Big Ten Teleconference Recap: Urban Meyer Discusses Whether the Offense Will Change with Him Back, Davon Hamilton's Progress, Kickoff Coverage

For the first time this season, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer handled the weekly Big Ten coaches teleconference.

While he served his three game suspension, Meyer watched from afar as Dwayne Haskins performed at quarterback in a different style than what has been seen recently. The Ryan Day-coached offense nearly completely avoided quarterback runs, which is different than what Meyer's offense has done in the past.

"Those are lost yardage. And obviously, statistically and production-wise, he's been great. But, the lost yardage is the QB runs, Q draw, et cetera. The read plays. So, you have to pick up that yardage somewhere else," Meyer said. "And obviously he's 340-some a game, throwing very accurate. Receivers are playing fairly well and he's got two good backs behind him. It's a little different style offense. A lot of the same concepts."

Meyer noted the success of the offense and said that when he returns to the sideline, he will be more of a "game manager."

"I've done that before in the past," Meyer said. "I help where I need to help. I think a high degree of it was the performance of the offense."

Meyer said entering the season, he hoped to take that role and "obviously, the results were very positive."

Here are some other notes from what Meyer discussed on the teleconference.

Urban Meyer, Ohio State

• On Davon Hamilton's progress: "I think him and Larry Johnson have really worked well together." Says he's one of the most improved players after being a "non-factor" early in his career.
• Brian Snead will be back practicing today after missing last game for "disciplinary" purposes.
• On Ryan Day: "He's elite. He's an elite coach. I knew that when I hired him." Says he had wanted to hire Day for a long time."
• Says Ryan Day will be coaching from the sideline this weekend against Tulane.
• Calls Nick Bosa "one of the best players" he has ever been around.
• Will know mid-week the severity of Bosa's injury. Further tests are being completed now.
• Robert Landers is probable for this week.
• "Kicking game, I was very impressed last week with our coverage units." Calls TCU's Kavontae Turpin one of the best returners he's ever seen.
• Says there have been too many big plays on defense, which has been the biggest issue with the unit.
• Says C.J. Saunders and Demario McCall are competing every week until someone takes hold of the job.
• He says the linebackers have played "very well" and called Malik Harrison's performance "great." He noted there were a couple misalignment issues.

Here are some highlights from the other Big Ten coaches during Tuesday's teleconference.

Chris Ash, Rutgers 

• "Coming off a difficult two-game stretch on the road, we're excited to get back home and get back after it."
• Calls Buffalo's "overall offensive package" a "challenge" due to its many ways to attack a defense. 
• On quarterback Johnathan Lewis: "Right now, Jonathan's been third on the depth chart." Says he's done a great job and has always prepared himself for an opportunity. "Whether Jon gets in one more game this season, no games, all nine games, is yet to be seen." Says there's "no set thing" on Lewis' involvement and the coaching staff has been focused on moving the ball and putting points on the scoreboard.

Jim Harbaugh, Michigan

• On coaching at Michigan: "It's been a great thrill, one of the great thrills of my life to be here. Love it. Love coaching. Love football. Love coaching at my alma mater. It's been wonderful."
• "They've been playing football here for 139 years and they've seen a lot of tremendous football. So, that's the expectation. You pour your heart and your soul into meeting that expectation."
• On whether it feels different to coach Michigan, the team he grew up around: "I would say it is. It's heightened. Yes."
• Asked about whether he has ever entertained the thought of whether Michigan and Nebraska would have played in 1997: "I haven't thought about it. I have a very small rear-view mirror. I've just been very focused on this game, starting the Big Ten season."
• Ever think of 1986 Fiesta Bowl between Nebraska and Michigan: "Do I ever? Yeah, I have. But not lately. It was a long time ago."

Paul Chryst, Wisconsin

• Certainly looking forward to starting the Big Ten season. Heck of a challenge in going down and playing against a good Iowa team. Need to have a good week of preparation. I like the way the week's started, but got to continue to get ourselves ready to go down and give ourselves a chance."
• Asked whether this is a down year for the Big Ten: "To me, it's early and each game, it's got its own story. Those are opportunities we all get.. I think for all the narratives, you've got to play this season and then the story is what has been earned."

