COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Buckeyes head into the 2014 Big Ten football season on an up note, with decisive victories over in-state opponents in the their last two games, though head coach Urban Meyer says his team is no lock for the conference title.
“You don’t give up 300 yards passing and be able to look you in the eye say that’s a championship level football team out there,” Meyer told reporters after the 50-28 win over Cincinnati Saturday night. “I see certain units playing at a very, very high level, not nine. So our objective any championship level team operates at nine. And since I’ve been here we’ve not operated at nine.”
The Bearcats shredded the Buckeye defensive secondary for 330 passing yards, including three monster touchdown catches by Chris Moore.
“Defensively, we’re back to the drawing board. And pass coverage, the corner, a couple corners got beat and we gave up big plays. You can say other than that, but that’s we’ve got to get that fixed. You can’t play championship football until that gets fixed,” Meyer said.
The Buckeyes (3-1) travel to Maryland (Noon/ABC6) for their first conference game of the season. The Terrapins (4-1, 1-0) are coming off a 35-15 win over Indiana in Maryland’s first game as a member of the Big Ten.
The win over UC moved the Buckeyes up two spots in each of the major college football polls, to No. 18 in the USA Today coaches poll and No. 20 in the AP Top 25.