First-year Ohio State coach Urban Meyer hugged his players tightly, told them how proud he was of them and then sang the alma mater amid his team with a smile that never subsided after beating Michigan State on the road Saturday.

While the victory was nice, Meyer was more jubilant that 10 months of work by him and his staff seemed to finally come to fruition with how the Buckeyes banded together and showed some fight instead of rolling over the way the 2011 squad might have done when faced with similar circumstances.

“It was a team that matured,” Meyer said at his weekly press luncheon Monday. “It’s been a team that’s been pushed around for a while. Lot of things have happened — lots of things I’m probably not even aware of. But I could tell it wasn’t a close team. It was a team with a lot of excuses, and (the growth) materialized over the weekend.

“We pushed the envelope as a coaching staff and they bought in.”

Although he’s experienced nothing but success since becoming a head coach in 2001, Meyer has been a part of teams that never became unified. He wasn’t sure about this one, either.

“In a 26-year career as an assistant and head coach — I’ve probably given you too much information — I think six teams or seven teams (did). That means there’s a bunch of average football in there,” he said. “How many great teams are there? I’m not saying we’re a great team. But we at least have a chance to do some good things because I felt like they came together.”

Receiver Philly Brown, who had a team-high 12 catches, also saw a transformation in the Buckeyes during the 17-16 win. They traveled to East Lansing with doubts about themselves after their spotty play during four non-league games but came home a much more confident bunch.

“After the game, words can’t explain what went on in that locker room — the excitement and how everybody was telling each other how much they loved them,” he said. “I got up there and got a chance to express my love for the team and say how much we’re all in — and we’re just going to keep building on that win.”

The 12th-ranked Buckeyes (5-0, 1-0 Big Ten) will play their 11th night game in Ohio Stadium history when they host No. 21 Nebraska (4-1, 1-0) at 8 p.m. Saturday. Although he was on staff as a grad assistant in the 1980s, Meyer will be experiencing his first prime-time Buckeye game.

“I would anticipate a night game — in one of the greatest stadiums in college football — it will be an inferno,” he said. “Plus, you have a 5-0 football team getting ready to face a really good team, so I would anticipate it being as electric as it’s ever been.”

League matter: Video has surfaced online of MSU guard Jack Allen sticking his fingers through the facemask of OSU defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins and trying to gouge his eyes after a play.

“I dealt with that at Florida one time,” Meyer said. “We had to sit a player down for doing that. … I believe we turned it in (to the Big Ten office).”

OSU was accused by Spartans defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi of sending incomplete tape in the standard film exchange between the teams last week. But Meyer said: “I asked our video staff. They said there was an issue on Tuesday. It was corrected immediately, and that’s all I was told. There was no intent or deception or hiding anything, nothing like that.”

Injury update: Running back Jordan Hall partially tore the posterior cruciate ligament in his knee and is doubtful for the Nebraska game. He leads all OSU running backs with 218 rushing yards and 5.4-yard average.

C.J. Barnett, a junior safety from Northmont, is expected to play after being sidelined two games with an ankle injury.

Player issue: Tyrone Williams, a sophomore receiver from Cleveland, was dismissed from the program because of an undisclosed violation of team rules. Williams had five career receptions, all of them last year.