Quotes from the Ohio State-Illinois football game – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/10/1998 12:00:00 AM | Football
October 10, 1998
COLUMBUS, Ohio –
Illinois vs. Ohio State
%^$October 10, 1998
%^$Post Game Quotes
%^$Illinois Head Coach Ron Turner
%^$On whether Turner is envious of OSU’s team
%^$“Where they are now is where we’re working to get to. They’re a very talented team. We have a lot of talent on this team as well. It’s very young talent, but we’re going to get better and better, and just keep working to get where they are.”
%^$On whether Turner changed his defensive strategy against the Buckeyes
%^$“We really didn’t change it. We went into this game saying that our best chance was to come out and play with what we do best offensively and defensively. We’re a young football team, and we need to get better each and every day. We ran our offensive and defensive packages. This helped us to do good thing with the football.”
%^$On Illinois’ progress this game
%^$“I saw a lot of progress. I saw it in our run defense. I saw it in our quarterback’s play, even if the stats didn’t indicate it. They were blitzing (Illinois freshman QB Kurt Kittner). He made some very nice adjustments. I saw a lot of progress also in the receivers. A couple of guys stepped up and made some plays.
%^$On Illinois’ effort
%^$“Our guys came out and played hard. We played hard for the entire game on both sides of the ball, as well as in the special teams. We did a good job defensively early. Ohio State hit the big plays. We also showed great progress. We know what we have to do to improve.”
%^$Ohio State Head Coach John Cooper
%^$On the Buckeyes’ defensive performance
%^$“We really played good, tough defense. We were able to use our safeties in run support quite a bit. I thought both corners really played a good, solid football game.”
%^$On Illinois
%^$“They were a real scrappy defensive football team. They played us with an eight or nine man front and pretty much forced us to throw the football. I thought they were conservative on the offensive side of the ball. They did attempt more passes today than we’ve seen in some of the other ball games they’ve played.”
%^$On forcing Illinois into a passing game
%^$“I thing the quarterback offensively was the difference. You can’t block eight or nine people. If your safeties are involved in run support, you’ve got to throw the football, you’ve got one-on-one coverage with your wide receivers.”
%^$
Ohio State player quotes
%^$Ohio State strong safety Damon Moore
%^$On Illinois freshman quarterback Kurt Kittner
%^$“We wanted to get to him early and make him make some adjustments. We wanted to show him some defenses he had not seen before, and hopefully, get in his hear.”
%^$”He did a pretty good job at times. He’s a young quarterback so we were trying to read his eyes.”
%^$Ohio State lineback Andy Katzenmoyer
%^$On the Shutout
%^$“I was a little nervous when the first string came out. They made a drive, but our guys made a good stop.”
%^$On not allowing the Illinois offense a touchdown for the fourth year in a row
%^$“We came out pretty fired up and ready to go. We didn’t alter our game plan much. It seemed like they struggled offensively.”
%^$Ohio State quarterback Joe Germaine
%^$On his receivers
%^$“Our receivers did a great job. They got beyond their secondary a few times.”
%^$On his throwing for over 300 yards
%^$“Its nice to have the records. But I have things that I am more concerned about – and that’s winning.”
%^$On Ohio State’s victory
%^$“Today we won, we’re 5-0, and hopefully, still number one in the country. And that’s the bottom line.”%^$
