Urban Meyer letting Storm Klein back on the team isn't surprising

Urban letting Storm back on the team isn't surprising. Just like Jim Tressel, UM3 doesn't give up on his players
and knows the best way he can influence a player is when they are on the team. Every good coach feels the same way and only boots a player when their actions give them no other choice. None of us know the full details but I'm sure Urban knows everything he needs to handle Storm accordingly. 
I read a good article at Bourbon Meyer (Florida website) that describes Meyer's philosophy when he was there:

Avery Atkins: Not every Gator fan knows who he is, but Atkins was a 4 star recruit at corner and a part of Urban Meyer’s first recruiting class. Atkins started in 3 games in 2005 and was the projected starter in 2006 when everything fell apart for him. He was dismissed from the team and left the University of Florida after charges of domestic battery on the mother of his child.He enrolled at Bethune-Cookman College, where he played three games in 2006 before leaving the team.
In January 2007 he enrolled at Florida again, but dropped out after only a few weeks and returned to Daytona Beach. On July 5, 2007, he was found dead in his running vehicle in his garage.Autopsy later determined the cause of his death as drug overdose. Ecstacy, to be specific. Atkins life was littered with problems stemming from some emotional and financial distress connected to his young child and the child’s mother.

I introduce you to Avery because he is likely a strong reason for the way Urban Meyer handles discipline on his teams. It is important to know that, some of the kids Meyer recruits don’t come from great backgrounds or neighborhoods. Moving to a campus and University culture is a huge adjustment for some of them. Meyer’s record of player behavior while at Florida is, at best, unflattering in its sheer numbers. However, if you look at what the instances and allegations are, you can see that some things are just “things college kids do”, and some are crazy stuff. The kids who did crazy stuff were typically suspended or removed from the team.
In a moment of truth, Urban might tell you that he wished he could have done more for Avery. He did all that he could by allowing him to come back and enroll at Florida and get a second chance at it, but Avery was too far gone.
Meyer’s philosophy is that, while not pretty all the time, some of these guys are better off on campus and under the supervision of himself, coaches, and advisors at the University with all of it’s resources, than they would be left to their own devices at home, where they may be nothing productive for them. Ever since Avery died, Coach Meyer has had a significantly more difficult time removing a guy from the program. Unless of course, it’s crazy, crazy stuff (like firing AK-47’s on Univ. Ave or stealing your teammate’s deceased girlfriend’s credit card and running it up)

How will Urban Meyer's system affect recruiting?

One thing that I've been wondering about is how will Urban's offensive scheme affect our recruiting.  To get an idea I decided to look at the past.  The schedule recaps Letters of Intent signed by Coaches Tressel and Meyer during their tenures at Ohio State and Florida.  It then shows a % breakdown by postion and then extrapolates to an 85 man roster:



Ohio State
LOI
%
85 x %
OL
23
12.8%
10.9
RB
15
8.3%
7.1
FB
3
1.7%
1.4
WR
17
9.4%
8.0
QB
10
5.6%
4.7
TE
10
5.6%
4.7
DT
14
7.8%
6.6
DE
18
10.0%
8.5
LB
25
13.9%
11.8
CB
23
12.8%
10.9
S
18
10.0%
8.5
P
1
0.6%
0.5
K
3
1.7%
1.4
180


Florida
LOI
%
+/-
85 x %
+/-
OL
18
15.8%
3.0%
13.4
2.6
RB
8
7.0%
-1.3%
6.0
-1.1
FB
1
0.9%
-0.8%
0.7
-0.7
WR
15
13.2%
3.7%
11.2
3.2
QB
5
4.4%
-1.2%
3.7
-1.0
TE
5
4.4%
-1.2%
3.7
-1.0
DT
10
8.8%
1.0%
7.5
0.8
DE
10
8.8%
-1.2%
7.5
-1.0
LB
16
14.0%
0.1%
11.9
0.1
CB
12
10.5%
-2.3%
8.9
-1.9
S
12
10.5%
0.5%
8.9
0.4
P
1
0.9%
0.3%
0.7
0.3
K
1
0.9%
-0.8%
0.7
-0.7
114
There are a few things that stick out:

• Surprisingly, Urban has 2.6 more offensive linemen which if he continues this practice will make many Buckeye fans happy.  Lack of experienced linemen was a continued compliant during the Tressel era.
• Given the switch to an offense more reliant on 4+wide receiver sets, Urban recruited 1.1 less running back but 3.2 more wide receivers.
• Fullbacks (-0.7) and blocking tight ends (-1.0) are somewhat interchangeable in Urban's scheme meaning we will recruit less specialty players in these two areas.
• Defense is surprisingly similar with the exception of cornerback where Urban had about 9 on the roster where JT had 11.  This is most likely due to Coach Tressel's love of special teams.  

