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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 12, 2015

Urban Meyer

Columbus, Ohio

Hawaii -0
Ohio State - 38

COACH MEYER: Thanks for coming. As I always do, because I never want to take it for granted, all the way from the skull session, it was a packed house. And then also the Buckeye Walk, and then early, they came early and they stayed late.

And I know our players really appreciate it. I know the head coach appreciates that. I never want to overlook them.

My condolences to Dr. Wood\'s family. He was a friend of mine, and obviously I\'m a tremendous fan of our band and what he\'s been a big part of, I believe it was 28 years. That\'s incredible.

With that said, a big win. I think the team we played played their tails off. I\'ve known Coach Chow since probably 1990. We were talking about it before the game. So he was a very good friend. They played hard. They played really hard and disrupted us.

We did not execute well. When a coach says that, it sounds like you\'re taking away from what those guys did. Tough trip all the way across the world. And we didn\'t play extremely well. But we\'ll get better.

Q. Looked like when you got back to basics a little bit kind of running Ezekiel straight ahead, that\'s when you all saw some things about their defense. What befuddled you all the most about their defense?
COACH MEYER: It\'s that 3-4 defense, and we have not executed greatly against it. So we\'re going to go back to the drawing board, because we\'ll see that three or four times. Remember, Indiana did that same thing last year.

And they outschemed us a little bit. We checked the protection, and then they come the other way. And they kind of screwed with our offensive line a little bit. But we just have to get better.

Q. What kind of insight could you give us there in the second quarter when you take Cardale out; is that sort of what you talked about, that it could be an end game feel with who could take you down the field?
COACH MEYER: I still have to evaluate how we\'re doing that and what\'s the best opportunity to go down the field and score. This is -- I can\'t recall in major college football history when I remember witnessing something like that, where you have two good guys. I have to self-evaluate too and make sure we\'re doing the right thing by those guys.

I\'ll have more answers for you after I think it through and watch the film. The way my mindset is who is going to help us right at that moment.

I wanted to throw them both. J.T. had 15 opportunities to throw the ball. Cardale, 18. That doesn\'t include the pressures and the scrambles. Because we did not protect very well today. We have to get that fixed.

Q. Defensive question: Just about the way you all kind of locked them down a little bit. Only had 165 total yards just about. What did you all see in them from a passing game standpoint you were able to take away?
COACH MEYER: Oh, I thought the quarterback got the ball out so fast, kind of negated our pass, even though -- how many sacks did we have? Four sacks. And it still felt like we weren\'t getting there. I didn\'t feel the pressure.

Normally in games you feel like Bosa and Adolphus, I think they got the ball out fast. You\'ll have to ask Luke and Chris.

Luke\'s just worked with our transition on offensive staff. I spent zero time on defense. It\'s been balls to the wall with the offense and kicking game.

You\'d have to ask those guys. I thought they played great. They created turnovers. We scored on defense. Short field a couple times. So we\'ve got a lot of work to do in some other areas.

Q. You talked about you\'re going to evaluate the quarterback situation going forward. How do you think you\'ve handled it so far in deciding who is going to play, when they\'re going to play?
COACH MEYER: How do you think I\'ve handled it?

Q. Through the first two games.
COACH MEYER: We\'re 2-0. Would you like a grade or something, how have I handled it?

Q. We\'ve asked you how you think the team has handled the two quarterback situation, how the quarterbacks have handled it. I\'m wondering how you\'ve handled it.
COACH MEYER: I don\'t know. I guess you ask Gene Smith. That\'s the guy to talk to. (Laughter) I\'ve never thought of it that way, Doug. I guess I\'ll let you know. I\'ll do a little eval here. I think our execution is not where it needs to be.

I think it was pretty good the first game. Still not perfect. So I think we just -- a lot of us, it\'s also -- just Ed Warinner down on the field, we\'ve got to really get in sync a little bit better.

Q. Can you say how many units strong you were today? You have three --
COACH MEYER: Good question. Probably four of them on defense. I\'ll let you know. We\'re just finishing a 38-0 game; go enjoy it.

I will say this, that I\'ve been in this situation before. I let it be a weight on the team and me, when you\'re winning games, it\'s like why didn\'t you score this, why didn\'t you do this, why didn\'t you do this?

I\'m going to go see my family, have a hell of a time tonight, and make sure our players come in bright eyed, ready to rock and roll tomorrow and get a little better. I love coaching these guys because they want to get better, too.

But I can promise you this: We shall enjoy it. I\'m not going to evaluate myself tonight. If you need me to, I\'ll do it probably Sunday.

Q. Can you speak about Vonn Bell\'s performance today, having that scoop and score as well as--
COACH MEYER: Great player. Really good tackler. We\'re tackling pretty good on defense. And I don\'t think the 2s went in there and tackling particularly well. But I think Vonn Bell caught my eye. I\'ll let you know more. I didn\'t watch much defense, to be honest with you. I was working on the other side.

Q. This didn\'t come up, but you played four and a half days after you got home from Virginia Tech. How much did that impact what we saw here today?
COACH MEYER: I think that\'s a very solid excuse, one that\'s not allowed. I made that clear down there. I mean, that\'s good, that\'s good to bring that up and say that\'s the reason we didn\'t play necessarily well on the offensive line.

You\'ll never hear that. If I do, then that coach has got a problem and that player has got a problem. That\'s not execution. That takes away from that team.

I would never want to disrespect that crew that came in here and played their tails off. And it\'s been that way, when I go like that, that\'s one of those defensive fronts. The whole time, it\'s just moving, and we could never get our hands on them.

And someone said back to basics: Our basics are not just north/south, we\'re east/west as well. But we weren\'t hitting it like we should. So we\'ll get better.

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