Big Ten Football Teleconference – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/2/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 2, 2001
Coach Tressel’s opening comments to the media
“We understand we are heading on to the next level as we move forward and play Northwestern, an outstanding team, and a very veteran team. A team that plays extremely hard and extremely smart and we are looking forward to hosting them at Ohio Stadium for our first home game with our students here and we are looking forward to representing the Big Ten in the national television market on ESPN.”
Coach Tressel answers questions via telephone
Q: I am doing a story on scout teams and I was curious to see how important they are to your game-day preparations and is your scout team run by your graduate assistants? How does that work?
A: “Well, it was especially important this past weekend as we were getting ready for Randle El. In fact, one our offensive wide receivers played the quarterback position trying to show some of the great movement Randle El has and big play ability and so forth. I am sure that if you ask our defensive players, they would tell you Bam Childress gave them as good a look as they could possibly get going into this game this past weekend against Indiana. Scout offenses, defenses and special teams and the looks they give are extremely important. We have to emulate as best we can whom we are playing against and what is going to be coming at us knowing that it is not really going to happen at top-end speed that happens in a ball game but they are so very important. We probably give the majority of the assignment to the graduate assistant but there is always one or two of the full time staff there sharing the duties and making sure we get the proper blocking schemes or the proper looks and so forth and really we all try to aid in getting the proper look and also in helping those young guys that are on the scout team understand how important they are and just what kind of look we need from them.” Q: Is it true, coach, you actually dress your scout teams in the colors and numbers of your opponent in the practice?
A: “Sometimes we do that. Last week was easy. We just gave them another set of red jerseys. Sometimes we will do that.”
Q: Last month John Robinson took a look at Northwestern coming into Las Vegas and said they reminded him of the 2000 Oklahoma team: a veteran quarterback, a good running back. He said, ‘Hey, you might not think this is serious, but we are about to play a team that could be a national champion.’ They are 3-0 for the first time since 1962. Are they that good?
A: “Well, I don’t pretend to know exactly what it takes to win a national championship but I’ll say this: the points Coach Robinson brought up about a veteran quarterback is crucial. Having a game breaker somewhere in your offense and they happen to have it not only at running back but also at some receiver positions. A veteran offensive line is another thing I think is crucial. Defensively, you have to have some playmakers to win a national championship and Napoleon Harris and Salem Simon and a bunch of those guys running around play a lot of defense certainly bring that to them. And I think you have to have great special teams. If you look at their special teams numbers, their kicker, I don’t think he has missed yet. Their punter has a well over 40-yard average. But maybe the thing they posses that has to be in place is they are going to be willing to play every game for the full 60 minutes or overtime if need be and I think they have proven they are going to play until the final tick goes off the clock. A national champion is always going to have to win a game maybe at the end or win a game maybe they shouldn’t have. Northwestern shows they have that ability to keep playing until it is over and they showed that last weekend. They did that last year and they continue to show that. I don’t think you could discount them.”
Q: I just wanted to ask you about… It seems defenses are really stacking the box these days and daring people to beat them with the pass. Has that been a big transition? Are you seeing a lot more of that here than you did at Youngstown (State) and do you think that is the new trend in college football?
A: “Well it is a trend that has been coming on. I can remember playing Illinois teams when I was an assistant here, they had their free safeties closer than their linebackers when we had Keith Byers. I don’t think it is brand new. I think it is a little more sophisticated with the way they are doing it. Like anything, evolution has made things a little more sophisticated and I think the videotape technology and computers and the ability to teach is completely different than it was about 25 years ago. Believe it or not, we faced those same kind of defenses in I-AA so it is not that new.”
Q: Are the offenses we are seeing today- Northwestern’s spread, Purdue, Wisconsin – is that a response to it (stacking the box) you think?”
A: “Well, I think it is an effort to move some people out of the box. There is no question about it. What I think they have done so well is they move people out of the box then they have done things out there. Just like anything else, you have to be willing to attack across a broad front and teams like that, and really, I think if you watch anyone, I thought one of Michigan State’s best drives was a drive I think they took down in the fourth quarter this past weekend at Northwestern and they didn’t have anyone in the back field and people don’t think of Michigan State as being of that type of element. I think we all do it right now.”
Q: Yes, coach, could you tell us about the play of Jonathon Wells so far this season and his role change with the emergence of Lydell Ross?
