Coach John Cooper Quotes – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/10/1998 12:00:00 AM | Football
September 10, 1998
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%^$Do you feel you have to get your players up for this game after the high from the West Virginia win?%^$
“No, not really. They players will be excited to play in the horseshoe for the first time. When you’re playing at home for the first time, the adrenaline is going to get flowing. You’re going to get excited. We tell them that when we recruit them. We’ve got several young players who will be enjoying their first time in the ‘shoe. They’ll be excited.” %^$
%^$Any injuries from the West Virginia game?%^$
“We’re all right. We won’t have anyone that played last week that won’t play this week.” %^$
%^$Do you plan on using a lot of the young players again?%^$
“Yes, we’ll play a lot of young football players, much like we did last week.” %^$
%^$Anything in particular that scares you about Toledo?%^$
“We have great respect for Toledo’s football team. I was just telling the squad earlier that their quarterback threw for 3,000 yards and 27 touchdowns last year. He also had 200 yards last week. Their running back, Tait, is back from an injury and he gained 1,900 yards rushing three years ago. They’ve got a good offensive football team. The problem that we’ll have is that we haven’t played against the style of defense that they run in a couple years. We’re familiar with it because we used to play it ourselves. But we haven’t faced it, so we have to make some adjustments this week.” %^$
%^$Do you think an in-state team will be more jacked up to play you than usual?%^$
“Everybody we play is going to be jacked up. I don’t think there’s any question about that. We’re not going to catch anybody off guard.” %^$
%^$Do you see the same intensity from your players this week as you did heading into the West Virginia game?%^$
“One of the best things about our football team is the work ethic of our football players. Our players work hard, and I haven’t seen any changes >from last week.” %^$
%^$How much does being ranked No. 1 come up in conversations with your team?%^$
“I haven’t heard any talk about it this week. Obviously you’re aware of it when the polls come out early in the week, but we don’t talk about it much.” %^$
%^$Will there be any extra bounce in your step Saturday when you bring a No. 1 ranked team onto the field?%^$
“I don’t know if you can get any more bounce than what I’ve had. Obviously you must get yourself ready to play. You get butterflies every time you come out of that tunnel. I’ve been doing it a long time, but I still get excited. And it will be exciting this week. Hopefully we can showcase our team, entertain our fans, have a good time, and win the game.” %^$
%^$Specifically, what are your concerns about UT quarterback Chris Wallace?%^$
“I worry about him doing everything. I think he can throw the ball from the pocket and throw the ball rolling outside. We need to put some pressure on him. They’ll spread us out by running three or four wide receivers and having no backs in the backfield. We can’t let Chris Wallace, or any other quarterback we face, sit back in the pocket and have all day to throw the football.”%^$
