Ohio State vs. Northwestern Post Game Press Conference – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/27/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 27, 2003
TRESSEL: Well, anytime your defense pitches a shut-out, you have a chance. They got a lot of help from our special teams who knocked the ball down in there. I think a couple times they had to start back inside their own 10 or thereabouts, and when you’re playing against our defense, it’s hard enough when you get good field position.
I felt better about the fact that we didn’t have a bunch of turnovers. We did have, I think, one or two. I think we had one right before the first half, which Scott was out there scrambling and he saw a guy open late over the middle, and one of the cardinal rules we have is you don’t throw late over middle. And he hasn’t had that many opportunities where he’s been out there in that situation. I would bet he won’t repeat that mistake.
But one of our goals offensively was to become a zero turnover football team. And obviously we wanted to run the football better and throw it more effectively and score when our great defense gave us opportunities. And I think, perhaps, we will have seen a little bit of improvement, but not nearly as much as I think we need to have to be a Big Ten championship team.
But you can’t say enough about that defense. They put pressure on the quarterback. They covered the receivers close. The linebackers were close to where they were supposed to be. Northwestern has probably the most balanced attack as we’ve faced this year. They didn’t say, hey, we’re going to throw every down. And our guys handled that balance and did a great job for a shut-out. REPORTER: Coach, a lot of players got into — you got a lot of looks, how helpful is that especially when you’re just starting the Big Ten season?
TRESSEL: I think any Big Ten experience you get is a good one. We all know that the remaining seven games that we’re going to need the whole crew. You don’t know who’s going to stay healthy the whole year. You don’t know who’s going to be called upon in the heat of the battle the fourth quarter in the afternoon. Anytime we get a chance, defensively we’ve been substituting probably 16, 17, 18, 19 guys all along. Offensively, I think we’ve begun to substitute a little bit more, and I think that will help us in the long run.
REPORTER: Saw some things out of your running game. It looked like you were exploring some different options there, Branden Joe at tailback. Were you exploring those things to get the kind of productions you looked for?
TRESSEL: We need to say, okay, here’s the personnel that we have and what can we do to maximize what they can do? And I think Branden Joe has always been a guy we’ve thought of as a short yardage back and he didn’t get to practice until a week ago, so he missed 40 some practices, 50 practices, maybe.
So he we didn’t expect him to be in there more than 10 or 12 plays today, but we did want him to get a couple carries. And we wanted Ira Guilford to get some carries. And I thought Ira did a nice job cornering it up in there. We need everyone to contribute on both sides of the ball, on the special teams, that’s why we sent our second punt block unit in, because who knows who’s going to have to be out there on a punt block some day? And they’ve got experience to do that.
REPORTER: The first two drives had scores and the third drive you changed quarterbacks. Did you have that in your mind before the game that you were going to do that?
TRESSEL: We had it in our mind before the game that if there was an opportune time with good field position that we would like Justin to get some snaps. Just like early on in Scott’s days with Craig, we did that with Scott, so you just aren’t out there when it’s fourth quarter and six minutes to go. We wanted him to have to throw the ball and make some decisions and make some checks and all those kinds of things, and I thought that was very valuable for him.
REPORTER: It looked like Lydell twisted a knee or an ankle down there maybe in the goal line, do you know?
TRESSEL: I’m not sure what he did. I don’t know if there was any — SNAPP: He’s seeing the doctor.
TRESSEL: He wasn’t in there the last little bit, but we were planning on that stage trying to get Ira in the game. I would really have liked to get Ira in the game a week ago, but we never had that opportunity.
REPORTER: How important is it to get that first shut-out to open the Big Ten?
TRESSEL: It’s great. Our defense is a group that works hard, trains hard, studies the game. They play hard. For them to get a shut-out, I know they feel good about that and it sends a signal that we want to be good on defense. Let me have those two guys answer that.
SMITH: It feels good. The offense and the special teams of this outfit puts it in great field position. I think we got some pressure. It just feels good. That’s what we always shoot for. We shoot for the opponents not to score, so we’re just happy.