Urban had 38.8 on offense and 44.7 on defense.  Coach Tress had 36.8 and 46.3.  Teams usually carry more defensive players due to special teams but one thing I do know that Urban did move some offensive players to defense if when they arrived they struggled to be a good fit to his scheme.  For example, Joe Haden came in as a wide receiver and left early as a cornerback.

No doubt recruiting philosoply is going to be affected by Urban's arrival and the transition might be a little messy as when combined with the scholarship reduction he might be having some tough conversations with a few players over the summer to make room for next year's class.  I'll probably cover that in a future post.

Urban Myth about redshirting

Last night there was another set of arguments one the forums regarding Urban's "We don't redshirt at Ohio State" quote.  Being pretty sure he meant the comment as a recruiting tool I decided to look at his history. Below is a 5 year summary of freshmen recruits that Urban had the opportunity to redshirt.

Ohio State under Jim Tressel redshirted about half his players which is the same that Urban Meyer did at Florida.

Urban's comment is saying that he never purposely recruits projects or players he expects to redshirt. His exact quote was:

In your experience, and understanding every player is different, how long does it take players with that talent level to make an impact on the field?

UM: We're going to rotate them right away. We don't redshirt here at Ohio State. We're changing that up. We're going to have the culture out here that there's no redshirting. If you don't play here, it's because you're not good enough. It's not because we're holding you back. We're going to recruit the kind of player where we want them on the field right now. That's the approach we took at Florida, and it's the approach we're going to take here.

He said that so recruits know he expects them to play immediately and if they don't make it it's because of a combination of inexperience and effort. If they do perform they won't get lost behind an upperclassman. It helps recruiting because all high school seniors think they are ready for college football and they all want to go where they have a chance to play immediately. Urban is also telling upperclassmen that any preferential treatment they get is earned every day.

None of this means that Urban doesn't redshirt. He does it as much as anyone.

Urban Meyer hit piece by Sporting News brings up some interesting questions

Today the Sporting News' Matt Hayes released an article that was a virtual smackdown of the new Buckeye coach mostly about his time at the University of Florida.  My issue with most of the article is that much of it uses unnamed sources but for the purposes of this post I'm going to trust that everything in it is true.  Frankly it would surprise me if it weren't true as the Sporting News doesn't usually publish unsubstantiated rumors as it is an actual news organization as opposed to a blog or website like TMZ.  Just because we don't know the sources doesn't mean they don't exist as I'd have to assume the editor at SN reviewed it extensively before releasing the article.


Facts as presented:

• While recruiting him earlier this year, Meyer told told Stefon Diggs that he wouldn’t let his son go to Florida because of significant character issues in the Florida locker room.
• Florida’s downfall began at the height of Meyer’s success—the 2008 national championship season. Three seasons of enabling and pandering to elite players—what Meyer’s players called his “Circle of Trust”—began to tear away at what he’d put together.
• According to multiple sources, the three players—all critical factors in Florida’s rise under Meyer—failed drug tests for marijuana and were sitting out as part of standard university punishment. By publicly stating the three were injured and not being disciplined, former players say, Meyer was creating a divide between the haves and have-nots on the team.
• Just how prevalent was the drug use among Meyer’s players? A source told Sporting News that Patriots coach Bill Belichick spoke to the current Florida team this offseason, and addressed the issue and how it impacts NFL careers. His message was, in essence, don’t be like those guys,” a source said.
• After the 2008 season, Thomas says he was told he had to “move on” because he wasn’t in the team’s plans for 2009. “I told (Meyer) I was on track to graduate, I wasn’t a problem and I did everything I was supposed to do—I just had a knee injury,” Thomas said. “I told them I wasn’t leaving, and if they tried to force me to leave, I was going to tell everyone everything." The next day, Thomas says he was given a medical hardship letter by position coach Chuck Heater stating Thomas had an injury that would prohibit him from playing football.
• Wisconsin accused Meyer and his staff of using former Ohio State NFL players to call high school recruits. Wisconsin also accused Meyer and his staff of bumping into offensive lineman Kyle Dodson, who was committed to the Badgers but eventually flipped and signed with the Buckeyes.

