Ohio State Football: Urban Meyer Aware of Importance of Offseason Discipline

For football-crazed Urban Meyer, each week of the offseason is a long one. But as the Ohio State head coach learned a year ago, no week feels longer in the college football calendar year than the last before the start of fall camp.

If you want to look at where the Buckeyes’ 2013 season went wrong, this time a year ago would be a start.

Before Ohio State had its 24-game winning streak snapped by Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship Game, the Buckeyes endured their worst weekend of the offseason, with three players—including two stars—finding themselves in legal trouble on the eve of fall camp.

It was the week of Big Ten media days, and Meyer, Braxton Miller, Jack Mewhort and Bradley Roby were preparing to head to Chicago to meet with the press.

On the afternoon of July 22, an OSU press release cast an ominous cloud over the Buckeyes contingent when the team announced it had handed out discipline to four Ohio State players—including Roby.

Incoming freshman offensive lineman Tim Gardner was dismissed from his scholarship following an arrest for obstruction of official business.

Roby, a preseason Thorpe Award watch list member, had been involved in an altercation at a bar in Bloomington, Indiana, and ultimately served a one-game suspension after having his misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct dropped.

However, bigger questions loomed when it came to running back Carlos Hyde, who found himself being investigated by Columbus police…

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