Ohio State vs. San Diego State Post Game Press Conference – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/6/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 6, 2003
TRESSEL: Obviously we did enough things to have an opportunity not to come out on top in this one, but fortunately our defense made some big plays, had a scoring play, caused, I don’t know how many turnover, had to have four or five, I suppose, and gave us an opportunity, some of which we didn’t take advantage of, but there will be some great lessons from this football game and the key will be, you know, what do we do with those lessons.
REPORTER: Jim, your thoughts on the running game today, did they surprise you with some schemes or were things not getting done like they needed to up front?
TRESSEL: They were going to play eight men up there and we were hoping that we could run the football better than we did. We had initially planned to have a little bit more of a tailback rotation and Lydell just wasn’t 100%. Tried to get in there a couple times, but just couldn’t go. We allowed them to control the tempo of the game loaded up front. We didn’t throw it well enough really to make them afraid to play that front.
REPORTER: Were they better coverage-wise than you guys anticipated?
TRESSEL: We played them two years ago and I thought they were excellent coverage-wise. They’ll challenge you, they’ll pressure you, they’ll catch you, they’ll bail out, they’ll mix it up. They do a pretty good job. They come and attack. I think we had some things that we could have done better. I’m sure from a scheme standpoint it starts with what we attempted to do and then an execution standpoint, obviously it starts with protection, but, you know, they did a good job.
REPORTER: You had six penalties in the first quarter, did you get any sense in the pregame you weren’t into it mentally or did you have any concerns going into the game that it was going to be soggy?
TRESSEL: You’re always concerned going into a game especially with the scenario being we’d spent a whole off season with everyone telling us we’re wonderful and then we came out and had a solid win and then, I guess human nature, the wonderful continued, and sometimes things slip inches and, you know, it’s good that when there are some slips, you don’t fall, and hopefully we’ll just learn.
REPORTER: Your thoughts on the throwing game today, Craig, were you on like you wanted to be or did you just miss communicate with some guys? What was the deal?
KRENZEL: No, the passing game today, there were some guys open and I didn’t get them the ball. Sometimes we had some guys open and maybe I didn’t step up or thrown when I should have thrown the ball away. We definitely were not consistent enough in anything we did offensively, run game, pass game, protection. Guys, a couple times, where we weren’t on the same page on routes, choice routes, and overall consistency, we didn’t do anything consistently.
REPORTER: Do you feel like your team now, you overlooked them possibly.
TRESSEL: You’d have to ask each of them individually, but I thought watching the film, I mentioned it to their media and our media earlier in the week, they’re a group of people that truly believes in what they’re doing, they’re doing it hard, they’re starting to understand it more and more and more. They came in here with the attitude that they should have which is that we’re going to go for it and, you know, who holds barred and they did a good job. So my opinion of them was very good and it continues to be.
REPORTER: Jim, how much of this today was their effectiveness versus your ineffectiveness, particularly offense?
TRESSEL: I think you have to give them credit being effective, trying to do what they wanted to do. I’m sure they’ll go back and say that’s what we wanted to do, we wanted to disrupt, make sure they had a low percentage pass day, make sure they couldn’t get a great round game going so I’m going to say they got done exactly what they wanted, so if that’s the case, we did not get done what we hoped.
REPORTER: Conversely, when you look at the films, what will you say needs to be worked on most out of this?
TRESSEL: Well, you know, you’re going to go back and look at every single thing. I can’t sit here and know for sure what went wrong on each play, but as Craig mentioned, it was spread out, we all had a hand in it. Maybe it started with calling some things into some looks that maybe weren’t the best and then perhaps the guys up front, you know, not get getting done exactly what they needed and guys in the back maybe not staying in the hole or guys out wide not getting to the spot they needed to route-wise and us not delivering the ball. There’s enough to go around. We have plenty to work on.
REPORTER: Craig, how fortunate do you guys feel to get a win out of here today?
