Big Ten Football Teleconference – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/23/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 23, 2001
%^$Jim Tressel addresses the national media:
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%^$”As you know the Buckeyes got back on the winning trail. It is very, very important that it becomes a habit that when we play in Ohio Stadium we become victorious there, but it was also important for the Big Ten. From the standpoint that when we go out of conference we have a good showing on behalf of our conference. Obviously our thoughts quickly turned to the Big Ten once again as we begin the final half of the season, which is the total Big Ten half. We begin by traveling to State College and taking on the Nittany Lions who had a tremendous victory in a wild football game. They came back five times and showed truly what they are made of. Our guys have played against Penn State many times and as you watch the film from the past two years they have been very physical football games. Both teams played extremely hard and we are looking forward to traveling to State College.”%^$
%^$Q: Coach Paterno is one win away from setting the wins record for college coaches. Does that add any more pressure or substance to the game?
%^$A: “I really have not given much though as to what the scenario was going to be. We have been working hard and fighting for our lives in our own ball games. As I sat and watched the end of the Penn State and Northwestern game I thought to myself as this is going back and forth, ‘Which is the best way for this to end?’ And by the last three touchdowns and field goals I was thoroughly confused as to what would be the best scenario. As I now study the film and watch the progress Penn State has made and just watch who they are and who they are all about. We know we are in for a very difficult task.”%^$
%^$Q: Could you talk about the progression of Dustin Fox? What did you tell him during the recruiting process as he was looking at Penn State as well?
%^$A: “Dustin is doing a great job. He has come in and made outstanding contributions to our special teams. He has been in a lot of our nickel defenses. He has played a lot because we have played some teams that have sprayed the ball out and called for nickel and dime defenses. He has even moved over and played some corner. He was a safety the first five games and played a little bit of corner even in this game. As far as what we talked about when we recruiting him-we reaffirmed him that Ohio State was the same Ohio State he was looking at when he made his original commitment. And that why he had chosen the school was for the school itself and we wanted an opportunity to show him that we were going to represent Ohio State very well in the future and we wanted him to be a part of it.”%^$
%^$Q: Could you talk a little about your move from Youngstown and has Columbus been everything you thought it would be?
%^$A: “Well, we have not done much other than football in the last nine months quite honestly. First and foremost we started developing relationships with people in and around football whether it was the players themselves, coaching staff creating a relationship with one another or the people that touch our football program – all the way from our academics areas to our training and strength, media and fans and all of the above. It has been an effort. It has been a full speed sprint trying to create those relationships and trying to lay out the plan and build a foundation of what we would like to accomplish. It has been a lot of fun-it is what I expected. I expected 18 months of craziness and it has been that, but it has been a fun craziness.%^$
%^$Q: What have you seen of Michigan and do you think they will be able to go undefeated until they play OSU?
%^$A: “Well, we have seen their game against Penn State. That is the first look we have had at them. That was a hard-fought football game. It was 6-0 with a 1:07 left in the second quarter and Michigan had the ball on their own 10-yard line and it appeared they were going to run the clock out and go in at halftime, but they broke a long run out to midfield then jumped into their two-minute offense. They went down the field, scored, and made it 13-0 at the half. I think it ended up 20-0. It was a very physical football game between two hard-hitting teams that played with a lot of intensity. Obviously Michigan looked very, very good. Will they be undefeated by Nov. 24? I don’t know. I am not even sure exactly who they play, but I am assuming a lot of them are Big Ten teams and if that is the case, it is going to be a tough slay.”%^$
%^$Q: What has Penn State improved on from their first four games to last week?
