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Urban Meyer gave quite the compliment to the Indiana defense
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Urban Meyer is definitely taking Indiana seriously.
In his four games against the Hoosiers since arriving to Columbus, Meyer’s teams have been within three points in the fourth quarter. He isn’t listening to the 29-point spread Vegas gave his team.
Meyer’s teams have had some uncomfortably close battles with the Hoosiers, and that was when they had arguably the B1G’s worst defense. After watching the Hoosiers shut down No. 17 Michigan State, he knows that’ll be a different story on Saturday.
How good are the Hoosiers on defense?
“They’re the best defense we faced this year… and that includes Oklahoma,” Meyer said on his weekly radio show.
It might come as a surprise to hear someone say Indiana is better than Oklahoma at anything, much less the area that the Hoosiers have been historically awful in.
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But Meyer has a point. The Hoosiers are currently ranked No. 51 in yards allowed while Oklahoma is No. 88. Tulsa is actually the highest-rated defense the Buckeyes have faced at No. 61 overall.
Under new defensive coordinator Tom Allen, the Hoosiers have had all sorts of defensive success this year. If not for a five-interception game from Richard Lagow, the Hoosiers would likely be one of the top surprise stories in college football.
Meyer made sure his team was fully aware of that.
“The positive to this is nobody in this program is looking at the like, ‘This is just Indiana,'” Meyer said.
Kickoff in Columbus is set for Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.