Postgame Quotes From Ohio State vs. Northwestern – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/6/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 6, 2001
Recap| Final Stats| Notes
Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel
“We asked our guys to play from start to finish because we credited Northwestern with the fact that they play from start to finish. We asked the crowd to be alive and electric. They were certainly that. I think everyone that had a role was asked to step up and they certainly did.
“I have confidence every time we go in with our defensive staff and players. We have great athletes over on defense and what I’ve said about them many times is that I like the way they handle themselves. They have the maturity and poise to adapt and adjust. Every offense comes out with new plays and some things that they can move the ball on. And when that happens, even with a great defense like ours, they show great poise. Our defense is good and they have to keep getting better.
“There is no question our crowd stepped up big time – 104,000 and some. It was an amazing night, a beautiful night for a football game. We challenged ourselves to put our best foot forward to show people that Ohio Stadium is one of those top places for a gameday atmosphere. Our players played with the same kind of intensity that our crowd had and that just gave the crowd more to cheer about.
“That (the defensive touchdown by Mike Doss with 54 second remaining in the first quarter) was huge. Any time you get a defensive touchdown – I think that made it 14-7 and we scored again right near the end of the half, getting it to the point of 21-7 at halftime – I was really happy with the way our kids came out of the gate to start the second half. That may have been the turning point that made it a little tough for them (Northwestern) to make it all the way back. “Northwestern is never going to stop playing. They have great kids, great coaches. They’re proud of who they are and they were never going to stop. But I think the way we came out of the gate in the second half – Northwestern may have been over there saying they’re (OSU) even better than they were in the first half.
“I think you have to pass to win. Our defense gave us great field position and we were running the ball and all of a sudden you’re up. The most important thing is to keep the ball and keep the clock running. We’re going to need to do a lot of things better to become a great team. We understand that. We have to coach better, play better – offense, defense, special units. I don’t know what the statistics are, but we’ll need to throw more effectively than we probably did today.”
Northwestern Head Coach Randy Walker
“I know this crowd (team) well. What I have seen and sensed in them over time is that they know how to respond and I reminded them just now that we have been in this place before. It is all about how you respond, we will respond the right way. That is the one thing about the Big Ten, it doesn’t go away. It is going to be tough and demanding next week and the week after and so on. What we have to do is look at some of the things that we didn’t do as well as we need to do, find some answers there and stay positive and keep lifting each other up. Because we are a good football team that didn’t play its best game tonight.”
“I am not going to try to put it into a capsule or give you a sound bite that defines or explains what happened tonight. That wasn’t Northwestern football as we know it. It wasn’t our best effort either as coaches or players. I start first with the coaching staff. Obviously, we didn’t do the right things to get us to the right place to play our game. I am not sure we managed the game as well as could manage it.”
“For a lot of reasons we gave up some plays and I think it took the assertiveness and the assuredness out of our game. We just played very tentatively in a lot of places. Again, that is a function of coaching and not getting your guys to the right place. I take first responsibility and I think our coaching staff will. I know we are a better football than we displayed tonight. I am still awful proud of these kids and the way they hung in there. We didn’t seem to make a play for awhile and it all kept going against us. But I didn’t see any give up or quit and I thought they hung in there and battled hard. It just wasn’t our best night.”
Northwestern quarterback Zak Kustok
“They (Ohio State) played really well on defense. We just didn’t execute well, we didn’t play real well. We got behind the chains and hurt ourselves. I am not taking anything away from them because they played a great defensive game.”
“We didn’t execute the way we did our first three games. We just came out and they got some momentum early. We’ve played against two great defensive teams the last two weeks. Like I said, we have to execute better.”
Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel
On Jonathan Well’s career-best 179-yard rushing performance…
“It was good to see Jonathan Wells come out of the gate like that. I was really proud of him. A lot of people were saying Lydell (Ross) has emerged and Jonathan was going to be old news. I think he showed all of us he is not old news. He’s a good player and it’s good to have a one-two punch like that. I thought Sammy (Maldonado) came in there and played well also.
On the rushing game…
“It’s always important to be able to run the football. We ran it a little better than quite honestly I thought we might. But our kids came out ready to play and our defense was flying around. The crowd just electrified our players and each other. It was just a wonderful night.
On the team’s overall performance…
“I think it was the best (team performance) that we’ve had. It comes at a good time because we’re in the heart of the conference race. Now we get to come home again next weekend for Homecoming and play the Badgers. We’ve had some tough times with the Badgers. We’ve got to make sure we take care of them.
On the defense’s contributions…
“Our defense has always been there to spark us.”
Jonathan Wells
That’s my game. I came in here as a power guy, I made people miss and that is not what I do best. The worst thing I could have done is go out there and try to make people miss all the time. That is not my game. I am a straight-forward guy. After the first possession, we got the running backs on the sideline and just talked it over and knew we had to go out and do what we had to do and we got it done.”
“The line did a great job tonight. We ran any play we wanted to run. There weren’t any plays we had to put out tonight because we couldn’t get it done. Every play we wanted to run we ran. When we wanted to run we ran and that is a credit to the guys up front. They did a great job out there.”
Lydell Ross (on the offensive line)
“They had to play and push all night to get them out of the way and create holes for us on every place on the line. They gave us a lot of choices.”
Jonathan Wells
“It was pretty much smash-mouth football. We wanted them to come up and stop us. I knew they were stacking the line and we still believed we could line up there and get four or five (yards) a run and that is what we did.”
Mike Doss
“You guys saw what they did last week. They were very successful with their offense. You guys are going to do your job as well as we are going to do ours. I can’t go out there and put points on the board and fortunately we held them to 20 points, I think that’s a blessing. For those guys not to average what they normally average, which is 30 to 40 points a game, is good, Coach (Mark) Dantonio wrote up a good game plan. We went out there and played basic calls and didn’t try to do too much. We didn’t want to go out there and do something different every play. We just wanted to stay consistent in our play calling and just play consistent.”
Jonathan Wells
“I was out there guessing where the whole was supposed to be and I just went out there and have my instincts take me there. It was just a lot of guessing and I went out there and said, ‘Hey, maybe I’ll go there,’ and I did.”