A: “Well, Jonathon has done a good job for us. He has been a real positive leader. He has been a guy that is where he is supposed to be and he trained hard to get ready for his senior year. I think Jonathon has shown moments where he is going to be an outstanding player for us. I think the emergence of Lydell Ross might benefit Jonathon in that I think we will be able to hit some different tempos. I think it gives him an opportunity to do some other things. Jonathon does well as a pass receiver, as evident from last game. Two of his bigger plays were out of the backfield catching the football. I sure hope that his role does nothing but improve as time goes whether its Lydell sharing time with him or Sammie (Maldonado) or Maurice (Hall), we need our seniors to have career-best years.”
Coach Tressel’s opening statements to the local media
“Let me give you a quick recap of the award winners. I am not sure if it is in the release or not but every week we grade our film meticulously and hopefully one of the challenges you have as a coach is you grade your film the same way whether you win or lose. I think you have to be as objective in your grading as you can. That’s humans grading humans and subjectivity can creep in at times but we work real hard not to be so wonderful feeling or whatever when we win or so down in the dumps when we lose that is will effect the way we grade. Offensively, we did have a decent number of guys grading a winning performance a lot more than the three we had the week before. LaCharles Bentley, Tyson Walter, Shane Olivia and Adrian Clarke all up front graded winning performances. Both of our tight ends, Darnell Sanders and Ben Hartsock, graded a winning performance. Lydell Ross and Jamar Martin also graded winning performance. Over on the defensive side, Cie Grant and Darrion Scott were the only two to grade a winning performance. Our special units player of the game was Michael Doss. He did a great job putting pressure on the field goal unit. Sometimes it is something you don’t see. He made a great impact and I think that he, and along with his teammates, forced a miss on the Indiana place kicker. And, of course, he did a great job coming up with the big play again this week by coming up with the punt block that set us up for points in the second half. Darrion Scott was the defensive player of the game. Darrion did a great job on the front, a great job of playing responsibility assignment football against the option, made five tackles along with it. Darrion continues to grow as an outstanding player on our defense. Offensively, the player of the game was our newcomer, Lydell Ross. We thought he did an excellent job for a young guy. It was a warm day. He ran the ball 25 times and caught a ball coming out of the backfield and made some other plays. I think he did an excellent job giving us a little bit of a tempo variance that I think is very, very difficult on defensive football teams. Our offensive lineman of the week was LeCharles Bentley. LeCharles graded 87 percent and continues to have very steady play. I am not sure I have been around a center that is like LeCharles. He is a darn good football player there. Our attack force player of the game is, ironically, a defensive back, Cie Grant. Cie Grant, in the scheme that we utilized against Indiana, happened to be a roll-up run player out of the secondary. He did a great job of doing that and did a great job in the boundary of handling his assignment and was awarded the attack force player of the week on defense. The Jack Tatum hit of the week, ironically, Dustin Fox probably received it on two campuses, if they give one over there. The may have some other person they name it after. Dustin, prior to receiving a big hit, put a big lick on the receiver, a tight end, caught the ball over the middle and came flying up and knocked the ball loose which on defense we always say they are going to gain some yards running it, they are going to catch some balls and we have to knock it loose and we will be good. Dustin Fox knocked it loose and came up with the Jack Tatum hit of the week and then later in the game, their fullback had a pretty good hit on him. Our scout players of the week, I thought, were crucial. On our special units, it was Michael Jenkins. What I think is special about that is a starting receiver was playing on the scout punt block unit giving us tremendous pressure in practice making sure we were doing our techniques of punt protection and so forth and just did a great job and that is why Michael Jenkins was awarded the scout special teams player. Scout defensive player is Jason Bond. Jason did an excellent job. Their linebackers were very solid players and we needed a certain kind of look from him and Jason did that exceptionally well and was awarded the scout defensive player. The scout offensive player, no surprise, was Bam Childress. Bam ran forward and back, in and out and did all the things he could possibly do to emulate Randal El. Again, I think you would have to ask these guys, he just did an outstanding job. Those were our award winners for the game. Let me first have the two defensive guys comment on Bam Childress because I think it was above the norm and it was something that was extraordinary and then we will throw it over to questions about the Indiana game and move forward with our discussions of the Northwestern week. So, Joe, you start since you are the senior citizen and tell us about the effect Bam had.”
Joe Cooper
“He was great. A lot of times when you go into a scout offense, like coach said, it is not always exactly how you are going to see it in a game. It was up to Bam to give us good looks and it was what we saw from Randle El. He was as quick as Randle El on the move and threw like Randle El on the run so we he showed us we saw on Saturday and that helped us out a lot.”
