Football Quotes – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/18/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 18, 2000
%^$Head Coach John Cooper quotes
%^$On the Miami(Ohio) game
%^$”It was a good win for us, Miami is a good football team. They didn’t turn the ball over until late in the ball game and they ran the ball against us better than I thought they would. Mike Bath, their quarterback, was quite effective at running the ball. He had a career game. He’s a courageous, gutsy football player and he did a great job running their offense-his two touchdowns were perfectly thrown passes.%^$
%^$”Offensively, we recognized Jonathan Wells and Derek Combs as the players of the game. Both of them ran the football pretty well and blocked and carried out their assignments as they were supposed to throughout the course of the game. Both of them also went over 100 yards rushing and that’s the first time in four years we’ve had two of our running backs do that in one game. The only offensive back we recognized is Tam Hopkins, our offensive right guard, and we chose `Bam’ Childress as the scout team player of the week going against the offensive team.%^$
%^$”Injury-wise, we did not lose anybody. Will Smith got a bruise on his leg and did not participate in our running yesterday. Other than that, we anticipate having everyone healthy for the game this week.”%^$
%^$Looking ahead to Penn State
%^$On defense
%^$”We haven’t had a chance to look at all of Penn State’s game films. They changed their defense a bit this year. Jerry Sandusky is no longer with them so they have a new defensive coordinator and they’re not doing the same things we’ve seen them do against us in past years.”%^$
%^$On offense
%^$”They have a better offensive team coming back. They have nine starters returning from the offensive team last year, including their quarterback, Rashard Casey. Eric McCoo, their running back, had a great game against us a year ago when he gained over 200 yards rushing. They have a big offensive line and a pretty good kicking game. They did have a punt blocked in the Southern Cal game which hurt them but they have straightened that out.%^$
%^$”They’re going to run the ball this week. They have two strong offensive teams and a good offensive line which includes Kareem McKenzie, a young guy we tried very hard to recruit. All we have to do is look at what they did against us last year because a lot of those guys came back.”%^$
%^$On the 1-3 start for Penn State
%^$”They lost a lot of quality players off of the team last year, particularly from their defensive team. Much the same thing has happened to them this year that happened to our football team a year ago. They lost the Kickoff Classic and came back and played a good Toledo team at home. They didn’t have much time to recover after the Southern Cal game. I think they’ve played some good football teams and now they’re trying to get out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves.%^$
%^$”I thought Joe Paterno made a great comment a couple weeks ago. He told his guys when he lectured that if you have something you believe in and hang your hat on, you don’t deviate from that. You can’t let the fans coach your team, you can’t let the media coach your team, you coach your team. As long as you keep working and doing the right things over and over, you’ll eventually get over the hump and become a good football team.”%^$
%^$On practice this week
%^$”We will have practice in full pads tomorrow and Wednesday, Buckeye gear on Thursday and very little on Friday.”%^$
%^$Joe Cooper
%^$On Coach Paterno’s coaching style:
%^$”Coach Paterno is going to run the ball at you. If you don’t stop the rush, he’ll run the ball at you all day. If you’re able to stop the run, then you’ll win the game.”%^$
%^$On Penn State’s slow start this season:
%^$”Any time you have a team that has had a start like Penn State has you have to be concerned about playing against them. They are their most dangerous when they have nothing to lose. Coming into the `Shoe, I know they are going to be extra prepared for this game. It’s like Michigan and Ohio State, you can throw all the stats you want out there, but you know it’s going to be a dog fight on the field.”%^$
%^$Chad Cacchio
%^$On Penn State:
%^$”Penn State is going to come out and fight. They are definitely going to be ready to play. They always play us well. They are going to be aggressive and mix things up a bit. We are just going to have to do our job and stop them.”%^$
%^$Jonathan Wells
%^$On how Ohio State will prepare for the rest of the season:
%^$”We had a good game this week. The coaches say, `Either you’re going to get better or you’re going to get worse.’ We need to get better this week. We are just going to keep working hard on our game.”%^$
%^$Rodney Bailey
%^$On Ohio State’s defensive line:
%^$”The expectations of this defensive line are so high up that not just anyone could really understand how we want to play. Everything we feel on the field is genuine. We all play together and we all have the same attitude about going out and playing hard. Everyone wants to be the best they can be on game day.”%^$
%^$Brent Johnson
%^$On Ohio State’s commitment to get better in the weeks to come:
%^$”We need to run the football a little bit harder. We need to give a little more effort. We need to have a little more of everything every game. I think our team is going to show they can give that extra effort this weekend.”%^$
