Transcript From The September 16th Ohio State Football Press Luncheon – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/16/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 16, 2003
TRESSEL: Our guys got here. We were stalling a little bit. We knew you didn’t want to miss a moment.
All of you witnessed that four-hour-and-17-minute football game, which a lot of guys played a lot of plays and played extremely hard, and obviously our greatest pleasure was how hard we played and how long we fought.
Our greatest displeasure was the fact that we gave a team like North Carolina State a chance to have opportunities at our end of the field way too much because of our own mistakes. They can earn their own way down the field without us giving them a chance on some of those. I think when you have five turnovers, as we did, and you win the football game, you need to consider yourself very fortunate from that standpoint.
We had some guys that did play very, very well. I think nine on the defensive field out of the 20 or so that played considerably graded winning performance. Six or seven on the offensive field graded winning performance. Our special units player of the week was B. J. Sander. He did an excellent job as Mike Nugent’s holder and also did an outstanding job punting the football. He averaged over 49 yards per punt. His hang times were excellent, and we netted over 50 yards per punt because the return yardage was minus three. So B. J. and his unit did an outstanding job. And in a ballgame like that, where you’re going to be closely contested, field position is very, very important and B. J. did a great job.
The defensive player of the week was Darrion Scott. I think by far played the finest game he’s ever played here. Eight or nine tackles, a couple tackles for loss, a couple sacks, caused a fumble. Just did a tremendous job and made a huge impact on that defensive front.
Our offensive player of the game was Michael Jenkins, Michael had seven catches for 129 yards or 120 yards, a couple touchdowns, made big plays when we needed them made, obviously caught the game-winner, had the best blocking day that he’s had. In fact, the whole receiver group, I thought, did a much better job blocking down the field than we’ve been doing, and Michael Jenkins was the offensive player of the game. And all three of our players of the week are here.
We’re still out of school. Beginning the week after next, we may not bat a thousand on that because we do have some guys that have Tuesday midday classes.
Our offensive lineman of the week was Ben Hartsock. Ben did a great job grading 85%. He had 7 catches, he did a good job helping us disburse the football where we needed to put it. It was great to see Ben back in there full speed ahead, and he was our offensive lineman of the week.
Our attack force player of the week on our defensive front was Tim Anderson. Tim, like Darrion, created a lot of havoc. He caused some quarterback hurries, had some quarterback hits, had X number of tackles, I think seven or eight tackles and a sack or two, that type of thing. Did an outstanding job. Gave great effort. I think when you talk about playing on the defensive front, as many plays as our guys played, we had 99, I think, defensive snaps, when you get three overtimes. And those guys, the effort they gave, I felt, was extraordinary, and Tim Anderson was the attack force player of the week.
We really did not see a hit in the game that would warrant the selection of a Jack Tatum hit. Our scout team players of the week on the special teams were Curt Lukens from North Canton-Hoover who’s going to be a good football player here and who has excellent speed and loves to play the game. Curt did a good job on our special units.
The scout team offensive player of the week was Andre Tyree, and Andre is a guy on the offensive front that we really think has a lot of offensive ability but has not been able, due to injury, you know, to stay there and progress and pass that test of time. And it’s been good to see him over the last two, two and a half weeks stay in there and keep moving forward, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see Andre Tyree, before all is said and done, because he really has a lot of talent and has a good ability to move his feet and it was exciting to see him be the scout offensive player of the week.
Scout defensive player of the week was Sian Cotton. He missed most of preseason and came in, did an excellent job working with that scout team. He played the technique we were going to face on the defensive inside exactly how we needed it played, and we were excited about his performance as the scout team defensive player.
I asked the defensive coaches Sunday night, after they’d graded the film, I said, you guys have faced a lot of great quarterbacks over the course of time, is Philip Rivers about as good as any of them that you’ve seen? Could he be one of the best you’ve seen? And their response was, so far. He said, wait till you see Josh Harris. Josh Harris does an extraordinary job for Bowling Green, attacking with his feet and his arm. They lead the nation in offense and scoring and so forth. They scored 27 points against Purdue at Purdue, which I happen to think Purdue is one of the top defenses in the Big Ten. And so I know that — our defense knows, and I certainly know that our defensive staff knows that they’ve got a tremendous challenge as Bowling Green comes in this week.
