Ohio State Football: How the Buckeyes Will Look Different After Their 2nd Bye

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Uncomfortable, awkward and unfortunate. These are the words that Urban Meyer has used to describe Ohio State's second bye in the past four weeks.

While Meyer has expressed concern with his team maintaining its newfound momentum through its week off, he's also found multiple ways for the Buckeyes to benefit from it.

Health aside—every team could use an extra week of rest this time of year—a little self-scouting revealed tendencies and inefficiencies not previously noticed by the Ohio State staff.

Couple that with an additional two weeks of player development, and it could be a new-look Buckeyes that you see taking the field this Saturday in their return against Rutgers.

Red-Zone Revival

While the Ohio State offense has been humming so far this season, ranking 12th in the nation in yards per game (524) and fifth in points per game (44.6), Meyer has noticed a disturbing trend that could spell disaster for the Buckeyes in the long run.

Of Ohio State's 28 trips to the red zone this season, just 19 have resulted in touchdowns, a 67.9 percent conversion rate that Meyer clearly isn't satisfied with.

“It’s not very good at all,” Meyer said. “For what we expect, it’s not very good. There’s a couple styles that teams are starting to play us. It’s not the players’ fault, it’s our fault. Coaching errors—whether that be tempo—we have to do a better job.”

While four field goals up the Buckeyes' red-zone success rate to 82.1 percent, Meyer is fond of saying that he gets "paid to score touchdowns."

Plus, that number still falls well short of the 91.7 percent success rate that opponents have found against Ohio State this season, scoring on a combined 11 attempts (10 touchdowns, one field goal) in the red zone this season.

Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

As Meyer mentioned, tempo could be viewed as an issue, as the Buckeyes have struggled to consistently find a sweet spot for offensive coordinator Tom Herman's hurry-up, no-huddle pace. It also hasn't helped that tight end Jeff Heuerman is yet to play at full strength, but Herman isn't trying to make any excuses for Ohio State's drop from last season's 95.2 percent red-zone success rate.

“We don’t care what those weaknesses are,” Herman said. “We just need [to do] a better job of exploiting [opponents'] weaknesses and not trying to beat our head against the wall into their strengths.”

Having a healthier Heuerman should help, as should an extra two weeks of film study heading into Saturday's showdown with the Scarlet Knights. The Buckeyes offense may already be clicking, but look for an even more refined version to take the field for the remainder of the season.

"A Million Reps"

If maintaining health is the first goal of a bye week, then player development is the second—and sometimes the two go hand in hand.

Take for example Ohio State's defensive line, where Meyer has admitted to taking it easy on starters Joey Bosa and Michael Bennett during the Buckeyes' second week off. But that doesn't mean that practice stops, as younger players take the places of their more experienced teammates.

“I’m getting [freshman defensive end] Jalyn Holmes a million reps right now," Meyer said last week. "And some of the other young players that we have to get ready to go."

Those players could include the likes of freshmen Damon Webb, Noah Brown, Erick Smith, Jamarco Jones and Dante Booker, each of whom have already burned their respective redshirts but are yet to see significant minutes in the 2014 campaign.

The additional early bye also meant for more time in the development of freshman linebacker Raekwon McMillan, who has seen the majority of Ohio State's middle linebacker snaps in recent weeks.

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

“You see what Raekwon McMillan is doing with his confidence with playing," Meyer said heading into the bye week. “I’m going to continue to give them as many game reps just to continue to show that maturity.”

With Meyer opting to practice his first-team offense against his first-team defense throughout the Buckeyes' first bye, the second week off led to more of an opportunity for Ohio State's younger players to show what they're capable of.

Whether that translates into anything tangible in the remainder of the season won't be determined until later, but Saturday will certainly be a start.

Scouting Services

While the weekly Urban Meyer Call In Show on the Ohio State Radio Network rarely delivers much we didn't already know, the Buckeyes head coach dropped an interesting nugget during Thursday's edition.

Speaking about the self-scouting that his staff often performs during off weeks, Meyer mentioned that he'll also call head coaches of opponents that Ohio State has previously played in order to trade tendency tips.

Such was the case following the Buckeyes' battle with Cincinnati, when Meyer shared a chat with Bearcats head coach Tommy Tuberville. Over the course of the conversation, Tuberville revealed that while stacking its tight ends to a specific side, Ohio State always ran a play-action pass—a tell that the Buckeyes have corrected in the weeks since.

With an additional two weeks to self-scout and seek the advice of others, it will be interesting to see what other tendencies the Buckeyes discovered that they've developed through the first five games of the season.

It could also result in potential big gains for the OSU offense, as opponents could be expecting one play only to find themselves facing another.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Ohio State Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats and recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.