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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 8, 2016

Urban Meyer

Columbus, Ohio

Indiana - 17, Ohio State - 38

COACH MEYER: Thanks for coming. A lot of respect before the game for our opponent. And probably a little bit more afterwards. I thought they did well. Very well-coached team. And I think their best personnel since we've been going against them, and I think they've always had decent personnel. But that was a good team.

We gotta make sure we win by three scores against a team we have a lot of respect for. So I feel lousy. We have to pick it up go again and get guys healthy, and we're getting ready for a stretch run. Go on the road.

And it was a hard-fought victory, won by three touchdowns, and left a lot of pass offense on the field. That was the alarming thing and early turnover. But I thought our defense had a couple of sudden changes. I want to say two and held them at least to a field goal. And then obviously the fourth down, that was the play of the day.

The two plays were the fourth down and also Parris, and the kickoff return team, obviously he didn't do it himself but Coach Coombs is in charge of the KOR unit, and they did outstanding. I'll take questions from you guys.

Q. Not to nitpick a 21-point victory, but if you look at the stat sheet and Curtis Samuel's involvement, I don't know how you feel about his involvement in the game today. What are your first thoughts where you see that number and maybe where you like it to be?
COACH MEYER: It's 15 to 20 is what we're trying to hit. I'm not sure if he had any catches or not. He had nine carries. That's not enough. And it was just an awkward game. It was one of those games, we're one of those teams that we have to, you saw that last year, a big part of our passing game is execution of the deep ball.

And that tends to get everybody off of us. And we just flat misfired on a few of them. I mean, I think -- I'll know more after watching the tape, whether it be pressure or misfire or whatever it was, we just have to do better.

Q. About that fourth and goal, or fourth and one, excuse me, Nick Bosa steps, up huge play there. What did you see from your side there. And what does that kind of play do for a young player like Nick Bosa?
COACH MEYER: You can't see anything from the sideline. I heard over the headsets, and Nick Bosa, from what I understand, had probably his best day. We probably just have to play him probably a bit more as he's getting healthy and more involved in the defense.

So obviously he's a guy that, the last name, high expectations. I think he's starting to fulfill them.

Q. You said earlier this week you thought Parris Campbell was due for a big kickoff return. You got it. Just how key was that in that part of the game?
COACH MEYER: It was right before half, I remember that. And there it is right there. We scored with 30 seconds left. Went best -- they scored with 1:03 and Lou Holtz used to always say the most critical times of the game where momentum -- five minutes before the half and the first five minutes after the half. And that was a dominating play. And it was, obviously it wasn't just Parris.

So that was the fourth down, and that was the play of the day. And that's why we beat Indiana.

Q. You touched on the passing struggles. Can you put your finger on what the problems were, why you struggled? Did they do anything with their coverage that was different?
COACH MEYER: No, I don't believe so. I'll know more from you when I meet with you guys on whenever it is Wednesday or Monday and the phone call.

But I'd say 50 percent of the time I'm wrong when I say something on a press conference. So until I see the videotape.

Q. You talk about J.T., want to limit his carries. I think maybe 24 carries, out of whack.
COACH MEYER: Way out whack.

Q. What was going on there?
COACH MEYER: Yeah, showed up a little bit and we were having trouble executing the pass game, and they were plus-oneing us in the box. We had to win the damn game, and he's one of our best players. And some of the things they were forcing to do on the perimeter run game, they were giving us the look to have him run it instead of hand it off all the time, which ideally where they're handing it off. So once again well-defended, and I think we would all feel much better about ourselves if we hit three of those passes that are downfield because that's the kind of game it was.

Q. Is it dangerous to ever fall into a security blanket with him?
COACH MEYER: Real dangerous, I don't know the word dangerous, but you just don't want to get too much of that. But that's a little bit of, my security blanket is he's one of the best players in America. Go get a touchdown J.T.

Q. I know you said you want overall Curtis to get more touches, but I think in your first 25 offensive snaps he touched the ball once, and you called him your best offensive player in moving forward. Is there more urgency getting him involved more earlier in games?
COACH MEYER: Yes. It's duly noted. Thank you.

Q. You have the numbers in front of you. I think he may have run it five more times than he threw it. Durability, it's only week five. I'm just worried about your backup quarterback situation if J.T. gets banged up?
COACH MEYER: I agree with you. I agree with you and I agree with you. Curtis needs to touch the ball earlier in the game, and J.T. had too many carries. So we have to fix it.

Q. Talk about the play of your defense again, just stout.
COACH MEYER: Stout and sudden change and very aggressive and held them to, it just seems like they didn't get the rush game going at all, 40 carries for 99 yards. I just thought they have that very good player, Mitchell Paige, held him, too.

And I thought our punt unit did a great job. We changed some things because that kid's a ridiculous punt returner. So I hope he's a senior, is he out of there? Paige, does anybody know if -- Paige, right? I think -- he's gone. I think he's fantastic. And we have worked so hard on getting our guys -- the punter did a great job and our three guys, they had zero return yards on five, six punts.

Our defense played great. Special teams played great. A team win. We gave up a bad score right at the end of the first half. And there's our kickoff return team, knocks it down there. Up tempo, go score a touchdown. So very good win.

Q. A lot of uncharacteristic penalties coming from you guys today. Sideline warning for one. How is that going to hamper --
COACH MEYER: Sideline penalty.

Q. Yes. A sideline penalty for sure. Can you just speak on how that's affected you guys today?
COACH MEYER: Today was a problem. We had one time where we would a first down and we got it called back because one of the receivers didn't line up on the line of scrimmage. And those are all correctible mistakes. Very disappointed and maybe we're doing too much. That's my job tomorrow to evaluate why did that happen. And like you said very uncharacteristic in those situations.

The sideline thing I have to find out what happened. I think, one of our players just ran into him. So that would have been a devastating -- it was after the ball was incomplete. But the way you said, it's uncharacteristic. Let's get it fixed. We won by 21. It's much easier to fix if you win than if you lose. You guys saw it. You saw what they did last week. They beat Michigan State. So let's take that one move on and get ready for Wisconsin.

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