At the midway point of the regular season, Urban Meyer's Ohio State Buckeyes sit unbeaten and ranked No. 2 in the country after a thrilling overtime victory at Wisconsin.
Due to a late travel night after its 30-23 win, the Buckeyes were off on Sunday and are scheduled to practice Monday instead of vice versa. Ohio State plays its second night game in as many weeks this Saturday when it visits Penn State. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. at Beaver Stadium.
Meyer met with the media in the team room at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Monday to provide updates.
NOTES:
- Ohio State got in at 5 a.m. Sunday, Meyer said. As such, no champions have been announced because the next team meeting is at 2:30 p.m. Monday.
- "One of the best games I've ever been a part of." Meyer added Wisconsin's coaching staff was one of the best he's ever faced in terms of game planning and using their personnel effectively.
- Wisconsin showed "three or four" offensive concepts on Saturday it hadn't shown on film in its first five games.
- Meyer on Penn State: "Gotta move on, we have another tough task. A team that's 4-1 at home ... I wish they'd save the White Outs for the other games but they use it for our games."
- Meyer credited Wisconsin's secondary to preventing Ohio State's passing attack from getting going, in addition to receivers not getting open: "It's a work in progress with young receivers still working to get better at it."
- "We just need to keep working."
- Meyer called Dontre Wilson's catch Saturday night "huge." Added that Wilson's foot injury is preventing him from being 100 percent. Wilson does not practice at the beginning of the week so as to be healthy for Saturday.
- Meyer likened how J.T. Barrett played on Saturday to the way he kept coming after it at Penn State two years ago: "I get to see that intensity six inches from my face ... you're talking about an elite performance."
- "Every indicator was up that we lost that game," Meyer said on Penn State 2014. "The script was written."
- OSU shouldn’t have been penalized when the ref's hand hit him: “It was my fault, but it should not have been a penalty ... If that's the rule, get rid of the damn rule ... You hate to put your team in that situation with a 15-yard penalty."
- Fatigue is an issue so that is why the schedule changed: "Sunday is usually a work day but they needed a break."
- "I think we started slow, the whole team was kind of slow this week."
- The "one stat" Ohio State uses is efficiency on offense, which his team is first in when it comes to passing in the Big Ten: "I wouldn't call us elite performers by any means but that is what we look at."
- Penn State uses a lot of the same concepts defensively but has changed its offense this season with a different quarterback.
- Penn State running back Saquon Barkley is a "first-rounder" and the Nittany Lions own one of the best receiving corps Ohio State will have faced in the last two seasons.
- Meyer stressed tackling and playing "gap-sound" against Barkley on Saturday: “You won’t stop him, but minimize the impact that running back has on us."
- "The brotherhood, that's why they played hard and battled back. It wasn't anything we said ... that's something that has been building since the spring and summer."
- Meyer is "kinda glad" Ohio State got "hit in the chops" on Saturday: "They had 300 yards in the first half but not every fight is going to be tilted one way."
- "I do think we got out-played for a while but we didn't get out-toughed."
- Meyer called Tyquan Lewis "the J.T. Barrett of our defense. Him and Raekwon McMillan." Said he feels the defensive end constantly in terms of energizing the team and steps up when they need him the most.
- Why is Ohio State so hard to beat? "We have very good players that get extremely close and they will not let go of that rope ... it's because of the program and the culture that's created."
- Meyer gave credit to Ohio State's small unit cohesion: "Teams are too big ... that's how you get them to play hard, its plagiarism from the United State Military. In my opinion, that's why."
- Meyer elected to play for overtime at Wisconsin because of how good his defense plays in the red zone. That and field position going against Wisconsin's student section forced his hand to not go for the win with 40 seconds left.
