Urban Meyer breaks down Dan Lanning’s 12-man penalty decision: ‘They are playing chess’

Oregon called a timeout. Then it traded five free yards in exchange for four seconds off the clock. An illegal substitution penalty, which Ducks head coach Dan Lanning slyly confirmed was intentional, made an already difficult late-game situation even harder for Ohio State quarterback Will Howard.

Instead of facing a 3rd-and-25 from the Oregon 43-yard line with 10 seconds and one timeout left, Howard found himself in a 3rd-and-20 from the Oregon 38-yard line with six seconds and one timeout left.

Ohio State didn’t get to use that timeout, though.

Howard didn’t get the opening he wanted on a flood concept, so he tucked the ball and gobbled up a handful of yards. Then he slid with the intention of getting down in time for the Buckeyes to stop the clock and kick a game-winning field goal. But Howard didn’t get down in time.

Game over: The Ducks celebrate a 32-31 win.

“The Triple Option” podcast — ran by three-time national champion Urban Meyer, former NFL and Alabama running back Mark Ingram II and longtime commentator Rob Stone — discussed Lanning’s intentional 12-man defense, as well as a previous controversial offensive pass interference penalty on Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith that pushed Ohio State back 15 yards, out of its target field goal range, and ultimately cost them an extra six or seven seconds of game time.

“Greg Schiano was on my staff, obviously I think one of the best coaches in college football, and many do, what he’s done at Rutgers,” Meyer explained Wednesday. “But he was an extremist, as far as covering every situation. I was not, and people were shocked that I — I don’t believe in paralyzing players. … I mean I don’t believe in slowing players down. I want players to play hard and fast. That wins.

“However, you do spend every day in training camp, the last half of spring ball, every practice — I think everyone does this — you finish with some kind of scenario. And I would keep track. I actually had a staff analytics guy help me with that, ‘Hey, give me a situation. Give me a situation. Give me a situation.’ I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that one. The pass interference, the live ball, now that’s a live ball where that means you start on the wind. … When you start losing seven seconds, I mean, my heart was racing. Obviously, I’m a Buckeye fan, but I’m a college football fan as well, trying to figure out how fast things change.”

Even with all of those flying bullets in a unrelentingly loud Autzen Stadium, Howard nearly pulled off one of the great heads-up plays in recent Buckeyes history. Instead, because he was one second too late, his slide and the events before that split-second decision are remembered as one of the more head-scratching sequences in recent Buckeyes history.

“If he slides that much quicker, they get the timeout,” Meyer said. “They line up and pop a field goal and get out of Eugene, Oregon, with one of the great wins for Ohio State. I’m not talking about the field goal. If he slides that much earlier, because actually as he’s going down there’s one second on the clock.”

Ingram, who played for the likes of legendary Alabama head coach Nick Saban and longtime NFL head coaches Sean Payton and John Harbaugh, shared his perspective.

“I’ve played a lot of football, like 12 years in the league, three years in college, I played for some great Hall of Fame coaches. And we worked situation after situation after situation. You have a period of situations. Every day after practice, you work on a situation. [I don’t] think that we ever worked that situation. For Dan Lanning to be able to intentionally have that situation ready and his players prepared for it, that’s chess and not checkers.”

Meyer, still wowed by Lanning’s preparation and risk taking this past weekend, made a declaration.

“If that’s true, then for 38 years of my career, I’ve been playing checkers. I’ve never done that. I never even — I’ll be honest, that’s never even crossed my mind.”

Meyer later added: “They are playing chess, because that is a hell of a staff.”

Stone then chimed in: “They might be playing a game that hasn’t even been invented yet.”