Post Game Quotes From Ohio State vs. Fresno State – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/2/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 2, 2000
Recap| Box Score| Notes
Post Game Quotes
Head Coach John Cooper
“I’m proud of the way we played defensively. I gave the game ball to the defense.
“The worst thing by far was short-yardage offense. We couldn’t score when we were in close. When we got the ball around where we did we need to score. We’re trying to get better. With the staff we have, we should be able to generate more offense.
“It’s good to get a victory. Our kickers did some good things and some bad things.
“Fresno State is a good ball team. They had nine players back on offense and they were very scrappy.
“Today was great. The stadium, the crowd, everything around was great about today except the way we played.
“We don’t want Steve (Bellisari) running the football as much as he did today. We would like to protect better than we did today but Fresno State rushed a lot of players. That’s what they are known for.
“I thought Steve did some good things. We had some organizational problems and took some unnecessary timeouts because of formations but those are things we can work on in practice.
“We knew what they were going to do formation-wise but not what they were going to do personnel-wise so it took us a while defensively. I think our coaches were able to make some good adjustments.
“That’s the best ball game David Mitchell has played for us. He was the starting cornerback and took advantage of some badly-thrown passes.
“We think Nate (Clements) has a chance to be one of the better defensive backs we’ve had here. He worked out with Shawn Springs over the summer and I thought he played great today. He did get beat but that’s going to happen to the best of them.
“Matt (Wilhelm) is a talented player who made some good plays for us today. He has good attitude and a good up-side. He will get better with experience.”
Fresno State Head Coach Pat Hill
“I’m the kind of coach that just says it like it is. Ohio State won both halves today. It had nothing to do with officiating, it had nothing to do with turnovers. They out-executed us. Our players played very hard today but we just didn’t execute. Whenever you turn the ball over four times for 28 points, that’s not going to help you against a good opponent on the road like Ohio State. I told John Cooper after the game I’d love to play him again.
“Things were going well earlier. We stopped them six times inside the two-yard line. Then we fumbled and they recovered it in the endzone and came back the next series and threw one to them. You can’t have things like that happen to you early in the game. We didn’t bounce back. We challenged them in the second half to come back and win, but we didn’t do that. I have to give a lot of credit to Ohio State. They did a good job today, they took advantage of the turnovers and had some good plays. That’s the way the game of football is played.
“David Carr is a very competitive guy and he has a strong arm. He’s going to be a fine player for us. He just tried to do too much. I think today was a great learning experience for him-his baptism under fire.
“Coming away from that field today, I think our kids can play physically against Ohio State. I give Ohio State all the credit. They capitalized on four turnovers for 28 points, that’s very hard to overcome. You just can’t do that in a football game of this caliber, playing against a good team in a tough environment. I tip my hat to both teams. It was a hot and humid day and both teams were battling. Both sides were weary today. 43-10 was the final score and that’s what we have to live with.”
