Post Game Quotes From Ohio State vs. Texas Tech – Ohio State Buckeyes
8/24/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 24, 2002
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Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel
“Our kids prepared hard this summer and during the preseason. I thought they and our coaches worked really hard. Texas Tech is a good football team and they’ll go on and have a good year. I was pleased with how our guys came out and went after it.
“If you can play the game without turnovers you’re going to have a chance; if you play without turnovers and can run the ball you’re going to win.
“I thought (quarterback) Craig (Krenzel) did a good job decision-making when throwing the ball. We’re probably going to need to a better job throwing the ball than we did today. Keeping the ball away from them was an important issue.
“The defense was swarming all over the place and breaking on the ball. Our front guys were giving great pressure. I’m not sure their quarterback has seen that kind of pressure. Our guys on the back end were there ready there to splatter their guys when they got the ball. Outside of a trip-up here or there I thought our defense did a fabulous job.
“It was good to see Mike Nugent nail the (45-yard) field goal and it was good to see us make our extra points. We handled the punt play – the most important play in football – well. We had good punt returns and our kickoff return was solid. We were working hard on every phase of the game. We have some things to learn from but we showed we made some movement forward.”
On former OSU captain Charles Csuri’s pregame speech:
“He challenged the team to be focused and disciplined. He’s an extraordinary person. You could hear a pin drop in the room when he was talking to our guys. He was challenging our guys to be focused and disciplined. Our guys really stopped and listened because I thought they did a good job of that today.” Ohio State safety Mike Doss
“We played as a unit and everyone did their job. The coaches have been preaching all week that all the players needed to do their jobs and work as one group. I feel pretty good that the defense slowed down their offense, giving our offense more opportunities.”
Ohio State free safety Donnie Nickey
On stopping Texas Tech:
“We showed our hearts and determination by not letting them score and by not letting them gain many points. It is good to show our toughness early in the season.”
Ohio State line backer Matt Wilhelm
On the team’s excitement:
“This team today was impressive. The seniors lead well. We had a lot of guys play and a lot of guys produce, which is great early in the season.”
Texas Tech Postgame Quotes
Texas Tech Head Coach Mike Leach
“We didn’t play well consistently. We gave up too many big plays offensively. We did some good things on special teams. We never got in sync offensively and that hurt us. We gave up big plays on the run and that’s most disturbing.
“(Quarterback) Kliff (Kingsbury) didn’t play his game today. He obviously has room for improvement. We weren’t very consistent in protecting him.
On the play near the goal line in the second quarter
“I still would have gone for it on fourth down. You have to be able to get six inches. Give Ohio State a lot of credit. They played well on both sides of the ball. They really didn’t do anything we didn’t prepare for. They just played well. (Freshman Maurice) Clarett is a very good player.”
Quarterback Kliff Kingsbury:
“We knew they were good up front. They played really well and gave us a lot of pressure. We got down, 21-7, and that really took us out of our game plan. They dropped eight (defensive backs) and still got a good rush with three (linemen). It really took us a while to get going. That fourth down play really hurt us. We have to be able to get that. Things really started to snowball from there. You have to give them a lot of credit.”