As I went through the article I found a lot of filler and not a lot of meat. I also find it interesting that states that Thomas was forced from the Florida team under Meyer while breezing past the fact that by the end of the 2011 season "Muschamp’s weeding out process of players who wouldn’t buy into his philosophy had whittled the roster to 72 scholarship players—13 under the NCAA limit."

It's a bit of a double standard but it does touch on some of the harsh realities in college football.  If it is all true it provides a bit of an insight into Urban Meyer.  From the article he seems when he arrived at Florida that he was an inexperienced manager who choose to treat his players as adults rather than as children and got burned as a result.  He's also not above using any means necessary to recruit a player including harsh truths.  Finally, he's willing to manage his roster to make room for underachieving players.

That's it.

Three months of investigation and that's the result.  If Charles Robinson spent 3 months on a story there would be jail time involved.  At best this story raises some questions about using NFL players to help recruiting as nothing else is close to a violation.

Ohio State knew what it was getting when we hired Urban Meyer.  He seems to have addressed any personal issues with player accountability and though perhaps has gone a bit overboard my guess he is currently setting expectations.  One thing is for sure and that is he's no Jim Tressel in regards to player interests.  Tressel went to an extreme in focusing on a recruit's character then tried to sign the best football players out of that bunch.  Meyer will recruit the best players but won't hesitate to drop a kid if the negatives outweigh the positives.  While this might cause some uncomfortable moments in the coming years, I'm ok with it because that's the reality in college football these days.  All you need to do is look at the NCAA's response to oversigning and you know what is important to the people that run the sport.

Winning is king and for Ohio State, there is no better choice than Urban Meyer.  A year removed from the problems at Florida he's no doubt learned some lessons and now is energized to retake the football world by storm.  I expect this won't be the last of these types of articles because no one writes them when you are losing.

Buckeye logjam in the skill positions (and why the Buckeyes offered James Onwualu)

James Onwualu got an offer from Ohio State yesterday which I didn't give too much consideration until I looked at his rankings.  Scout has him ranked as a 3 star and 33rd best wide receiver.  Rivals doesn't have a rank and 247 has him ranked as a 3 star and 50th best wideout.

That made me wonder - Why would Ohio State offer a kid ranked that low?

He currently has offers from Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Stanford which is a good sign but after looking into it the love is coming from an Underarmor camp he attended in December.

He got the 2nd highest score at the camp which led to the influx of offers.  Over the weekend he narrowed his list to Notre Dame, Michigan, Stanford, and Minnesota and that forced Ohio State to make an offer.  It wasn't said but I'd guess this was a conditional offer based on Onwualu attending the Ohio State camp over the summer so the coaches can see him up close before making it official.

A post about this on the Ozone forum that was thankful that they were going after him because the Buckeyes need depth got me thinking about the 2013 recruiting strategy at wide receiver.  Here's the current depth chart at wide receiver.

Corey Brown JR
Verlon Reed SO
Chris Fields JR
TY Williams SO
Devin Smith SO
Even Spencer SO
Frank Epitropoulous FR
Ricquan Southward FR
Mike Thomas FR

Note there isn't 1 senior on the team and we currently have 9 scholarship players at wide receiver.  When you consider that Ohio State is serving a 3 scholarship reduction due to Tatgate and the fact they recruited 3 players on special teams, they only have 79 scholarships to give in 2013.  That means without adding a single recruit, wide receivers will take up 11.3% (9/79) percent of the scholarships next year.  In a conventional offense you normally only have 2 wide receivers which means you'd expect wide receivers to have about 9% (2/22) in total but many spread offenses have 3 on the field which would bump that to 13.6% (3/22).  Using that figure instead you get 10.7 so I'd expect the Buckeyes to take 1-2 wide receivers for the 2013 season.

