Transcript From The October 7th Ohio State Football Press Luncheon – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/7/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 7, 2003
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TRESSEL: Don’t have a whole bunch of news for you since last Tuesday. We outlined what we were going to do this past week, and I think we followed through and made some progress. We had a light workout last Tuesday and spent most of our time studying the Northwestern video. Then on Wednesday and Thursday, we had two good padded practices, got a chance to work on a lot of inside drill and a lot of things that teams that we had been facing had not been doing against us. And so it was a good opportunity for our offensive guys up front and running backs and our defensive guys on the attack force to have a little bit more of their inside work than they’d been getting to this point in the season.
Friday was a little bit lighter workout, and the guys that could, got to sneak out of there a little bit early and go see their high schools play and take Saturday and Sunday off.
Yesterday we were back on the field in pads, and we had a good, hard workout today and tomorrow. Thursday, we will taper back a little bit. As Steve mentioned, we will be done shortly after 5:00 and prepare for the weekend in Madison, Wisconsin.
As Steve mentioned, we’ll be going up Friday afternoon and have some opportunity for some extra meeting time while we’re there and an opportunity to do some of our special teams reminders and game day organization and so forth over at the stadium on Saturday.
It’s a tight schedule Saturday, because we have about an hour in the stadium, Wisconsin has the next hour, and the band has the next hour. And so they want us to stay right on step with what we’re doing there.
We have two experts with us, B. J. Sander can handle anything regarding any of the special teams. He does a lot more than simply punt and hold. He does a lot of our video study. He and the other specialists do a lot of the scouting work and statistics and so forth and make recommendations as to how to attack from a special teams standpoint. Craig Krenzel is here to visit with you a little bit, and he’d be happy to talk to you from an offensive standpoint. We didn’t really have any of our older defensive guys that had this hour open on this particular Tuesday, but feel free to throw out any questions from a defensive standpoint as well.
With that, I’ll open it up.
REPORTER: Jim; Barry Alvarez said yesterday you had the option to decline playing this game at night. Is that accurate; if it is, can you explain why?
TRESSEL: You know, I don’t really remember it being discussed. It was brought forward to us that we have the opportunity to play at prime time on Saturday night in Madison, and I guess if it was an option, it was brought forward as an opportunity more, and I felt it was a great opportunity. That’s a tremendous atmosphere, and I think our guys have enjoyed playing in the evening, whether it’s been at home, or we played at Northwestern in the evening, we played at Arizona a couple years ago in the evening, and I think the guys enjoyed that change of pace. When you have 12 games and two of them are in the evening — I guess I don’t remember it ever being a discussion as to the pros and cons, I looked at it as a good opportunity.
REPORTER: How do you keep a team sharp for those kind of games? You have been kind of sharp for those night games.
TRESSEL: It’s like anything else, I think you have to have a time schedule built. You have to know from the get-go where you’re trying to crescendo to, and I suppose I look at it as a little bit extra preparation time. And our guys, I think, have done a good job whether we’ve played at noon, 3:30, evening, of knowing what needs to be done when it needs to be done. And I think our guys, many of which played at Camp Randall last year, really think that that’s a tremendous environment, and it will be nothing but enhanced by being at night.
REPORTER: Jim, you said last week that Wisconsin would have an opportunity to get better by playing Penn State last week. How did you guys get better in the off week at all and in what areas do you feel you might have improved?
TRESSEL: I think the things we got to do last week and through the first half of this week than we’ve had to do a lot more inside against the two-back run. Our defense has been preparing against these spread teams for so long. And back in preseason, we weren’t healthy enough at running back to really give them enough of the inside and power-type work that they’ve needed. These two weeks, I think, have been well placed, in that we’ve gotten to work on that more. That’s one thing.
And obviously, after you’ve played and experienced some things and seen what you do well and what you need to even enhance and see what you haven’t done well through five games, it’s a great chance to look and see, okay, here’s where we really have to get better and not just jump on a film and say, okay, Wisconsin does this, and we have to do this and this and this. Really work hard to get better at what you do, and that was the goal.
REPORTER: Some people mentioned during the Northwestern game that after five games, the team felt like they’d be ready to go on the road, and this is for Craig and B. J. as well, did you feel like this was a great time to finally get away from home, get out of the home environment and be someplace different even to play better?
