Urban Meyer Kent State week press conference: 'We're hurting', but 'moving forward'

Urban Meyer spoke to the media for the second time after Saturday's disappointing 35-21 loss to Virginia Tech. Meyer spoke about the big recruiting weekend that was, the absence of "champions" due to those recruiting obligations, and what's next:

-- There aren't any champions being announced this week because Coach Meyer has been busy with recruiting (was a huge weekend this past one).

-- "Tough loss against a very good team. We've got to move forward."

-- Meyer said there was no 'victory meal' for the Ohio State players that typically goes to the players who had the best games.

-- Meyer attributes Virginia Tech's scheme as a big problem. "That was a really good team we played."

-- "Not taking anything away from Virginia Tech, but a few big plays and that's a different outcome."

-- "Everything we shoot for is championships and that's still at our disposal."

-- Meyer was most disappointed in not making one-on-one coverages. "They made a decision to take away the tailbacks". Added that the wide receivers needed to make catches.

-- Meyer said you don't sleep much after a loss and that with all the recruits on hand, he had to put on a small in spite of the loss. "The best thing going was the environment and everyone saw it. They also saw opportunities to help our football team."

-- "We always talk about the high risk. Do you really want to schedule all those official visits? It was such a great atmosphere. Our stadium. We risked it last year against Penn State and Wisconsin and Nebraska the year before... It was awesome. The crowd. That was the loudest I've ever heard any stadium."

-- "You are concerned [about potentially losing big games like that], but there's so much to sell here, you've just got to risk it."

-- Urban Meyer said they hadn't faced a 4-3 defense ("0 snaps"), and that's what the offense is mostly beat to built. Spoke to Navy's 3-4 and Virginia Tech's 46 'Bear'.

-- Urban says he loves the MAC conference, spoke to some recruiting geography overlap. "Usually the team with the quarterback wins that conference."

-- "That'll show up tomorrow," Meyer said to whether or not this loss could be a blessing in disguise.

-- "I saw a quarterback fight. He got hit too much."

-- In terms of the Buckeyes' defense performance against Tech, Meyer called it "average".

-- "I want to get to the point at Ohio State where it's shutdown-lockdown defense. And I think we can make that happen. There's still some new blood out there playing...There were far too many mental mistakes. Effort was not an issue."

-- More on the defense "I like the direction we're going, we just need to get there fast."

-- Meyer said they did not do a good enough job to get the ball to Jalin Marshall, Dontre Wilson, and Curtis Samuel. "I think Dontre we did; not in our run game. We tried a couple of times."

-- Meyer also said Virginia Tech had 9 guys within 6 yards of the line of scrimmage and he'd never seen that before in his entire coaching career.

-- Meyer didn't think Virginia Tech could've done that against last year's Ohio State team. "They made a gutsy decision and really did a

-- "I don't know if people have the personnel [to do what Virginia Tech did]... That team that won the Big Ten last year does."

-- "I bet that wasn't something you put in on a Tuesday or a Wednesday; that's been going on for a while."

-- Canton Repository reporter Todd Porter raised the point that on the final 14 plays, Ohio State got sacked 6 times and threw 2 interceptions. Meyer said he was distressed by that and wasn't aware of those statistics.

-- Meyer met with Corey Smith today about his costly drop. Said Smith still has a lot of potential and they're not giving up on him.

-- Says Devin Smith, Evan Spencer have to make plays. Also said it was hard getting it to them at times.

-- Meyer is concerned about the offensive line but said "Saturday wasn't a fair assessment" because of the scheme and the extra blockers.

-- "In this one we got exposed a little bit". Said they prepared for Tech's traditional 4-3 defense but didn't get that. "You make a couple plays, that's a different ballgame." "I thought we'd be a little further ahead." Meyer says the skill is there, but they have to rebound.