Urban Meyer weighs in on Devin Brown red zone package

After Devin Brown came into to score a rushing touchdown vs. Purdue this past weekend, former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer compared the young Buckeye QB to some of his own former stars.

Down two of its best running backs, Ohio State reached into its bag of tricks early during Saturday’s contest against the Boilermakers. Backup QB Devin Brown‘s number was called on a goal line set during the first quarter, where he lowered his shoulder and bullied his way into the end zone for the first rushing touchdown of his career.

Brown was the No. 1 overall prospect in On3’s 2022 player rankings, so anticipation is obviously high to see this talented kid play. Against Purdue, fans finally got a glimpse of him. According to Urban Meyer, a guy like Brown, who can scramble, brings a whole new dimension to the team’s red zone offense. He explained why on this week’s episode of Urban’s Take with Tim May.

“You know, Coach Day’s been apart of our offenses, and he’s a really smart guy. The minute you add the running quarterback into the red zone, that changes the whole game,” said Meyer.

“Because, turning it around, handing the ball off in the red zone — I used to have people say, you know, ‘why don’t you just give it to Zeke?’ It’s not that easy. When you’re down in there deep, there’s two defenders standing right there, you don’t have enough people to block them.”

He then laid out how a dual-threat quarterback can change the scenario entirely, using Tim Tebow and JT Barrett as examples of guys who were runners like Brown.

“So how do you do that? Well, you make the running back be the blocker and you run away from the other guy. That’s what we did with JT Barrett for so long and so successfully. And then Tebow was the same way,” Meyer recalled.

The sacrifice is that your quarterback will have to get their pads dirty if they want to run the ball, which is always a risk, says Meyer: “You know, the question is: do you want to get the quarterback hit? You know, that always comes up.”

But Meyer thinks the world of Brown as a player and believes he can withstand the hits and continue to be apart of the Buckeye offense.

“Devin Brown, I know the way the staff feels about him. They love the guy,” Meyer said. “I love the guy. I think he’s a tough dude, I love the enthusiasm he plays with. I can see more of that.”