%^$A: “The biggest thing is that they made plays and is what you have to do if you are going to make first downs and score points. They really did a great job of making plays against Northwestern. I don’t think their scheme changed dramatically. In fact, I asked our defensive coach, ‘What are some of the new things that Penn State is doing?’ They really are not doing that many new things than normal. I think we all go into each game with something a little new-something the defenses have not seen. But it is not like there was a whole scale change in what they were doing. They were just executing them better and coming up with big plays. I think that was the difference from when Wisconsin played them a month ago and their ball game this past weekend against Northwester.”%^$
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%^$Opening Statement
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%^$”As we talked about when the San Diego State game was over. We said it was important that we come up with a victory. It was important that we get back on the winning ways and make winning a habit most especially at Ohio Stadium. We also talked about that we need to play with the execution, intensity and play making as we did in the second half of the San Diego game. Reality is we did that in the Wisconsin first half until the last minute or so and we did that the second half of San Diego State. We have got to grow, know and understand that we need to do that all the time as we head into these final Big Ten ball games starting with this very emotional, big, important football game at Happy Valley.%^$
%^$”As I watch the film of our guys playing in 1999 and 2000 our guys obviously know the intensity of that football game. They know how physical that football game is going to be because they have been a part of it. They have done it and they can help the younger kids who have not been a part of that game understand that. I am expecting, this week, for our guys to take a good look in the mirror technique wise, for the coaches to constantly be studying themselves, working on where we can get better in what we are trying to do and study Penn State like crazy. We are looking forward to taking off from an average victory, if you will, to be moving to the next level and having an outstanding football game as we go to Penn State.%^$
%^$”We did have a number of excellent performers. Our special teams player of the week is a guy who has moved around a lot and play many different positions and has done whatever our team has needed. Now he is playing defensive end, but he is also doing a great job as the center on our kickoff return and he is doing a great job as a cover guy on the kickoff team. He is our jumper and gives tremendous effort on our field goal block team. That is Tim Cheatwood-a senior. We challenged all our seniors like we will in any given year to have a career year as a senior. I think Tim Cheatwood at the halfway mark, I would have to say is having a career best year. If he can turn that up another notch he is going to be a tremendous thing for the Buckeyes, so Tim was our special team units player of the week.%^$
%^$”Our defensive player of the week was Derek Ross. We have had a lot of discussion about Derek Ross over the course of time. Constantly we keep talking about consistency. We need constant good technique. He has tremendous ability. Sometimes one of the threats with great ability is that you can get away with your ability. What was nice to see in this football game is that Derek Ross graded 91 percent. He had a lot more consistency. His technique was improved. I think the sky is the limit for him. If he were to become 100 percent at what he is doing he would become a greater force. He had two interceptions, three passes broken up, made excellent plays and he was our defensive player of the week.%^$
%^$”Our offensive player of the week was Jamar Martin. He has been consistent and done whatever has been needed. He has blocked primarily, but he has caught the ball when the scheme called for it. He has run the ball when we needed it. He had five carries for 25 yards. I think three or four were on a third and short situations, which we must win in the sort yardage battle. Jamar Martin, I think is having a career-best year, which as a senior and captain I think is very important.%^$
%^$”Our offensive lineman of the week was a tight end this week. That was Ben Hartsock. He has been consistently in the 83-90 percent range in his grade. He gets 30-40 snaps a game. There are a number of plays where we have both Darnell (Sanders) and Ben in the game. There are plays where we have one or the other and Ben is very steady. In this particular game he graded 92 percent. He also was very involved in the passing game even though he did not catch a bunch of balls he was involved in what we were trying to accomplish against San Diego State in the pass game.%^$
%^$”Our attack force player of the game was Mike Collins. Mike is a senior who has been very steady for us. He had five tackles and an assist. He had a quarterback pressure and graded 81 percent. Mike played a very solid football game up in that front.%^$
%^$”The Jack Tatum hit of the week went to Michael Doss. Many of you remember the play. It looked like there was a little bit of a hole there and the tailback was making a little bit of a cut back and then all of a sudden Michael came out of what appeared to be nowhere and made the big hit. Later on in the course of the game when I was talking to Mark Dantonio and mentioned it was good to see that play happen and he said coach, ‘I am afraid he was supposed to be in the deep middle, but that is not true. We checked the film and Mike Doss and Donnie Nickey had spun and Donnie Nickey was the free safety-the deep middle player in that particular formation. And Michael Doss was right where he was supposed to be and made the big hit.%^$
