Football Luncheon Quotes – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/24/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 24, 2002
Jim Tressel
On the Cincinnati game
“I don’t think we were at the top of our game from a focus standpoint,” Tressel said. “Sometimes when you look in the mirror you say to yourself, ‘I don’t know why I allowed myself to not be as good as I could be today.”
“We need to evaluate ourselves individually and learn a lesson. It’s interesting how we have to repeat the learning of lessons,” Tressel said. “I would like to think we could learn a lesson once and for all but sometimes we do not. I think that we learned when you play against a good football team like Cincinnati without 100 percent focus then it will be an interesting day.”
“I’m not sure we had our best preparation week and we did not have our best execution,” Tressel said. “What was most telling about Saturday was that we did not have our best decision-making day”
On Injuries
“Maurice Clarett ran some (Monday) it will be interesting to see how far he comes along today,” Tressel said. “Our trainers told us today that they would call him probable for this week’s game.”
“Mike Stafford has a foot problem which he has been fighting for some time,” Tressel said. “He had an x-ray revealing a lot of old problems, for now he will just have to fight through it.”
“Tim Anderson has a little bit of a calf pull and he is listed as questionable,” Tressel said. Tim is a tough guy. I don’t think I would ever consider him questionable.”
on Indiana
“Indiana is a great blitz team, I would say 40 percent of all their defensive plays include blitzing. On normal blitz downs they really come after the quarterback and they know how to break down protections. It will be an interesting challenge for us on Saturday.”
“I think the thing about league play that makes games so competitive is that people know each other,” Tressel said. “Both teams know what each other is doing and that is the excitement of league play.”
Scouting Indiana so far:
“(Indiana is) doing a good job of doing what they’re told and they’re very aggressive. They’re a high blitz group and what has happened in some of their games is that they’ve done a good job and then all of the sudden they’ve had one missed tackle on a blitz and the ball goes out long.
“They like to run off tackle. They do throw the ball a significant amount and use a lot of play action, but I wouldn’t be shocked to get any formation from them. This, in fact, is the point in the season where you do start seeing a little more added to people’s packages, because they’ve played games, they’ve used their base, they’ve seen the way people have defended their base and they say ‘they have that film and they’ve seen how so and so defended us as the game went on and so we have to go to step two.’ So, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Indiana came with a significant number of things we didn’t see.”
On last season’s Indiana game:
“I remember coming back from that game. There were people saying ‘gosh, you only won 27-14,’ I thought ‘man, Indiana was a good football team.’ Lydell (Ross) was one of the guys who gave us a chance to win that game. He stepped up and had (124) yards. I think what Lydell brought to us in that Big Ten opener was huge.”
On improving from last week:
“It’s been said, and it’s a clich©, but if we’ll just make ourselves focus on Ohio State and look at the guys on the other team as X’s and O’s and make proper decisions, proper plans, proper technique, that’s what every week should be all about.”
On entering Big Ten play:
“The Big Ten is your conference. The Big Ten are those guys you face every year and there’s no secret about it that our goal is to be the outright Big Ten champion, just like I’m sure the other 10 teams have that same goal as they enter in. That’s a very touchable thing, that’s something we can evaluate. I think there is a little hype and I think our guys will be excited about getting into league play.”
On the team’s No. 6 ranking:
“Someone asked me ‘do we think we’re one of the Top 6 teams in the country?’ I said I would be the last guy to ask. I don’t sit around on my couch and watch college football all day long and pretend that I know who the best teams are. All I know is that I want to get as good as Ohio State can get and then as we always say, you get as your work is deserved.”
On Ohio State Running Backs
“I feel good about the guys at the tailback position,” Tressel said. “Although Clarett and Ross have received most of the carries so far, I still feel good about Maurice Hall and JaJa Riley. JaJa Riley had an excellent week of practice. I would not have been surprised to see him get some carries in last Saturday’s game but with the way Lydell was running sometimes its best to stay with what is working.”
On balancing carries for his backs:
“I was hoping that Maurice (Clarett), Lydell (Ross) and Maurice Hall would’ve each had 20 plus carries against Kent. Well, we had the ball 47 plays, but did pretty well. You never know how the game is going to unfold, but first, medical decisions, then game plan decisions, then flow of the game decisions determine who ends up doing what.”
On Vance being named captain vs. Indiana
“I think Chris Vance has been making great strides,” Tressel said. “He is a guy who loves his team and loves Ohio State and he is an outstanding football player. Coming into this season he was one of the few seniors on the team who had some significant votes for team captain. There is no question in my opinion that he is highly respected by his teammates.”
Darrion Scott, DE
On Cincinnati’s offensive schemes:
“Our play was not at the top, where it needed to be, but Cincinnati, they came out and did a bunch of things that we didn’t expect them to do. We had no idea that they were going to come out with a hurry-up offense on the first play of the game. Basically, we just had to come out and adjust to what was going on and handle the adversity.”
On the turf situation at Cincinnati
“The field last week in Cincinnati was not as bad as we expected it to be, even with the rain throughout the week the field managed to hold up.” Scott said.
On entering Big Ten play:
“Every time you line up against a Big Ten team, you don’t know what the outcome is going to be. It’s a tough game; it is a battle until the end. So, we’re excited to play some real football, go up against some guys, get off the block and make some tackles.”
Lydell Ross, TB
On the Cincinnati game
“Coming out of Saturday’s game it felt good to get some yards racked up,” Ross said. “I feel good about it and I feel as if I can do it again. I would say I’m fired up and ready to go for Saturday (vs. Indiana).”
On Clarett
“I think the combination with myself and Maurice is effective,” Ross said. “Maurice is a bruiser who runs with speed and he has all the tools. I run very similar to him.”
On preparing for Indiana and his 2001 breakout game against the Hoosiers:
“I’m going into this game with a good mindset, just like I’ve been going into every game this season, just thinking ‘expect to win.’ (Last year’s game) is in the back of my mind, that against this team last year, I had a good game, but it won’t be on my mind going into the game. I’m just focused on playing a good game.”
Chris Vance, WR
On rejoining his team and improving the offense:
“We’re making strides. We hadn’t had a touchdown reception from a receiver all year (until last Saturday) and I think that (coming back from my absence from the team) means a lot to this offense. I think I’m a big part of the offense, but at the same time, there’s a lot of things that go on, on offense. Coming back has made me feel like I’m a part of the team again, like I’m getting back into the circle and being out of the circle is very hard.”
On being named captain
“It means a lot to me to be named captain,” Vance said. “Coming into a big-time program, anything I can do to help the program I am going to do.
