Urban Meyer calls Ohio State’s play-calling ‘excellent’

"I feel the communication, the play-calling is excellent right now and the development of players. We'll see if we're having this conversation in a few weeks, and if we are, that means we're a legitimate top offense."

-Urban Meyer via Mitch Stacy, The Associated Press via NCAA.com

Quarterback J.T. Barrett may still be the same guy that he was at the start of the season, but to say that there hasn’t been any change to how he’s running the offense would be inaccurate. Granted, some of the fifth-year senior’s success comes against some of the weakest teams on OSU’s schedule, but Barrett’s weeks of trusting his receivers, patience in the pocket, and finding success both through the air and on the ground is nothing to scoff about.

Meyer and his staff know that they are heading into the toughest stretch of their schedule and will need to see similar results to the past few weeks, but this time, against much more competent competition. Having multiple targets instead of a sole leading receiver may hurt individual stat lines, but ultimately gives the Buckeyes a better shot of maintaining their current production and momentum against most dominant defenses -- like Penn State and Michigan.

The Ohio State coaching staff may be on the recruiting trail during the bye week, but the rest of the Buckeyes are trying to get some much deserved rest and time to rehabilitate. Several players fighting off injuries, including Jamarco Jones, Jaylyn Holmes and Mike Weber should benefit from the week off before they host Penn State.

“Purdue was a very good team then. They came out and exposed every weakness we had. Very well-coached that day. They played something called zero hole, which means you basically can't throw it.”

-Urban Meyer via Doug Lesmerises, cleveland.com

As we head into the first weekend void of Ohio State football since the onset of the season, the fine folks over at cleveland.com took a walk down memory lane back to 2012, to the time the Buckeyes snagged an overtime win against Purdue in Meyer’s first season in Columbus.

Buckeye reporter Doug Lesmerises spoke to some of the key players in that 2012 near-upset game, including (personal favorite) Kenny Guiton, Zach Boren, Chris Fields, Jeff Heuerman, Jack Mewhort, and Evan Spencer. They reminisced about the intensity of the game heading into overtime and what the win meant for the team and the season -- and the precedent it set for the Meyer era in Columbus.

It’s not often that Purdue wreaks havoc against the Buckeyes, but the game in 2012 wasn’t the first time and most likely — especially with the resurgence of the Boilermakers in 2017 — won’t be the last. Spencer pointed out that the team was “playing like crap” for lack of a better term before ultimately kicking it into gear mid-way through the third quarter.

Hopefully, the Buckeyes won’t need this same type of late-game comeback throughout the rest of the 2017 season, but it’s fun to look back and remember those important moments for Ohio State football.

“Crew SC supporters groups acted swiftly and organized a rally on Sunday Oct. 22 at the Columbus Commons in downtown Columbus. However, due to overwhelming support, the supporters groups announced a change in venue for the Sunday rally as they would relocate to Columbus City Hall.”

-Ralph Schude, Massive Report

For Columbus soccer fans, this has been a tough week. It was announced a few days ago that the owner of the Columbus Crew (Anthony Precourt) was looking to move the team to Austin, TX.

While Precourt claims the team is hurting without a publicly funded new stadium downtown, many are seeing his purchase of the Crew and subsequent move as a way to avoid paying the league's $150 million expansion fee

It was not only a shock to Columbus fans, but to the larger Major League Soccer community who began rallying around supporters of one of the league's charter clubs by changing their Twitter logos and colors. The owners still have to vote on whether or not Precourt will be allowed to move the team, but other team supporters are concerned that this would set a poor precedent for the sport.

Never one to take something sitting down, Crew faithful in Columbus have set up a rally on Sunday at the City Hall to show their fervent opposition to the move. Precourt isn’t helping matters, and keeps digging his grave deeper, and deeper.

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