But I think kind of the quiet champion amongst the Bowling Green team is their defense. I think they do a tremendous job. They don’t make mistakes. They do a great job against the run. There was a statistic that one of our coaches cited that five of the last six out of conference games against BCS opponents, they held their BCS opponent under 100 yards, and I really think the Bowling Green defense, while they exist in an environment that is talking a lot about offense, I think their defense is outstanding, and I think their special teams, as you study them and watch what they do, watch all the wrinkles that they have, if you remember when Coach Barnett was at Northwestern, and he always seemed to have some things in store for you on the special teams, Coach Brandon worked with him there, and has brought that same type of detail and so forth to the Bowling Green special teams. And as you watch them on film, they do things extremely well and pose a lot of problems.
So I think all of our guys know, as we looked at the season and we said, what does 2003 hold for us? We said that 2003 had some extraordinary out-of-conference games, that if we could continually improve and get better against teams of that caliber, we’re going to have a chance to compete against the Big Ten, which we think is going to be an outstanding league.
We knew going in that Bowling Green was one of the top teams in the MAC, if not the top team, and here we are three games later and they’ve demonstrated that they certainly are. So I know our coaches and players are excited about going out and taking on the challenge of the Falcons.
REPORTER: Coach, could you talk about the merits, any risks or rewards of playing in-state opponents, it’s generally their biggest game of the year.
TRESSEL: Well, you know, I think on the upside, you know it’s going to be good competition. You know it’s going to be of great interest, as you get together within, you know, your own state. I guess on the down side, you also know how good they are and, as you say, how exciting it is. You know, we talk about that every week it’s a privilege to play in Ohio Stadium, and when you get to play there once every four or five years, I’m sure you really look at it that way. And so it will be a great challenge for us. I think it’s a good thing that we’re doing it. I don’t know that there’s anything bad about it, other than you know it’s going to be a tough one, but I think a tough one is always good for us.
REPORTER: Jim, there is a school of thought out there that this is an “everything to lose, nothing to gain” situation, because if we beat them, everybody expects that because you’re perceived to be at a different level of football than MAC schools.
Do you not share that opinion or do you see where that opinion comes from?
TRESSEL: Well, I can understand that opinion that someone might have, but I hope as we try to become a better football team, that we’re looking a little bit even with less view from a standpoint of, we’ve got to get better, and we can’t worry about what’s going to happen based upon the outcome. We’ve got to worry about what’s going to happen the first play and the second play and the third play and are we going to get better.
We’ve always talked about, we want our teams to continually get better, and that theoretically, by the end of the season, we’re going to be playing our best. To me, that’s what’s most at stake is how we’re going to progress. And all those other things, though, I understand the discussion and understand how people could feel that way.
REPORTER: Considering Hartsock was the offensive player, line player of the week, what does that say about how the rest of the line played or —
TRESSEL: Well, I think selecting Ben Hartsock as the offensive lineman of the week, we want to make sure we remind him he’s still a lineman, that he doesn’t think he’s strictly a pass-catcher. But he blocked very well, and in our scheme of things, the tight-end blocking is crucial. He had two other linemen grade performance, Nick Mangold and Adrien Clarke — did we play as well as a group up there as we need to have played? No, I don’t think any of us would say that we did. But I don’t know if you go down the row of these guys, if they’d say that their group played as well as they need to play as we try to get better. But there’s no inference to be made about Ben being selected because the tight end is a very important lineman for us, and he doubles up as a fullback a little bit, and he blocks a lot.
REPORTER: Will Allen didn’t qualify for Jack Tatum of the week, the last play?
TRESSEL: Well, he wasn’t nominated.
REPORTER: He wasn’t?
TRESSEL: I’m sure that’d be a possibility.
REPORTER: Jim, talk about him a little bit, though, how he always seems to be, at the crucial moment, around the action, no matter where it is. That was at the 1-foot line, you know, Cincinnati last year was in the end zone, Michigan. Just talk about, what is it about him that puts him in those spots?
TRESSEL: Will Allen, I think right now has two tremendous things going for him. One, he’s very, very disciplined, and he’s where he’s supposed to be and he helps everyone else get there. And, two, he’s doing exactly what these three guys are doing and what the rest of those seniors are doing. He’s focused and made a commitment to play the best he could possibly play and have his career best year this year as a senior. And, I couldn’t be happier with Will Allen.
Now, did he grade 100%? No. Did he grade winning performance? Yes. Are there some things I’m sure he has to get better at? I’m sure there are. But what he’s doing with his discipline and his passion to contribute, you know, Will Allen is one of those special guys.
REPORTER: You talked after the game about concern about the running game and some of it, play selection or whatever, personnel. As you evaluated the film, what do you feel like the shortcomings are right now?
