John Cooper Media Luncheon Quotes – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/19/1998 12:00:00 AM | Football
October 19, 1998
COLUMBUS, Ohio – John Cooper Media Luncheon Quotes
Are you worried about being overconfident?
“If you get overconfident you better check the scoreboard when you wake up Sunday morning. Why would you be overconfident? You’re the No. 1 football team in the country, and you should play like it.”
Are you worried about Northwestern’s field, which was demolished by a rainstorm Saturday?
“You don’t worry about those things. If the field is in good shape, we’re going to go up there and play on it. If the field is in bad shape, we’re going to go up there and play onit. You don’t worry about those things. I would think they’ll do everything they can to have as good as a playing surface as they possibly can.”
Talk about Northwestern wideout D’Wayne Bates?
“He’s a good football player. He was very good before he got hurt last year. I don’t know if he’s the best receiver in this league, but he’s a very good football player.”
Talk about Northwestern’s linebackers.
“They’ve got Barry Gardner, who makes a lot of tackles. He’s got some great stats. He’s got over 100 tackles, and when you compare that to Andy Katzenmoyer and Nail Diggs, they’ve got about 30 or 35 apiece. So he must be doing something right. He’s on the field all the time and he’s always around the ball.”
How do you explain Northwestern’s sudden drop off since going to the Rose Bowl in consecutive years?
“Gary Barnett deserves a lot of credit for getting them to the Rose Bowl two years in a row. They still have some talent, but they don’t have as much talent as a Michigan, or Penn State, or Wisconsin has.”
Who will return punts for OSU this week?
“That’s a good question. We’ll work on that at practice this week. We might stay with Gary. We may go back with David. We may take a chance and put somebody else back there. I’m not as down on who is returning punts as I am on how we’re blocking. I’m not seeing a lot of daylight there for the guy to run the football.”
