Urban holds meeting about Ohio's defensive struggles
[TItle says it all. Urban Meyer held a meeting with his defense to try to get his house in order.]
[ED:BiSB - Substance is interesting. Making this about RichRod is... misplaced]
[Response to mod edit: Fair enough. I just think the 'Urban = Rich Rod' meme is a little too common within our fanbase.]
October 15th, 2012 at 8:18 PM ^
urgency in 2010? What about 08 and 09?
And starting a thread with "not to beat a dead horse" should be automatic don't post this. All of the info about Urban could have been posted minus the RR junk.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:20 PM ^
October 15th, 2012 at 8:23 PM ^
October 15th, 2012 at 8:27 PM ^
I clicked it hoping to read about Urban and his meeting not a bunch of sh*t about what RR should have done.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:28 PM ^
My commentary might be beating a dead horse, but the underlying story (i.e., Urban's reaction to Ohio's defensive struggles) is certainly board-worthy.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:55 PM ^
Too late...
October 15th, 2012 at 8:19 PM ^
Yes, if only Rich Rod would have gotten involved with the defense and forced the 3-3-5 on coaches who had no business running it...
What could have been!
October 15th, 2012 at 8:37 PM ^
something about cup boards and bears
October 15th, 2012 at 8:57 PM ^
Maybe Meyer will force Fickell to run the 3-3-5 for the Michigan game.
I know this real cool flea-flicker play that might work.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:20 PM ^
I guess as long as this is out there I'll have to ask the question:
Was Fickell invited to the meeting, or just the position coaches?
October 15th, 2012 at 8:38 PM ^
that Fickell found this note on his office door today
October 15th, 2012 at 8:39 PM ^
missed that meeting.....he was out on a pizza run.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:44 PM ^
If Fickell was there, Did they invite the pizza delivery man he had fired?
October 15th, 2012 at 8:20 PM ^
Yeah we coulda been a contendah if RR had only held a meeting.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:24 PM ^
October 15th, 2012 at 8:29 PM ^
This.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:57 PM ^
This is an article about Urban Meyer, and some assholes still found a way to continue beating the dead horse and wallowing in the RR bitch-fest.
He's been gone almost two years now; let it go. How low of an IQ does one have to have to not be able to see that all people "accomplish" when they bitch about RR is to invite people to go deeper into the story, like "Three and Out" did?
Give it a rest.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:21 PM ^
October 15th, 2012 at 8:26 PM ^
I don't think Urban would hesitate to fire any assistant on his staff if he felt that the assistant was a liability. Can you imagine Rich Rod firing Tony Gibson?
October 15th, 2012 at 8:25 PM ^
They gave up 49 points and 481 yards to Indiana. I don't know how much a meeting is going to help.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:28 PM ^
It would have taken a lot more than a meeting to un-GERG the defense in 2010. The huge reversal from '10 to '11 is a primary example that unless that meeting (and many more after it) was about sound fundamentals and assignments, nothing was changing no matter how involved RR got.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:34 PM ^
Exactly right. Like Brian posted about Mattison watching film of his D-Line's footwork and how they did exactly what he coached them to do. Gerg couldn't even get the Linebackers to set up properly....footwork would've been a completely foreign concept to him
And all the meetings in the world wouldn't have fixed that.
Oh...and welcome to the Board! Good first effort.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:34 PM ^
The point isn't simply that he held a meeting. The point is that Urban recognized that there was a problem and resolved to fix it. He didn't whine about how many freshman linebackers he was playing or how many injuries he was dealing with. Urban wouldn't be averse to firing an incompetent assistant coach whom he had been working with his entire career simply because the assistant had been the best man at his wedding.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:49 PM ^
But isnt the problem (if there is a problem) just the opposite? Fickel was Tressel's guy - not Meyer's - so if anything whacking him would be simply getting rid of someone he had no emotional ties to whatsoever.
Sort of exactly like what RR did with Scot Shafer in 2008.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:56 PM ^
No, because Urban did fire (or declined to retain) Jim Heacock who was the DC under Fickell (which was probably his mistake; he kept the wrong guy). He brought on Everett Withers to be Fickell's co-DC. The strategy mirrors what he did at Florida in keeping Charlie Strong from Ron Zook's staff but bringing on Greg Mattison to be Strong's co-DC.
October 15th, 2012 at 9:26 PM ^
You keep talking about Meyer's willingness to fire longtime assistants. What is that insight based on?
October 15th, 2012 at 9:37 PM ^
The fact that the staffs he's assembled every time he's started a new job haven't consisted entirely of longtime cronies. His run at Utah was very successful, yet he only brought a couple of his Utah assistants with him to Florida.