ANDERSON: I mean, obviously we’re excited about it. It gives us a lot of confidence and anytime the defense can put up a donut, we’re going to probably win the game and it was a good day for us.
REPORTER: What was it like out there on that 17, 18 play drive in the second quarter? Was that slow death almost?
SMITH: Not necessarily. They were doing some things that we weren’t used to and they kept running the play and we just felt them out and we eventually stopped them when we had to.
REPORTER: Does that give you guys a boost when you’re up 7-0, and then they missed a field goal, you got a couple of sacks, did that give you guys a boost?
SMITH: Absolutely, anytime we get after the quarterback and get sacks and make them not score and we’re in a scoring position, it’s a boost, not only for the defense, I think for the offense and all the special teams, everybody.
REPORTER: Scott, can you talk about today and your assessment about your performance?
McMULLEN: I felt pretty good. It was my second full game that I was in there. There was a couple throws I’d like to take back, when I overthrew it. I thought it was good experience, and the more I play, the more I get comfortable.
REPORTER: Scott, can you talk about what these last two weeks have been like for you?
McMULLEN: Definitely, that’s the reason I came here was to play, to get an opportunity like this, especially the last two weeks, to get in there and play a full game. It’s really been great for me and it’s really boosted my confidence in my playing.
REPORTER: Jim, do you know where you are in your offense right now? You’ve had to adjust not having Maurice. You’ve had to adjust in the last two weeks without having Craig. Do you feel good about your offense? Are you happy about what you saw out there today?
TRESSEL: I feel good that we have some time to get better at some things. And I think we are seeing a little bit of incremental improvement in some things, but probably not as much as any of us would like, but, as you mentioned, we haven’t really had the same cast very much here over the first five games and yet we’re still surviving and doing what we need to get done to win football games, but we need to get much better before we go to Camp Randall, on offense, and if we don’t get better on defense, it won’t be good enough and if we don’t get better on special teams. But we do need to get better on offense. I think we’re headed in a better direction than we were a couple weeks ago.
REPORTER: Is the identity of this team starting to be forged a little bit? It seemed like last year you had a strong defense, a heady offense, is it almost the same this year?
TRESSEL: We would like always to have a strong defense and a flawless special teams, special teams that can make some big things happen and an offense that makes its contribution which begins with not turning it over. And then it needs to be a quick strike-off that can take advantage of the field position as the special teams gives it. We’ve got to be able to stretch the field, we’ve got to be able to throw deep and throw intermediate.
And I think we’re doing some better things from that standpoint right now, and obviously you have to be able to run the football and we need a lot of work from that point.
REPORTER: Are you all getting the contributions you anticipated from the tight end?
TRESSEL: Yeah, I think our tight end, still with Ben Hartsock, I don’t know if there’s a better blocker in America than Ben Hartsock. I think he made some great catches. That one long catch today, that was pretty impressive. He’s 258 pounds flying through the air. We had to fix the field when he landed, but that was an impressive catch.
REPORTER: It seems like you’re augmenting that fullback situation with two tight ends and stuff. Do you see that continuing? Have you kind of got a personality down there?
TRESSEL: We’ll be healthier with Brandon Schnittker healthy and Branden Joe healthy and Ryan Hamby healthy and getting some experience there, and of course Louis Irizarry had some experience, so I’d like to think we’ll go into the stretch run of the Big Ten healthy and with more tools than maybe we’ve had.
REPORTER: Craig looked like he threw pretty well in pregame. Was he clear to go today? Could you have used him if you had to?
TRESSEL: No, the doctor suggested that he not go today. They think that he’s in good shape when his feet are under him and we have normal motion and so forth. But it’s those strange plays where you’re out running and, you know, you’re not totally in body alignment and so forth. They just didn’t think they’d like to have him take that next step. But he’ll keep coming and he was into the game and he was into helping Scott and Justin and so he mentally played today.
REPORTER: Do you expect him to be cleared for Wisconsin?
TRESSEL: I’m not a doctor, but I expect that.
