Angry Buckeyes anxious to get started

Staff/wire report

Columbus

Anger surfaced at Ohio State’s first weekly press conference, but it won’t be fully visible until Saturday when the Buckeyes open against Miami of Ohio.

It was passive anger: spoken by team leaders such as defensive lineman John Simon and spoken about by new coach Urban Meyer.

“We did have leadership [in 2011], it was just a rough year for us and sometimes that happens,” said Simon, a former Cardinal Mooney standout. “This year we have a lot of guys really stepping up into that role. As leaders, there’s no nonsense allowed.”

That means no 16-yard gains on third and 15, no 18-play, coast-to-coast drives, no more surrendering three touchdowns a game.

Meyer’s statement also addressed the question of whether the Buckeyes are ready to turn things around.

“I think I have a team that’s chomping at the bit to go play,” Meyer said. “And I wanted to have an angry team, a team with a chip on its shoulder. And at this point I’d say we have that. Obviously we have a lot of preparation left, but I like where we’re at right now.

Of talent, he said that some areas are strong, but that the Buckeyes have potential to be a good team.

Meyer said OSU is going to be focused on getting from point A to point B as fast as they can go.

“There is no conversation about week 13, week 14, week 15 and Christmas break,” he said. “It’s full-metal jacket just to get to Saturday. And we’re not ready. That’s the cool thing, is our guys know that, but they’re getting ready.”

The coach was asked which player made the biggest rise in this preseason.

“I would have to say Corey Linsley would be on offense, the guy that’s made the biggest jump, gone from nobody to the apex of our offense,” Meyer said. “That’s the center, which in any offense, but particularly this one, the way we do things, that center’s got to be a grown man.”

Linsley is a junior from Boardman High School.

Offensively, Meyer said Carlos Hyde would probably be running a close second and then Philly Brown.

Meyer mentioned the differences in the spread offenses of Miami and OSU.

“It’s completely different than our spread,” he said. “Their offense is 180 [degrees from ours]. They’re a spread that throws it. We’re a spread that probably at the end of the day we might be 50/50 or 60/40 run/pass. But we’re a line-up-and-come-rocking-off-the-ball type of spread offense.”

Meyer was asked about his plan to turn around the Buckeyes.

“We have a plan to win,” he said. “Four things: Play great defense, win in the turnovers and score in the red zone and have a strong kicking game and play great defense.”

When prompted, he clarified why the Buckeyes need to be angry.

“Well, they’re not very well thought of,” he said. “I mean, they lost a lot of games. Most games since the 1800s or something I read somewhere. There’s a lot of reasons that the John Simons, Sabinos, and those kind of guys, that’s their legacy. They’re going to be known as that group. I don’t want to be that group. And that’s part of the angry and there’s a lot of mad that had nothing to do with anything. I’m speaking with a forked tongue.”

The Toledo-born and Ashtabula-raised Meyer knows Miami very well.

“I coached against them in the MAC conference for two years [as Bowling Green coach, 2001-2002],” he said. “I have a great deal of respect for them as a university. I also know their coach and I know their quarterback. I’ve been watching them play, and their receiver.”

Meyer is immersing himself in the preparation.

“I’m not worried about what’s the legacy, what’s this, what’s that,” he said. “I want to make the great state of Ohio proud and win this darned game coming up, and look good doing it. Because our kids deserve that.

“Our players will tell you if they didn’t deserve it. Our players deserve to play well on Saturday. It’s the job of our coaches to get them in position to play well.”