Ohio State football: Urban Meyer San Diego St. press conference recap

Despite Monday being a federal holiday, Urban Meyer and the Ohio State football coaching staff weren't taking any time for themselves. Meyer held his weekly Monday late morning/early afternoon press conference as per usual in which he spoke about this past Saturday's Buffalo game as well as looked forward to what's to come with this coming weekend's San Diego State game.

Before the presser, an Ohio State spokesperson announced the champions from the Buffalo game. Unsurprisingly running back Jordan Hall (graded out 81%) was the offensive player of the game (he of the 47 yards after contact), while Corey Brown and Chris Fields also graded out as champions on offense. Christian Bryant (graded out 94%), the only returning starter on the field at times, was the defensive player of the game and was joined as champions by Noah Spence (first career start; graded out 80% and had a sack) and Doran Grant (graded out 90%). Ron Tanner was the special teams player of the week and true frosh Vonn Bell (3 special teams tackles) rounded the group out.

As Ohio State gets ready to meet San Diego State, here were the highlights of what Urban had to say:

• Meyer was very pleased with the win and very pleased with the fast start against UB.
• "It's not what we expect on offense. We need to play a lot better."
• Urban Meyer expects C.J. Barnett and Rod Smith to be back against SDSU. Says Roby will be back, and Corey Linsley will play a lot more.
• "Our kickoff team was outstanding."
• "It was good to see our Australian get in there and punt the ball a little bit."
• "Last spring I had the intention of making Jordan Hall more of an H... We'll see how Rod Smith practices; that'll free up Hall."
• Meyer says he doesn't know if Bradley Roby can earn the right to be a game captain this fall. Said he sent Andrew Norwell out for the opener because of what he'd shown in the lead up to camp.
• "Arguably the best tailback we’ll face all year was injured in the first quarter. Eastern Illinois played outstanding; big plays v. man."
• "Odd stack 3-3-5 defense. High percentage of pressure. Chaos defense; play really hard with some good players."
• "They stepped out of their comfort zone. Threw 63 times or something like that…[Rocky Long] is an excellent football coach."
• Meyer said Roby will not be named a starter yet. "We’ll probably see Armani more." Says Roby has to earn the spot back in practice.
• "I admire Chris Fields." Singled out his contributions on special teams. "Doing a lot of things for us. Doing it all right."
• Meyer attributed the two-point conversion attempts to having seen Oregon do it in the Fiesta Bowl. "Drives defensive coaches crazy." Also said he wasn't sure how often they'll do it.
• "I think the most important thing for a quarterback is the competitive spirit. The best ones I’ve ever been around refuse to lose at ping pong, checkers..."
• "I talked to Chris [Spielman]… We talked about tackling. We talked this week. He knows football."
• "In today’s day & age, I think everything gets exploded. Remember, these are 19 & 20 year olds…Difference is camera phones, blogs, Twitter."
• "Roby made a decision to come back… He came back because he came in with a group of players and he wanted to finish with them." Said he does think Roby went through a bit of a funk/buyer's remorse after coming back.
• "There was no assault, no battery, no nothing... I think he learned a really strong lesson and I'm anxious to get him back on the field."
• "I think he’s a little more organized than the previous coordinator we had who," Meyer says mocking himself on Kerry Coombs/special teams.
• On Khalil Mack: "His stock in the draft went up a little bit after playing against us." "He can play anywhere for any school in America."
• "Very high expectations. Every time we touch the ball, I’m disappointed when we didn’t score." "We should’ve been better." "I have high expectations for offense, and I think we graded very average for this game...Without taking any respect away from our opponent, I think they did a very good job."
• "The issue with cramping, we can’t have guys leave the game…" Says he and the training staff have to step up.
• "Complacency is certainly not a problem this week."
• On Corey Linsley. Said it wasn’t a Lisfranc, but close. "He had surgery after our last game against That Team Up North." Played 17 plays.
• "Dontre was good, other than he laid it on the ground. That was terrible. He won’t play much if that happens again."
• "On defense, Joey Bosa has played really well. He’s earned a lot of time in the rotation." Mentioned Hill, Trey Johnson as well.
• "Vonn Bell did very well. Cam Burrows did very well. That’s a great place to start to make a name here."
• On Armani Reeves "Got exposed there for a minute but he's a tough kid. He's talented and we expect him to play better."