TRESSEL: Just like you thought you would as a coach, there are some things you’d say, you know what, we should have designed this different, there should have been some things done better up in the front, and perhaps there should have been some things from a decision standpoint with the guys with the ball.
So it is a shared situation. Just like when it goes good, it’s not just because, you know, Adrien Clarke blocked five guys, it’s because everyone who had good design and we did a good job getting up into people up front and we made the proper cuts and kept our shoulders square and had good ball leverage and all of those things. But we’ve got to get better at all those things. I couldn’t sit here and say that there’s any one part of the run game and say, oh, yeah, that’s there, I wish the rest of it would catch up. We’re not there yet.
REPORTER: Coach, I thought I heard you say on your radio show that for a team to be successful, 54% of the running plays need to be for four yards or more. Why 54%, and do you have any idea where the team is this year using that barometer?
TRESSEL: Well, that’s just a consistency statistic that we use. And when we talk about 54% of the yards, if it’s third and one, one is consistent. Okay? So it’s 54% of the time, you need to get what you need to get. On first down, it’s four yards. On second down, it’s half of what’s left. On third down, of course, you have to convert.
You know, it’s just a statistic that over the test of time has been one that we have found that if we can have that type of consistency when we call on our run game, then we’re going to have a chance to have the type of run game we need to win football games. And, you know, where are we now? I’m guessing, without having the data in front of me, we’re in the 30% area. I’m guessing.
REPORTER: Darrion, have you seen the Josh Harris tape this week?
SCOTT: Yeah, actually watched some of Josh Harris yesterday after practice.
REPORTER: Does he remind you of anyone after chasing Philip Rivers all week? Does anything stick out that makes you think, this guy’s got something else?
SCOTT: He kind of reminds you of the guy, Joshua Cribbs, I think, for Kent State, except he’s probably a little bit more heavy, he’s 6-3, 240. I think that’s what makes him so versatile. He can run, and he really has a good arm. He has a great arm. And being 240 pounds is almost like chasing a 240-pound tailback. So the quarterback, you know, with good speed and a great arm like he has is going to be a good challenge for us to stop him.
REPORTER: Coach, same question, have you seen any quarterbacks like Josh Harris before.
TRESSEL: You know, I haven’t studied that much of Josh this week. I’ve studied more of their defense. Probably the two guys that I’ve coached against that remind me a little bit of him, I coached one time against Steve McNair when he was at Alcorn, and I coached against Dante Culpepper when he was at Central Florida, and they both threw it so well, and when there was nothing there, they could run it so well and they could design runs for them. Because as Darrion mentioned, you know, they’re just big, strong guys that you better tackle. That would be the two closest guys that I’ve ever coached against.
REPORTER: Jim, you talked all season long about having the bull’s eye on your back and whatnot, and now there seems to be an air of vulnerability around your football team. That’s kind of a dangerous combination, you can’t shake one, how do you shake the other one that makes you look less vulnerability. It looks like teams would say, hey, we can come into Ohio Stadium and say, hey, we can beat these guys.
TRESSEL: That’s the challenge each week that we’ve got to do the things such that they can’t. I think Washington came in feeling that way. I think San Diego State came in feeling that way and so did — who did we play last week? It’s been so long ago.
REPORTER: NC State.
TRESSEL: NC State. They all came in thinking they could win. Just like every time we go somewhere, we believe we can win, if we do certain things. Now we have to flip that around and say, if we do certain things, we’re going to win. And I don’t think it’s real complicated. You can’t have five turnovers, we can’t have X number of penalties. We’ve got to run the football better. We can’t miss interceptions. We can’t miss tackles. We can’t get to the quarterback late. I don’t know that the formula is a complicated one, but you’ve got to go do it. And that appearance of being vulnerable versus — I don’t know if we’ve ever had an appearance of not being vulnerable, but that’s something that we’ve just got to do our part and I fully expect Bowling Green to come in here feeling like they’re going to win. They don’t win — oh, I don’t know how many games they’ve won in the last few years, but it’s a bunch. They don’t go into Purdue and beat Purdue, and go into Missouri and beat Missouri, go into wherenever, Northwestern, and beat those teams if they don’t think that they can do that. And so I know that they’re going to come in here believing that.
