Ohio State football comes unglued after loss to Michigan State (Video)

The Ohio State football program has been as steady as a rock since Urban Meyer took over, but today’s loss to Michigan State has caused some dissension within the ranks in Columbus.

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Critics of Ohio State’s schedule got themselves a belly-laugh today when the Buckeyes offense completely folded against Michigan State in a 17-14 loss at the Horseshoe. But it was the aftermath of that loss which will really start people talking.

It’s not unusual to have players announce they are declaring for the draft, but before the season has even ended is a bit odd. Within hours of the final whistle, marking the end of Ohio State’s playoff hopes (for now), the finger-pointing and ship-abandoning began.

First it was last year’s hero, quarterback Cardale Jones, who made it abundantly clear he was done as a Buckeye after this season.

This wasn’t entirely unexpected. Jones has never been one to hold his tongue (or his tweets). After making the decision to return to school this year, and then subsequently losing his starting job to teammate J.T. Barrett, it wasn’t smart money to bet that Jones would return to Columbus next season.

But then things started to get ugly, and it came from a surprising source – star running back Ezekiel Elliott – who was unhappy with more than just the results of the game.

“The coaching staff didn’t put us in position to win. That’s a team (Michigan State) we should beat,” Elliott stated in the post-game press conference. “We should have run more power. We stopped calling plays that worked. Disappointed by lack of effort from coaches.

“I think I do deserve more than 11 carries…I don’t know what was going on.”

Wow.

It’s not often you hear players complaining about Urban Meyer, his staff or the play-calling, but this year’s Buckeye offense has seen more than one flat week, and the deflating loss to the Spartans seems to have brought everything to a head.

Elliot concluded with the bombshell of the day.

And there you have it. The kid from the suburbs of St. Louis, who bonded with Urban Meyer and chose Ohio State over his family’s hope of Missouri, is bailing after his third year and opting to join the ranks of the NFL hopefuls.

Again, not so much surprising that it happened, but in the way that it happened. For a kid like Elliott who has been so centered and focused during his time at Ohio State to go out by blasting the coaching staff is shocking, to say the least.

It’s amazing what you can overlook when you’re winning, right?

What the most incredible thing about this turn of events at Ohio State is that, the Buckeyes are far from done. Michigan State still has to play Penn State – no easy task – and if they were to lose that game, and Ohio State were to beat Michigan in the season finale, the Buckeyes would still play Iowa in the Big Ten Championship game.

A one-loss Big Ten champion can still make the playoffs.

Are today’s goings on a sign that Meyer is losing his touch in keeping these players on his side?

Nov 21, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer paces the sidelines during the game against the Michigan State Spartans at Ohio Stadium. Michigan State won the game 17-14. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

The narrative usually goes, coaches and players repeat the cliches, “It’s just one loss”, “We still have work to do”, “Our goals are still in reach”….etc, etc, etc. Why the diversion from the usual canned answers here? And the fact that Elliott openly stated that he “lobbied” Meyer on the sideline for certain calls and didn’t get them is a clear sign of a power struggle.

Make no mistake, if you butt heads with coach Urban Meyer, you aren’t going to win, especially if you’re a player. Even if Meyer thought Elliott was correct in the calls he lobbied for, he might have been stubborn enough to ignore it just to let him know who was in charge.

Not the kind of Senior Day that these players were hoping for to say the least.

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Things are not pretty in Columbus, Oh. right now, and if Urban Meyer doesn’t rein in some of this chatter and get his team focused on Michigan, then the fallout may continue and become even worse. Cooler heads need to prevail, or the Buckeyes’ season truly will be done in terms of championships.