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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 23, 2013Urban MeyerCOACH MEYER: Thanks for coming. I thought our guys played, came out of the chute, four games in a row where they came out fast, played hard. That's the sign of guys that like to play. My concern in a game like that is not respect the game and not show up the right way. Have respect for Florida A&M but want to make sure our guys did come out and they practiced hard, and they did. They played well. Big one, Big Ten season starts. This is obviously our goal, our focus, and to make it through the preseason undefeated, which we wanted to have happen, but our goal is to the Big Ten. So we have a lot of respect for Wisconsin, two great backs, I don't know where the heck they keep getting these guys but they have great backs, and we have our hands full. They have an excellent coach, and in my opinion, they are the King of the Big Ten right now and this is an opportunity to go compete with a team that's competed in the Rose Bowl the last few years. So I'll take any questions. Q. How much of the stuff that you guys have done offensively, there's been some spread, some power, some swinging gate on the PAT kicks. How much are you guys throwing out in terms of‑‑ if you had to scout this team, how much is there to prepare for in a given week? COACH MEYER: Well, I think that's a big part of what we do, I get the luxury of sitting on both sides, in the defensive meetings room a lot, I'll listen. I know there's only two days of preparation, Tuesday and Wednesday. So we try to give a lot of stuff, like a lot of teams do, and it might look like it's completely different but a lot of the blocking schemes are the same as just a lot of window dressing. So we try to give as many‑‑ try to water down the preparation of the opponent, if that makes sense to you. That's why we do some of that stuff. Q. With Braxton and Kenny possibly playing on the field together at the same time, is that something you float out there or is that a reality? COACH MEYER: I don't know if that's reality. I keep thinking‑‑ I just love both those players. I think they are go players but I don't know what that gives you. If Kenny was a better wide receiver than one of our receivers, he would be playing receiver; if Braxton was a better running back or something, but they are not. And so someone has to come off the field. I just ‑‑ I haven't decided how we are going to do it. I know Braxton, if he has a good week of practice, will start. We'll see how practice goes this week. Q. When you said after the game that you had hoped that Braxton would be able to play, but he said he wasn't ready‑‑ can you clarify the process of what happened? COACH MEYER: I hoped all week that we could get him in there, even if it's just for a few series, but it just wasn't stable and it would have been not right. And it wasn't just Braxton; it was myself, the strength coach and quarterback coach all got together. A lot of things happen at quarterback position; someone falls on you, even if you are handing them ‑‑ my idea is just get him in the game, and it was a mutual decision; it was probably not in the best interest to play him. Q. And how much more confident are you this week that he will be ready? COACH MEYER: What I saw yesterday, much more confident. I mean, he had a very good day yesterday. We practiced pretty hard yesterday. Because a lot of guys‑‑ normally Sundays are the guys‑‑ the week before, I think they played 95 plays, so we didn't practice real hard. Matter of fact we didn't practice at all. And then you try to just get a lot of work with down‑the‑line guys, but the offensive line, they didn't play a whole first quarter. And so a good majority of the guys were out in the second quarter. We practiced real hard yesterday. Q. Put a number on it? COACH MEYER: Percent? I'm saying he's around 90 right now. He'll be a hundred by next week, I'm hoping. Q. Going through your box scores here, you've played 240 minutes, 206 of those minutes your team has been ahead by two touchdowns or more. How do you flip that switch to play a 60‑minute game and these guys have to go back to playing 80 snaps and just be ready for a competitive football game? COACH MEYER: I think that's the way we practice. I'd like to think that our guy get prepared for those kind of situationswith the way we practice. Tuesdays are, I've been told, Tuesdays are every bit as hard or harder than some game days. So that's kind of the way we do our business around here. That is a concern, though, when you get to the fourth quarter and we are at the Cal game, the way we treated the Cal game was that that kind of offense we were facing, we were in a four‑minute mode, slowed it down, and our kids learned how to play the entire game that day. Q. Two comfort questions. How comfortable are you with Braxton shaking off the rust, and he's going into a situation now, a Big Ten team, where does that stand. And No. 2, Kenny has been described as a distributor; if things happen with Braxton, how comfortable are you that Kenny can take you where you want to go? Is he capable? COACH MEYER: That's a tough question. I will tell you this; that I am very comfortable with both quarterbacks. Braxton, I imagine, will be‑‑ any great player, any player has a little bit of rust. That's what I was hoping to get out of the way last week. So I'm going to practice him real hard this week. Braxton is 12‑0 as a starter‑‑ 13‑0 I guess as a starter, has done very well, improved through spring practice. Kenny Guiton is the guy to me that has shown me he can go in, and I didn't know that. Even last year against Purdue, he came and he won, but I just didn't see it in practice enough. I'm one of those guys, I don't believe in