KRENZEL: I don’t know if fortunate is the word. We knew coming into this game we were playing a good football team. Someone asked earlier if it was a possibility that we overlooked them, I don’t believe so. I think all the guys on this team, after watching films this week, we knew they had talent. They’re obviously speed-wise, they’re a fast football team. We knew they’d make plays break on the ball. As we talked about earlier, it was a little bit of our scheme and our lack of execution and fortunately, we found a way to win and I think great teams have to find a way to team and win ugly sometimes and, you know, as we say, we need to get better, we took a step backwards, I think, from last week and now we’re going to have to take two steps forward this week to be where we want to be.
REPORTER: Is your running game suffering from Maurice Clarett’s absence?
TRESSEL: Well, you know, we have had the luxury of having three experienced guys as we went down the stretch playing the 14-game season. I have to tip my cap to Moe Hall because he carried the burden when things weren’t going great. It wasn’t the time to maybe ease Ira Guilford into the fold more because it just wasn’t those proper situations that you wanted to do that and so I have to tip my hat to Moe hall. But obviously when you have two less of the three you’ve had in the past, obviously the answer’s yes.
REPORTER: A couple questions for the defense. The Aztec got up on the board early on, you weren’t expecting that. How did the defense address stepping it up to really keep that from happening again?
REYNOLDS: We knew they were going to be pretty good on offense and they got up on us and we just played good and we played hard. I know we had a few penalties, but most of those penalties are from playing hard and we’ll take those and anytime offense needs to lean on us to carry the team because we know times in the future that we’re going to need to lean on offense and that’s what we did today.
REPORTER: Tim, tell us about that return you had for the touchdown.
TRESSEL: Will?
REPORTER: Yeah, for Will.
ALLEN: I’d say it was a team effort because the play had to start with the rush and then Chris Gamble had an excellent coverage and he tipped the ball up and I was playing football and reacted to the ball and revved it up there and I’d four or five blockers in front of me and you had to score with that. Like I said, it was a team effort. That’s what we practice each day, we run to the ball, we run hard, we play hard, that’s why we won the game. My right arm began to cramp, so I was trying to switch arms and trying to focus on getting to the goal at the same time, I mean, I scored.
REPORTER: Will, you made some big picks before in big games last year to help win games. As a senior, has this helped to solidify you as a senior with Mike Doss gone to the NFL and here you are making the biggest play of the day.
ALLEN: I don’t think it necessarily solidifies me as a leader, because we all work together. Our whole senior class are leaders. Like I said, just playing hard and working hard, that’s what we’ve got to do to win the game.
REPORTER: Craig, do you believe you were a little bit dazed today, they hit you hard a few times, but you all just looked incongruent on the passing game a lot of times, what’s your overall?
KRENZEL: I mentioned earlier there were a number of times today where we weren’t on the same play — the same page rather, I was expecting one thing and maybe threw a route and we got something different or guys ran a good route and I didn’t give them the ball. I don’t think I leave here dazed. I’m not going to leave here mad or upset. Obviously we didn’t play well. I know I didn’t play well. A little bit frustrated with that, but the most important thing is, is to make sure that we learn from the film, we get in and start preparing for another good football team next week and we know offensively we’re going to have to play better.
REPORTER: What’s your immediate concern after two weeks now on a day like this? You get a win, but what’s your immediate thought that we need to really start, working on at this point when you go into practice?
TRESSEL: My immediate thought is we’ve got guys that are always very willing to work on everything that we ask them to and we’re going to watch the film like we always do. I hope we grade the film exactly the same way when we win and when we lose and we’re going to work on every little thing. We’re going to, as a coaching staff, sit there and say, okay, how did people attack us, how did people defend us, you know, what are people thinking as to what they need to stop and how they need to stop it. We’re not going to change what we do. We always go about trying to get better in each and everything we do and we’re not all of a sudden going to say, oh, we’re going to the wishbone or we’re going to the 4-4 defense. We’re going to keep doing what we do and tweaking it and trying to get better and finding out what we do better with the personnel on the field and just keep working.
REPORTER: What was the biggest concern, the defense gave you great field position you didn’t catch that much, was it protecting Craig or what would you say was the one biggest problem?
TRESSEL: It’s hard to take it to one, but I suppose if I had to, I’d say when you get the ball in the field position we did and don’t cash in, that really concerns you. That’s not to minimize the fact that we got to pass protect better and we’ve got to do lots of things better. When you have opportunities and you don’t seize them, you know, that concerns you.