TRESSEL: I think it’s real that you’re going to play some home and some away, and you’re going to have to win on the road. People, Dick McPherson told me one time that conference championships are won on the road, because if you can’t win on the road in your league, you’re not going to win your league. It’s a reality we’re going to have to play well on the road. This being our first experience, we’ve got a veteran team in some areas, and so I’m sure they understand what it takes to win on the road. Now we have to make sure that the youth can comprehend and stay poised and patient and do a good job there. But we always love playing in Ohio Stadium, but you love playing in any Big Ten stadium, but I’ll let those guys answer.
KRENZEL: Like Coach said, it’s always a great opportunity to play in Ohio Stadium, but we know we’re going to go other places. I know for guys on the team that were here last year and have been here for a while, we love going to Camp Randall. It’s a great atmosphere. I think they have one of the biggest crowds, one of the best student sections that I’ve ever seen. Last year we didn’t play as well on the road as we did at home. And this year I don’t think we’ve played as well as we can, period. But we’ve had the first five games at home, and we haven’t played a game where we’ve walked away happy with our play.
And it’s going to be a tremendous challenge for us on Saturday night, going into a hostile environment, going against a very good football team, trying to step it up for the first time this season and play a good football team.
SANDER: Just like Craig said, going into Camp Randall, I’m excited. Camp Randall is a great place to play. For all the guys that were there last year, they know what type of atmosphere it’s going to be like, especially at night it’s going to be even more exciting for us to go in there and play. And having the first five games at home gave us a chance to show some of the younger guys what college football is all about, and now that we’re in the Big Ten, going on the road, they have a chance to get a few games under their belt, and they’ll be ready to go.
REPORTER: Jim, in future seasons, would you prefer to have a nonconference road game before you get into conference play just to get the younger guys acclimated to being on the road before league games?
TRESSEL: I think we do down the road. I know we go to NC State and we go to Texas in a year or two. So is sounds to me like — I haven’t looked that far ahead to really know where we’re going.
But would I prefer? I don’t know. What’s the schedule? Let’s go play. And there are some realities, as we talked about with the San Diego State game, that was a situation that both teams gained from being that way. And we’re for our whole athletic department and it is what it is. I think we gain as a conference and as an institution by playing at night, the Big Ten will be the only one on there, I think, other than maybe one other game. So let’s go play. Tell us what time, and we’ll see how we do.
REPORTER: Jim, they went through all three of their tailbacks Saturday because of injury. First of all, how do you prepare, not really knowing which one you’re going to see? What subtle differences are there between Smith and Stanley and Davis?
TRESSEL: Well, you know, Anthony Davis is one of the guys that we’ve got plenty of film on. He supposedly wasn’t going to play against us in 2001 and came in and played very, very well. He’s one of those gamers. He’s a tough kid. He played against us this past year and did very, very well. We expect him to play. This is a huge game in the Big Ten conference and we expect him to play. He may or he may not, but we expect him to.
Their guy is a big strong guy, you look at some of their ball games, they didn’t miss a beat. When he stepped in there, and amazingly the third person, Stanley, he’s out there getting over 100 yards. So I think it’s about them knowing very much what they do and how they do it, and they’re very well schooled.
I don’t know that there’s anyone in our league that has run the ball as consistently over a period of time as they have, so really it’s their system. And throw in the fact that they’ve got game-breakers out wide. It’s one thing that you can run, but it’s another thing that if you load up too much against that run, those game-breakers will get you.
REPORTER: Coach, what is it about their system, you mentioned three running backs, each one has had a 100-yard game this year. What is it about their style, is it a system, a belief? Why is it they’re so successful whoever is plugged in there at tailback?
TRESSEL: I think it goes with a couple of things you mentioned. First of all, it’s a belief. They believe you have to run the football well and that’s what you do. Secondly, I think their scheme is very well suited to their personnel. I think they recruit to their personnel and have had good success in bringing the type of people that fit into what they believe in. And they’ve been very astute, I think, in their selection of wide receivers who can make a difference. And you can’t just sit in there and stack up against their run because their receivers can beat you.
And so I think they’ve got a good blend, and, again, I don’t know that there are any teams that do it better over a period of time than Wisconsin has, and you have to tip their hat.
That’s why it was nice to have two weeks to get a little bit more hunkered in to, hey, we’re facing a different world now.
REPORTER: Craig, how has your health progressed this week and how are you feeling?
