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PLAYSTATION FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE VS CLEMSON

December 31, 2016

Glendale, Arizona

Clemson - 31, Ohio State - 0

THE MODERATOR: We'll now open it up for questions for Ohio State.

Q. First half, you ran the ball eight times for eight yards. I think two of those were called passing plays. What was your game plan?
COACH MEYER: Our game was to be balanced and certainly not, whatever the stat you just said, that wasn't our game plan. We just didn't execute very well on offense.

Q. Did you have any inkling coming into this game that it could go this way? Was there anything in the preparation or did you expect a much better performance?
COACH MEYER: Expected a much better performance. Some guys played their tails off. Some other guys we didn't execute very well and -- but no, I didn't anticipate that.

Q. I know it's really early but looking at the passing game and the way you sort of closed out the season, do you have any thoughts on what you might look at in the offseason with that?
COACH MEYER: We will become a good passing team, we will. Next year.

Q. J.T., want to get your perspective. Seemed like you were swarmed under a lot tonight and just didn't have the time maybe to make the plays. I don't know what you saw, but your perspective on it?
J.T. BARRETT: They did a good job being disruptive, the "D" line did. I mean, there was times I could have done a better job getting the ball out, as far as seeing my reads faster.

But they definitely -- I mean we just didn't execute really on offense. It wasn't really like we were surprised by the looks that we had. I think we prepared really hard and coaches did everything they could as far as like throwing us the different looks that we thought we were going to get, and we just didn't execute it anywhere on offense, really.

Q. J.T., we probably won't see you for who knows when. But have your degree. Have you given any thought as to what your future plan is? Will you be back at Ohio State? Do you know definitively one way or the other?
J.T. BARRETT: My main focus was to focus on this year. I didn't really give it that much thought, but it will be really hard for me to walk away when we just lost 31-0.

Q. What is the most frustrating just in the short term here, what you just saw and what just happened? How are you dealing with this?
COACH MEYER: Most frustrating? That I had a group of players, played our tail off. And same group of guys went to Norman, Oklahoma and played and won, and went to Madison, Wisconsin and won in overtime, and then against our rivals, two overtimes. And we got beat.

So we're going to move on quickly, and my respect for the football player, our team, has not changed. Identify things that have to get better and we will. That's what we do.

Ohio State is not used to this. I'm not used to this, and we will not get used to this. That's not going to happen again. So we'll get things worked out.

Q. J.T., when Jordan got hurt, did you feel like the offensive line kind of lost their rhythm or anything? I just wondered if you had -- if that had any effect?
J.T. BARRETT: No. When he went down, it was -- I mean, we always believe in the next man up. As far as being competitively excellent with our game reps and mental reps, so the guy behind him should be ready to go when his number's called.

And we just weren't. We didn't help him on offense, knowing that he probably didn't get a lot of reps, those game reps in practice. We didn't help him as a whole offense to make sure that he could be comfortable.

Q. Urban, what did you think about Deshaun Watson's performance tonight?
COACH MEYER: Great player.

Q. I think they said on the field this might be your first shutout. If that is, what was your reaction, I guess?
COACH MEYER: I think I said it a second ago. I'm not used to it. We're not used to it. And that's not going to happen again. So go to work.

Q. Is there any way when you see a team on film like Clemson, is there any way to know how good that defensive line will be when you see them live and how disruptive they will be until you're actually in the game? Was there any inkling that that would be --
COACH MEYER: I'm not being disrespectful of Clemson. That's a great football team. But we just didn't execute well. But we knew -- they're a very talented group.

Q. Chris, when you guys got the interceptions early, I just wondered, did you feel like that gave you a spark? And maybe I don't know what happened from there?
CHRIS WORLEY: As far as the defense, you know, we always feel like we're in the game. We know the talent that we have on this team -- offense, defense, special teams, and we know we have great coaches.

So when we make plays like that, of course we expect that part and we expected to play that way. And I hear a lot of questions about the offense, things like that. But the defense didn't execute as well as we could either. And it comes down to complementary football, and we didn't play that today and we lost. That's what happens when you don't play nine strong and everyone don't complement each other. So we've got to get better. It is what it is.

Q. In any of your opinions, was there a turning point or was it just one of those games you just couldn't get anything going?
J.T. BARRETT: I think it was just unfortunate things kept on continuing to happen, especially our offense. We didn't help our defense at all. I mean we had the game at was 10-0 for the longest time. We just couldn't get sustained drives and keep them off the field.

So as the quarterback of the offense, I mean it's one of the things that we didn't play at our best obviously, and that's what happens when you go against a good time and you're not nine strong. You lose. We didn't expected to win, but that's what happens.

Q. Urban, I know you said you want to be balanced, but I think the first half, 21 of 27 plays were called passes. And the game wasn't out of hand at that point. You didn't think you could run consistently against them?
COACH MEYER: No, I didn't realize that until you just said it. That was not the game plan. I think we kind of got taken out of the game plan a little bit. But no, that was our plan, to be balanced. We didn't follow the plan.

Q. After today's loss, because Clemson played differently or as expected or you didn't strategically that was laid out for the team was not implemented. So your strategy for the day, was it not played out or is it something that Clemson did differently?
J.T. BARRETT: It wasn't anything they did, I don't think. That was a great team. They played hard. We were getting a lot of opportunities on offense. That's what happened. On offense, I truly believe that we got the best looks we could, plays. I thought we had good plays. We just didn't execute those plays and that's what happens.

You could have a scheme and all these different plays set out. You could have everything on the grease board, but you still gotta go play the game and execute the plays we have. And we didn't do that.

So with that being said, I mean this was unexpected, didn't see that coming by any means. We expected to win the game, and that was what happened. We didn't come to play. Our units were messed up. We were not nine units strong. It's real simple.

Q. Coach, 2012-2013 your defense kind of got exploited a little bit. You've spoke ad infinitum about how you had to blow it up, change the culture, everything else. Are you in the same situation now after the way this season ended up with your offense?
COACH MEYER: In some regards. I'm going to take a hard look at some things when we get back, and obviously there were some great things this year, some great things.

I go back to Norman, Oklahoma and some other great things. But anytime you struggle a little bit, you always take a hard look.

Q. Urban, you said at Media Day that in all honesty you thought that next year would be the year, that you were a little bit expected that development came as quickly. Now after this game do you think you were a year away?
COACH MEYER: I mean, I thought that in the beginning of the year. No, I thought we were going to go compete for the National Championship in 10 days or whatever it is. I really did.

I think we have a bunch of good players, a bunch of good guys, and our anticipation is to get back here next year and take a good swing at it and realize we've got a lot of work to do, obviously. But that comment I made was prior to the season, not today. When you said that a year away, no, shoot, I thought we were ready to go. And didn't anticipate this at all.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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PLAYSTATION FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE VS CLEMSON

December 31, 2016

Urban Meyer

Chris Worley

J.T. Barrett