REPORTER: There was a time when somebody would have thought San Diego State going in and giving Ohio State a game, this year, no way, Bowling Green, no way. There was a time when nobody would have believed that would have been possible. Now I think more people are thinking, you know what, Bowling Green could go into Ohio Stadium and beat Ohio State on Saturday. How do you get that attitude back, Michael and Darrion and B. J., that there’s no way anybody’s going to come in and beat us?
JENKINS: First of all, we need to worry about ourselves and do the things we need to do to win ballgames. Having a turnover, that doesn’t help really; missed assignments, things like that. We just have to focus on ourselves and do the things we need to do to win ballgames where we can put teams away early in the game.
SCOTT: You know, just like Coach said, every team we play is going to come in thinking they can win. It’s the attitude you have to have when you go play a football team. But, you know, just like last year, you know, we had close games. You know, that was a wavy one. Just the thing is, you know, we’re going to be confident. It was the same way last year, if the games were close, we’re going to stick together and believe we can win and the majority of the time we come out victorious.
SANDER: I think, along with what Mike and Darrion said, since we are defending National Champs, if somebody comes in and beats us, no matter what their record is, it’s pretty much going to make their season. I think what they say, we need to go out and take care of our responsibilities first, and if we do that, we’re going to be pretty tough to beat.
REPORTER: Jim, you’re three games into the season now, and you know you’re not going to get Maurice Clarett back at any point. Have you seen enough of your running game so far to make an evaluation as to what your offensive personnel might have to become without Maurice? You threw the ball a lot, when you were successful Saturday. Are you evaluating whether your plan of attack offensively has to maybe adapt a bit more, include your tight ends more because that’s who had success on Saturday? Or is it too early, based upon just three games to evaluate your offensive personality and what you might emphasize most?
TRESSEL: Well, we’ve got to emphasize whatever the moment dictates. But yet on the other hand, we’ve got to become a better run team. If we’re going to make the offensive contribution to the football team we’d like to make, we’ve got to run the ball better.
Now, that doesn’t mean that if it’s third down and four, you know, on a crucial point, and we think that throwing it might be better, we’re going to say, no, we’ve got to work on the run, let’s work on it. We’re not going to do that. But the evaluation, is it early enough to make an evaluation? I think it is. We’re not good enough yet running the ball, that’s the evaluation. We’ve got to get better.
REPORTER: Was any of that related to Alex Stepanovich’s absence Saturday, and do you expect him back this week?
TRESSEL: Alex, I don’t think, will make it back. Our hopes would be that we would have him back a week from now. Those ankle sprains, when you’re a lineman and nose to nose with a 300-pounder and pushing off, I just don’t anticipate it. He feels like he might. And I sat here last Tuesday and told you Simon Fraser might not play, and I was wrong by 84 plays. So I’m just telling you the way I feel right now. I don’t think that Alex will play. Now, he may prove me wrong, just like Simon did. And I don’t make those decisions anyway. Those are made medically.
Now, Alex — or, excuse me, Nick Mangold did a good job. Nick Mangold really did. He had a missed assignment on the first play, which, you know, it happened. And what I like about that is that he didn’t come unglued really the rest of the game, I don’t know that he had any missed assignments. I can’t swear to it, but he didn’t have many. And he did a pretty good job.
Now, not having one of your leaders and your veterans and your better players, I think, has an effect. But we’ve sat up here and talked many times, we’ve got to have eight, nine guys ready to play in the course of a rigorous 12-game schedule, you’ve got to have a lot of guys. So it may or may not have had an effect.
I’m glad you brought the health thing, because I didn’t want to miss that. Alex, I would call doubtful. I would think Simon came through it fine. And, you know, appears to me, a guy that got banged up a little bit that’s not going to work today is Krenzel, he got an arm banged up, and the doctors don’t want him to throw, so he’s not going to work today, he feels as if he’d be ready, but I would call that one a day-to-day.
Are there any other guys that got banged up? Who’s that? Oh, Santonio Holmes got a little bit of a shoulder, and I think he won’t work today. That will be a late-in-the-week thing. Anyone else?
REPORTER: What about Lydell, where does he stand?
TRESSEL: I think Lydell is in better shape right now. It was good to see him get in the game and, you know, have a little bit of success. He did an excellent job blocking. If you look at a couple of the little quarterback draws and things like that that Craig ran, Lydell did an excellent job there, carried the ball into the end zone. I think Lydell is ready, you know, to be healthier and healthier as we go, which I think is very important.
REPORTER: Santonio has had four fumbles now dating back to the spring game. Is that something you have to look at, is he becoming less of an option on special team returns?
