As Ohio State prepares for its spring game Saturday afternoon, Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer made an appearance on the Big Ten East coaches teleconference Thursday afternoon.
Meyer discussed a wide range of topics and was later joined by Ohio State linebacker Joshua Perry as they talked about the Buckeyes' and spring ball.
Ohio State's quarterback battle won't be settled until fall camp and Meyer made that perfectly clear Thursday.
“I think the middle of training camp," Meyer said of a timetable on making a decision. "Every one of them deserves that opportunity and right now two of them aren’t getting it. By the middle of training camp I think you have to have at least a handle on this thing.”
Meyer went on to say Saturday's game would feature some of the Buckeyes' top players, but that most of them would only play in the first two series.
"We are going to let — I call them the ‘1As’ of the 2,000-rep club. We are going to go the first two series of the game and it will not be to the ground tackle, it will be very structured and pass-type situations but we’re going to let them play," he said. "I think the fans deserve to watch the Joey Bosa’s of the world go out there and play and Taylor Decker’s. Then we’ll start taking those guys out of the game and continue on with the scrimmage.”
Here are some additional tidbits from Meyer and Perry's time on the coaches teleconference as well as information from the other six coaches in the Big Ten East.
Notes:
- Meyer was asked about his feelings on the verdict of Aaron Hernandez, one of his former players at Florida. "My immediate thoughts go to the families involved and it was a sad day,” he said.
- Meyer said he hasn't seen complacency with his team yet this spring, which is a good thing. He said, right now, replacing starters from last year's team like Devin Smith, Michael Bennett and Jeff Heuerman is the bigger issue. "That’s a natural concern of a member of a coaching staff that’s been in the situation we’re in," Meyer said. "As of right now, it’s just replacing the starters, but you can’t close an eye on the other stuff.”
- Meyer mentioned Noah Brown, Curtis Samuel, Parris Campbell and Terry McLaurin as young players who he's excited to see perform in Saturday's spring game.
- Perry said he's excited to see how some of the young linebackers like Dante Booker and Nick Conner play. He also singled out Brown, Samuel and Bri'onte Dunn as the offensive guys who have caught his eye.
Kevin Wilson (Indiana):
- "Coming off last season with some situations at quarterback that limited our offense I was really proud of the way our kids finished the last three or four games. ... We've had our best winter."
- Asked what is the biggest thing for the Hoosiers has been this spring, Wilson said, "It's been our best time of just chemistry and unity."
- Wilson said Timothy Gardner — once an Ohio State signee — is working with the first team at right tackle.
- "This is the best we've been. It's exciting, it's going to be challenging, it's Big Ten football."
- On the number of great quarterbacks in the Big Ten: "There's a bunch of quality players," Wilson said. "The skill of this league at quarterback has picked up and that's why the Big Ten is so good."
Randy Edsall (Maryland):
- "We thought we had a productive spring. We were able to get a lot of young men work and get a lot of reps to get them better. Very pleased with the overall progress that we made."
- Asked what position he felt made most improvement this spring, Edsall said, "I thought our linebacker group made good strides and I thought our secondary made good strides."
- Asked about going into Maryland's second year in the Big Ten, Edsall said, "I know our young men know what the Big Ten is all about. They understand what we have to do and how hard we have to work to win each and every Saturday."
- Edsall said he believes the Big Ten East will be the "toughest division in all of college football" next season.
Mark Dantonio (Michigan State):
- On the mentality of Michigan State's offensive line, Dantonio said, "I think our guys have always tried to play with a chip on their shoulder. That's sort of the way we've been built here."
- Dantonio on the hiring of Jim Harbaugh at Michigan and what that adds to the Michigan State-Michigan rivalry: "It is as it is. It always has been and always will be. It didn't start today or a couple months ago, it's an ongoing thing and we approach it like that daily."
- Dantonio ended his time on the teleconference with an emphatic, "Go Green!"
James Franklin (Penn State):
- "We've had a great spring and the fact that we returned our entire staff I think is really valuable."
- On the differences between last year's spring and this one, Franklin said, "It's night and day."
- Franklin on quarterback Christian Hackenberg: "What's different is Christian, as well as the other guys, they're comfortable with their own situation. I think the fact that everybody is on the same page allows Christian to be the type of leader he can be."
- Franklin on the success of the Big Ten: "If you look at the conversations about our conference a year ago to now, it's completely different."
Jim Harbaugh (Michigan):
- Harbaugh on Michigan quarterback situation: "Good competition, a desire to improve, there's some improvement made. Shane Morris comes out of spring ball as the No. 1 quarterback."
- On managing expectations at Michigan, Harbaugh said, “Fans have an constitutional right to expect success and have high expectations."
- Harbaugh on the state of the Big Ten: "It's currently very competitive. I've seen numerous teams that will be extremely competitive this year."
- Harbaugh said he expects transfer Jake Rudock to bring "very good competition" to Michigan. He added he did not have any contact personally with Iowa before Rudock's transfer, but the university did.
Kyle Flood (Rutgers):
- Flood said his quarterback battle won't be settled in the spring, will likely be decided in fall camp. Right now, it's between Chris Laviano and Hayden Rettig.
- On the strength of the Big Ten, Flood said, "If you look at the strength of the division, you'd be hard-pressed to find a stronger division in the country than the Big Ten East."
