urban meyer NORMAN, OK – SEPTEMBER 17: Head coach Urban Meyer of the Ohio State Buckeyes looks on against the Oklahoma Sooners at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on September 17, 2016 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

Every week during football season, Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer hosts a radio show on 97.1 The Fan in Columbus, Ohio. And since the Buckeyes pretty much always win, Meyer presumably doesn’t feel too burdened by fielding calls from crazy fans who pepper him with questions.

But last weekend, Ohio State lost at Penn State, 24-21. It was only Meyer’s fifth loss and first on the road in four and a half seasons with the Buckeyes, and maybe he didn’t want to talk about it, because, according to the Columbus Dispatch, the show did not take a single call.

Naturally, fans viewed the decision not to get any input from viewers as Meyer dodging fans who might be unhappy after a loss.

Even Anthony Rothman, who hosts the show that comes on immediately after Meyer’s, criticized the coach for cutting the phone lines. Via the Dispatch:

After Meyer’s show ended, Rothman described it as the “so-called” call-in show and said the lack of calls was the “elephant in the room.”

“I’m very disappointed,” he said. “I thought we’d have calls or that they would take calls. I don’t understand. It was a loss. I know it’s disappointing and everyone wants to move on when that happens, but I think these fans have a right to call in and be cordial and be objective and ask their coach some football questions, which they get to do every week after wins.

“You can’t ignore it. I’m not going to ignore. I’d be selling out my own integrity.”

Here’s the company line on why Meyer didn’t take any calls:

But Skip Mosic, executive producer of the OSU radio network, said the decision not to take calls was strictly his.

“For 31 years, I have determined what phone calls are put on the air,” Mosic told The Dispatch. “There were no phone calls that had not already been asked or answered this week (in Meyer’s media sessions). We have a screening process, and I determine whether something has been asked and answered.

Mosic said he has followed the same procedure on the radio shows for every Ohio State coach.

“If there are questions that have not been asked before, then obviously yes (we’d take them),” Mosic said. “What was popping up on my screener was nothing that hadn’t already been talked about.”

Suuuuure.

[Columbus Dispatch]

 

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.

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