KRENZEL: I’m feeling well. I started throwing last week. They limited the number of throws. Yesterday there were no limitations. I feel like I have bean throwing the ball pretty well. Last week, a little bit rusty, not having thrown to some of the guys in weeks. It was a big benefit to take some time off.
Like I said, last week I threw the ball pretty well in practice, there were no limitations, and really go out and try to prepare for a good team again today.
REPORTER: Are there any risks there, Craig, that come with — anything you have to be careful of? Will you go in with a pad or any kind of extra protection on that elbow?
KRENZEL: The only thing I’ll be wearing is like an elbow sleeve to get the joint warm, to stay warm and not tighten up in the game.
REPORTER: Are you susceptible to that same type of injury if you take a hit in that spot or —
KRENZEL: I think you’re susceptible to any kind of injury anytime you step out on the field. I don’t know if I’m more susceptible due to the fact it was hurt four weeks ago. That’s a possibility, but it’s not something we’re really going to be thinking about.
REPORTER: Craig, is it accurate that you and Sorgi played in the same league; and if so, can you give us the history?
KRENZEL: Yeah, I played against Jim in my junior and senior year. He was a great quarterback in high school, he was a great passer, smart kid, and he’s the same thing at Wisconsin. He’s great for their system. He can throw the deep ball well and disburse the ball around to their playmakers.
REPORTER: Craig, how do you think the offense got better in having the week off? Do you see things maybe starting to click a little?
KRENZEL: I think we definitely improved. There’s still a lot of room for improvement between now and Saturday, in terms of when we finally get the game plan and exactly what we’re going to want to do on Saturday to make sure that our guys mentally and physically are ready to meet the challenge against a great defense, a great run-stopping defense and a talented secondary. I think from my standpoint, as I mentioned, having some more opportunities to get throws, getting timing back with some of the guys, I think that was a big benefit of the week off.
And I think our guys up front have done a good job of becoming more focused on their assignments in the running game and the passing game and physically going out and carrying on those assignments.
REPORTER: Jim, what’s the status of Alex Stepanovich and Darrion Scott?
TRESSEL: I would say Alex is probably back to well over 90%. And I would like to think that he’ll be at 100% come Saturday. You know, the big difference between doing your rehab, running, and on a bike and in the weight room and all that, is all of a sudden now you’re hitting against someone who is hitting against you, and I think you need to make that transition. So I expect him to be ready to go.
Darrion Scott, I would put in the questionable category. I wouldn’t call him doubtful, but I don’t know that we could say this early that he would be at 100% come game time. And a lot of times with those injuries, that last couple days leading up to the game, there’s some great healing that goes on. So he’ll definitely be with us. Exactly how much he’ll play, I think we haven’t determined.
REPORTER: Have you determined your travel squad, and will you take four quarterbacks?
TRESSEL: This year there was a new Big Ten rule that was passed with the 12 games in mind, knowing that you’ll be a little more nicked up than maybe playing 11 games. So you’re allowed to take 70. So we don’t have really the travel squad problem that you had when you take 64. Then all of a sudden there is — let me say this, though. If we had taken 64, we’d be taking four quarterbacks, so I don’t want to mislead you.
REPORTER: Getting into October and especially with the 9:00 start, are we kind of getting toward the part of the year where we might see Chris Gamble more on offense now?
TRESSEL: I think as the weather cools down, and we don’t see 60 balls thrown our way and that type of thing, the odds go up that he would — it would be the best thing physically for him.
I think that the open week was probably a good thing for Chris Gamble. He was a little bit banged up throughout the first five ball games, and I think right now he’s a little healthier, and that has a lot to do, as I mentioned, in the preseason. One of the most important decisions we have to make is how much can you ask of someone. And I think we’ve given him the right blend for the moment. I foresee maybe a chance to get him on offense a little bit more, but we’ll have to see.
REPORTER: You said the lack of practice has maybe been the cause of dropping a few interceptions, but has he worked a lot more the last two weeks?
TRESSEL: Not really. He comes over the first three periods with our guys and stays sharp when it comes to a route standpoint.
But really we were facing, throughout the first five games, some attacks that you really needed to have a lot of different change-ups and a little bit more than perhaps some other ball games. So he spent 99% of his time on defense and special teams. And that’s still who has first choice is defense and special teams.
But I’d like to get him back into the flow some. We just need to get the right moment.
REPORTER: Jim, will you be able to do all that you had been able to do with Craig back now? Do you feel like the whole game plan will be there for you?