%^$”Our scout team player of the week was Joe Bradley. He is a young guy from right here in Upper Arlington, who I think is going to an outstanding special teams player. He has good speed, loves contact and loves special teams. He gives us a tremendous look as we work on special teams.%^$
%^$”Our defensive scout team player of the week was Marcus Green. Marcus is a young guy out of Louisville Male high school, 300-some odd pound defensive lineman. He needs to be maybe at 295 to help his quickness, but he is really staring to show up on our defensive scout field. He was out defensive scout team player of the week.%^$
%^$”Our offensive scout tem player was Ryan Hamby. He is another freshman, another young guy who came redshirted. Ryan traveled and we were considering not redshirting him. As the season went on and we saw how Darnell Sanders and Ben Hartsock were certainly doing an excellent. At the moment they are healthy, knock on wood, we just felt that Ryan Hambry for his development needs to be redshirted. Obviously if we have a huge a huge problem incur then we will need to do what the team needs, but for the moment Ryan Hamby will be on the scout field. This particular week being his second on the scout field and he was name offensive scout team player of the week.%^$
%^$”We did have some good performances. We had consistency in some areas and we had growth in some areas, but by no means are we are far as we would like to be and we are going to continue working hard in getting better and better in everything we do all of our time. In our minds that is the key. We have to get better at everything and we have to get better all the time. That is how you have an opportunity top compete against top teams on your schedule and team in the Big Ten conference.”%^$
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%^$Coach Tressel addresses the local media:%^$
%^$Q: Jim, do you have mixed emotions about Saturday knowing that with a win you may contribute to Coach Paterno’s dismissal?
%^$A: “No mixed emotions. Ohio State is the most important thing to me. I would like Joe Paterno if he had 200 wins. He’s an outstanding coach. I’ve known him for many, many years. In fact I almost went to work for him in 1975. The thing I liked about him that there wasn’t any level of coaches. He thought we were all teachers. Any time we wanted to go and study with him he was always there for you. I think he’s good for the game, he speaks very well on behalf of the game. But I have no mixed emotions about Saturday.”%^$
%^$Q: Jim, has your team played the best earlier in the season or are they still getting better each week?
%^$A: “I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about avoiding playing well early. We don’t want it to be our best because once progress ends, there’s only one way to go. You don’t ever stay the same. I think we are making progress and we are inching forward.%^$
%^$Q: Talk about the Graduate Assistant position with Joe Paterno. What was that like for you?
%^$A: “It was awesome. I was 22 years old and had been at a division III school my whole life. Penn State had been practicing for the Cotton Bowl and Joe had taken the time to arrange my father and I to come down and watch practice. He took as much time as we possibly needed. From that point on, any time I wanted to correspond with coach Paterno he was more than happy. Another thing was Joe always had positive things to say about Youngstown State. It nice when you hear things like that from people like Joe Paterno. Mt interaction with him has always been really pleasant.”%^$
%^$Q: Were there cases where the job was offered to you?
%^$A: “Well, I don’t know if it was offered to me. But I know as we were riding home I had told my dad that I was going to Penn State and that I was going to be with Joe Paterno. He said, ‘no you’re not, you’re going to the University of Akron.’ And I said ‘wait a minute. There going to the Cotton Bowl.’ He told me that if I went to Akron that I would be a position coach and would have greater responsibility. Penn State is an extraordinary place and coach Paterno is awesome. But responsibility is something you cannot under evaluate. Maybe he knew I wasn’t offered the job. But however it cane out, I ended up at the University of Akron.”%^$
%^$Q: Knowing that Joe Paterno’s coaches usually stay put, do you think that perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that you didn’t get the job?
%^$A: “You never know why things happen and you never look back why. I’m happy with the way things have gone. I corresponded with him a lot more than he did with me. A good thing about Joe was when you sent him a note, he responded back right on the paper you sent, as he was environmentally friendly as well, and you always heard back from him. But being a 23 year old graduate assistant at the University of Akron was huge.”%^$
%^$Q: Do you see a lot of similarities between yourself and Coach Paterno?
%^$A: “I think we both pay close attention to detail. I think there’s no question that we both pay close attention to academics as well. And in both of our cases you can tell that the most important thing is the team. I’m sure that this entire week coach is going to down play the importance of any records he might have set, and he’s going to talk about what it means for Penn State.”%^$
%^$Q: Does it help you to prepare now that Penn State has a win, especially over a team that you have beaten?
