Urban holds meeting about Ohio's defensive struggles

Submitted by FrankMurphy on

[TItle says it all. Urban Meyer held a meeting with his defense to try to get his house in order.]

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8509061/urban-meyer-ohio-state-buckeyes-calls-meeting-defense

 

[ED:BiSB - Substance is interesting. Making this about RichRod is... misplaced]

[Response to mod edit: Fair enough. I just think the 'Urban = Rich Rod' meme is a little too common within our fanbase.]

markusr2007

October 15th, 2012 at 9:07 PM ^

Heacock was a better Ohio DC than Dantonio. And Heacock hired Meyer years ago at Illinois St.

Fickell never really was a DC before. He always operated in someone's shadow.

LSAClassOf2000

October 15th, 2012 at 9:14 PM ^

Probably the most glaring stat for the Buckeyes is the jump in average yards given up per game, which is an even 400 right now. Last year, it was 323 yards, so that is nearly a 20% jump. Actually, if you projected their season-to-date totals for total plays on defense using the current average, it would increase by over 40 plays from last year, or basically a whole game's worth, which means significant time. Total yardage, projected based on averages, would be in the neighborhood of 4,800 yards this year compared to 4,206 last year, or about a 13% jump. I would say this is cause for concern. The pass defense alone has gone from averaging 182 yards per game last year to 277 yards, - a 35% jump in passing yards given up by itself should make a coach wince and call a  meeting, I would think. 

pharker

October 15th, 2012 at 9:44 PM ^

...stop posting ESPN's continuing verbal fellating of Meyer? And can we send an unsigned note to the NCAA to make sure this meeting falls within in-season hour limits? Heh.

Blazefire

October 15th, 2012 at 10:47 PM ^

I don't like anything about how Fickell, Meyer or the crew handled that. They indicated specific players, either by saying the defense can't do without them or they're not performing, and made threats, public threats.

Just say, "our team knows what it expects of itself, and we're not there yet."

WindyCityBlue

October 15th, 2012 at 11:17 PM ^

But I had a chance to have scotch and cigars with Shaun Gayle at a cigar bar here in Chicago. He went to Ohio as a DB and played for the Bears for about 10 years. Great guy, well spoken and down to earth - nothing like I thought I would out of a buckeye. First off, he thinks the spread is a shit offense and is pissed that Ohio is running it. More relevantly, apparently the powers that be at Ohio are coming down really hard on Fickell, and some of it is being blamed on Urban for the foes on defense. The meeting may be a reaction to all this guff.