Urban Meyer said it with so much certainty and a matter-of-fact tone that it illustrated his feelings perfectly.
"We have to be balanced," Meyer deadpanned on Monday. "You have no chance in this game if you think you're going to go just pound the ball."
Knee deep in Oklahoma week and with a pair of blowout wins over overmatched opponents in his back pocket, Meyer and Ohio State are presented with a real chance to show the nation they are for real Saturday in Norman. To do so, however, the head coach needs to see more from his passing game. Not only from quarterback J.T. Barrett but also a receiving unit that continues to rotate more than 10 players.
"That's what we do all day long, trying to put the checkers where they belong. We're still figuring out the receiver position because they're so new," Meyer said. "We don't have the one guy that's your go-to guy yet. I think we're developing them."
“You have no chance in this game if you think you're going to go just pound the ball.”– Urban Meyer
Ohio State had Michael Thomas as its go-to guy on the outside a year ago and outstanding athletes in Braxton Miller and Jalin Marshall at H-back. With those three in the NFL, the Buckeyes enjoyed the depth they have at the position in their place to beat Bowling Green and Tulsa handily.
Noah Brown, K.J. Hill, Terry McLaurin, Johnnie Dixon and Parris Campbell all have at least one reception this season and hybrid backs Curtis Samuel and Dontre Wilson lead the team in receiving yards. Samuel's 401 all-purpose yards are ninth-best in the nation, while Wilson's 239 are tied for 69th.
"You have two pieces that we really haven't utilized before, and that's Dontre and Curtis," Meyer said.
He's not wrong, as injuries and guys the head coach dubbed as "monsters" owned the top spots on Ohio State's depth chart the last few years. Now in featured roles and healthy, Wilson and Samuel are thriving.
But against Tulsa, a team that allowed 296.9 yards passing per game in 2015 (125th out of 128th in the country) the Buckeyes only threw the ball 22 times for 149 yards. Barrett did not have a touchdown pass, unlike a week earlier when he threw six against Bowling Green in an offensive showcase that rewrote the Ohio State record book. The sheets of rain that fell last Saturday afternoon near halftime and into the final 30 minutes of the 48-3 win didn't help the passing game any, but Barrett was just 8-of-14 for 69 yards before the monsoon hit. Plus, the offense didn't score a touchdown until the third quarter after an hourlong break caused by the weather allowed it ample time to make adjustments on its offensive line to shred Tulsa for 179 rushing yards in the second half.
Of Barrett's 14 completions against the Golden Hurricane, Samuel and Wilson combined for eight of them. Some of that is game planning but a lot of it is the other guys not getting open or Barrett not feeling comfortable trying to get them the ball.
The Buckeyes need more from Brown, McLaurin, Campbell, Dixon, et al Saturday against the Sooners.
"When the ball's in the air we better come down with it and further and deeper than that we better block the perimeter really well in the run game," wide receivers coach Zach Smith said on Wednesday. "We have to do that. If we don't, we won't win."
Meyer likened Campbell to Evan Spencer on Monday, Ohio State's team MVP from the 2014 season. He only had 15 catches in 15 games that year, but never missed a start because he blocked so well on the edge for Ezekiel Elliott and the other members of Ohio State's run game. That is crucial to playing wide receiver at Ohio State too, but Oklahoma's stout rush defense — only allowed 167 yards on 69 attempts through two games this season — will not allow the Buckeyes to be one dimensional and win like they were against Tulsa.
"Their defense is systematized to not the allow inside run," Meyer said. "Their base defense that they want to install is to negate the run, and so we're going to have to be very balanced."
Campbell recorded his first career catch against Tulsa.
That puts the onus on Smith's group even more than ever, even though he anticipates still rotating as many as 10 players. Meyer hopes that depth continues through the season, as long as each guy can make plays.
"I hate to start listing guys and say 'he's our starter,'" Meyer said Wednesday. "Terry played good last week, you got Parris Campbell, but he's only had one catch. Three or four guys, Curtis Samuel, Dontre Wilson — not yet."
While Samuel and Wilson continue to be the lead options in the passing game, Ohio State needs more from the other guys around them. Especially against Oklahoma, which can match the Buckeyes athletically.
"We know we gotta do. We want to catch passes out there," Samuel said on Wednesday. "We can't let them dictate what they want us to do. Whether it's only running the ball or whether it's just only passing the ball. We can't let them dictate that."
"It comes with the territory. Being a receiver at a top school like this, you gotta be ready at all times," Campbell added. "On Saturday, we just have to make plays."
