COLUMBUS – With the start of the 2017 college football season a little over a month away, the Buckeyes will take the field for the first time this season with an early morning workout Thursday.
Head coach Urban Meyer doesn’t just believe the Big Ten has closed the gap with the more heralded Southeastern Conference. He is convinced the race is a dead heat already.
“I don’t think there’s a gap at all,” Meyer said Monday at Big Ten media days in Chicago. “I’ve coached in the SEC East when that was one of the strongest in the country. And I think the Big Ten East right now is every bit as strong as I can remember the SEC East,” where he won two national championships at Florida.
The SEC dominated the Big Ten the last two seasons, when it won six of the eight meetings between them. Meyer says he no longer sees disrespect for the Big Ten when it comes to recruiting.
Meyer looks like the CEO of a Fortune 500 juggernaut for good reason. After five seasons in Columbus, he’s built another college football dynasty, having won a third national championship, a conference championship and two division titles.
“Last year…we were the youngest team in college football and this year we’re not,” he said.
His team returns 48 lettermen from last year’s 11-2 team, including 16 seniors and 24 juniors.
Ohio State, Penn State, Northwestern and Wisconsin each placed two players on the preseason Big Ten all-conference list released yesterday.
Buckeyes quarterback J.T. Barrett and defensive end Tyquan Lewis were joined on the East Division team by Penn State running back Saquon Barkley and quarterback Trace McSorley.
Indiana linebacker Tegray Scales rounded out the lineup as chosen by a media panel.