Urban Meyer, Ohio State left to try to pick up pieces after 'tough week'
Over the course of the last week, the Ohio State Buckeyes have: seen a talented defensive player lose an appeal with the NCAA and wind up permanently suspended; watched its star quarterback, who replaced its previous star quarterback, go down to injury; managed to gut out a victory over its archrival in the process anyway and; most horrifically, had to cope with a reserve go missing only to be found dead Sunday in a dumpster behind his apartment due to an apparent self-inflicted gun shot.
"Tough week," coach Urban Meyer said Monday at his weekly press conference.
About as tough a week as they come.
"This is so much deeper than lining up on a football field," Meyer said of the news of the death of Kosta Karageorge, a wrestler turned football walk-on, and the mourning, memorializing and questioning that comes with it.
This is what Ohio State is dealing with and this is what Meyer is leading the Buckeyes through, likely as well as any coach in America could. One of the chief reasons for his success through the years, and one of the chief reasons rival fans can't help but despise him, is his own profound confidence.
Meyer believes in what he is doing, how he is doing it and what will happen if everyone follows him precisely. He has all the answers. And even when he doesn't, he conveys to the outside world, and his coaches and players specifically, that he does. He's hard to rattle. Which is why the Buckeyes press on mindful and respectful of everything, but still focused on one big thing:
"It's 'Championship Week' here at Ohio State," Meyer said.
The week has a name because the week is planned. And the week is planned because competing for championships – in this case, the Big Ten title on Saturday against Wisconsin with a spot in the College Football Playoff still possible – is considered inevitable. It is just part of the annual calendar, like "That Team Up North Week."
Meyer is 24-0 in regular-season Big Ten games since taking over the Buckeyes, so you can hardly blame his faith in being here. In a career spanning four schools he's won two national titles and led two more undefeated seasons, so that speaks to his trust in the process. The Buckeyes grind.
This, however, is unlike any championship week, or any week ever, for Meyer.
It will require everything from breaking in a first-time starter (Cardale Jones) to replace an injured star (J.T. Barrett), who just a few months ago was a first-time starter replacing an injured star (Braxton Miller), against the league's top-rated defense … to carving out time for memorial services and emotional healing among the players.
This is where Meyer's resolve is most valued and most tested and where it should serve as a signal to a playoff selection committee that has the power to downgrade the Buckeyes based on what it perceives it lost by turning to another new quarterback.
The coach is asking for no such outside judgments, positive or negative. Don't consider them an underdog against Wisconsin. Don't consider them incapable if they otherwise deserve a spot in the final four.
Don't let the perception of an injury hurt more than the reality.
The team he puts on the field Saturday is his team. He'll handle the delicate balance of sensitive life issues and building up a young quarterback for a league title game the program has been pointing to since losing it a year ago. If his team is tough enough to persevere, then judge it on that.
"I told our players, you add in you lost your Heisman preseason candidate [Miller], we didn't have offensive captains play the first four or five games, you really shouldn't be in this position," said Meyer, focusing on resiliency as a team trait, even though the reality is no matter what hit the Buckeyes, they remained, by far, the class of the conference.
"So you have to really reflect on how that happened," Meyer continued. "There's not good fortune. The ball didn't bounce your way. We don't believe in that. We believe in a very, extremely close team that leans on each other in tough times and someone usually steps up and makes a tremendous play or says something."
So there's the challenge to the team. Self-reliance.
"Every red flag's up," Meyer said. "Every excuse is out there to not play well, to not win a game, to lose a game. You have some really good built-in excuses. And to overcome the incredible tragedy that occurred last night, this is a real challenge.
"I can just say, this is an extremely close team that does a lot of things together and cares about each other," he continued.
Whether he and offensive coordinator Tom Herman can help Jones get up to speed remains a question, but from the moment Barrett clutched his ankle on the field during the Michigan game, the Buckeyes coaches have conveyed one of football's most tried and true beliefs: Next Man Up.
Jones is a redshirt sophomore but a tremendous athlete, burly yet fast with a good arm. Meyer and Herman haven't talked about simplifying the offense or bringing Jones along with baby steps. They've challenged him instead to step up and go. He didn't come here to be a backup, after all. He came to play for championships, so now's his chance.
"For Cardale, it's going to be his first start, obvious a really good environment against a top opponent, but it's not like he hasn't taken snaps with the [first-string] offense or [doesn't] understand the concepts," Meyer said.
Everything that is playing out this week in Columbus, and could play out Saturday in Indianapolis, is why the playoff selection committee's stated ability to consider injuries is a misguided one.
It should neither forgive a team for a loss because someone was out, nor downgrade a team's potential going forward because a good player will not be available.
Injuries and suspensions and setbacks are part of the game, as is how a coach and a team respond to them.
Ohio State has been rattled this week, on and off the field. Red flags, as Meyer puts it, are flapping all around. If Meyer and his Buckeyes can ignore them, though, so too should the selection committee.
If the coach doesn't view his team any differently, then neither should anyone else.