Michael Doss
“His quickness gave us great looks and he worked hard all week and every play and gave us a great look at Randle El. It worked out well for us on Saturday.”
Coach Tressel
“Bam got hit a million times and he kept getting up. It was amazing if you watch that film. We really appreciate what he did for us there. Scarlet and Gray Invitational open up for any of us, we have Jamar Martin at the far end. He did an outstanding job as a fullback and if he’ll keep doing all the things a fullback needs to do, keep blocking like he always does, keep catching the ball like he has been doing and keep running it when he gets those few and far between opportunities but if he makes the best of those, we are going to end up with tremendous production from our fullback. Joe Cooper is one of the leaders on our defense, our leading tackler, does an outstanding job keeping those guys glued together when something different happens. He is the veteran and doesn’t panic. Michael Doss has done a good job at the back end. He is representing our special units team here today as well and feel free to ask him anything about special teams or defense.
Opened for Questions
Q: How do you figure out winning performances? It appeared that Steve had a pretty good day going 15 for 21, but he was not awarded a winning performance.
A: “That is a good question and I thought that question would come on my way over. Here is what happened. I am not sure if he graded a winning performance or not. When he left the film room on Sunday, and we don’t practice Monday, he took his grade sheet with him. So I have every play graded, but I haven’t figured out the percentage. As I sit here today I was in fact… I asked one of the coaches, do you think he graded a winning performance? I would say without a calculator and so forth that he was right on the edge of a winning performance. He probably was right there or in the 83-86 percent category and for a quarterback you need an 85. So, I think he was darn close to grading a winning performance, but the reason that I can’t say that he did is because I would be lying. I don’t have his sheet.”
Q: Talk about your feelings on playing at night and what kind of different atmosphere it poses:
A: (Jamar Martin) “We’ll be pretty fired up and excited just to get out there and play. It’s a real big game for us going up against Northwestern. They’re picked to win the Big Ten this year and we’ll be the underdogs in this game. I don’t think it matters what time we play. I think we’ll be able to adjust well, we’ll still get our rest and we’ll still be prepared.”
(Joe Cooper) “Like Jamar said, I don’t think there will be any difference in terms of our routine. We know we’re going into a big war against a great team. The only thing that will be more different is that we’ll get more rest. A lot of players play high school football at night, so a chance to play a game at night in the horseshoe is nice. It takes you back to those high school years when you played at night, you get that feeling back. It’s going to be electrifying, playing under the lights at Ohio Stadium in front of those great fans.”
(Coach Tressel) “I think most of you know that college students in general get rolling at 7:45. The only thing I’m concerned about is that our fans get plenty of rest that day because we need them to be as loud as they have ever been. So we need them to have a curfew on Friday night.”
Q: Is that because Northwestern does a lot of audibling and likes to run kind of a hurry up style offense?
A: “There’s a whole bunch of reasons we need it nice and loud. One is because this is a home game and we have the home field advantage and that energizes our people. Two is that we’re being broadcasted throughout the country. I’ve read a lot of those magazines talking about the atmosphere, and the top five stadiums and this and that. I don’t even see us mentioned and we’ve got to change that. When you’re the away team you’re a victim of that noise. We practiced like crazy going into the Rose Bowl. And I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about recruiting, but there might be some recruits there.”
Q: Talk about the Northwestern tempo on offense and how they like to hurry up their offense with little time in between each play.
A: “One way to prepare for their tempo is conditioning. They ran 98 plays against UNLV, 86 against Duke and 84 against Michigan State. That’s a lot of plays. Second, you have to have good communication and tremendous substitution. We’ve got to do a great job changing people when they do and so forth. We have to make sure we can do it as efficiently as they can. We do a lot of things in practice to simulate the hurry up style of play. We began on Sunday working with the tempo that is a step above. One of their strengths is their tempo. It’s nothing they hide we’ve got to be ready for it.”
Q: Are you more worried about getting you linebackers ready or your DB’s, or equally both?
A: “They’re a spread offense who likes to run and throw. There are some teams that aren’t happy if they have to run. They would like to just as assume pass as they would run and run as they would pass. I think the balance that they bring says you can’t answer that question other than the 11 guys who are on the field during that play, everyone of them has to do their job.”
Q: Is it difficult to prepare for Northwestern because of the (Zak) Kustok and (Damien) Anderson pairing? And talk about what you need to keep them in check.
A: “I think that there is a belief by many that if you run the football you can win and if you stop the run you will win. Northwestern is so good that they can bring the run game at you with two great runners: Damien and Zak. And they can throw the ball to a lot of great receivers and Damien is one of them. It doesn’t matter to them. They throw the ball to whoever is open. Balance is what makes them so good.”
