Urban Meyer is back – for the most part.
Ohio State’s head football coach was allowed to return to work on Monday, arriving at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center before 6:30 a.m., as the first portion of his suspension came to an end.
According to acting head coach Ryan Day, there was “a lot of embracing” between Meyer and the other coaches – who hadn’t been allowed to communicate with him during his suspension – as he returned to the office and held his first meeting back with his staff.
“Things are back to normal,” Day said Monday. “Obviously he won’t be there for game day, but everything else is back to normal.”
Meyer still won’t be allowed to coach in either of the Buckeyes’ next two games against Rutgers or TCU, so Day will continue to serve as acting head coach for the next two weeks. Meyer also won’t be meeting with the media, as he normally does on Mondays and multiple other times during the week, until after his three-game suspension, so Day is filling in on his media responsibilities as well fo the next two weeks.
Outside of the next two Saturdays, though, Meyer is now able to resume his head coaching responsibilities, so from the other coaches’ perspectives, things are back to normal in terms of how they prepare for this week’s game against the Scarlet Knights (3:40 p.m., BTN).
“So much of coaching is done during the week,” Day said. “The game planning, the decisions that are made up to the game, is really when most of the coaching is done. And then once we get on the field, the game plan’s in, and now it’s just a matter of calling the plays and kind of going from there. So yeah, it’s kind of Coach is back, we’re going with Coach, and then once we get to the game, the decisions are almost made before we get there.”
Day said that Meyer, whose 24-hour game suspensions go into effect when the clock strikes midnight on Saturday, will be with the team through Friday (though he won’t be traveling with the team to Dallas for the TCU game next week), so he doesn’t expect the team’s routine of preparation to be any different this week than it would be if Meyer was coaching on Saturday.
“He can't be with (the team) on Saturday, but other than that we’ll keep the routine the routine, which is what we did last week,” Day said. “We did everything we would do normally, and now it's just great to have Coach back so we can keep this thing rolling.”
“Obviously he won’t be there for game day, but everything else is back to normal.”– Ryan Day on Urban Meyer's return to work
As for this past week, which culminated with a 77-31 season-opening win over Oregon State, Day described his first game as a head coach as a learning experience, and said there were things he took away from that experience that will help him prepare for his second game as acting head coach this week.
“Everything was for the first time on Saturday,” Day said. “And so there were a few things that I just made some notes on. A couple things going from offense to special teams to defense, like even at the end of the half, being aware of the situation, making sure I was right there in case we needed any timeouts or communicating with (assistant head coach and defensive coordinator) Greg (Schiano) or the guys on special teams. So yeah, any time you do something for a second time, it becomes easier and just more efficient.”
Saturday was Ryan Day's first game as a head coach at any level. Rick Osentoski – USA TODAY Sports
Day said he hadn’t much conversation with Meyer about things he could do better as of Monday morning, but said Meyer did praise him for how the offense performed.
“I think the comment he made was, ‘You only had to punt once, huh?’” Day, who is also Ohio State’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, recalled. “So that's a pretty good day.”
When Meyer is on the sidelines, offensive play calling is typically a collaborative effort between Meyer, Day and fellow offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson. The Buckeyes’ offense did just fine without Meyer on Saturday, though, accumulating 721 yards and scoring 10 touchdowns, and Day was pleased with how effective the communication between he, Wilson and the offensive players was.
“I thought it was pretty efficient,” Day said. “It seemed like we were moving at a good clip. We were snapping the ball pretty fast. I think guys were getting up and getting set. Talked to the receivers, the quarterbacks and the guys carrying the ball to get to the ball to the official a little bit better, so we could be more efficient. We looked at that on film. I thought that was good. But the overall operation I thought was clean.”
Now that he has a win as a head coach under his belt, Day’s profile outside the Ohio State football program is bigger than it has ever been before. Inside the program, however, Day doesn’t expect that to change his role much, because the Buckeyes already had a structure in which every assistant coach – even those who aren’t coordinators – has a significant influence on at least one area of the game plan.
“I think it's been a group effort the whole time, and I've referred to these guys and everybody on this staff, like I’ve said a million times, how unbelievable this coaching staff is,” Day said. “So now that we have Coach back, kind of keep that going, it's a group effort as we move forward.
“The way that our staff is built, on offense it's Kevin and I working together, and then we have (offensive line coach) Greg (Studrawa), (running backs coach) Tony (Alford), (wide receivers coach) Brian (Hartline) and the whole offensive staff,” Day continued. “It is a collaborative effort, and we take a lot of pride in that. Everybody has a certain area that they work on – so somebody might have third downs, somebody might have short-yardage, somebody has the run game first and second down – and so everybody adds that into the game plan, and that's what you see on Saturday.”