REPORTER: Does Maurice Clarett give you a tackle breaking dimension for that one guy that comes free that your other backs don’t have.
TRESSEL: I don’t know.
REPORTER: Your problems on third down. You weren’t super at it last year, but obviously it couldn’t get much worse than this, but do you see any common thread there?
TRESSEL: Well, I think we’d have to go and look at each third down and see exactly what scheme we were involved with and we can be certain that whatever San Diego State did defensively, you’re going to see more of the same so you better get better at whatever it was that was bringing it forward and come up with some thoughts, you know, to be a better third down team.
REPORTER: The third down you did make, Jim, they had one time out left and Craig finally found Michael, it was a big play, were you considering running the ball and running them out of time out, punting, and did the two players talk about the play too?
TRESSEL: We weren’t considering running the ball because they were going to spend the time out or we were going to be incomplete so either way the clock was going to get stopped, if we ran the ball or if we incompleted it. So I didn’t think we had anything to lose throwing it and as far as the play, I think they were, you know, had pretty good connection there and they can talk about it. The Buffalo play.
KRENZEL: Mike ran a good route, it wasn’t a greatly thrown ball, Mike made a great catch and got the first down. It was one of the plays that, you know, it still wasn’t executed the way we’d like to. You know, I’d like the ball lower for Mike so he doesn’t have to stretch up and get it. It was one of the things that we found a way to make the play and get the first down, it will be something to learn from.
REPORTER: It looked like Mike had to go up over the tackler?
JENKINS: There was a guy inside, there was a linebacker who picked it off, he put it to my back short and I had to go get it. That’s what we have to do out there is make a play. If we made the first down, that pretty much was the ball game.
REPORTER: Jim, could you sense at all before the game a lack of focus or a let-down at all in the team?
TRESSEL: No.
REPORTER: What do you attribute San Diego’s success to, maybe you didn’t look at the right film or maybe they didn’t play well enough in the last week? What do you attribute that to.
TRESSEL: I thought they did a good job rushing the pass, I watched their Hawaii game last night as a matter of fact and, you know, they were — I don’t know how many sacks they had in that game but they had to be double digits, so we know that they’re an excellent pass rush team and obviously when you’re not running it as well as you’d like to run it, it’s a lot easier to just line up and go after it from a pass-rush standpoint, but we understood that they were a good pass-rush team.
REPORTER: What’s the status on Stepanovich?
TRESSEL: I heard he sprained his ankle. That was just said on the sideline, I don’t know what degree.
REPORTER: Lydell Ross?
TRESSEL: His foot has been bothering him. It’s been off and on and I thought he, a week ago, had turned the corner and was starting to do well and then later in the week, you know, just didn’t seem to — didn’t seem to be right and we were still hoping that it would be, but, you know, I think in pregame it didn’t feel great and I think Coach Spence put him in a couple times and he just didn’t think he could push it.
REPORTER: During the week prior to the game, about getting on a team like this, stepping out early and staying out, that kind of thing, trying things we haven’t seen, is there any disappointment coming out of this close win of not doing those things, about being able to show yourself offensively and defensively, primarily on defensive side.
TRESSEL: I don’t remember talking about stepping out early and trying new things, but you always want to come out when you’re at home and someone’s traveling out, you want to jump on top of them. The disappointment I have is we didn’t get as many guys in the game in an early season games you would like and that’s disappointing. But it is what it is and we’ll go from here.
REPORTER: Is this reminiscent of last year at all? You had a lot of kind of ugly wins, but they were wins.
TRESSEL: This one seemed a little different. I can’t remember us, you know, struggling, you know, just to get in sync offensively and then getting all those turnovers and still not getting it turned on. So a little reminiscent because it was close, but I don’t remember a whole bunch of games that went exactly this way.
REPORTER: Coach, you got Sims and Mangold last season, how important was that considering the state of affairs now.
TRESSEL: Robbie plays as a starter and Nick played a lot last week and probably played a little more than you normally would figure, that’s very important. That’s why it would have been nice to get more guys in the game, in game two. But we’re going to have to work toward that in game three.