gamers. That word doesn't exist here. It's a practicer, is what we call them. And I just didn't see it. I saw improvement, improvement, improvement; but that's where you have to go back and Tom Herman is a heck of a quarterback coach, and that's easy to identify that when you see the improvement Kenny Guiton has made. I made this comment before Kenny Guiton, why didn't he play two years ago? Because Kenny wasn't good enough. He wasn't. Why didn't he play last year? Because Kenny Guiton wasn't good enough. Why is he playing this year? Because he's good enough. And that's because Kenny worked his tail off and his quarterback coach and him, there's a really good mesh between those two people right now and that's why he's become a very good quarterback. Q. As you watch Wisconsin on video, do they look a lot different on defense? What do you see? Obviously they have changed their scheme, base scheme. COACH MEYER: A lot different. They are very active. Last year they ran, they were not very multiple on defense last year. Very well‑coached. Obviously they shut us down pretty good last year. I think they have got very, very good players that are tough, great technique, sound. They are doing a little more creativity on defense than they did last year. They are playing the 3‑4 and the 4‑3. So throughout college football, you can see how that does cause problems. It's a little bit like our defense; we do a little bit of both, but it's a much different scheme than it was a year ago. Q. Is there a certain thing as gearing up your offense from a pride standpoint of, those guys have the reputed great power game, show‑them‑what‑you've‑got‑type thing. Obviously Carlos Hyde had a huge run last year that kind of did that, but is that part of the prep this week? COACH MEYER: I hear that sometimes, I want to win the game and all focus is on winning the game. If you have to evaluate what we are offensively, power football was a big part of that. Especially with 34 back. So there will be power, but it's not trying to show something. It's trying to find a way to stay in that left hand of the column at the end of the day. Q. This series has hinged on one play it seems like ever since before you were here, when Earle was here, a lot of close games. What do you remember most about last year's close game, and when you were at Florida, was there a team that you played that you thought, oh, my gosh, this is going to be like war? COACH MEYER: It is‑‑ appreciate that question. It is very much a game that I think our players and their players know that it's going to come down‑‑ this will be one that‑‑ I think this will be a classic game. As much as you like coaching in those games, it might be one‑sided where you get a bunch of guys in, there's also the competitive spirit of the whole thing where you know the preparation has got to be, cross all the T's, dot all the I's. Certainly I've been in those kind of rivalry games or games where you know, just that it is going to come down to one or two series to win this game. And that's‑‑ I think our veterans understand that. And the play and series that I remember last year was the one where we stop them on the goal line stand, and I'm so angry we didn't get a first down and finish the game the right way and then they go down and score and send it to over time. I also remember there were a lot of people on that sideline behind me that believed we were going to win that game. You saw the energy on the sideline. That was a very close unit last year, so this will be a classic game. Q. What about when you were at Florida? COACH MEYER: Oh, yeah, all of them. LSU. Q. There's been so much conversation about your defensive front seven for nine months now; do you need this one to figure out just where they are at? COACH MEYER: Exactly. Yeah, they have not received the challenge yet like this one. Cal was a tremendous challenge but that was more we were playing dime defense and it was all about pass rush. We were really hoping to get Adolphus back. This is going to be ‑‑ you have two backs averaging I think 150 each, and this will be the biggest challenge to this point, maybe the rest of the year, for our defensive front seven en. Q. Do you anticipate putting some of that dime and penny stuff on the shelf? COACH MEYER: You'd have to ask Luke. I have spent very little time with him so far, kicking and offense today. Tomorrow I'll go visit with them more a little bit. I know we've had coverings about this outfit before, because the run game's real, and you get embarrassed real fast like a lot of teams. If you're not gap sound and handling your business. Q. Do you expect to have Washington and Bennett this week? COACH MEYER: Bennett for sure 100 percent and Adolphus Washington I would say probably. He did some stuff yesterday but it's a lingering injury. Bennett is good to go. Q. You've been dealing with this with Braxton and Corey Linsley; how did Corey through all that handle himself and getting back? COACH MEYER: Like a pro. It's one thing, Braxton is handling himself like a pro. Very proud of the way he went about his business. Yesterday he stayed after and did a lot of conditioning. Very proud of the way Carlos Hyde handled‑‑ it was a different situation, but regardless, he's not playing those snaps and our strength coach, that part of our program, our kids handle themselves, or they had better because they are just not going to play. Those guys you mentioned, they handled themselves like pros. Q. I know you have a good relationship with Gary Anderson but do you miss Bret Bielema much in a week like that at all? COACH MEYER: No, I'm good with Gary. I think ‑‑ (laughter) ‑‑ I'm good. You guys have a great day. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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