%^$A: “I think enough of our guys have played Penn State to know that you better be ready. As you watch the last two games, Penn State was rolling along and we were sitting there having a tough time and both teams played like you wouldn’t believe. Then a year ago, we came out with tremendous intensity. So I happen to think that our guys have a real good understanding and a great amount of respect for Penn State.”%^$
%^$Q: What did Penn State do last week that they weren’t doing the previous weeks?
%^$A: “I think they weren’t making plays on the offensive end like they were last week. All of those things affect each other. I think their defense has played well but were spending too much time on the field. They’re also young in some areas. Here we are in game seven for us and game six for them.”%^$
%^$Q: Is it good or bad for you that Joe Paterno is going for the record?
%^$A: “What’s most important is what we do. The effect on them isn’t nearly important as what we need to do to be successful.”%^$
%^$Q: Tim, how do feel going into Saturday’s game knowing that Joe Paterno can set the record against you guys?
%^$A: (Tim Cheatwood) “We’re not going in there trying to play spoiler. We just want to get a much-needed victory in the Big Ten. We just want to win the game for ourselves.”
%^$A: (Ben Hartsock) “I think we know the importance of playing against a big team like Penn State and coach Paterno. You can’t let that get into your mind though. We have to get ourselves to the point where we’re ready to play. We have to be aware of it but we can’t let it effect our play.”%^$
%^$Q: Were any of you recruited by Coach Paterno and if so, what was he like?
%^$A: (Cheatwood) “I loved OSU all of my life. I never really considered going there. It’s definitely one of the toughest places to play. The fans are right on top of you.”%^$
%^$Q: Larry Ned said that in the second half the defense seemed to be hitting a lot harder. Is that true and why?
%^$A: (Cheatwood) “when we went into the locker room, the coaches pretty much left it up to us to get ourselves ready for the second half. Seeing that we weren’t playing Ohio State football in the first half that we better come out and play better in the second half. The coaches were planning a lot more strategy, trying to get us ready mentally and emotionally.”
%^$(Tressel) “I think that we turned it up a notch in the second half. Now the secret is, can we do that all the time? Our defense does a good job with assignments and adjusting to adversity. If we play with that level of intensity we can be a great team.”%^$
%^$Q: What is Matt Wilhelm’s status?
%^$A: “I think Matt will be healthier. I think practice will determine whether he will start or not. I think Matt is going to have a sensitive ankle the rest of the year and a lot of it will be determined on how well he can handle that, but as to who will start, we would know by Thursday.”%^$
%^$Q: What are your thoughts on the kicking game?
%^$A: Well, we need … you talk about emotions, we need to make field goals. We took the kick off, drove it 15 plays, or 16 plays, and ended up with zero. What that did emotionally to us was not good. What it did for them was good. We need to make field goals. How do I feel about it? I think our mechanics from the snapper to the holder have been good. I think our protection has been fair and obviously our kicking has been youthful and inconsistent. We need perfect protection so that … we all knew we had freshman kickers, so we better have a perfect snap, a perfect hold, and perfect protection to give them the best chance to succeed. So if we’ll get better at everything around the kickers, I think the kickers, through maturity, will get better. Josh Huston has shown that he can be a solid kick off guy. He’s pretty darn consistent and he needs to continue that through the second half of the year. Neither Mike (Nugent) nor Josh has shown that they will consistently swing the same way regardless of what’s the situation and we’ve got to a point of consistency with those kickers because those three pointers-I’m not happy at times that we need to settle for a field goal but when we do, we need those three and that needs to get better.”%^$
%^$Q: You lead the Big Ten in time of possession and our last in scoring. Is that an indictment on the kicking game?
%^$A: “As you know, nothing that simple, but obviously it’s effected by the kicking. We’ve missed, I don’t know, six field goals maybe (actually eight), which one was a long range so forget that. We need to be able to make every field goal once we get the ball to the 25 and then the ones outside that, in my mind, our bonuses. So, yeah, obviously, our scoring average is affected by the field goal kicking situation. But our scoring average is affected by our red zone production or lack of, our inconsistancies at times on the offensive side. But there’s a lot of things that go into that and certainly I would not discount the fact that field goals have something to do with it.”%^$
%^$Q: How do you handle your two young place kickers? Do you talk to them or do you leave them alone and let them figure it out?