REPORTER: How about Lydell?
TRESSEL: You know, someone else asked that question. I don’t know. He came out limping a little bit, but I’m not sure.
REPORTER: — got to play today. Can you assess his performance out there?
TRESSEL: He’s a real competitive kid and he’s passionate about helping this football team. He got to play a lot of the nickel, I think, early in the game. I think Tyler Everett might have played a little bit earlier. The more guys you have in the fray, the better we’re going to be as we move forward.
REPORTER: Anything on E.J.’s status?
TRESSEL: E.J.
REPORTER: Underwood.
TRESSEL: Right now, he had a little thumb surgery and he’s out.
REPORTER: Justin Zwick got to throw the ball seven times today, just some assessment on his performance.
TRESSEL: I thought he had some good throws. I think one down the sidelines, I think Louis was a little off balance as he was going, but if we would have been able to complete that, that would have been a big one. I thought he threw a couple nice squares or curls in there, made a good decision, dumped one off to Mo Hall. I think he made pretty good decisions, didn’t he, Coach McMullen?
McMULLEN: Pretty good from where we were.
REPORTER: How much improvement did you see in Northwestern’s run defense from a year ago?
TRESSEL: I thought their run defense a year ago was pretty good. We watched that film all week long and they played hard, they caused a bunch of fumbles. They loaded the box up just like they did today and I think they’re very similar to where they were. They’re healthier now than they were most of the second half of last year. We faced a lot of the guys last year that we faced today. A lot of those guys didn’t get to play as their season went on because unfortunately they had a lot of injuries, but I think it’s a solid group.
REPORTER: Are you looking at a slash role with him?
TRESSEL: Absolutely. In fact, that’s what we call him, Slash. But he was back on kickoff returns and had a couple little things designed in the offense to get him involved and, again, we’re trying to make everyone part of what we’re trying to do. So Troy had a great week. He did a great job for these guys emulating the Northwestern offense. He’s back-up or starter on most every special team and we’re glad Troy’s a part of it.
REPORTER: When your quarterbacks are running, do you want them to get what they can and get out of bounds or do you want them to put their shoulder down and take some of the hits?
TRESSEL: Well, Scott had a little dilemma on the one you’re probably referring to because there was really nowhere to get down. So he decided to deliver the blow, and I think their guy’s okay. I’m not 100% sure. But we would like them to get as much as they can and maybe slide, but there really wasn’t anywhere to slide, in that particular one.
REPORTER: There was one out of bounds that looked like he was trying to make a juke on the guy.
TRESSEL: You better talk to Scott about that.
McMULLEN: What’s that?
REPORTER: The first big hit of the day for you. You were on the side line and could have gotten out of bounds. It looked like you were standing there trying to fake him out and go down the sidelines for the TD. Is that what you had in mind?
McMULLEN: A little bit. Like I said, I was just trying to get some extra yards. If it opened up and I could score, I was going to take it.
REPORTER: Michael, could you talk about the satisfaction of winning in the Big Ten? JENKINS: It feels good to come out as far as a Big Ten game and get a shut-out. The offense has a little bit more work to do going out to Camp Randall. But it’s a good thing to start out with a shut-out. It’s a long season for the Big Ten. Anything can happen any given Saturday, so it was a good feeling to get a win.
REPORTER: Jim, with the way Scott has played the last two weeks, is he maybe in line for some more playing time down the road?
TRESSEL: Well, I guess it would depend on Craig’s help obviously, Craig’s performance. You always talk to guys about they don’t lose positions due to injury, and if it would make us a better team to play both Craig and Scott, we’ll certainly do that and consider it and so forth.
Most championship teams I’ve been around have had two quarterbacks that have played significantly. Last year was unusual. Craig had a lot more snaps, a lot more percent of snaps than really what I’ve experienced. But it’s a bonus for us to have two guys good enough to win a championship, and that’s what Scott’s working toward and that’s what Justin is working toward and Troy and everyone else. We’ll just have to see how it unfolds.
