With his team sitting unscathed and ranked No. 1 nationally, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer met with reporters at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center Monday to dissect the 38-12 victory against Western Michigan and preview Saturday's Big Ten opener at Indiana.
The Hoosiers are 4-0, coming off a 31-24 victory at Wake Forest. They are set to welcome the Buckeyes, who opened as 19.5-point favorites, for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff at Memorial Stadium. It's the first time since 1954 the teams are scheduled to meet when both are unbeaten.
Notes:
- "We had five or six under thrown deep balls, which is very uncharacteristic of our quarterback." — Urban Meyer.
- Offensive champions: Corey Smith, Michael Thomas, Ezekiel Elliott, Jacoby Boren, Billy Price, Taylor Decker, Marcus Baugh. Co-players of the game: Curtis Samuel — "who was dynamic," Meyer said — and Pat Elflein.
- Defensive champions: Joey Bosa and the Player of the Game was Adolphus Washington.
- Meyer highlighted a "renewed focus" with it being the first week of Big Ten season.
- In 2012, Ohio State escaped at Indiana with a 52-49 victory. Meyer: "That was one of the first times I saw a defense stop playing hard ... that was a game-changer as far as how we approach things. That was not a good thing."
- With so many commitments already in the 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes, Meyer said it still doesn't change his and Ohio State's approach much on game days when big recruits are on campus: "Saturday are not the day that it's a problem. Sunday is the day of transition which might be a little difficult." If there are so many players visiting that weekend, the "whole day is shot," Meyer said.
- Meyer said fundamentally, Cardale Jones was not sound in the game against Western Michigan. It's a work in progress, he said, noting how J.T. Barrett improved throwing the ball deep as the season continued last year.
- Again, Meyer called the lack of deep ball connection "alarming. That's a 518-yard day if you hit those."
- On the comfortability with Tim Beck working in the press box on the offense, Meyer said "it went much better."
- Indiana played a 3-4 defense in its season opener, Meyer said, but the last three games it played 4-3 after having issues: "We do not have (the 3-4) solved. We'll never have it solved. When a coach said he has it solved, that's a bad deal."
- On Michael Thomas, Meyer said "he's playing at a very high level" right now. Meyer said Thomas knows the position very well and "is very aware" where the end line is during games.
- "One would have been a legit SportsCenter play if we had finished a block by the wideout." — Urban Meyer on Ezekiel Elliott's hurdles during the Western Michigan game.
- More Meyer on Elliott: "I’m disappointed we don’t have enough big hits for him because he’s playing at a very high level."
- On Cardale Jones' intentional grounding penalty, Meyer said that was what the quarterback was told to do. Try to get a shot in the end zone, if not, "burn it." Said before that play, Jones did very well on that drive.
- Meyer said Joel Hale, an Indiana native, "has a job here" when he's finished playing. Meyer called Hale one of his favorite guys on the team and an "inspiration" with how hard he's worked to come back from injuries.
- Meyer said Ohio State was much more aggressive Saturday on offense, which pleased him. Still concerned about the "big misses," though.
- "If there's a theme from our offense for the last 13, 14 seasons, it's the early season funk that we're in." — Meyer. He added that he felt a sense of "panic" among the media and elsewhere outside the program after the offense struggled in the first few games after Virginia Tech: "That's normal growing pains for 2015."
- On the play calling, Meyer said "it's a very unique situation here. We don't hire coordinators here that don't come in here and enhance it for us ... It's much different here. Some places, you see three different offensive coordinators in three years and then blame the quarterback."
- Meyer said he thinks it's "natural" for things to feel as a grind for both him, the coaches and players early in 2015 because of the expectations surrounding the team: "I'm watching it very closely."
- On the interior defense Saturday, Meyer said Ohio State "was a exposed a little bit." He gave credit to Western Michigan's offense, particularly the quarterback and wide receivers.
- Meyer said he's been "very happy" with Raekwon McMillan's development at middle linebacker, but the issues inside Saturday go way beyond him.
- Former Buckeye head coach John Cooper sat in during Meyer's press conference.