Q: Jim, Michigan State returned a couple of kicks and may look like and area you could exploit. Talk a little about your return units and where you are with them.
A: “Chris Vance has done and excellent job as a punt returner. We haven’t gotten that many opportunities because we’ve blocked a couple. I think he’s made good decisions on what to catch and what not to catch. The one’s that he has caught, I think he’s over 10 yards a return. I think we’re pretty solid there. Kickoff return wise, I’m kind of glad we haven’t had that much practice. We practice it in practice but we haven’t had a whole bunch of practice in games. If that continues, I can live with being last in the league in kickoff returns.”
Q: Mike, what do you see from they’re offense when you see them on film? Do you think it’s going to be kind of a busy night on offense?
A: (Doss) “Like coach said, they try to spread the ball around. Damien gets his carries and Kustok gets his carries. As far as our defense, hopefully we can contain Damien and make Kustok make decisions. Right now I have to wait until we start practice today to see what they’re really going to do. Wherever they like to attack we have to stop that.”
Q: Does a team like Northwestern catch you by surprise on how good they are not being a traditional powerhouse program?
A: (Martin) “I think that with them being in the Big Ten that we can’t be surprised by their achievements. We all know that this is a very tough conference and at anytime one of the teams in the Big Ten can be successful. It’s going to be a big challenge for us and we’re going to step up to the plate and get after them. We need to get on them early and not be in awe and focus on ourselves and make sure we’re doing the things we need to do.”
(Cooper) “I don’t think that in this conference you can be surprised by anything. Each week a defense is focused on a different type of offense and vise versa. What you have to do is watch game film and get yourself and your game plan together. We’re facing a great offense with great players. But we have a lot of good players on defense. We just have to go out there and play our game.”
(Tressel) “Northwestern has won or shared three Big Ten titles in the last six years. I don’t know of anyone else who can say that.”
Q: All these years they’ve been good and they haven’t beaten us. Talk a little about that and what that means to you.
A: (Martin) We think of it as being a big challenge for us. We’re looking forward to it. That’s something we can take pride in at Ohio State that they haven’t beaten us. We’re going to try and go out there and get up on them as soon as possible. We’re not going to lie down at all. It’s a big challenge and we’re looking forward to this opportunity.
Q: Jim, why would it even be close?
A: We ask a lot. You could lose a third of a point on a play if you don’t carry your fake out just perfectly and that type of thing. Joe Daniels always says to the quarterbacks, ‘You didn’t buy a ticket to the game, you can’t watch the play.’ Sometimes you lose a little point here or there. We had a couple of balls that we thought could have been thrown in there maybe a couple of decisions where we thought we could have gone to this play or that play. I don’t think there was anything that hinged the outcome of the game necessary. Again we grade exactly the same way when we win and have zero interceptions as when we lose and have a couple of interceptions. I would think he was darn close. If he will continue to have zero interceptions we will have a good team.
Q: What do you know about your offense after the first three games?
A: If you look at the Big Ten stats and not to place too much on stats, I think the only one we are No. 1 on in the Big Ten is in time of possession. I think we run the ball solid, but need to run it superior. I think we are improving our ability to be able to protect, throw and catch, but we have light years to go in that area. I think an area we really need to raise up and get better at every day is the ability to make big plays. We need to make game breaking plays. Those are all areas we need to grow in. That is the direction we want to head and we have another opportunity to practice for a week and then test it out in a Big Ten football game.
Q: Indiana coach Cam Cameron complimented you on your patience to stay with the running game. Is Northwestern’s defense the same thing that we could see that kind of attack?
A: “No question (Northwestern) does a lot more than Indiana does. But we got to be patient enough to become a good run team. If we are going to become a great football team we are going to have to become a great run team. For us to lose our patience and not make that a goal of ours, then we would be open to criticism in my mind. I didn’t hear Cam say that, but I am glad he feels that way.”
Q: Your defense has given up touchdowns on the opening drives of the last two games. What do you attribute that to?
A: “I have to admit that I probably don’t help them out a bunch when I send them out on the first drive nor do I help them adjust much. That is not the part of the scheme that I am involved in. I have a lot of confidence in the guys we have coaching it and the older guys that we have playing it. It is that ability to adapt on the field that I have really been impressed with. As the frenzy gets higher and the stakes get higher, if you will, we will continue to get tested and see if we will still do that. I have not thought about that that the last two games started off with a touchdown drive. I did not really realize it.”
