It was all good in Columbus.
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The comments have created a national debate on whether players should publicly criticize coaches in any circumstance.
The Ohio State Buckeyes will try to bounce back from their first loss of the season this Saturday when they visit the Michigan Wolverines.
In that game, the Buckeyes lost their first game of the year by a last second field goal by the Spartans kicker, making the final score 17-14.
As Elliott noted, the Buckeyes have their annual game with MI next weekend.
After the game, he was critical of his coaches and questioned why he only carried the ball only 12 times.
“I didn’t want to pull a Jalen Watts-Jackson”, Geiger said, referring to his teammate who ended up with a broken hip after returning a botched punt for a touchdown to beat MI in October. OSU used a strong passing game to beat Michigan State last season. The Buckeyes (10-1, 6-1) travel to archrival MI (9-2, 5-2) next Saturday and still have an outside shot at reaching the Big Ten East Division championship game the following week.
You can either choose to believe Elliott’s comments are the first crack in the machine Meyer built in Columbus, a NFL Draft exodus will precede a hit in recruiting and more systemic problems will tear all that down.
The loss ends Ohio State’s FBS-leading 23-game winning streak and Big Ten record 30-game conference winning streak. Again, this is not the time for statements like these.
The junior said he was lobbying coach Urban Meyer for more touches and that he deserved more than he got. The situation, circumstances and expectations from the outside made it feel like a shocking loss in the moment but the reality is that it was only a matter of time before this year’s Buckeyes faltered. Does this show that Meyer can’t control his team if they are not winning? They leaned on an offensive line that was supposed to be a strength this season, but has endured numerous injuries and has started six different lineups. But, there are a lot of 20-year-olds in college football.
Why hasn’t this team played up to its potential?
Elliott’s questioning of the play calls can be dismissed as youthful frustration, but combine his post-game declaration that he would enter the National Football League draft after this season with indications from Cardale Jones and Joey Bosa that they would do the same might make some people wonder if there were a few distractions in the locker room this season.
Afterward, he ripped his coaches.
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B1G HIGHLIGHT – Jim Harbaugh lets the officials know his displeasure with a pass interference call Saturday at Penn State.
