How will Urban Meyer's return to practice impact Ohio State?

The speculation, debate and conversations about Ohio State never end, and Lettermen Row is always ready to dive into the discussions. All week long, senior writer Austin Ward will field topics on the Buckeyes submitted by readers and break down anything that’s on the minds of the Best Damn Fans in the Land. Have a question that needs to be tackled, like the one today on Urban Meyer and the offense? Send it in right here — and check back daily for the answers.

Offense looked great, zero designed keepers for Haskins . will urban let it roll or will he ask for some added during practice.

— gRangelOSU (@gRangelOSU) September 3, 2018

Urban Meyer almost certainly didn’t need an alarm clock to wake him up on Monday. In fact, with the Ohio State coach now cleared to return to work, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he was in the parking lot at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center just after the clock struck midnight to get back into his office and catch up on some film.

Of course, Meyer was obviously watching the game on Saturday, and he had to like what he saw from an Ohio State offense that might be the most talented of his tenure with the program. And considering how successful it was without much of a contribution from the quarterback run game, it’s hard to imagine that Meyer didn’t take notice of that fact. If there has been one criticism of his power-spread system even while it was the most potent in the Big Ten, it was what seemed to be an over-reliance on using the quarterback on the ground. Having Meyer away from the team certainly wasn’t ideal for the Buckeyes during the month-long investigation, but maybe there’s a benefit from watching from the outside for a brief time to get a fresh, clean perspective on the playbook.

It’s also possible, probably even likely, that this was the evolution Meyer was seeking with his offense when Dwayne Haskins claimed the starting job. In that scenario, the offensive brilliance and the fact that Haskins only rushed twice and only as a last resort was just a validation for what the Buckeyes have planned this season. Oregon State is not the stiffest competition, and Ohio State could realistically have done whatever it wanted to put up points on Saturday at the Horseshoe. But it’s telling that the Buckeyes didn’t want to do it with Haskins on the ground, particularly since it set the table for Mike Weber and J.K. Dobbins to get 35 combined carries.

Ohio State is still Meyer’s program, and he’s going to get his way now that he’s back in charge. At some point, the Buckeyes will again have some designed runs for the quarterback in the game plan, especially as the level of competition rises. But there is already some evidence now that it doesn’t need to be a staple of the playbook, particularly with all that talent surrounding Haskins.

The best thing Urban Meyer could do now is to stay on that offensive course now that he’s back to work.

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