How will Ohio State football stop Notre Dame’s best player?

We have just over a week left until the season-opener against Notre Dame. It’s a top-five showdown that will be the talk of college football in Week 1. The Ohio State football team is favored to win the game, but they still have to stop Notre Dame’s best player.

That player is tight end Michael Mayer. Mayer is the best tight end in the country and is a matchup nightmare. The combination of his size and strength make it hard for teams to stop him when he has the ball thrown his way. His catch radius is pretty wide too.

Mayer had 71 catches for 840 yards and 7 touchdowns last season. 71 catches is a lot for any player, let alone a tight end. With the fact that the Fighting Irish are going to be down some receivers for this game, Mayer is going to get a lot of targets.

So how do the Buckeyes stop him? Jim Knowles better have a gameplan for him. He didn’t get to face him in Oklahoma State’s bowl game last year because he was already with the Buckeyes. It better be better than what the Cowboys did in that one because Mayer had 7 catches for 72 yards and 2 touchdowns in that Fiesta Bowl.

Playing a mix of man-to-man and zone coverages should help. In a man-to-man situation, Ohio State should give Kourt Williams or Ronnie Hickman a chance to cover him. They also shouldn’t be afraid to shade another defender his way if necessary too.

Zone coverage will help confuse the quarterback more than anything. That should give the Buckeyes more time to rush him and force him to make a bad decision. Mayer can carve up zone if given the chance though, so that should be used wisely.

If the Ohio State football team can keep Mayer in check, they should walk out of the Shoe with a victory in hand on September 3rd. If they fail to do so, they might be walking out with a loss.