TRESSEL: Well, you know, we can’t have fumbles. There’s no question. And we have a rule that is such that you hand the ball to the official. So if you don’t, it was a fumble. I think it’s something that we do have to evaluate who gets to play and what they merit and what they warrant. I think Santonio’s coming along, he’s a good young player, and I think can add a lot to it. But obviously we can’t have him detract from what we’re trying to do and from what the team needs done. So, yeah, that would be an ongoing evaluation.
REPORTER: What part of Krenzel’s arm is hurt, and when did this happen?
TRESSEL: He said it happened second quarter. He got banged real good in the second quarter, and it was bothering him a little bit. And like many of the guys, you know, the adrenaline is going, he’s a competitor. And, yeah, it was hurting a little bit, but so what? And all of a sudden on Sunday, you know, it’s a little bit tighter, and Monday, you know, it’s tight, and I haven’t seen him today, but they made the decision yesterday that he won’t throw today.
REPORTER: Is that shoulder or elbow?
TRESSEL: I think more elbow-type thing. No, not shoulder.
REPORTER: But to have him for the game, 50/50 or —
TRESSEL: You know, I don’t know. Today’s practice, we won’t have him. So we’ll work Scott and Justin and Troy. Today’s rehearsal for the game will be as if we didn’t have him, and we’ll see how the next day is and then Thursday, but I don’t know.
REPORTER: How does your depth chart line up behind Scott with Justin and Troy, who’s third in that rotation?
TRESSEL: Right now, I think if you were going to that next step, you’d probably have both of them play. Which one would go in first? I guess we’d decide what we’re going to do on that particular set or whatever. But we’ll work all three of them probably with, I suppose, Scott getting maybe 40% of the reps today and the other two guys 30 each, something in that neighborhood.
REPORTER: Is Scott a solid number two?
TRESSEL: Yes.
REPORTER: Would you talk about A.J. Hawk? It seems like he’s had a opportunity to play —
TRESSEL: A. J. plays the position that Grant played a year or two ago. The guys up front do a good job protecting and let the guys make hits and make decisions and A. J. has the ability to make decisions about what’s going on and they blitz him and makes plays there. You know, he gets better and better all the time, and he’s going to be an excellent football player. And for a young guy, he’s just a true sophomore, you know, thrown in at the beginning of a season that’s been as challenging as this one from a competition standpoint, I think he’s done an excellent job.
REPORTER: You’ve got a group of guys that obviously has shown they know how to win when the game is on the line. They’ve done it now for the second year. When you recruit, you obviously look for talent; but do you also take into consideration whether these guys are coming from winning programs, just the kind of players that are used to winning and know how to win a game at crunch time?
TRESSEL: Well, you know, I don’t know that. For instance, Michael Jenkins came from a program that historically doesn’t win that many games, but when he’s there, they win 9 games, so he’s a difference-maker. I think you look for guys that can make a difference. Sure it’s nice if they’ve had great background, and, you know, what are the things that make up the formula to win games, that helps. But I don’t think you’d ever turn down a guy simply because his team wasn’t outstanding.
REPORTER: Jim, have you had any communication with either Maurice Clarett or his family or representatives regarding his plans, whether he will enroll next week, whether he will fulfill or attempt to fulfill those four criteria you set out for him to come back and play next year, or whether the NFL is his sole focus at this point? Any written communication, verbal, anything at all?
TRESSEL: No, I haven’t. Andy Geiger has been handling that, and you can discuss that with him, but I have not.
REPORTER: Jim, with him authorizing an attorney to ask the NFL to let him be included in the 2004 draft, you as a football coach, Division 1 AA, excuse me.
TRESSEL: Rhode Island.
REPORTER: Do you see down the line, that crack getting bigger and guys leaving earlier and earlier?
TRESSEL: No, I think the NFL will make the decisions that they think they need to make and each young person, will make decisions that they feel like they need to make.
On the Big Ten conference call, one of the questions was, what’s my opinion as to should guys go on. And you know what, I really don’t have that strong an opinion. Here’s a couple guys right here that could have gone on if they would have liked, and it needed to be their decision, the things that are important to them. Sometimes you need to find out what your employability, if you will, from a draft status is and that type of thing. And still, even if it looks very good, those become personal decisions, and I wouldn’t want to put my opinion ahead of theirs and their families’.
