Urban Meyer says missed call cost Ohio State in 2016 Penn State loss

Former Ohio State football head coach Urban Meyer thinks a missed call is the reason for the Buckeyes' 2016 loss against Penn State.

In a clip from "The Triple Option" show July 15, Meyer said that an uncalled penalty during an Ohio State field goal attempt prevented the Buckeyes from tying the Nittany Lions.

With OSU up 21-17 with 4:39 remaining in the fourth quarter, Meyer sent out the field goal unit on fourth-and-7 for a 45-yard attempt, but linebacker Marcus Allen blocked Tyler Durbin's kick. Penn State cornerback Grant Haley scooped up the loose ball and returned it to the end zone, turning Ohio State's three-point lead into a Penn State four-point advantage.

Urban Meyer thinks the Block Six vs Penn State came from a missed penalty.@danWorthington@TheScriptOSUpic.twitter.com/LlzU9zt8Yv

— The Triple Option (@3xOptionShow) July 14, 2026

"By rule, you can't physically pull the field goal protector out of the way of the guy jumping through," Meyer said.

Meyer was referencing Penn State defensive tackle Ryan Bates, who appears to pull Ohio State offensive lineman Brady Taylor out from the middle of the line. The open space gave Allen a lane to jump up and block the kick.

Now down 21-24, Meyer's team had one more offensive drive to try and tie the score, but Penn State's defense forced the Buckeyes to go for it on fourth-and-23 from their own 29-yard line, and OSU failed to convert.

"I turned it in, and I didn't [expletive] a lot about it," Meyer said. "My fault that we ran the field goal unit on late."

The loss against Penn State was the Buckeyes' only regular-season loss in 2016, costing the team the Big Ten Championship. Penn State beat Wisconsin 38-31 in the conference championship game and lost a month later as the No. 5 seed to No. 9 USC 52-49 in the Rose Bowl.

Despite the loss, Ohio State qualified for the College Football Playoff semifinal as the No. 3 seed. The Buckeyes lost to eventual champion Clemson, the No. 2 seed, in the Fiesta Bowl 31-0.

"They later came back and said it could have been and should have been a penalty, if I remember right," Meyer said. "If they would've thrown that flag, obviously, we win."

Whether or not a penalty should have been called for the reasons Meyer specified, the play definitely would have been illegal a year later. Big Ten Coordinator of Football Officials Bill Carollo spoke at Big Ten media days in 2017 and said that, according to a change in the NCAA's 2017 football rulebook, Allen would have been prohibited from jumping to block the kick after he had already reached the neutral zone.

“Last year, legal. This year, illegal,” Carollo said, in a report by SB Nation.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Urban Meyer says missed call cost Ohio State in 2016 Penn State loss