Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer made his weekly appearance on the Big Ten coaches conference call on Tuesday, answering various questions from media members. Meyer spoke about a few players in particular and previewed their opening game against Indiana on Thursday.
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The transcript of quotes from Meyer's Big Ten press conference are below. The general questions are bolded, with Meyer's answers in quotes below.
On when he expects a team to reach its full potential:
"I'm not sure there's an answer to it other than the youth on your team. With the older teams and the veteran teams, usually it is what it is and you see a little big of the improvement, but the young teams show drastic improvement. We're a little bit of a combination of both. I would anticipate the older players we have expectations for and the younger guys will be continued growth throughout the season. Probably middle of the season is when you start to get a good feel."
On playing a marquee opening game instead of weaker competition:
"Yup, that speeds up everyone's acceleration. When you open up with three lesser teams, you kind of use them as preseason games. Our preseason games were actually scrimmages this year where we put them in as many situations and see how they perform. So it has accelerated a bit."
On using skill players in multiple positions:
"There's two positions on offense that we love to move guys around in the so-called hybrid and that's the tight end - you can flex him out and big enough to block a guy on the line of scrimmage. Those are so hard to find but I think that's attractive for what we and many people look for. The other one is the Curtis Samuel/Percy Harvin type player, someone who can line up in the backfield but also beat someone man to man. That's who we look for constantly in recruiting, they're just hard to find. But I think a lot of teams do that just because it's so hard to defend."
On safety battle between Erick Smith and Jordan Fuller:
"I think they're both playing. And this is going to be a yearly - I think they're both going to play. In my mind, there hasn't been that much separation between the two."
On playing Indiana:
"Very good players. We know their players because, obviously, their former head coach is with us and gone through it. He has great respect for their guys and so do our guys. They've been going for five years and have played some really tight games against them. They're just very good players and are well coached."
On areas of the team he's confident in and who he's unsure of:
"I feel good about the defensive line and the veteran players, the center snapping the ball to J.T. The fact that four of our five starting linemen have game experience. That's what you feel the strongest about. And I guess I fear, like most other coaches, the unknown. The back end of our defense hasn't played much at all and our receiving core, although I love where they're at, they're just unproven. So those are the biggest concerns."
On Joe Burrow's injury:
"First of all, he's not done for the season. He'll be back. He thinks he's going to be back soon because that's how tough he is. But it was a battle between him and Dwayne Haskins as far as backups, they were both very close. And Tate Martell, it's exciting to have him around. We are convinced that it's not as big of a concern because we have the other two guys available."
On changes in recruiting strategy to have young players play early:
"It really was a philosophical change that, I remember back to USC, I remember reading Pete [Carroll]'s comments one time that we don't recruit to redshirt. That changed many years ago when I first read it, and when you look at it, we don't either. When we go out and recruit, we make the clear. We don't recruit people with potential as much as we do recruit trying to get great players. That's just a philosophical change. The days of having people for five years is very unusual although we have a few this year, but usually you don't have very many at all. It's just a philosophical difference. We make that clear on the front end of our recruiting and we make that clear that once they get here, there's no seniority. The best player is going to play. It doesn't matter if you're 17 years old or 21 years old."
On any changes in evaluation strategy in recruitment:
"You always try to get the best players. It's just a strong emphasis to each guy that we're pushing positions that my wish - our wish - is that they get on the field as soon as possible."
On any plans to play Dwayne Haskins against Indiana:
"No, this is all hands on deck to go win the game. Those are the type of things that you discuss when maybe playing an inferior opponent, and no, zero conversation about that. All hands on deck to go win a game against a good team."
On Indiana coach Tom Allen:
"I've met him a couple of times. We have done our research, I think coach Wilson filled us in on his background. He was a special teams coordinator, so it's just one of those things where he's had a very successful career. A very successful high school coach as well. A lot of respect for him, but we don't know each other very well."
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