What Urban Meyer has built means that the absence of Urban Meyer is not obvious: Doug Lesmerises

COLUMBUS, Ohio – At one point on Monday, while listening to Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, at his third consecutive press conference, I briefly forgot that he was not really there. head coach of the Ohio State.

This gave the impression that something had to be written about Urban Meyer.

It's just not clear what.

Before the start of the season, I thought Meyer would not be missed on Saturdays and after two OSU wins by 46 and 49 points, it's clear so far. Suspended for three Saturdays of play, Meyer will miss one more game when Ohio State No. 4 will play the 15th Texas Christian in Arlington, Texas on Saturday. And even if this opponent is exponentially more difficult than the first two, I can not think that Meyer's absence will change anything.

Ohio State can not be managed by anyone. But in six years, Meyer has developed a program that can be run without problem by a group of competent assistants, imbued with his philosophies. The day was excellent. But Greg Schiano, Kevin Wilson, Larry Johnson, Tony Alford … several other assistants of the OSU would also have succeeded.

As Lori Schmidt, veteran radio reporter for Columbus radio, suggested Monday, things are going well without Meyer because of Meyer.

"The training that's been going on over the past year and, of course, what Coach did here for the six years before that, there was a foundation here," Day said. . "So when you are going through something difficult, if you have a solid and solid foundation, then you can get through the other side and that is what happened."

What the Ohio State is doing is, of course, the mismanagement of licensed junior coach Zach Smith by Meyer and athletic director Gene Smith, who also continues to serve his suspension. Their failures with Zach Smith were revealed with a swirling cloud of allegations of domestic violence against Smith, and accusations in some circles that Meyer and Gene Smith have not adequately addressed these allegations, a school of thought strongly contested.

Do you remember all that?

I did not have to think about it a bit, right?

Well, it was a serious situation. This could be mostly done. May be. But not quite.

Because Meyer is coming back.

After TCU, the Ohio State match week leading up to the four game against Tulane will not be all about football, because the first time Meyer talks to reporters he will be questioned about the Ohio State's investigation into his actions. I did not respond to the night or its suspension was announced because the report had not yet been revealed.

So, you think the Buckeyes are absent from Meyer right now? In fact, it's the easy part.

Everything will start again as soon as it will be back, in one form or another.

Captain Parris Campbell said after Saturday's win that Meyer, who has coached Rutgers all week and will coach again this week, joined the team after substandard practice last Tuesday.

"He challenged us Wednesday to go out and have some great practice," said Campbell, "having a Ohio State practice, and we've done it." .

On Saturday, Meyer and his wife, Shelley, went to Nationwide Children's Hospital instead of getting ready for a match.

It was a typical Wednesday for Meyer last week and a different Saturday.

At the moment, Meyer is with the players, but hidden from the audience, during the week. The day is open on Saturday and in front of the journalists. This made these three weeks extremely typical.

"The coach is leading the team and doing everything," said Day Monday. "It was just not there on Saturday."

Smooth. Business as usual.

When will Meyer be fully back to work next week?

It is at this point that everything is as if everything had changed.