Inside the halls of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center—the defacto headquarters of the Ohio State football team—motivational mantras line the walls.
"POINT A TO POINT B AS FAST YOU CAN GO!" says one sign.
"4-6 SECONDS OF RELENTLESS EFFORT AND FOCUS," reads another.
But in the week following the Buckeyes' 35-21 loss to Virginia Tech, it's been a different cliche that's been the overarching theme of Ohio State's practices.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Urban Meyer doesn't like being fooled, period, but that's exactly how the third-year Buckeyes head coach felt last Saturday when the Hokies stifled the Ohio State offense with a 46 Bear defense that employed a Cover 0 coverage. Meyer and his staff had not previously seen Virginia Tech use such a scheme while reviewing the Hokies on film, and as a result the ill-prepared Buckeyes struggled to move the ball on a consistent basis.
"The start of the game I remember on the headsets I said, 'Wow, I've never seen them do that,'" Meyer said on Monday. "They made a decision to take away the tailbacks and there were nine guys within six yards of the line of scrimmage, and you have to make someone pay a price."
Ohio State's shock was apparent in the box score, with quarterback J.T. Barrett completing just nine of his 29 pass attempts and throwing three interceptions in the second start of his college career. The redshirt freshman quarterback didn't get much help from the rest of his offense either, as the line struggled to protect him and wide receivers routinely dropped balls.
If ever there was a blueprint for beating the 2014 Buckeyes, this appeared to be it. Load the box to take away Ohio State's run game and force the inexperienced—and thus far, inefficient—passing attack to try to beat you over the top.
And given the success that the Hokies found with that plan on Saturday, why wouldn't future Buckeye opponents try a similar approach? It's not a coincidence that in the days leading up to Ohio State's matchup with Kent State, the Buckeyes have remained focused on the defense they just saw, as Meyer is well aware of how ineffective it made his offense look on film.
"Oh definitely, that's something we've been practicing against," OSU running back Ezekiel Elliott said. "We've got a couple of answers for it."
Finding those answers didn't require much work for the Buckeyes, who made in-game adjustments but just didn't execute properly in their loss to the Hokies. After all, there's a reason that the 46 defense isn't used more regularly in football, as it leaves one's cornerbacks on an island and susceptible to giving up big plays.
The Ohio State staff realized that early enough in the game to call for more shots down the field, but the Buckeyes never found the consistency to make Virginia Tech truly pay for its dare-you-to-throw approach. For Meyer, it's not a matter of knowing how to defeat such defense, but more of an issue of whether or not his team can.
"I thought we've improved at wide receiver, and we just didn't get open enough. When we did, it was a protection flaw," Meyer said. "If they're going to play zero coverage, you have to make those shots. And we haven't had a lot of that."
Which is why until the Buckeyes prove otherwise, they can expect a steady serving of the same defense that handed them their first loss of the season. The good news for Ohio State is that very few future opponents possess the defensive talent that Virginia Tech does, although Meyer knows that the toughest team left on the Buckeyes' schedule this season will certainly be taking a hard look at last weekend's game film.
"I don't know if people have the personnel [to play 46 defense]. I know one of them does. The team that won the Big Ten last year does," Meyer said, referencing Michigan State. "I don't know. That's risky stuff."
Risky? Sure. But as the Hokies proved last Saturday, it can be just as rewarding if Ohio State allows it to be.
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Ohio State Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.
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