%^$A: “Well, you know, it’s a little bit of both. Sometimes, what happens to kickers, in my mind, is they have too many people talking to them. It’s amazing in this era of cell phones and e-mails and so forth, they hear from kickers and punters from all over the globe as to what they should be doing and all of a sudden if you sit there thinking about it rather than just getting in your groove… Then, of course, they are sensitive to what the coaches are saying and doing: whether they’re putting them in, whether they’re not. Does he confidence in me? Does he not? Is coach Conaster mad, those kinds of things? A mature guy just ignores that. Coach Conaster coaches Tim Cheatwood and coach Conaster is crazy. But that does not bother Tim Cheatwood because Tim Cheatwood knows what he needs to do. He has done it before and he knows he can and he takes out of the craziness what he needs and discards the rest. That’s hard for a kicker. Tim Cheatwood gets 45 plays a game. A kicker sometimes gets three. But they will mature. We just need them to mature faster. I would have hoped by now we would have emerged with a solid situation: that so-and-so is consistent of kick offs and so-and-so is consistent on field goals. We haven’t. I have an idea on what we need to do, but I don’t want to talk about it with you before I talk about it with them to be honest with you.”%^$
%^$Q: Do you acknowledge that pulling one of them is probably not a good thing?
%^$A: It could not be a good thing. If I knew their psyche, sure, I could answer that question. But, there are some people, if you pull them, they’re going to dig down and they’re going to play better and make it impossible for you ever to pull them again. There our other people who might have their insecurity reinforced. Exactly where are guys are, I don’t know the answer to that.”%^$
%^$Q: How do you judge when to make a change?
%^$A: Well, for instance, this past game, did we miss two (field goals) before we changed? Two out of the whole game is a lot no matter how many field goals attempts you’re going to get in a game. Missed the first one, you know, there wasn’t a ranting, raving, yanking situation. Missed the second on, now what’s best for thing for the team? You have to make a decision without the luxury of knowing what the result is going to be if you do make the decision or if you don’t. You just make decisions and do it as sensitively as you can and hope people learn from what the circumstances end up.”%^$
%^$Q: It seemed as if you were using the tight ends more on Saturday. Is that something that you plan on continuing in the future?
%^$A: “Well, I was tired of Ben (Hartsock’s) mom calling the call-in show. I started recognizing her voice. We’ve had-and really maybe Ben can answer this better than I can-I think we’ve had the tight end in the plan since day one. And maybe there have been some times that he has been open and we haven’t thrown it to him, maybe there hasn’t. I can’t think of anything off-hand where the tight end was running down the field alone. We definitely had the tight end in the plan this past weekend because of what they were doing. The good new was when these guys were thrown the ball they caught it. But we would like to complete more passes to everyone. If you look at our receptions, we have nobody with 60, but we have 11 guys with 15 or less, so we certainly want to throw the football to the tight end. I think a tight end passing attack can certainly help you because people obviously know you want to throw the ball to the wide guys and if you can throw it inside and out, I think you’ll be better. As far as throwing on first down, the best part of throwing on first down was we were completing on first down and that will do nothing but help us. And if we’ll continue to complete passes on first down, gee, I’m all for throwing.”%^$
%^$Q: What did you think of Scott McMullen’s performance at the end of the game?
%^$A: “How did I think Scott did? I think Scott got some valuable time that wasn’t just turn around and hand if off and lets get the game over with. We wanted to get him in there so he could throw some balls. Any experience that you get will help you. And I think that Scott will progress from that time and Scott got a little scrimmage time Sunday night. We had a little scrimmage with the guys that didn’t get play much. All the guys we’re trying to get as much improvement as they can.”%^$
%^$Q: How do you fell Steve Bellisari played?
