Urban Meyer: "We're going through a really fine menu of who we are offensively"

In a typically blunt chat with CBSSports.com's Jeremy Fowler (a former Orlando Sentinel football reporter), Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer talks about going 12-0, his departure from Florida, Alabama/the SEC, and his feelings on what the Big Ten must do to make some ground up on the nation's premiere football playing conference.

On how close Ohio State is relative to some of those national championship caliber Florida squads Meyer stewarded in the past:

Also, after evaluating Ohio State's roster, Meyer knows there's no parallel -- at least not yet -- with his Florida squads that were stocked with All-Pro talent. He doesn't face the same challenges. Maybe a few recruiting classes can change that.

"I don't think we've reached that status. I could show you some film and we're certainly not there," Meyer said. "We were not good enough [last season] where we had these high expectations. I'm biased, but I think that '08 team is as good or better than any team to ever play college football."

Of course a bit of that may be typical motivational coach speak, but given how candid Meyer typically is, it's also probably a fair assessment that there's still room to grow if his 2013 team wants to meet its admittedly lofty goals.

Meyer has also spoken about some of the Big Ten needing to improve its recruiting across the board (a topic that proved to fuel a superficial firestorm when some comments were blown out of proportion even though the crux of his point was fair) this past year in order to gain ground nationally on the likes of the SEC, and again addressed his feelings on the overall competitiveness of the league:

"Am I worried? Yeah. I can only control that I want to recruit really well here and develop players. There are some great players in this league and some excellent coaches. I think that's going to start to change."

On the Ohio State offense in the coming season:

"We're going through a really fine menu of who we are offensively. Now we know Braxton [Miller], like really know what he can do, and we can really utilize that. It's not just running fast. There are some things in the pass game I think he'll be really good at. And you'll see that next fall. We're working hard on it right now. I have this new coaching staff with all these great ideas and I think we were all over the place last year. We're going to try to tighten it down. I don't want it out there. [How Miller handles it] will determine how much we do and how far we go with it. It's much less running. But, we have to win games."

Meyer also speaks to questions of population shifts (and the effect he perceives it having on college football's competitive balance), his thoughts on the looming playoff (which he's expressed in other mediums prior), as well as his stances on players potentially being compensation and the hypothetical future of an eight team college football playoff.

Source: CBS Sports