The only opinion I do have is one from talking with pro scouts and pro coaches, and they tell me they’re not that in favor of guys coming in early. They like a more seasoned, more mature guy that has that confidence when he walks in, hey, he’s got his college degree, he’s ready to have X number of year run at that career in the professional ranks and that has every confidence to win and they’re prepared for life. That’s what I hear pro coaches and scouts say. But I’ve never coached professional football, so I couldn’t say what’s the right thing, or is it a problem that that crack’s getting bigger or whatever.
REPORTER: But you’ve seen guys from the time they’ve been great high school athletes up until the time they finish their college career, are they ready at the time, they’re 17, 18 years old — maybe the guys can answer this as well — the maturity level just in their bodies, what happens during that time?
TRESSEL: You do see the size and strength and stability in the pro guys. When you walk on to a pro training camp field, that’s a good-looking bunch. So obviously there’s maturity and so forth that goes on there. Some people may be ready for that, and others not.
People make the comparisons to other sports and that type of thing. I’m not sure there’s a sport like this one. But, again, I wouldn’t have an opinion there.
REPORTER: Are you worried a decision like this could end up hurting college football as a whole, if people keep going early as in basketball?
TRESSEL: You know, I’ve never really asked a basketball coach if he thinks that’s hurt basketball. I don’t know the answer to that. I think it would be pretty hard to hurt college football, because when Ohio State and Bowling Green are lining up on Saturday, regardless of who the coach is or who the players are, it’s going to be exciting. There’s going to be pageantry, excitement, and it’s going to be exciting. Down the line, when you line up for the Ohio State-Michigan game, or a bowl game, something like that, a coach not being there, or a player not being there that maybe could have, you know, I think the game is bigger than a few individuals.
REPORTER: Jim, there’s a pair of Gold Pants on e-Bay right now from last year’s Michigan game. What’s your reaction on hearing that news?
TRESSEL: We mentioned to the team that we’d heard that that was the case; and, you know, obviously we had talked about what had happened to another school with some of their memorabilia out there and just a further reminder that, obviously, that’s not appropriate, number one, illegal, number two. And the people that have worked so hard to earn something so special, that’s a little bit, in my mind, a little bit of a slap in the face to what that really means. But people make their own decisions. And I was told — and Jim Lachey is here, he’s the president of the Gold Pant Club — but I was told that the initials are on the back of every pair of Gold Pants, so I guess we could find out whose they are and deal with it directly.
REPORTER: What action can you take at that point?
TRESSEL: Don’t know the answer to that.
REPORTER: Right now you don’t know whose they are?
TRESSEL: I don’t, no.
REPORTER: Does anybody at Ohio State that you know of?
REPORTER: No. SNAPP: We are going to try to find out by the end of the day.
TRESSEL: I think they are individualized.
REPORTER: So it could be somebody who’s not here anymore?
TRESSEL: Yeah, could be. Could be someone who’s not even on this earth anymore.
REPORTER: Did you take a little census yesterday to ask has anybody in this room put their gold pants on e-Bay?
TRESSEL: We didn’t ask for a show of hands. Maybe we should have.
REPORTER: How about a show of pants?
REPORTER: Jim, getting back to Craig real quick, are you okay with him running the ball as much as he is? It looked like a lot of his runs Saturday were called runs. Or is that just predicated on the lack of a running game you have now so you have to turn to your quarterback to pick up the rushing yards?
TRESSEL: I think you had kind of three questions there. Am I concerned about how much he runs? No, because he’s a good runner.
Were they called runs? Yes, most of them. I don’t know how many times he stepped up in the pocket and ran. I don’t know that there were — maybe there was one or two.
And is it because of the lack of production in the running game? You know, I think it’s maybe partially that and partially the way people line up when you line up certain ways that that’s a weakness in their defense.
And I think it’s the — you know, as defenses put extra hats in the box, we talk about that, when you hand the ball off, one of the hats that you have in the box no longer is in the play. And so they don’t have to count for him. Now all of a sudden, if they have to account for all 11, I think it gives them more problems. That’s why our defense has got a tremendous challenge, because Josh Harris lines up there whether there’s a guy in the backfield or nobody in the backfield, and you better stop the run. And I think that just gives a dimension to a football team that counteracts, if you will, the dimensions the defenses give for putting extra people up there.
REPORTER: I apologize if you answered this and I missed it. Did Craig suffer his injury on a running play?
TRESSEL: No, it was on a pass in the second quarter. He threw the ball, and, you know, how right near the end of the play you get banged. He just got banged. And I don’t know that he felt anything excruciating at that time. It just was sore.
You know him, he’s wired up, and he’s not going to — he kind of, you know, man, that hurts a little bit, okay, let’s go. And then it was really Sunday, I think, where it hurt the most.