TRESSEL: I asked him if there was a limit as to how much he could throw on Saturday, and he said his limit was 50. And he said his limit running was probably 25 carries. So that’s 75 plays, so I don’t think there will be any limit.
Now, that will be his decision. If all of a sudden it’s not feeling as well as it should, then we’ll make things accordingly. But we’re going into this game expecting everyone to be able to do everything they’re capable of because that’s what it will take.
REPORTER: Jim, is it fair to say that with a road game like this and a physical game that you’re expecting you guys are going to have to run the ball better than you have at any point this season?
TRESSEL: Oh, absolutely. If we’re going to win in the Big Ten conference, we’re going to have to run the football better than we’ve been running it. I think that’s not a secret. You look at the results of games in college football and professional football. Very seldom is it not indicative of who can effectively run the ball. And that is not to say we don’t need to throw well, because we do. The teams we’re getting ready to play, starting with Wisconsin, play the run very, very well and the pass as well. And we’re going to have to be able to do both. But we must improve running the football, we’ve said that and said that and will continue to say that.
REPORTER: Jim, can you talk about the job Nate Salley’s done for you? He’s kind of come out of nowhere.
TRESSEL: Nate Salley was on a lot of special teams last year and was a back-up and played a little bit. Donnie Nickey and Mike Doss spent most of the time in there, and Will Allen was the nickel and back-up safety, so he was fourth. But with two guys leaving, in our minds he didn’t come out of nowhere. He was the guy we were counting on. I think he stepped up. He’s a smart football player. The more experience he has in there, because of the tackling that needs to take place from a safety position, I think he’s improved. This will be his greatest test, though, because when you have a team that can run the football like Wisconsin can, if you trace back to any big plays that were made against us by Wisconsin in the last two years that I’ve witnessed, they were, in part, based upon angles taken at the safety position or maybe missing a tackle or something like that. Safeties have a lot of pressure in this game because they have to tackle so well and Wisconsin throw the ball over your head. So you have to be the best of both worlds. So this will be greatest for Nate, but he’s doing a great job.
REPORTER: Coach, did you guys, and Craig and B. J. as well, during the off week, from a mental standpoint, you think about kind of the bigger picture here in the respect that you still have won 19 straight games, you’re still undefeated. A lot of great teams around the country lost some tough games, Miami almost loses last week. And to think of the possibilities of what’s ahead, you’re still undefeated, you still have a chance to accomplish a lot of those goals. Did you have a chance to sit and take that broader look, I guess?
TRESSEL: I know personally, if my mind ever wanders in that direction, I try very hard to get it back onto where we are at this moment. But I think we’re all human, and we all look at what happened in college football. And some of those ball games that you mentioned remind you that you better play well every second or they’re going to be talking about you next week.
But I think sometimes we all flicker to a larger scale and then hopefully we get down into what’s going on right this moment. At least that’s my look at it.
KRENZEL: The same thing here, at least me personally, I don’t really let my mind wander much further than the next Saturday opponent that we have. And I think that was definitely one of the keys to our success last year. And if we want to have that same kind of success or anything near that, we have to be able to maintain that focus on who we’re playing that Saturday and what we need to do to go and win games. The previous 19 games mean nothing, 9:10 in Camp Randall stadium this Saturday, and that’s the most important thing we have to keep in mind.
SANDER: Like Craig said, we go out with the mentality that we take one game at a time, because if we look past any opponent, it was shown these past couple weeks, if you look past somebody, the team you’re playing then can come up and get you. And then your goal for the year could be shot.
I think if get too far ahead of ourselves, we’re going to get in trouble, so we try to take it one game at a time.
TRESSEL: We tell B. J. he’s only as good as his next punt.
REPORTER: Craig, you mentioned that the fans at Camp Randall are wild. They can sometimes, oftentimes get very rude when you’re coming out of the tunnel, they can load up those marshmallows and throw them at you guys. What’s it like coming out of the tunnel?
KRENZEL: I’ve heard a lot of stories about that. I remember my first time going to Camp Randall, I heard about that. They built something over the tunnel where you come out so the fans can’t throw stuff at us as we’re coming out of the tunnel. I’ve never had a bad experience with any fans there. I’ve never experienced anything being thrown at me. I’m sure some of the guys have, and it may happen on Saturday, but that’s all the kind of stuff that doesn’t really matter. The thing we like about the stadium is the atmosphere. It’s very electrifying, it’s a lot of fun, it’s very hostile. It’s a great place to go play a football game.
