Urban Meyer believes Tennessee will be a 'throw-first' game for Ohio State

Former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer knows from experience how important it is to win in the trenches. Meyer won three national titles as a college football coach and play in the trenches was a big part of all of them.

The current FOX Sports analyst believes that the Tennessee defensive line has a clear advantage over the Ohio State offensive line heading into Saturday’s first-round College Football Playoff game, in part because of injuries the Buckeyes are dealing with.

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Because of that, Urban Meyer feels that the best chance for Ohio State to consistently move the ball against the Vols is through the air. He joined The Herd with Colin Cowherd this week and broke down how Ohio State should try to attack the Tennessee defense.

“The obvious answer is get the ball out fast,” Urban Meyer said of how to combat Tennessee’s defensive front. “This is going to be a throw-first game for Ohio State. It’s going to be cold, but it is what it is. It’s going to be a throw-first game, which obviously that’s not conducive to a big-time matchup. But this is going to be a throw-first game for Ohio State.”

While Urban Meyer believes that the best way for Ohio State to attack the Tennessee defense is through the air, he did acknowledge that going up against an excellent defensive front is not what you want to see if you’re Ohio State as the CFP gets underway.

Meyer always checked the trenches first to see who had an advantage when he was breaking down film as a coach.

“It’s very alarming,” Urban Meyer said. “Any time you get to December that’s really the No. 1 place you look. And all those years of game planning… I remember for years and years and years you’d sit there and you’d just run back and forth the matchups on the offensive lines and defensive lines.

“And when Seth McLaughlin, the center, got hurt for Ohio State, this is right after their best performance maybe in two years at Penn State. And they didn’t play very well against the Wolverines, as a matter of fact they played poorly. They looked discombobulated, and a lot of that is because of those three injuries they had on the offensive line.”

It will be interesting to see if the time off can help Ohio State get some things figured out up front and if Ryan Day and the Buckeyes do indeed go with a pass-first approach against Tennessee.