Ohio State Football: Mediocre Schedule Gives Urban Meyer Time to Develop Offense

Urban Meyer has one year of banned postseason football to work his Ohio State Buckeyes into National Championship-contending shape.

He has a quarterback with all the tools necessary to succeed in his system, one of the top recruiting classes in the country and a program willing to do anything to succeed.

Meyer hardly needs the allure of Ohio State to do things right, though. His name is recruiting power enough.

Therefore, this season, while they serve punishment for the mistakes of previous Buckeyes, Meyer will have the chance to develop his offense before it is truly put to the test.

The team's schedule will allow for everything to be set in play gradually, too.

They open in Columbus against Miami (Ohio), a team that won all of four games last year, before UFC visits. The Knights fell apart a season ago and won only five games, all of which were at home.

Cal, a team that closed the season stronger than they started, will be the first real test for the Buckeyes in mid-September before UAB visits the following week.

All four games will be played in Columbus and the Buckeyes should win each of them as they learn the Meyer offense.

The Big Ten schedule then kicks in and all bets are off, but the Buckeyes stand to gain a ton from playing road games in East Lansing, Bloomington, Happy Valley and Madison.

They'll also host the Cornhuskers, Boilermakers, Illini and Wolverines.

Michigan and Wisconsin will be atop the Big Ten again this year, but that matters little to the Buckeyes this season.

The most important thing is for Meyer to develop his team the way only he can. It isn't ideal to have a postseason ban in his first season, but it does give Meyer the chance to work without expectations.

Expect to see him get this team up to speed pretty quickly.