Urban Meyer laid it out pretty simple. If you want to play running back at Ohio State, you must be able to pass protect just as well as the guy the Dallas Cowboys took with the No. 4 overall draft pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, Ezekiel Elliott.
Welcome to the lives of Mike Weber, Antonio Williams, Demario McCall and Curtis Samuel.
"It's just that's something that's very important, and (Mike's) a standup guy, so he'll — that's an awful high standard to hold him to, but that's what we're holding him to," Meyer said Sunday.
Weber leads and should be Ohio State's starting running back Sept. 3 when the Buckeyes host Bowling Green to open their 2016 football season. Whoever lines up next to J.T. Barrett in the backfield and in the years to come, though, has to be able to protect the quarterback like Elliott did.
"My pass blocking is decent," Weber said Sunday. "I'm trying to get to that elite level of pass blocking, working with Coach (Tony) Alford to get there."
Meyer said Weber and Samuel are "the top two backs in the program" as it stands right now, which is not surprising considering both should be focal points in the offense in 2016. Doing more in pass protection is still needed by each, though.
"They're not Zeke level yet. Curtis is pretty close even for a guy that doesn't get as many reps at pass protection," Meyer said. "But Mike's pretty good, and he won't play if he won't."
All running backs in the program know how essential pass protection is in order to get on the field. Alford and Meyer expressed that to them early.
"Pass blocking, I gotta get better at pass blocking," freshman Demario McCall said. "I'm learning piece by piece but that's one big piece that you have to be able to do in the offense."
Antonio Williams, another freshman, said something similar. Elliott does everything well — running, receiving, blocking — there is a reason he became a top-5 pick.
But Ohio State wants to take its passing game to another level this season. There isn't really any direction to go but up after the inconsistencies that stemmed from last year due to a quarterback quandary and having Elliott to hand the ball to.
That means Barrett has to have time to get the ball out, which puts the onus on Weber, McCall, Samuel and Williams to protect him in addition to the new faces on the offensive line.
Just like Elliott. That is the standard.
"Zeke is really smart when it comes to reading defenses, knowing his assignments," Weber said. "Just go out there and play as hard as you can while knowing all of those things. It makes him that much better of a player on the field than everybody else around him. Makes it look so easy for him just his knowledge of the game. That was really my main point. I just wanted to grasp that from him because I know my talent is really good but I wanted to get to that next level, that elite level."
