247: friction "brewing" between Urban Meyer and Ohio State

quote:

---

Ohio State dropped its first game of the season on Saturday night, coming out on the wrong end of an emphatic 49-20 upset loss to the Purdue Boilermakers in West Lafayette, but the Buckeyes may have bigger issues according to Scott Roussel of FootballScoop.

Roussel reported Monday that some "friction" has been brewing over the past few weeks within the Ohio State athletics department between head coach Urban Meyer and university officials.

“The past few weeks industry sources have mentioned to FootballScoop issues at Ohio State between the football staff and athletics leadership as well as within the program itself,” Roussel wrote. “Multiple times, the term “friction” has been used to describe issues between Urban Meyer and Gene Smith (and their respective key lieutenants). Within the football program itself, it has been said there is a tension that hasn’t been present in previous years.

"Given the success Urban has had, one should assume that in time, he will make the necessary changes to continue to improve the program itself, releasing that tension. However, that “friction” with athletics leadership is different. Something we’re told hasn’t been there in the past."

The belief that the Buckeyes have much bigger issues than the loss to the Boilermakers is shared by ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit. During an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show on Monday morning, he observed that Meyer hasn’t been himself since returning from his two-game suspension to open the season.

“I think there’s a lot there and I 100 percent agree with you about Urban Meyer,” Herbstreit said. “He’s not going to talk about it publicly, you know two or three weeks ago he took a knee, he kind of grabbed his head and he said he’s been having headaches. He doesn’t look the way he’s looked since he’s been at Ohio State, where he said, ‘listen, if I’m going to take this job after what I went through at Florida, I’m going to keep my priorities straight, family first, not going to get out of whack.’

“And if you watch him on the sidelines since he’s been back, he looks just, the word I’ve used is anguished. He looks frustrated, he looks very emotional and erratic. And his team right now, you’re going to find out what they’re made of because like I said, you lost to Iowa last year, you had leaders to get you back. You lose this year, we’ll see how they respond. But they’ve got some big problems.”

---