COLUMBUS, Ohio – Everything Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said during his news conference Monday previewing the Buckeyes’ upcoming game vs. Indiana. Note: The very beginning of the transcript was cut off. URBAN MEYER: I think Nick Vannett has earned some more playing time, so we’re going to try to get him more involved. He’s practicing very well. Offensive line was Darryl Baldwin, quarterback J.T., graded out a champion, and running back Ezekiel Elliott did, and player of the game was Evan Spencer on offense. Just does a lot of things for us. On defense, players champions were Josh Perry, Mike Bennett, Eli Apple, and he’s playing his best football since he’s been here, and Doran Grant is very consistent, a guy that I’m going to nominate for All?Big Ten. He’s playing very well for us. Players of the game, we had two of them, co?players of the game Vonn Bell and Joey Bosa, and special teams player of the week was Jeff Heuerman, who recovered an onside kick and kind of saved our bacon on one of the punts that they gave us an unusual look. Big game. Great to come back home, two road games against top?25 opponents, two teams that we have a lot of respect for that we played, and it was every bit what we thought it would be. There’s a good chance we’ll get Bri’onte Dunn back, so we’re getting a little bit healthy. Dontre, obviously we missed him last week. Jalyn had a tough game, but we haven’t lost confidence in Jalyn. We don’t do that here. If you don’t play hard, that’s a whole different animal, but you play hard and make mistakes, we’ve just got to fix it, and he’s going to work on a lot of things this week to get himself better. I’ll answer your questions for you. Q. We’ve asked you I think a couple weeks now about J.T. and whether or not you think he’s a Heisman candidate, but when you look at what he’s done and look at his numbers, at what point do you sort of endorse him??URBAN MEYER: I did. I did. I don’t know if my endorsement matters, but I do statistically?? been fortunate to coach some guys that have been in New York, and he’s a Heisman candidate. Q. The other question I wanted to ask you was at this point in the season, you guys are a win away from clinching a spot back in Indianapolis. Are you having as much fun now as you did when you were younger coaching? URBAN MEYER: I’m having a lot of fun coaching this team because yesterday was a perfect example, they went out and they worked their tails off. J.T. is a Heisman candidate that knows that he could have played much better Saturday, and that’s the best thing about coaching these guys right now. I hope it doesn’t change. That’s something we’re watching very closely with guys that are starting to get some notoriety. You know, Zeke has a chance to get 1,000 yards, and the minute he becomes something other than Zeke Elliott, that’s a problem, and same with J.T., same with Joey Bosa. Some of these players, Mike Thomas. Mike Thomas didn’t play particularly well. I watched him very closely yesterday and it was nothing other than go out and I didn’t play very well. I’ve got to play better. And that’s what every coach wants to be around. This team is like, I’ve just got to make sure they don’t change. Q. Those were tough conditions, obviously, Saturday. I know you said something about you’d like to see other teams come in and do that. First question is when you were at Florida, how tough would it have been to go to a place like that? Would it have been extra tough because of what you were used to? URBAN MEYER: I think any time if you ask a team from Ohio or a northern team to go down to a southern school in the summer, I mean, it’s ridiculous. We did that when I was there. I remember Wyoming coming down there and some teams, and there was a 100?degree differential between?? I remember doing that stat when Wyoming played their last game, it was 100 degrees different than when they played their first game the next year, and that can only happen a few places, Wyoming and Florida. Yeah, it would be ridiculous to try to get a group of players from?? no different than a group of players from up here to go down and play in 110?degree heat index. It’s not impossible, but it’s difficult. Q. The second part of that is when the playoff goes to eight teams, probably, not if, would you be in favor of home sites? The first?round home sites coming up??URBAN MEYER: We play Indiana, man. I’m not sure how that works. Q. I know that there were points last year where you were saying you wish Braxton wasn’t running as much because you didn’t want to expose him to that much risk. Are you pleased from that standpoint with J.T. Barrett?URBAN MEYER: Yeah, a lot of his are scrambles. The one that he came out the other end, the 90?yard run was a called run or whatever it was, the 80?some?yard run was a called run. It’s just such a good thing to have as kind of your crutch. We’ve got to get off that a little bit. But a lot of J.T.’s yards are he’s?? he’s a very good scrambler. The thing that J.T. does so well, and that’s why we stay on course a lot of time, is if it’s not there, he puts his foot in the ground and gets six yards and that puts us in 2nd and 4 instead of hanging around?? that’s a great quality of his right now and we don’t want that to change. I don’t mind that because he’s pretty good at getting down, but we’ve got to limit the quarterback run calls, but we have. We’re not nearly like we were a few years ago. Q. Speaking of good runners, Tevin Coleman, what is it that makes him successful?URBAN MEYER: I have not studied him. I see his statistics; they’re ridiculous. I met with our defensive staff again this morning, last night and this morning, and they think he’s an outstanding, great back. Not real big but fast, extremely fast. I have not studied him. That’s usually Wednesday I do that, but I know our guys are?? that’s the threat, number one threat on their team. Q. Tackling was a big issue for your defense last year. It seems much better this year. URBAN MEYER: Much better. Q. I know there was still one where they were trying to pull the ball out and Cobb went in for a touchdown, but overall can you just talk about the tackling?URBAN MEYER: Yeah, we’re not a big strip. You won’t see that. I’d better not see that. If you’re wrapped up you can go in there and get the ball, but that was really bad two years ago. Coach Fickell and Coach Ash are the primary guys that teach that long with Coach Coombs obviously. But we work?? I can’t imagine there’s a team that works harder on tackling than we do. We work that every week, and that’s non?negotiable. …
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