%^$A: “Steve graded 81 percent, which 85 percent, as I’ve mentioned before, is a winning performance. I thought he played a solid game. I thought there were a couple balls, though, that would have been costly, that he and I both would like to have back. And that’s why, if you look at that map, if you take those two away and all of a sudden those were good decisions and those were pluses rather than minuses and triple-minuses, the one that hit their guy in the hands, he would have graded a winning-performance. But I thought he did some good things and I thought he made some progress. I was happy to see a couple of the balls thrown away. I think that’s a step forward. And as you watch the Wisconsin-Ohio State game, I thought (Brooks) Bollinger did a great job of throwing the ball away when nothing was there. He did an even better job in the Wisconsin-Penn State game when nothing was there and that had a lot to do with there win over Penn State.”%^$
%^$Q: Has it gotten to the point where no matter what (Bellisari) does, he is going to be wrong?
%^$A: “Well, I don’t know about anything. We’ve got 32 days to do a lot of things, so I wouldn’t say that there isn’t anything that can be done. I thought the cutest comment in respect to what you’re talking about was somebody said, “Boy, it was disappointing that they booed Steve when the field goal was missed.” That kind of put it in a little bit of perspective but that’s the way it is and lets go.”%^$
%^$Q: He was booed even when he wisely threw the ball away. Did you take him aside and reinforce that those were good plays?
%^$A: “When he comes off the field the first thing we do is make eye contact on certain things. And certainly, I think, at least one of his throwaways was a third down and we had to punt and we certainly made the contact that, ‘Hey, that was a great thing to do, let’s go.’ We always talk about there is nothing wrong with punting. Our philosophy is there is to end every game with a kick. An extra point is the first choice, a field goal is the second and a punt is the third. If a drive is ended in no other way, we’re going to win.”%^$
%^$Q: What do you see with Penn State’s defense?
%^$A: “I think they’re younger than they’ve been on defense. They have good experience in their defensive front. I think their linebackers are young, their secondary is young, although they have some experience at corner. Unfortunately, in this technological age, we watch so much film that is not continuous in the course of the game, which, I would love them to pass a Big Ten rule where you have to trade films that are continuous because I always like to watch the game, but we don’t. So, as you watch their defense through the course of the five games that we have, you say to yourself, ‘I wonder what is going on through the course of the game. How come the ball is starting at the 30 so much and how come this and how come that.’ I think they have been a victim of their own youth, but also a little bit of a victim of circumstances within the game. They certainly-you watch the film-and they can certainly make plays.”%^$
%^$Q: Have you coached against coach Paterno before?
%^$A: “I coached against him in ’81 and ’82 when I was at Syracuse. In ’81 I had a freshman quarterback and we had a hard day in Beaver Stadium. In ’82 I think they ended up being national championships if I’m not mistaken. We had a whale of game. I think we were ahead with about 40 seconds to go in the first half. We were playing toe to toe and Curt Warner was the tailback and there was less than a minute. They just threw a little toss sweep to Curt. It was looking like they were going to go regroup and figure out how they could keep this upset from happening and he went 60-something yards for the touchdown and kind of turned the tide on us a little bit. But both of those teams I remember coaching against them. They were very sound. Special teams were very important to them and as you study their special teams now you can see they’re very important to them. Their two best punt-rushers are (Eric) McCoo and No. 5, (Larry) Johnson. So, obviously, someone has convinced them that it’s not just important in this world to run the football, it’s important to go block kicks, and they’ve blocked three of them. They’ve always done a great job of running the football and playing great defense and playing great special teams and being very sound. That’s what I remember most about facing them in the early eighties.”%^$
%^$Q: What emotions will you have leading your team against him?
%^$A: “My emotions are solely the impact it has on Ohio State and our team. That’s what is most important to me. My emotions are so focused on that. Maybe, someday I’ll look back and say, ‘I coached against this guy.”%^$
%^$Q: How did the wide receivers grade out?
%^$A: “Michael Jenkins graded a winning performance and I thought had a good ballgame. Chris Vance, I thought was having an excellent game and he got banged up a little bit. He had one time where we were running a go route and he ended up colliding with the defender because the defender got so fooled that he quit backing up and ran into him. I don’t remember our guys getting off the line.”
