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The Ohio State athletic department posted a tweet Wednesday that read "Silence the white noise," which has drawn criticism based on the recent scandal involving head coach Urban Meyer:

The team took down the tweet while issuing this statement Thursday:

Meyer was suspended for three games for his mishandling allegations of domestic violence against former assistant coach Zach Smith.

However, the team left the tweet up for more than 24 hours and noted the statement was in reference to Saturday's road game at Penn State.

"That message is the same message we used before the 2016 whiteout game at Penn State," football spokesman Jerry Emig said Thursday, per Dan Murphy of ESPN. "And that message is directed to our team to play really well to silence an incredible whiteout crowd at Penn State."

Even if the tweet is referencing the key game between two top-10 teams, it was still seen as tone deaf considering the program's recent problems.

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"This is promo art for a big game," Jason Kirk of SB Nation wrote. "But it was not a smart fit for Ohio State's situation as a program."

Meyer returned to the sidelines from his suspension last week against Tulane and will once again be the head coach for the game against the Nittany Lions.