REPORTER: Jim, does Lee Evans, having had this long, extended comeback, you mentioned that they throw it deep and they pick a favorite guy, but do you really notice, in looking at them, that he’s that much of a favorite over the other guy, Brandon Williams, who’s got nine less catches?
TRESSEL: They’re both good. Brandon Williams got to play all last year as kind of the go-to guy. Then they had the big, tall receiver on the other side.
Lee Evans, I thought, in watching their first game against West Virginia, I thought that he was going out there and kind of looking to make the play and get things going on, and he did. And really, as you watch the film, he doesn’t look any different than he did prior to the injury. He does have a good running mate there in Brandon Williams. And, again, that’s why I like their scheme. They pound it at you, and they can throw it deep, their quarterback runs it a little bit on some of their — not quite maybe as much as Bollinger, but does run it a little bit, maybe more than you think he might.
So I like what they’re doing. And Lee Evans is a big part of it, because he’s a player. He’s a guy that makes a play when you need it, and he’s back 100%, in our estimation.
REPORTER: Could you assess your running game, what you’ve learned over the last week and a half of practice, where you’re at with that?
TRESSEL: What we’ve learned? You know, I think when you’re in the midst of just grinding it out and working on things, there were some flashes, I thought, against a very good run defense. We were facing pretty good competition these open weeks and so forth, and I thought we were doing a fairly good job of giving them competition and they giving our run game competition.
I think this, when you’re playing against a good defense, whether it’s ours or the way that Wisconsin plays strong against the run, because they face it every day, is that you better account for everybody, and you better understand how well-schooled those run teams are. Wisconsin does a wonderful job with fitting up where their secondary fits, just like I think our defense does a good job. And you better understand, you better account for everybody.
And hopefully that experience has given us, inch by inch, improvement. But you can’t measure that until you line up and do it against the Wisconsins.
REPORTER: Did Guilford make some progress over this period?
TRESSEL: I thought — I thought I mentioned to this group after the Northwestern game, he made a step of awareness in the pass game, which I think is usually the mark of someone starting to get the feel for things. I think all along he’s flashed some with the ball in his hands, and that didn’t change, and I thought he did that during the course of this time.
And as every day goes, we’re more and more confident of having Ira in the ball game. And that’s youth, you know, getting older, you hope he can step up.
REPORTER: Craig, my compliments on your fashion sense. Do you think you can talk Coach Tressel into wearing a shirt like that?
TRESSEL: That’s Bacharach. He gets those catalogs, I don’t.
REPORTER: Did you pick that out yourself or —
KRENZEL: Yeah, I’m picky when it comes to my clothes.
REPORTER: Jim, would you talk about the two or three things that impress you the most in what you see from Wisconsin offensively and defensively?
TRESSEL: Well, as I mentioned offensively, they’ll pound it at you across the front. They can stretch you wide, they can just stay direct, and they do a great job with their cutback plays. It’s not like you can load up any one place to stop their run.
Also, offensively, I think they do a good job of when they throw and what they throw. I think that’s — when you’re playing against a good run team, knowing that at any moment they can hit a homerun throwing the ball, I think that makes your challenge tougher.
Special teams-wise, they won the Penn State game on special teams. They recovered a kickoff, fumble, they forced a fumble on a Penn State kickoff return. They returned a punt 65 yards for a touchdown. They forced two field goal misses and an extra point miss. Their special teams have always been quietly their leader, and I think it continues to be so.
And then their defense, they just know exactly why they do what they do. We talk all the time about you’re good on defense if you know what the other guys around you are doing and why they’re doing it. Therefore, you’ll play your responsibility because you know this guy’s going to be here, and this guy’s going to be there. And you can see, again, because they’ve been doing the same things.
Where I think I’ve learned a little bit more about them, having faced them twice now, is while they do what they do, they’re always going to come up with a way to stop what you do that you might not have seen before. And I thought they came up with an excellent scheme against us a year ago. They’ll come up with a good scheme against us this year. And it will come down to us being able to adjust, and perhaps if we come up with schemes, they’ll need to adjust. And they’re good at that, because they’ve been together a long time. And they’re just an impressive football team, an impressive program that has done it over time.
