The Coaches Speak – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/3/1998 12:00:00 AM | Football
October 3, 1998
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Coach John Cooper Quotes
Oct. 3 vs. Penn State
“I’m really proud of the way we played defense. Special teams and defense won the game for us today. You have to have that when we have weather conditions like we had. We beat a good football team.
“We hung in there. Jerry Rudzinski made a big play on defense that got us fired up. I think the crowd helped a lot today to.”
“We put up a good solid defensive performance today. We could have played a little better offensively, but we did what we had to do to win the game. I thought Nail Diggs played an outstanding game We had a lot of tackles for losses. Our game plan was to stop they’re running game and make them throw the ball.”
“Joe Germaine took some shots today. We have to protect him better. But the credit goes to their defense.”
“I don’t think there is any question that the weather was a factor in the way the game was played.”
“Their defense was set to stop our running game. They are a good defensive football team – well coached defensively. Their corners played better than I thought they would.”
On Jerry Rudzinski’s fumble recovery in the endzone: “That was the big play of the ballgame. We had a blitz called and Jerry came unblocked. I thought that really woke us up.”
On OSU’s touchdown late in the second quarter: “That was big – no question about it. We went in to our two minute offense and hit some key passes on that drive. We knew they were going to get the ball in the second half.”
“We’ve got a good solid defensive football team. Damon Moore had a good ballgame today. If you can man-up with your corners, which we can do, you’ve got eight or nine folks that can stop the running game.”
“Defense wins championships. If you can be real solid defensively, you can successful.”
On Andy Katzenmoyer: “Andy doesn’t have many bad ballgames. He does what we ask him to do.”
Coach Joe Paterno Quotes
Oct. 3 vs. Ohio State “We played hard, tackled well, but we just didn’t get the turnovers that we needed.”
“I’ve said all along that our defense was going to keep us in the game, but our offense could not make mistakes.”
“You saw two good defensive teams today. I thought our defense played very well. Obviously we had trouble offensively.”
“They were blitzing an awful lot. They’re good and they’re quick. They tackle really well in the open field. We dried to beat them deep and run some hitches because they were blitzing so much. Their corners are good corners. That’s a good defensive football team.”
“One area of their team that I wondered a little bit about was their special teams, and they were outstanding today.”
“I was encouraged by a lot of things. We have a lot of football to play. Hopefully we can be a little more cohesive offensively. I think that’s the biggest problem we have right now.”
“They’re good. That Germaine is a heck of a football player. I thought we played about a well as you can against them defensively, and offensively we had such horrible field position most of the time”
