COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Like a kid opening a present on Christmas morning, Urban Meyer can’t wait to tear off the wrapping and bows to see what his latest Ohio State offense will do.
Ohio State went 12-0 in Meyer’s first season as coach last year. But it wasn’t because the offense was a NASCAR racer. It was more like the Buckeyes stayed ahead of the field by patching and tuning an old but reliable form of transportation.
Quarterback Braxton Miller’s legs carried the Buckeyes for the first half of the season. After that, the offensive responsibilities were spread out, with tailback Carlos Hyde and the wide receivers assuming their share of the load.
Meyer, a major proponent of the hurry-up, no-huddle spread attack, barely recognized his offense. There was no H-back, a central figure as he designed the lethal Florida offenses built around the hybrid runner-receiver Percy Harvin. And most of the time, it just looked like something Woody Hayes might have installed.
Meyer concedes that the 2012 Buckeyes bore only a slight resemblance to the cutting-edge attack he had at Florida because H-back Jordan Hall was injured most of the year.
”That whole part of the offense didn’t exist, which is tough,” he said during fall camp. ”If you evaluate last year’s offense, we were a pro offense. There was not a lot of read components (and) that’s the essence of what spread football is.”
This year, Hall is finally healthy and figures to be a fly in the ointment of defenses, flitting out wide at times, into the slot at others, and running out of the backfield at yet other times.
”You’ll see a different style of offense this year,” Meyer vowed.
Continue Reading: Buckeyes’ spread offense ready to take off now
