Meyer deals with questions about suspension
Urban Meyer will be back on the sideline for the first time this season when Ohio State plays host to Tulane in a nonconference game on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m. ET, BTN) at Ohio Stadium.
Meyer was suspended for the first three games for his handling of the domestic abuse allegations involving former wide receivers coach Zach Smith and his ex-wife, Courtney. He was allowed to coach the team in practice the past two weeks but not on Saturdays.
During fourth-ranked Ohio State’s 40-28 victory over TCU last Saturday night in Arlington, Texas, Meyer watched the game with family and friends and said it was difficult not to be there with his coaches and players.
“This one in particular, I only watched the good plays. I couldn’t take it,” he said while appearing at his weekly news conference for the first time this season. “My daughter kept me updated and I would seriously — sounds silly, but I would leave the room. The way that game started, it looked like — that team is very good.”
Meyer addressed his situation in a weekend interview with ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi and spoke with the media for 55 minutes on Monday. He acknowledged his mistakes in keeping Smith on his staff and expressed sorrow for the sordid affair.
Most of the questions were about Meyer’s missteps through the ordeal and not about football.
“I want to be really clear that there is zero intent to mislead,” Meyer said. “The report found that. I did not answer questions with the accuracy that I should have (in Chicago during the Big Ten Media Days in July).”
On the field, the Buckeyes (3-0) managed just fine without Meyer. After routing Oregon State and Rutgers, Ohio State made it through a much tougher test against then-No. 15 TCU, rallying from a third-quarter deficit for a 40-28 victory at AT&T Stadium under the guidance of acting head coach Ryan Day.
“We really turned the momentum in the third quarter there,” Day said. “I think we had 20 points in a short period of time. So I thought that was the big difference in the game.”
The big difference-makers were defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones, whose 20-yard interception return of a shovel pass gave Ohio State the lead, and the continued excellence of first-year starting quarterback Dwayne Haskins, who connected on 24 of 38 passes for 344 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Haskins added a rushing touchdown to complete the scoring.
Ohio State’s defense stepped up after standout defensive end Nick Bosa left the game in the third quarter with an injury, shutting out TCU in the fourth quarter to help secure the win.
Day, who resumes his duties as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach this week, said he hasn’t had time to reflect on the team’s ability to carry on without Meyer at the helm.
“I really haven’t thought about that, more about this team and what they just went through, you know, getting through this game, the way that it went down,” he said. “You know, we knew there was going to be ebbs and flows in a game like this. We talked about how everything is not going to go perfect.
“There were times in the two weeks previously where things really went well for us. And we knew that there were going to be times we hit adversity and that we have to stick together in times like that. I thought we did.”
Ohio State is the only FBS team with three wins so far over Power Five opponents. Saturday’s game against Tulane (1-2) wraps up the Buckeyes’ nonconference schedule before they travel to Penn State the following Saturday for a Big Ten showdown.
Tulane doesn’t figure to pose much of a problem for Ohio State. The Green Wave’s lone win came against FCS Nicholls State after an overtime loss to Wake Forest in their opener.