Urban Meyer holds routine meetings with his coaching staff, needing updates on the progress of each individual unit. That process is even more essential this season with so many freshmen on the roster.
But over the weekend those discussions gained a little more clout. Ohio State finally sits exactly one week away from its season opener. It's almost time for football.
"Every day our coaches have a sheet and I'll sit down and say, 'Austin Mack-is he game-ready?' Well, he's had a bunch of reps, he made 24 practices out of 25 or whatever it is. We'll go through each player," Meyer said Monday. "That player is not allowed to play unless he's game-ready."
Meyer might not get the luxury of going in with a full slate of contributors who are game ready — he calls it being "code green" — due to 44 players having never played a down of college football. He said the last week of practice was about making phone calls to families of players to inform them their son is a starter at Ohio State. The final push before game day is about readying a game plan.
"First of all personnel and scheme, it's going to be insane around here," Meyer said, "as far as I need to see every player appointed to game-ready before they can play.
"It's my job to really press that with the coaches," he continued. "If this kid is not game-ready, why? Let's make sure we get them to that. It's our job to get them ready. The issue is that he's not good enough."
The Buckeyes are plenty good enough to experience success in 2016. Despite losing 16 starters and 12 NFL Draft picks from a program that won 50 games over the past four years, Meyer's recruiting classes constantly reside near the top of the rankings. The talent is there, it is just unproven and so, so young. That's what we've been writing about since the Buckeyes downed Notre Dame 44-28 in the Fiesta Bowl.
“It's going to be so critical this year more than ever with a young team. But it's gotta be clear to them too of what you have to do to get ready.”– Urban Meyer on Being Game Ready
Meyer knows what he has waiting in the wings, too. He has acted that way since spring practice when a bulk of key players couldn't work out due to injury.
"We've all been in those situations where he's not good enough to play but you're stuck," he said. "But that won't happen. We have good enough players."
With a final week left before Meyer's young group of talent hits the field, though, the clock is ticking for enough players to get to the level he wants at be before kickoff against Bowling Green.
"Just because in the past, stuff like that, we’ve seen the results of it with a national championship," defensive end Sam Hubbard said this week. "If you act too cool for something like code green and just forget about it then you’re never going to improve. You’ve got to really buy into it. The results speak for themselves when guys are going to the NFL and stuff like that."
The first step is getting to the point where you've done enough to be "code green." Then you are in a position to help Meyer's program continue on the torrid pace it's on and put more ticks in the win column.
"Each coach has a checklist of players, there's a little green mark that says you've been getting your reps," Meyer said. "Next to their name there is a number that lists how many practices they've made and then at some point that green marker is going to be this (horizontal line) then when you get this (vertical line through it) that means you're ready to go play.
"It's going to be so critical this year more than ever with a young team. But it's gotta be clear to them too of what you have to do to get ready. That's what I think, I like what our staff is doing right now."
Conversations continued over the weekend and when the staff and players report for practice Monday, they will shift toward what Ohio State needs to do in order to beat Bowling Green. Meyer said he is pleased with the steps the team made in training camp to be as close to ready as possible.
The Buckeyes also left training camp relatively healthy aside from injuries to defensive end Darius Slade and offensive lineman Malcolm Pridgeon. The next step is putting the finishing touches on what the coaches want the players to do in order to be ready for noon on Saturday.
"I don't feel resistance whatsoever which you would be crushed if you did with a young team," Meyer said. "If you have resistance with a young team, get ready for a couple bad years coming up. I don't feel that at all."
