Urban Meyer is back!!!

Gene Smith called Ryan Day shortly after Urban Meyer had been placed on paid administrative leave. During that call, Gene told Ryan that he would be the acting head coach while Urban was away from the team. Ryan Day knew this team was still Urban's, but he also knew he had a job to do while Urban was gone. Ryan Day did that job and then some. He went 3-0, averaged 56 points per game, and beat a Top 15 team on National Television.

Urban Meyer now resumes full control of the Ohio State Buckeyes with 9 games remaining in the regular season. We have a cupcake this week against Tulane who is currently 1-2 with losses to UAB and Wake Forest. In 2 weeks however, we have a night game at Penn State that will not be easy. Buckeye fans now turn to the big question, what will change now that Urban is back?

How will the transition from Ryan Day to Urban Meyer look?  Will we notice a change on the field? Will Haskins start running the ball more?

In my opinion, I don’t think there will be any noticeable changes. During his press conference on Tuesday, Urban said that he will be more of a game manager this year, and less involved in the offense. He noted that this is because of how well Ryan Day and Kevin Wilson have done calling offensive plays. It was also reported that Ryan Day would be staying down on the field calling plays. The fact that Ryan Day was in the booth last year tells me that Urban loves what he has done, and doesn’t want to change much.

Under Ryan Day the Buckeyes have averaged 608 yards and 56 points per game. Last year Ohio State averaged 506 yards and 41.1 points per game. I have a feeling Urban loves how this team has looked so far. Like the old saying goes, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

One thing I noticed during the TCU game was that when we were losing we did not forget about our running backs. We were not forcing the ball through the air, or making our QB run the ball an excessive amount of times. We were still handing the ball off to our running backs, and playing our game. Being down didn’t force us to abandon our game plan which is something that has happened in recent years. Ryan Day has earned Urban Meyers trust, and that should scare the crap out every team remaining on our schedule.

Through three games, Dwyane Haskins has only ran the ball 7 times, which is about 2.3 times per game. Last year JT Barrett was running the ball 11.7 times per game. I think the coaching staff realizes that Haskins is a completely different player than JT. JTs greatest strength were his legs, and it was obvious that the coaching staff knew that and used that to their advantage. The same thing can be said about Dwayne Haskins. His strength is clearly his arm, and through 3 games its pretty obvious that the coaches are using that to our advantage.

By the end of last year a lot of people were growing annoyed by how often we ran our QB. I think the coaching staff was simply using the strength of a player to their advantage. It is because of that I don’t expect us to over use Haskins legs like we did with JT. Our coaching staff recognizes that we have a QB with a great arm, and two very good RBs. We have been and will continue to use those strengths to our advantage to win a lot of games this year. 

#BeatTulane

-Mr. Ohio and Chris Hunt