October 15th, 2012 at 9:28 PM ^
Fickell was already there as you say; Shafer was not.
And here the meeting came before the defensive collapse (at Purdue); there it seems to be the other way around, with the collapse triggering the meeting.
(But I wouldn't have asked if Fickell was at the meeting if I hadn't had the same thought you did.)
October 15th, 2012 at 8:30 PM ^
Zach Boren started at MLB this weekend for Ohio State. A fullback starting at linebacker. Think about that
October 15th, 2012 at 8:40 PM ^
October 15th, 2012 at 8:52 PM ^
And former fullback Vince Helmuth played some d-line, although I do not think he started any games.
October 15th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^
The big difference there was that switch was made in the offseason. In the spring game, Moundros played LB, and spent all of fall camp playing LB before he ever started a game.
Boren switched over mid-season, and had a whole week of practice before playing there in a game.
Off-season position switches aren't uncommon, even from one side of the ball to the other. Doing that in the middle of the season in unheard of.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:31 PM ^
The thread is ok, but bringing up RR was not wise. Then to top it off with the whole "not beating a dead horse" thing...
But the article itself was ok.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:39 PM ^
I have seen a few 'Urban = Rich Rod lulz' posts on the board of late.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:34 PM ^
October 15th, 2012 at 8:46 PM ^
Don't mean to burst your bubble there bud, but RichRod called a few meetings with just the defense too.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:50 PM ^
Why do we need another RR thread? He's coaching at Arizona and we're playing the most important game of the season (so far) on Saturday. I understand keeping up with Meyer, but none of the OP was dedicated to that, except to set up the same tired arguments against RR.
I don't think I'm taking a position on the RR issue when I say I bet he had meetings about defense countless times during his tenure here.
October 15th, 2012 at 9:00 PM ^
And the fact that none of those meetings resulted in Tony Gibson getting a much-deserved pink slip or a realization of how maybe the 3-3-5 wasn't a great idea is an indication that Urban is different from Rich Rod.
October 16th, 2012 at 8:12 AM ^
What was that you were saying about people beating a dead horse? STFU already.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:57 PM ^
cuz it's going to be on the market real soon.
October 15th, 2012 at 9:05 PM ^
Better start packing all his affliction garb lest he lose out on all the batches..
October 15th, 2012 at 8:58 PM ^
This is State week. We should be unified as a fanbase, not divided and bringing up the RichRod past. What's done is done, the past is the past, and everyone's opinions here are pretty set in stone on RR, one way or another. All I know is that unless Michigan is playing Arizona, I don't want to discuss RR again on this board other than to thank him for bringing Denard here. Even if things didn't work out with RR we'll always have our amazing memories of Denard's awesomeness, so I'll always thank RR for that. Other than that though, I have no desire to rehash those years. I closed that part of my brain when I finished reading Bacon's awesome book 3 and Out.
EDIT - this was supposed to be in reply to Justingoblue's comment a couple above mine, hit the wrong reply button.
October 16th, 2012 at 8:44 AM ^
We SHOULD be united as a fanbase, but we're not; the Rodriguez years exposed that and continue to expose it every time his name comes up. The factions are at peace for now because Brady is succeeding, but the second things take a turn for the worse, I fully expect the pettiness and back-biting to resume once again.
Also, we should also thank Rich Rodriguez for more than just Denard. This team is winning with players Rodriguez recruited. If things go the way we hope and the year ends with a B1G Championship and a Rose Bowl berth, it will be because Rich left a good foundation for competent coaches to work with.
October 16th, 2012 at 1:31 PM ^
Especially if the team regresses on offense next year after Denard is gone, losing that level of leadership and talent is going to hurt. I can already see a 3 way split of the fanbase simply over who we start at QB - Gardner, Bellomy, or Shane, if there are struggles on offense early.
October 15th, 2012 at 8:58 PM ^
Urban Meyer fire Greg Robinson as the defensive coordinator. I think that would help things immediately.
October 15th, 2012 at 9:06 PM ^
October 15th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^
Travis Howard is depressed about it.
But really, I'm a little surprised at how bad their defense has been. It's not like they don't have talented players. I thought in Meyer's first year the offense would sputter while the defense carried the team, but it's been totally the opposite so far. Let's hope they don't get it turned around any time soon.
October 15th, 2012 at 9:11 PM ^
I think part of the reason is that Urban made a mistake in firing Jim Heacock and keeping Fickell; he should have done the opposite. His mindset is that he probably preferred to have younger guys on his staff, and Heackock is pushing 65. But Heacock was Ohio's Fred Jackson (he was originally hired by John Cooper), and he was probably more instrumental to Ohio's solid defensive play under Tressel than Fickell was.