REPORTER: Because of his success rushing and those things you just alluded to about him being a hard guy to stop position-wise, would you expand upon — do you plan to expand upon maybe his role as a rusher given — to get out of your running game what you’re hoping to get out of it?
TRESSEL: We have a challenge that we give ourselves at the quarterback position, and that’s to have, at the end of the day, 50 yards net rushing with zero interceptions, because we can’t find a game that we’ve lost in the recent history. I’m talking about through the last X, 10 years or something, that we’ve lost when that occurred. Steve Bellisari never lost a game at quarterback when he rushed for plus-50 and had no interceptions.
So what were — the goal we had in mind is to win the games, and that’s one of the challenges we give ourselves to contribute toward winning the game.
So, yes, we could have an expanded, you know, for that position for Craig, for whomever is in there.
REPORTER: These close games all in a year, are you concerned about not being able to play as many guys? A lot of teams play their bench a lot and develop some depth. Is that a concern at this point, that you really haven’t had a chance to get some of the younger guys in there as much as you might like early in the year?
TRESSEL: I think at some positions; but at other positions — I don’t know, Darrion, how many guys you playing, eight, nine, 10?
SCOTT: Eight.
TRESSEL: In the opening game against Washington, they played 10 in the front. You see linebackers in there, you see guys like Carpenter and Pagac getting in and playing, Reynolds, D’Andrea, Hawk are getting a ton of plays.
So we’re playing a lot of guys in various positions. But there are some positions that we haven’t yet; and, yes, we would like to be building more readiness for if and when they’re needed.
REPORTER: Can’t some of those passes being thrown to the tight ends serve as running plays, sort of? I mean —
TRESSEL: If you look at the difference in the evolution of football that’s gone on in the last X number of years, you’ll see people are throwing it more but not necessarily throwing it 20 yards down the field more. And so, in essence, that is a little bit of a run game, but I would never — I shouldn’t say never, time changes a lot — but at this moment, I wouldn’t say, oh, I feel fine that we can throw it five yards to the tight end and we’re not running as well as we want, I want to do both.
REPORTER: For those of us who haven’t seen Bowling Green at all on tape, the running plays Harris makes, how much of it is off of his own improvisation or avoiding a rush, or how much of it is called stuff from the line of scrimmage? And if it’s called, how do they use him, is it sweeps, is it draws, that kind of stuff?
TRESSEL: They use him on their own sweep, right, Darrion? They use him on the quarterback draw, and they use him on the quarterback off tackle stuff like we do with Craig, and the little counter-trap off the misdirection and the option. So I’m not sure what — that there isn’t something they don’t do.
How much of his yards are each? You know, I suppose our defensive staff would have an accurate statistic. I would bet, though, that there’s a lot of yards of designed run on his totals.
REPORTER: Jim, you have per game doubled the number of penalties this year as compared to last year. Have you been able to pinpoint why that is? Are you being a little overaggressive, or the teams you’ve played maybe have given you looks —
TRESSEL: Well, we do play close coverage, and that is one thing that going into this year, the officials talked about, what are going to be some major areas, you’re going to call a little closer. Pass interference was going to be one of them. But with the style we play, you know, yeah, we’ve got to get better at that. But I don’t want our guys playing tentative. As far as the late hits on the quarterback, it was an area that the officials talked about as being an area that they’re going to call a little closer. And the definition of a late hit is if you take just one more step and hit him, then it probably won’t be flagged. If you take a second step and hit him, you will be. That’s — as fast as those steps happen, you know, that’s tough. But again, we’re going to be aggressive.
REPORTER: So as you looked at the film, those are some of the things you can live with when you see, sometimes you go back and look —
TRESSEL: I think some of them. Some of them we can live with; others we need to eliminate, if we’re going to be as good as we need to be.
REPORTER: Dustin Fox is one of the guys, some of the calls maybe were suspect or what?
TRESSEL: I don’t know about the calls being suspect. But Dustin Fox is a good player. He plays the boundary corner, which is an area that gets attacked a lot. The throws are shorter. When you’re out there at the field corner, you don’t have as many throws down the field at you because they’re in the air so long and they can break. When you’re a guy like Chris Gamble, you don’t want the ball up in the air or it will break on you, and you don’t want that. So the boundary corner gets attacked a lot, and I think Dustin Fox is a good one. He’s established himself as being a solid guy and good tackler, good blitzer, plays aggressive, plays close. There are some times where he looks like he’s got them covered so well that that guy holds the ball for another half second and Darrion Scott knocks him.