REPORTER: Coach, I think your run defense is number one in the country. Can you talk about the emphasis on stopping the run, is this group even better than maybe last year?
TRESSEL: Our emphasis is always going to be, number one, stop the run. Because if you don’t stop the run, and they can do both without a problem, you’re going to have a problem. I think this group has done an excellent job of that.
Quite honestly, I don’t know that anyone’s come after us with the run, like, perhaps, some teams will beginning Saturday night. But I think for what our guys have been asked to do versus the run, they’ve done a solid job of it. And they know that it’s a quantum leap in challenge with what they’re going to face from a run game standpoint, and they’re preparing hard to get ready for it.
REPORTER: Coach, can you and B. J., as well, talk about the special teams, pressuring the punter. Ohio State’s placed emphasis on that this year but has not seemed to reach the punter very often. And also returning kicks, the statistics, are maybe not what expectations were coming into the season?
TRESSEL: Well, I would agree that we have not put punt return numbers that we would like to have. I think we have put a little bit of pressure on the punter without the risk that that is. I think we’ve had maybe one roughing or two. And usually, if you are a punt rush team, that’s always a risk. But sometimes you’ve got to say, hey, that’s the risk, let’s go. I think we have put pressure on punter, though. And sometimes that translates into not getting very good punts to return. I haven’t seen a whole bunch of punts that people would say they outkicked their coverage and now we’ve got a lot of space. We do have to improve in some areas on our punt return, and it starts with catching every catchable ball and taking it wherever it’s designed to go, and the people holding up or blocking whomever they’re supposed to block.
But it’s an area that we feel as if we need to generate some plays on our punt return/punt block units.
B. J. studies that more than I do. B. J., anything to add there?
SANDER: I think the reason our return yards haven’t been quite up to where everybody wants them to be is a lot of teams are kicking away from Chris when he’s back there. They’re kicking towards the sidelines, making it more difficult for him to catch the ball and get up the field.
And as far as us putting pressure on the punter, we may not have blocked a punt yet, but I think it’s definitely in the back of the punter’s mind that he knows we’re coming after him. I think sometimes that forces him to hit not as good a ball as he wants to.
REPORTER: Jim, talking about atmosphere up there at Camp Randall, you mentioned last week you would do some things to try to simulate that. Can you enlighten us a little bit about what you’ve done, what kind of noise you’ve pumped into the Woody Hayes facility there or whatever you’ve done to get ready for that?
TRESSEL: Typically we do our noise work on days where the teaching is done. It’s hard to have the noise going and the coaches teaching, so we don’t do it on that normal workday, typically it’s a Thursday type of situation, whether we’re practicing indoors or out.
If we really want to stoke up the noise, we practice indoors, which is probably what we’ll do Thursday. We’ll probably be outdoors today and tomorrow and come indoors Thursday and just make it impossible to hear. And the coaches go home at night with their heads rattling around. But that’s been something we’ve done nearly every Thursday, indoor or outdoor, but we’ll probably do it indoors this week.
REPORTER: Do you use music there, or what do you use for your noise?
TRESSEL: I guess, is that music? Is that what they call music these days? It wasn’t the Beach Boys, but it was loud and it got the point across. I mean, you can’t communicate. Everything must be done by either visual cue or signal or something. And that’s the way it’s going to be Saturday night, and that’s fun.
You kind of laugh at yourself sometimes, Craig’s getting ready to get up, and all of a sudden you’re yelling out there, Craig, Craig, like he’s going to hear you. But it’s part of the fun of the atmosphere, and our guys would be disappointed if it wasn’t loud.
REPORTER: With all due respect, Coach, would one of you younger guys tell us what kind of music you’re listening to?
KRENZEL: I don’t ever really pay attention to the music that’s on. It’s so loud, I don’t know. Sometimes it’s some rap and some R&B and stuff, but it is mixed in with some crowd noise, so it’s kind of like a big blur. It’s so loud you really can’t understand anything.
There’s simulated crowd noise, there’s a little bit of music going on. We’re trying to focus, having a hard time trying to call the play and tell receivers what route to run or get a play called in the huddle, and never really take the time to actually listen who’s singing or what kind of music’s on.
SANDER: Pretty much the same thing.
KRENZEL: He stands around all practice.
TRESSEL: Away from the speakers, right?
REPORTER: Craig, how good do you think you guys are operating under those conditions with the signals and all that?
