’ll worry about that day when it comes.”
- Meyer said he’s happy with the wide receivers: “I’m kind of high on the receivers right now and you can’t tell. That’s probably a first.”
- Meyer on Ohio State’s passing game in his first two seasons: “We were borderline pathetic passing the ball in our first year ... last year, we were above pathetic.”
- Meyer on whether the weather could play a role Saturday afternoon: It’s going to be cold, I imagine in Minnesota in November.”
- Meyer said Ohio State’s defense can play better after giving up 500-plus yards to Michigan State: “We didn’t play as well as we could on defense, and we expect to play much better.”
- Meyer continued to lament the lack of depth on Ohio State’s defensive line: “We’re still looking at the rotation on that defensive line. I’m upset about that.” Meyer has been pushing the backups for weeks now.
- Meyer said he feels comfortable running the Wildcat offense with redshirt freshman H-back Jalin Marshall.
- Meyer gushed over the development of wide receiver Michael Thomas: “It’s all about the way he takes care of business … was probably on his way out of here.” On a 1-10, Meyer said Thomas used to grade in the six-range. Now he’s at a 9-9.5.
- Meyer on naming the team’s weekly offensive champions: “I made them come up with names because they wanted to do the whole offense.” The Buckeyes dropped almost 600 total yards on Michigan State’s vaunted defense.
- Meyer on the Golden Gophers: “I’ve known Jerry Kill for a long time, I’ve got a lot of admiration for him as a coach … It’s everything you think of with a Jerry Kill-coached team. They’ve got some momentum right now.”
