Post Game Quotes From Ohio State vs. Washington State – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/14/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 14, 2002
Recap| Box Score| Notes
OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel
On WSU quarterback Jason Gesser and the game:
“Jason Gesser (Washington State) is a good football player. He can get rid of that ball and he can find his receivers. I think our DBs (defensive backs) did a good job of hitting their receivers because they were looking for space to fall as the game went on. The guys on the front kept the run to a minimum and I think that is what it was all about.”
On forcing two turnovers by Washington State:
“That was huge. What a great catch by (Matt) Wilhelm (Ohio State), but we didn’t cash in unfortunately. And then Tyler Everett (Ohio State) made a tremendous play on fourth down there. What looked like it was touchdown became a turnover. “
On facing adversity in the game:
“There is no question about it. The score was 7-6. We were playing a good team and we hadn’t been in that situation (trailing) all year. We had a lot of young people in the game. The older guys did a great job of encouraging the young guys and making sure they understood what we needed. I thought our coaches did an outstanding job and the crowd was phenomenal. It was just a great game.”
OSU Running Back Maurice Clarett:
“I wasn’t being patient in the first half. Coach Spencer told me to just start being more patient and the holes would open up. We wanted to come back out in the second half and be the better team.”
“You have to be tough in the Big Ten. I knew I had to suck it up and just keep playing through it. Coach Tressel says it’s a privilege to carry the ball at Ohio State and I want to make the most of every opportunity I get.”
“Some people look forward to Ohio State games the entire week. I want to make sure people get their money’s worth whether they’re sitting in A deck or way up in C deck.”
“We just want to take it game-by-game. I don’t really worry about individual statistics. Big players make big plays in big games.”
Running backs coach Tim Spencer:
“(Washington State) was beating us up front on our blocks, especially early on. No. 88 (Rien Long) is pretty slippery and kept disrupting us in the backfield.”
“Maurice reminds me a lot of Eddie (George) with his work ethic. He comes to play everyday. He displays excellent effort on the practice field and I think the guys see that and respect that.”
OSU placekicker Mike Nugent:
“I think it was important to start out early. The offense gets down when I don’t connect. So I think it was important that I connected on my field goals early on to set the tone and give our guys confidence.”
OSU defensive lineman Will Smith:
“Everyone on this team has a job to do and today everyone went out and did their job. We got a feel for them in the second half then we came out in the second half after making adjustments at half time and things started to come together.”
“They were throwing a lot of short routes with guys running away from the quarterback. They did a good job throwing down the seam and hitting their receivers.”
OSU linebacker Matt Wilhelm:
“In the first half we were beating ourselves. We were only down one point at halftime to a really good team. We knew if we made the proper adjustments that we would be fine. They were putting a lot of pressure on us early.”h
WSU Head Coach Mike Price
“Today’s game was a tough hard hitting game. I know we didn’t play as well as we could have today, but at the same time I am proud of our guys. We were beat up as I’m sure they were, still we sucked it up and continued to compete.
“We had a muff snap towards the end of the first half which was very unusual heading into halftime I thought we had chance to be up 14-6.
“Their running game was very dominant today. Clarett is a very good back who is difficult to tackle.
“We had opportunities to score in the second half, but we never could take advantage of those which left the defense on the field to long.”
WSU Quarterback Jason Gesser
“In the second half, I was not able to hit my receivers as well as I did in the first half they caught us off guard a lot today when they blitzed.
“We hurt ourselves a lot today on offense. It’s frustrating when we know we can move the ball, we were not able to put the ball in the end zone when it mattered. Today we stopped ourselves a lot by not executing when we had to.
“What changed the most from the first half to the second is that they began to hit me causing me to hit miss some of my primary targets.”