Q: What is the situation with Steve Bellisari’s health and the role of the backup quarterback?
A: “Well the good news on Steve’s part is that the trainers and doctors say that they think he has turned the corner from the healing standpoint. The good news for him is that he will be healthier this week then he has been. I don’t think he will be 100 percent, but I think he is moving near that. But I don’t disagree. I would have loved to play three games and maybe have a backup throw 20 or more balls, but that is not the case. If something would happen that one of those others guys, Scott (McMullen) or Craig (Krenzel), is in there, I am not going to be that concerned. I think they are mentally in it and I think they are progressing as well as they can.”
Q: Did Indiana’s second touchdown prevent you from putting another quarterback in the game?
A: “If we would have made it 24-7, instead of 20-7 after the blocked punt. I think our defense would have seized the moment and revved it up and all of a sudden we would have gotten the ball back and if then we could have made it 31-7, but we didn’t. I can’t promise you that that would have been the moment that I would have put another quarterback in the game. The opportunity didn’t happen and you know we kind of had a similar situation against Akron. Maybe you would like to get some guys a couple of more throws, but we just are not there yet and we will just have to keep progressing.”
Q: You guys have a 21-game winning streak against Northwestern. What does it mean that in your lifetime you have never heard the words, ‘Northwestern beats Ohio State?’
(Joe Cooper) “We are going out here this week to win the game. We are not going out here to say ‘We could have done this or we should have done this, then maybe we wouldn’t have been that team that said Northwestern beat us.’ We are going to go out there against a great team and hopefully after the game we played proud and won the game. But that is why we play the game, to see what happens.”
Q: This is a very crucial game. Northwestern does not play Wisconsin or Michigan. Do you feel that this could be the best opportunity to get them?
A: “I have to admit that I did not look at that synopsis. What is important to us is how Ohio State does. We know this that if we can beat everyone we play then we will be the outright champions and who knows what else will happen from there. I don’t feel that responsibility if you will. I did not know until you said it that Wisconsin and Michigan don’t play them. I have been trying to go day-to-day and game-to-game, but I know this – this is a big game. If the crux of the question is – is this a big game? It certainly is.”
Q: What will you do Friday night and Saturday morning leading up to the game?
A: (Coach Tressel)” It will depend a little bit on the weather. If it is dry and so forth, we may have a chance to get over to Ohio Stadium to see what the lighting is. If it happened to rain a lot or is raining then it would be the decision of our grounds people to have both teams stay off the field. We certainly are not going to go on the field and not let our opponents. We will decide, come the weather situation, but what I would like to do is have it be dry and just go out there and get a feel for the situation.”
Q: What will the defense have to with facing a spread offense? What have you guys learned from facing a spread offense in the past?
A: (Joe Cooper)”We have been in this situation before. We learn from our mistakes and we learn from our past games by looking at film. You go over things that you did do well and the things that you didn’t do well. It is a new game and a new year. Those games that you talked about (Purdue and South Carolina last year) are in our past not in our present. We are not thinking about that and no one else should either. So we will go out there and play Northwestern. That is the next game ahead of us and that is one of our biggest games, so we are going to go out there and play our hardest. We played Drew Breese last year and that in itself was enough. This is a different offense, yes, they have a great quarterback, a great running back and great all-around team. Our defense, we have been here before like I said, we have great players willing to step up to the challenge. If you want to say there are Heisman candidates or this or that – yeah we are playing against good people, but they are playing against good people also. It is going to be the team that makes the fewest mistakes that will win the game. Hopefully, that will be us.”
Q: How do you get ready for a fast-paced game? Randy Walker has said that they would like to snap the ball every 14 second or as soon as the ball is put down.
A: (Michael Doss) It is going to be a fast-paced game. I think we will go out there knowing exactly what we have to do. We are going to practice hard all week. We want to know exactly what they run in and what they line up in what situations. As far as mentally, we will be prepared and just when the ball snaps, play fast. It’s football. They got to put the ball in the endzone and we have to stop them. It is still a game.
Q: Coach, could you describe Mike Doss? It appears that he just keeps elevating his game with the blocked punts and everything recently. What is he all about?
A: “Well, he loves to compete. And if there is a punt out there to be blocked, he believes that he can go block it. We have lost a lot of punts where he did not block them, but he might have freed someone else up to put pressure. He loves to compete. He certainly wants to be a leader. He wants to be a positive force in this game. He wants to represent things right and like any young person I hope he is growing and I think he is.”