A lot of our good plays up front have been, in part, due to the fact that we’ve done a pretty good job covering. So I’m a Dustin Fox fan.
REPORTER: Would you classify Bowling Green’s offense as a fast offense?
TRESSEL: Yeah, Bowling Green is attack you on the line of scrimmage, try to get as many plays as they can, give you as many problems as they can give you, get you to line up so that they can run what they want to run. Absolutely. They try in every way to put pressure on you.
REPORTER: Will they get the tempo of the game when they can do that?
TRESSEL: The tempo of the game is controlled, in my mind, by the success of the offense. If the offense is struggling, if they’re not getting first downs, they can’t control the tempo. I don’t care how fast they come off the sideline and line up. If they are getting first downs, absolutely. One of the goals we have for our offensive team is we would like our offense to control the tempo of the game and keep those — keep our defense on the sideline and keep their defense on the field and keep their offense on the sideline kind of losing maybe a little rhythm. So offensive tempo is something that’s darn important.
REPORTER: Michael, did you know that Craig was hurt Saturday?
JENKINS: No, I didn’t know. I didn’t know at all, until today, I saw him — well, yesterday I saw him sitting out a little bit.
REPORTER: That probably doesn’t surprise you, though, considering how, you know, what he’s like?
JENKINS: No, it didn’t surprise me. Craig is a competitor. He’s going to compete and do everything he can to win the football game, and he never wants to come out, and he got a little banged up. He’s going to rest and do what he needs to do to get back, and I’m sure he’ll be fine for this weekend.
REPORTER: As we sit here today, though, are you worried he won’t be around Saturday, or are you looking at it more as just precautionary so that he will be around Saturday? You know what I mean? What’s your thinking there?
TRESSEL: The medical decision is to rest him, so I don’t worry about that. I worry more about decisions I make than ones others make. And now the score is this, today’s practice, those other guys work. You go into every game, I think, knowing that, hey, B. J. Sander might not be there. Josh Huston’s going to punt. There may be things outside of football. You know, we had a player have to go home to a funeral a year ago. I don’t think you ever allow yourself to hang so much on things that are out of your control and injuries are out of our control. We have a great medical staff, and they surprised me when they had Simon ready to play 84 plays. And I shouldn’t be surprised with the kind of player he is, but I’m not worried about it. We’ve just got to go to work.
REPORTER: Under the new HIPAA rules that we’re always being reminded of, for example, Simon Fraser, it’s almost kind of up to him. It seemed like it was kind of up to him, how he felt. But are you guys kind of a little bit in the dark about maybe how hurt a player is from time to time under these new rules as coaches?
TRESSEL: About the only thing I’ll ask of the medical people is, A, will you let him play; and, B, if he plays, is there a chance of further injury? I don’t get into, you know, it’s the radial ulna or something or other. We don’t get too much into the information. They just tell us whether or not they can play.
And the thing that we want to do is be realistic in our preparation and up front as to — I didn’t want you guys showing up at practice and see Craig Krenzel standing there not throwing and say, hey. You know, we’re all in this together. So that’s the only reason you talk about it.
REPORTER: If Craig were not 100%, or whatever percentage you want to put on him, would you still go with him? Is it better to go with 100% Scott McMullen or 90% or 95% Craig?
TRESSEL: The way you decide, whether it’s Craig or any other position, is the doctors first tell you whether or not he may play, is he allowed, and then you ask that question, well, if he does play, will we further injure? Is there a chance of further injury? Sometimes they say no, no, there’s no chance of further injury, it’s on its way back, time’s going to take care of it. And then you make your decisions as to how effective is he. The only decisions that we as coaches make are the effectiveness decisions, and I think we’d have to wait and see on that.
REPORTER: The way you describe it, it’s almost bruising, which would seem if indeed that’s the case, if his arm is sore, it wouldn’t necessarily get worse, unless he was hit on it again or —
TRESSEL: Yeah, I don’t know. I take their word for it as to, you know, is there a chance of further injury. If they say yes — you know, we went into the Outback Bowl, and they said that LeCharles Bentley maybe could go, chance of further injury, maybe, can’t play.
REPORTER: Is it a bruised muscle or is it —
TRESSEL: Don’t even know. I think those are the things that HIPAA tells me not to talk about, if I’m not mistaken, is what things are.
Our guys have about 10 minutes before they’ve got to hustle back. Thank you.
