Postgame Quotes From Ohio State vs. Akron – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/8/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 8, 2001
Recap| Stats| Notes
Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel
“I thought we did an excellent job. We hit a little lull in the second half but I think for the most part (we played well). We only gave up seven points from our defense. I thought they played hard offensively. We saw some flashes of things we would like to be good at but we can get better. I thought we had pretty good decision making from (quarterback) Steve (Bellisari)’s standpoint and that’s going to be so important for the rest of the season.”
“Quite honestly we were in a limited package. We wanted to come into Game One and train right through. We worked them pretty hard Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We kept our package very simple. So we could come back here and have this first game in the Horsehoe be a very fundamental one and be one where we’re working on the little things rather than the schemes. I appreciated our guys’ patience with that. Our staff did an excellent job. You can’t say enough about that stadium and that crowd and it’s special to be with that band as well.
“It was exciting. Who wouldn’t be excited? Everyone in there was excited whether they were running across the field or in the stands or in the press box. The atmosphere was extraordinary. There can’t be a better place to play college football in America. What a gorgeous day and just couldn’t have been better.
“The neat thing was that I knew it would be the first time (Parents: the late Lee and Eloise Tressel) watched me coach together in 20 years. That made it special. For all of the people sitting at this table, all of our guys down in the locker room and everyone that is part of Ohio State there were different reasons that this was a special day and that was certainly one of my reasons.” “Obviously when you have some turnovers it bothers you. I didn’t think we would come out here and be flawless. I wish we didn’t have a couple of them. I think perhaps if I could have a couple calls back I would but I’m going to learn as well as the guys are. There are moments when we were sloppy and there were moments when I thought we were pretty sharp. I think you throw in the fatigue of a very difficult, very rigorous preseason. Then you come in with a hot week like we had and a hot day like we had and they were tested. Obviously part of that was Akron. They are a good physical team as we knew they would be. They came in here nice and relaxed with nothing to lose and that’s how they played.
“We’ve got hundreds of plays that we’ll be able to study and watch in the most minute detail. Plus we’ll learn a little bit about our own planning and game-planning. For me to sit here today before we study the thing. I learned our guys will play with class, they’ll play hard, they’ll play through fatigue. We’re not perfect. I knew that going in. They like to play the game. I also learned they like each other.
“I thought some of the guys sang well and some others need some work. It was great to be a part of that band. You look up into the faces of that crowd and you saw those people you know are Ohio State graduates and you know what that song means for them. That was a thrill for me.”
Senior co-captain Steve Bellisari
“I thought we were relaxed out there. Offensively, we communicated really well. A lot of the young guys did a good job, running really good routes. They made it easy for me today. I just need to work on some of those turnovers.”
Akron head coach Lee Owens
“I’m at a loss for words now. It’s hard to send the message to your football team that you’re proud of them and at the same time not try to give them the message that close is good enough. It is a hard thing to explain. I was proud of our football team’s effort, their fight to stay in the game. I was proud of the fact that we played very physical, our condition was good. At the same time, it’s one of those things where we made some mistakes and they made some plays. We don’t have any excuses for that, they were the better team because of that and they deserved to win.”
“(Close is) not good enough, not until we get to the point where we finally win one of these games. We just keep getting closer and closer. You want to show progress, which we’re doing. We have some more opportunities, we just have to eventually take advantage of one. We didn’t have to play perfect to win today. I told them I didn’t expect them to play perfect. Sometimes the ball just doesn’t quite bounce your way. We challenged our team to put this behind us. We played last week and had a big-time win and we had to put that behind us to get ready for this one. It was a tough defeat for us, it took a lot of emotion away. We have to put it behind us and get ready for Eastern.”
“It was a big win for coach Tressel, for the first game of his tenure here. I told him after the game, as always, he’s a class act. I thought that was exemplified after the game today.”
On freshman quarterback Charlie Frye
“We didn’t know he was actually going to start. I thought he showed a lot of courage, I told him he was a warrior. It was a pretty good football team and a good defense he was playing against. He took a lot of shots and kept getting back up all day. He made a lot of really good decisions throughout the course of the game under adverse pressure.
“In particular, it was difficult today because they took our running game away and forced a little more of the playmaking on his shoulders. That’s tough for a freshman quarterback in front of 100,000 people. He’s a tremendous young man, I’m telling you. I think he has a lot of really good football in front of him.”