One caveat to this is Ohio State fans are used to recruiting a bunch of running backs for their historical brand of smashmouth football.  If we recruit 3 wide receivers we will need to account for this with fewer running backs.  Here's the depth chart at running back.

Zach Boren SR
Jordan Hall SR
Adam Homan SR
Carlos Hyde JR
Rod Smith SO
Warren Ball FR
Bri'onte Dunn FR

With 3 players graduating it would seem this would be an area of great need but the change in offensive philosophy will probably lessen the demand.  The move to more 1 back offense means we can expect to have about 1.5 recruits out of the 22 on the field or 6.8%.  For the 79 open scholarships this means we should have 5.3 players in this area.  Considering that the Buckeyes already have 4 players on scholarship, this will mean the Buckeyes will take 1-2 running backs at most for 2013.  That also assumes we won't replace either of our graduating fullbacks but my guess is we've seen the last of fullback recruits and they will train their tight ends to move into that spot as needed.

The bottom line is between wide receiver and running back the Buckeyes will probably take 3 wide receivers or running backs.  They could take 4 but at some point it starts cutting into other positions which leads to the situation we saw at offensive line throughout the Tressel regime.

At this point you may be asking yourself what does all this mean when the original question was about a scholarship offer to an unknown kid from Minnesota.  Despite the Ozone poster's concerns, the Buckeyes will be fine at wideout in the next few years as Verlon Reed and Devin Smith are excellent receivers with good hands.  What we don't have is a true running back/wide receiver hybrid and from all indications, James Onwualu excels at both.

Urban Meyer was hoping to get a player like that last year but it didn't work out.  This year I expect 2 of his 3 offensive skill position recruits to fit that mold.  He is scouring the national lists and is trying to get the top recruits into Columbus this summer where he will run them in drills against one another to finalize his priority list.  The problem is Michigan has already gotten many kids to verbally commit and using that fact to pressure other kids into doing the same thing.  The offer from Urban was a preventative measure to slow down Onwualu's decision process so he will at least visit Ohio State before making a final decision.  Let's hope it works.

In a long race is slow and steady better than fast and reckless?

In the old folktale - "The tortoise and the hare", the tortoise wins because he doggedly sticks to his goal.  The moral of the story can be taken in quite a few ways but one I've grown to appreciate is that sometimes in life going slower is actually going faster.  Stonewall Jackson was a big proponent of this as he found that his men could march further if he had a mandatory rest of 10 minutes every hour.  Any NASCAR driver could tell you the same thing ... sometimes you need to go slow to go fast.

Jim Tressel was the epitome of slow and steady.  He was big on preparation and no one ever accused him of being hasty.  His idea of pressuring a player was firm discussions.  Compare that with Urban Meyer.  He's big on preparation too but moves with a manic passion you never saw with Coach Tressel.

Tressel's method develops team unity.  These players that are more confident in themselves and more likely to produce in crunch time.  I think these players have more fun as it is less pressure packed and a more family type atmosphere.  This is important in developing cohesion but giving players freedom to be adults isn't always a positive as we saw with the TAT5.

Urban's method creates better individual players.  Everyone pushes themselves to the limit all the time.  There is no time off.  There is no quit.  This is impossible to keep up forever and a good example is what happened at the end of Urban's tenure at Florida.  You could make a pretty good argument that Urban had pushed the program so hard for so long that a good portion of them players rebelled and he lost control of the program.  When that happened he knew it needed a reboot and frankly that was easier to accomplish with a new coach.  In effect, he fired himself.

No doubt either method can have great results.  The key is knowing when to push on the gas and when to apply the brake.  Urban says he's learned during his time off how to use the brake but the only thing for sure is the Ohio State program has currently got the pedal on the floor and is racing at full speed for the turn.

I'd really like to see obvious signs that Coach Meyer knows how to apply the brake in the next year or I really doubt his tenure will be any longer than what he was able to achieve at Florida.

Post note - This blog entry might be influenced by the fact the Daytona 500 was yesterday.