Urban Meyer's inaugural spring football press conference

So by now you know that Urban Meyer's first season as head coach the Ohio State University went about as well as it could've. His second offseason pretty much followed the same pattern.

As one of just a handful of teams to return their entire coaching staff from 2012 to 2013, Meyer and company enter year two on the same trajectory as many of Meyer's other recent second year terms: to the point of which anything less than contending for a national championship would effectively be a let down.

After adding one of the top recruiting classes in the nation in the early stages of 2013, Meyer and his staff kicked off the earliest spring football practices in school history, leading the team through a two hour pads-less shorts practice. Following their first such work out of the spring, Meyer met with the media. Here were the highlights from that session:

• Urban Meyer: "Yeah, it was fine. I’m not really concerned about [attitude]. I’m just concerned with development of some players."
• "…Some guys like Tyvis Powell and Pittsburgh Brown had good days. It’s first days in shorts; we did have a good attitude."
• "Just the way the calendar works." On Ohio State’s unorthodox scheduling. "This is early now. I like it."
• "I liked [Braxton Miller working with a quarterback guru]. The last time we were allowed to coach him was the Friday before our rivalry game."
• "The quarterback guru working with Braxton Miller is a guy named Tom Herman," Meyer says jokingly.
• "The only thing I don’t feel great about is when I look and don’t see my leaders front last year. I grew to love those guys," Meyer said singling out Simon, Boren, Sabino.
• "Defensively there’s a lot of young puppies running around out there."
• "I thought Drew did a good job. Drew could’ve punted last year. The only thing he’s lacking is consistency," after being asked about punting
• "Obviously we’re still keeping our eyes and ears peeled." Said Frank Epitropolous has a long way to go "at everything".
• "We don’t use those two words very often," on ‘national championships’. Says Ohio State didn’t play good defense 1st half ’12, did second.
• Mentions Ryan Shazier is recovering from a sports hernia
• Meyer says the front seven has a bunch of new guys in there right now.
• Meyer says front seven is wide open. Defers questions to Fickel and Vrabel. Singles out Noah Spence and Adolphus Washington.
• "Chris Carter, how much longer is he going to be here? I think you can only red shirt once."
• "Grade the day...Everything is graded everyday... We don't coach effort"
• "I thought Braxton Miller had a heckuva day. But that’s just one day."
• "Boy was [Jordan Hall] great today. I’ve got to be careful. I’ve started to like players too much. I love that guy."
• "Philly had a small sprain of his knee. He's fine. They MRI'd it. He'll be good to go Thursday...Devin Smith had a good day as well.
• Meyer says ‘A lot’ of focus is on Curtis Grant right now. "Do we still have hope? Absolutely."
• "Josh [Perry] is running with the mike. David Perkins is running with the 1’s but [Ryan] Shazier will be our Will. Then you’ve got Cam Williams, [Luke] Roberts, and some freshmen coming in."
• "Some guys are chasing starting positions, some guys are chasing bowl games, some guys are chasing NFL contracts."
• "Just being caution [with J.T. Barrett]. Great kid, he does everything right." Mentions Najee Murray and Devan Bogard as also having ACL injuries they're recovering from like Barrett
• "If we put together a good d-line and good linebackers, we’ll have a good team. If we don’t, we won't. It's that simple."
• Said Tyvis Powell, Chase Farris, Taylor Decker are candidates to be ‘the Fragel’. Average football players who come out of nowhere to be great ones who help the team accomplish their goals.