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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 16, 2016

Urban Meyer

Columbus, Ohio

Gray - 28, Scarlet - 17

URBAN MEYER: Guys, thanks for coming, couple comments, and thanks to you guys for helping us with the 100,000. So many things are great in college sports, maybe some things aren't so great and occupying a lot of news.

Really grateful for some people who really helped us watching Parris Campbells, and Joe Burrows and Jerome Bakers, and Dre'Mont Jones play in front of a 100,000 people. And it was. I walked up to Michael Jordan, freshman guard. I asked him how he feels, and he said "I'm really nervous." You gotta find out how guys perform in those kind of arenas, and those kind of situations. I'm extremely grateful to Ohio State, Buckeye Nation for doing that today. That was awesome. And strength coach made a couple of calls and asked for good weather, it happened. Coach Marotti is in charge of weather, and of all the -- like I said, there are some good things, great things, maybe not so great things in college sports that you have to read about and you don't want to read about it. That was an all good right there, a bunch of winning going on, good effort by players, maybe some guys didn't play so great, but that's okay; it's spring practice.

More than anything to see fans enjoy themselves and some former players like Brad Roby come back, Jack Mewhort come back, and then all those players getting ready to get drafted. Extremely proud of where we're at as a program. They're young. We won't win a lot of games right now, but we don't have to yet, but very pleased with where we're at right now. I'll answer any questions.

Q. What did you like and what didn't you like from today?
URBAN MEYER: I liked our defensive line. Mike Hill, Dre'Mont Jones was all over the field today, Jashon Cornell played well. I think Jalyn Holmes and Sam Hubbard played well. Tyquan Lewis didn't play, so you have to pick up the pieces of what left the program.

The message was very clear to our team, and if you're going to play quarterback at Ohio State, you need to be a Heisman candidate. So I don't need phone calls -- "Well, my son should be able to play" --

No, no. If you play quarterback at Ohio State in this offense, you have to be a Heisman candidate, or we're going to suffer. You have to be a high draft pick to play defensive end. We're not embarrassed. We're not ashamed to say that's what has to happen. If you play receiver at Ohio State, you have to start in the National Football League. That's what happened the last -- from Bubba Caldwell at Florida to some of the great receivers we had there to carrying on with Philly Brown, Devin Smith and continued with Mike Thomas, who is going to leave us, and same thing with tight end, Marcus Ball. You're following Jeff Heuerman and Nick Vannett. You have to be an NFL tight end.

So we're not going to change our standards, and that was a message all week to our players. We certainly don't lower our stands just because a player moves on; that's not what this place is all about. That's what I liked best is the fact I saw some guys perform. Parris Campbell had to make that catch at the end of the game. It was a great catch. I watched the whole thing. You do that in practice, it's not that big of a deal. He has to do that in game, and I saw him do it, so there's a bunch of really good things.

What I didn't like -- I liked it all! I loved seeing our former players come back with big smiles on their face and I said to them, "Look around at what you are a part of building here," not just building but being a part of this exceptional place. 100,000 came to watch practice. Pretty cool.

Q. You touched on, most of the familiar faces were on the sideline or halftime. You have said since January you didn't need a reminder, but maybe for fans or the public, was this an example of there is a lot of talent walking out the door and how difficult it may be to replace them with all these young faces?
URBAN MEYER: There is a common denominator going all the way back to Bowling Green. The teams that have great success, they're the ones that come back. If you were part of a really bad class, you didn't play well, those kids don't come back, because what are they going to come back for? Say we were the average ones.

University of Utah, to see those kids come back. They're part of the 12-0 team. To see Florida, the two national championship teams come back. To see the teams now, I'm seeing now, you know, the Muhorn and the Zach Borens come back and look around. Talk about making your day. For the rest of their lives, Zach Borens all the way up to the Ely Apples, this is their home. When they come back, they can be extremely proud of what they've done.

Q. Joe Burrow had a big statistical day, but he seemed extremely accurate. Has he been coming on as the spring went on and what did you see out of him the last two weeks?
URBAN MEYER: Said the last two weeks were pretty good. I think he played okay, too, in the game. I haven't got to see it, but he took the team down the field and drove the ball. Joe Burrow has been coming on. He was a guy that last year I had my concerns last season, just arm strength to release, twitch, ability to run the ball, because you have to do that. He's gotten better and better. He's a grinder. He comes from a really good family, that's tough people, and you can see him start to go grow.

Q. And Torrance Gibson --
URBAN MEYER: Got a long way to go. I hope so. It's a freak! But he's gotta go get the ball. He's 6-4, whatever he is, and he's got a 35-inch vertical jump, and we're going to teach him how to use that thing. He's a very good young man; he's trying really hard. His position was switched; he was a quarterback in high school.

Q. As far as watching talent go out the door, hearing names like Joe Burrow, Torrance Gibson, we've asked you over and over again about Mike Weber for 14 months. To see them on the field, maybe on different sides of the ball sometimes but could you see your future coming together, a little bit, with some of these guys, and how do you think Mike Weber played?
URBAN MEYER: I do see it, and I'm going to go home -- I'm very pleased. I'm good. I will probably watch the film and get sick to my stomach but, no, what I saw today was the future is bright at Ohio State. There is a gap there a little bit, whenever you lose 9 juniors, there is a gap. It's like missing a recruiting class. When you lose that many players, the most I think we lost was six one year. That's six premiere players you're losing, so you get that gap and someone's gotta -- and it's up to the staff to get there -- because there is a lot of talent. Just gotta push 'em up a year.

Q. Any comments on Mike Weber for what you saw?
URBAN MEYER: I think he played really good, on purpose. We didn't pound people today. It was more of a throw offense, but the one drive -- I kept calling the plays, saying we're just going -- I want to see what him do what he can do, and Carlos Hyde was there, so -- they were starting to compare them to Carlos Hyde, easy now. He hasn't reached that level yet.

Q. We have asked you a lot about defensive line this spring. I wanted to ask you about guys we saw today like Cornell and Jones, Davon Hamilton had a big game. What's your impression of them as a group as you leave spring and the growth they've made?
URBAN MEYER: There's a lot of pressure on Coach Johnson and that unit. When we won the national championship the defensive line played as well as any team in America, and a good chunk of those guys are gone. I think they're talented, very eager, we have an excellent D-line coach, and the good thing, they're allowed to spend time with our players now in the summer.

In the old days you were done, and they weren't allowed to even talk football with them until August. Now we get to still spend time with them, and the learning process has to continue, but I was -- we finished pretty good in the defensive line the last few practices. Thank you.

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