Scott Frost, Nebraska

• On what he was feeling on the sideline during Nebraska's loss to Troy: "What I was feeling? I'd say dissatisfaction. But, listen, we know we've got a lot to fix and I think we've fixed a lot of it. There's no question that there's going to . be some mistakes in your first year in the system. We're trying to get the culture right and all those thing. We're diligent to try to fix them. But in the heat of the game, if I lose my cool, then I think the rest of the team will too. We're going to do our best to keep fighting when those things happen, on and off the field, and move forward."
• "We have to work more. I know it's going to work. It hasn't happened as quickly as we've wanted. We've had some pretty tough breaks in the first few weeks here, but that's the way the sport goes. I'll tell you, it wouldn't matter whether I was coaching in Malcolm High School in Nebraska or the Green Bay Packers. As a coach, you want to win and we're going to keep doing everything we can to make that happen."
• Asked how do he balances trying to win now with a view toward the future: "We're doing everything we can to win right now. There's not sacrificing the new for the later. The best thing we can do for the future is be the best we can right now. Right now, our guys need the confidence of winning a game. It's going to happen. Sooner or later, it's going to happen. I think they see the results of the improvements they've made and we've just got to keep plugging. It's not easy."
• "The last thing that we can do as a coaching staff is panic. I know that the process that we use as a coaching staff works."

Mark Dantonio, Michigan State

• On defending Indiana's offense: "Game plan is you've got to play great defense and obviously you need to be assignment sound when you're playing a football team that the quarterback is a runner, is also a thrower. He makes the defense work in so many different ways. He'll be a challenge for us to be able to defend."

Kirk Ferentz, Iowa

• Says he was happy to get the victory against Northern Iowa, since Iowa has struggled with them in the past.
• On whether he thought the defense would be this good:" You never know what to expect going into a season. We were hoping we could put something together. We're not out of the woods yet by any stretch. The good news is that the positions where we were inexperienced, we haven't had any major challenges there."

P.J. Fleck, Minnesota

• On whether there are parallels between his second season at Minnesota and his second season at Western Michigan: "A long time ago, I was told comparisons steal your joy. Because there's so many expectations when you compare yourself to someone else. But, one similarity we do have from our second year at Western Michigan was we played an enormous amount of freshmen, and I think we've played close to 30 freshmen at this point. The 60 out of the 110 on our team are freshman. We're very, very young and very inexperienced at key positions. And we had that going into Year 2 at Western Michigan as well, except it was really those players' second year at times." Says a difference is being a freshman in the MAC versus being a freshman in the Big Ten.

Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern

• Asked how it's been around the football complex the past couple days: "I'm on the road recruiting, brother. So, that'll tell you how it's been around the complex. We're moving forward. Can't beat ourselves. We put the game to bed on Sunday. Showed the guys exactly the issues that we have and where we need to go and what we need to do to fix it."
• On whether this is a down year for the Big Ten: "It just depends on what week you want to look like, right? We had a tough week last week. We were a part of it. We go 7-1 in our bowl games and it's a great year. So, you know, the challenge that you have with 17 to 22 year olds, and that's what i can control is our guys, is not riding the roller coaster of, you know, understanding what you have to do and why you have to do things,. And when you do it, you're typically successful. When you don't what you have to do to correct it. I think anybody can win in college football on any given Saturday. I think we've just had a couple of tough ballgame in the league."

Lovie Smith, Illinois

• "When you lose a tough game the way we did last week, you can't wait to get back out on the practice field and, of course, play another game. That's where we are. Think it helps a little bit, also, that we get into the Big Ten play, play an outstanding Penn State team this week. You know, this week, we're hoping to get a couple of our injured players back and be as close to having our entire roster available as we can possibly be.
• "Penn State poses a lot of problems when you have a special quarterback like they have, everything seems like it's a little bit tougher. A complete team offense, defense and special teams. And we'll have to play our best ball to have an opportunity this week."

Matt Canada, Maryland

• Says Minnesota is "very sound" in all three phases of the game and calls the matchup a "tremendous challenge."
• "P.J. (Fleck) has always been a very driven person"
• On last week's loss to Temple on Saturday: "There's a lot of different things that we could have done better. But ultimately I'm the offensive coordinator, so when you look at the offensive production that we did not have and the way that we played, I feel like that falls on me. We're going to do a better job all the way around and hopefully it'll be a much better result for us."
• On being acting heading coach: "Once you're into the game, you're just playing and doing it. We've had a couple games where it went well and one it didn't go well. Not spending a lot of time focusing on it. Just filling in in the role I'm in while this is going on. But the bottom line is just trying to find a way to put our players in position to make plays."

Jeff Brohm, Purdue

• Looking forward to getting back on the practice field this week and getting ready for a very, very tough football team in Boston College. They're playing very well right now. They've very well coached. Lot of toughness. Lot of discipline. Running the football. Control the clock. Play great defense. That's a good recipe for winning and they know the formula and they carry it out well. We've got out hands full. The exciting thing again is we've got a ranked, top-25 team coming in to our stadium for our fans."

James Franklin, Penn State

• Says he has asked Penn State assistant coach Tim Banks about the wind, weather and stadium at Illinois. Banks coached the Illini from 2012 to 2016.
• On having two quarterbacks in the same recruiting class: "For us, it really just comes down to, No. 1, we better have a guy at that position. If you have a guy at that position, he gives us a chances week in and week out." Also says it can be challenging to get to the desired scholarship players, whether it's four or five quarterbacks.