KRENZEL: I think we’re good. Our receivers and tailbacks and fullbacks, they know the signals. The receivers obviously have to know them. The tight ends have to know them. Our offensive line, we do most communication — almost all the communication verbally through numbers and code words and certain things for protections in plays. And they’re so close that you do have the ability to communicate verbally. And like I said, our receivers and backs, they know the signals well.
And the backs have the best of both worlds, they know the signals, and they can come up close and listen to the play, so they’re able to definitely know what’s going on.
REPORTER: Jim, could you talk a little bit about the tight ends, number two and number four on receiving, does that speak to their particular talents, why maybe they’re having good years, or to the fact that you kind of view them as an extension of the running game to throw to?
TRESSEL: Well, Jim Lachey always fields those calls that we need to throw them to the tight end more. So we’re succumbing to that. Right, Jim?
I think they’re talented, I think Ben Hartsock, Ryan Hamby, Louis Irizarry, the guys that know what we’re doing, why they’re doing it. They have been doubling as backs some, so I don’t know that you can say that all their catches are tight end catches, if you will. I think that is an extension of the run game in some ways.
If you study the evolution of football, people are throwing more; but not necessarily all the throws are way down the field. And I think that has doubled at times as part of the run game attack that offenses have integrated into their system. But we’ve been pleased with their understanding of where they need to be, why they need to be there, how they need to get there. And that’s — that’s important if we can continue to spread the ball out distribution-wise and improve our run game, I think we can become a good offense.
REPORTER: Up in Wisconsin for all of you, there’s some talk that they’ve labeled this the biggest game in Camp Randall stadium history. I’m just wondering how you react to that, and if that adds to your excitement, knowing how special they’re treating this football game Saturday?
KRENZEL: I haven’t heard that. I’m sure it’s been said, if you’re saying that. I think, number one, any game that you’re playing that weekend, to the team from a team standpoint, is the most important game in the history of that stadium, because that’s the only game that matters.
I think they are looking at it with our win streak and the success that we’ve had, and at the same time, none of that stuff really matters. The only thing that matters, come 9:00 Saturday night, is who’s on the field, what schemes you’re going to run and who executes, who holds onto the ball, who forces turnovers, and who executes the plays and defenses that are called.
SANDER: Exactly what Craig said, the game that week is the game. There’s no other games going on besides that one, the one we’re participating in that week, and we always treat that as the big game of the week, so —
REPORTER: But is there any sense of, especially since you had this break, that it’s time to get serious, you’re kind of playing some more smash-mouth kind of teams?
KRENZEL: It was time to get serious back in August. We haven’t played as well — I know for a fact, we haven’t played as well, and there’s not a guy on the team that thinks we’ve played as well as we can and as well as we should. And with that in mind, this weekend presents a big challenge. We want to go out and play the best football we possibly can, knowing that maybe that’s not possible, but we’d like to be somewhere close, and we’d like to continue improving from week to week.
REPORTER: Jim, what happened to them against UNLV? I think that’s the game they look at and wonder how they could lose that game at home.
TRESSEL: Five turnovers, one for a touchdown, that’s all you need to say. UNLV turned it over once and played very methodical. Didn’t set the world on fire by any means, but they won the game and there was, what, a punt block for a touchdown.
SANDER: Safety.
TRESSEL: Or safety. It was UNLV went in there and did what they had to do to win the game. And I’m sure if you’re sitting there as Wisconsin, you’d say, fellows, we can’t win if we’re going to do this. And statistically, I don’t think either team ran the ball that well. So I don’t think anyone established the tempo of the game with their offense.
Therefore, the turnovers magnify things. I suppose you can turn the ball over if you’re going to go out the next drive and go 80 yards and match that problem. But when the offensive tempo of either team didn’t seize the game, the turnovers and the special teams did, that’s why they lost.
REPORTER: With Alex coming back and the things you’ve said about Nick Mangold the last couple weeks, how is that rotation going to work? Do you still envision Nick playing more or —
TRESSEL: Well, Nick will play center when he’s in the ball game, and Alex will play guard and center, according to what the line-up is. I think you can expect to see Shane and Nick and Alex playing a significant number of the snaps. Of course you’re going to see Nick Mangold and Bryce Bishop, Mike Kne and maybe Adam Olds in the rotation. And that’s what, seven or eight? I guess that’s eight. That, I think, is the way that you’ll see things unfold.
We’ve got 10 minutes for these guys.
