Transcript From The November 1st Football Press Luncheon – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/1/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 1, 2005
TRESSEL: Well, we were really proud of the way that our kids took the situation at hand. It was 17-17 at the half and we had been up 17-7 and clearly the momentum had shifted a little bit in the other direction and Minnesota was going to be getting the ball to start the second half so we were going to have quite a challenge there and I thought our guys did a great job defensively from the standpoint of we kicked it off and got the ball on 20 and went three and out and we scored and I think just retook the momentum of the game. Now from that point on, it was still a heck of a battle, but I think when you’re on the road and if you can seize the momentum of a football game, you’re going to have a chance.
We talk about the special teams better be superior, if you want to win on the road and I thought ours were. Outside of our punting game, which was probably the poorest we’ve had this year, you know, our kickoff return was huge, the other one that we brought out to the 50 was very important. Our punt returns were solid. You know, obviously Josh Huston’s kicks to the touchbacks were, you know, important because we made them start from the 20. I don’t know how many kicks we have, about six or seven or eight of them, whatever it was, so special units were superior and if you have that, you have a chance to win on the road. The other thing we always talk about is you know, we’d like to win that turnover margin. Most especially on the road and — and it wasn’t until late that we finally got a take away, but that was huge and the fact that we didn’t turn it over was very important, and so there were some of the clear earmarks, the things that you have to do to win a tough game on the road, we did. We were proud of our kids for that.
From a grading standpoint and so forth, we didn’t have quite as many guys on the defensive side, grade winning performance as we’ve had in the past. I think in part, due to Minnesota making some good plays and, in part, perhaps our guys not playing at certain moments like they have when they have a grade winning performance.
Offensively we had a few more grade winning performance than we have in the past weeks and that combination of things with the special teams gave us a chance to win the ball game. Our special award winners on the special teams, Antonio Smith was a part of both the recon, the ranger unit, the punt unit, and the delta force return unit, did a great job on all four units, got his assignment done every time and he was given the special units player of the week.
Defensively, Donte Whitner played a very physical game. I think the way that he came up and tackled and being in the right place most all of the time, grade winning performance, and I think there’s a cumulative effect when there’s hard hitting in the secondary. Some of those five yard gains turn into two yard gains later in the game, and as the day unfolded, our defense was relentless, which we talked about needed to be on the road. No matter what’s going on, just keep smacking people, and Donte Whitner led the charge from that standpoint and was our defensive player of the game and Antonio Pittman was our offensive player of the game. 23 carries, 186 yards, couple touchdowns, a key reception for a first down, excellent pass protection, graded a winning performance and Antonio continues to get better and better each week that we go out there.
Up front, Nick Mangold was our Jim Parker offensive lineman of the week, graded over 90 percent again. Got to be the best center in America, graded 92 percent. And just continues to direct things up front there and keep us in the right direction and — and just an outstanding offensive center.
The attack force player of the week was Quinn Pitcock. Quinn played very physical. Had a number of tackles and assists and quarterback hits and hurries and so forth and graded a winning performance in that attack force and was honored with the attack force player of the week.
The Jack Tatum hit of the week was administered by Santonio Holmes. On the little Statute of Liberty play that Antonio Pittman gained about 15 or so on and Santonio is assigned to crack and he cracked and very legal, very hard, and very fitting for the Jack Tatum hit of the week. It was a physical play.
And our scout team players who — as the season goes on and you have a couple guys injured and the numbers get thinner and so forth, the guys that are in there, you really count on and our scout team special units player of the week was Ryan Franzinger who made the trip as a special teams guy and he’s earned his way, we call it a battlefield commission, to be on the trip, because he can give so much from a special teams standpoint plus he does it on the scout’s special teams as well. Our offensive scout team — I was almost blinded there. I lost my train of thought. Santonio, stand up so they know why I’ve stuttered. I apologize. Man. Whew.
Our — where was I? Our defensive scout team player of the week was Juan Garnier. Juan is a big 300-pound guy on our defensive line and Minnesota’s two inside tackles, probably the best players on their defensive football team and we needed a great look. We needed to have a tough situation and he did that for us. And then on our scout offense was Will Crall, tight end from right here in Bexley. And as you watch the game, Minnesota uses two tight ends at times, three tight ends at times, and as you’ve watched, too, we don’t have many tight ends from a health standpoint right now, Will Crall was the guy who had to play every snap all week long and just did a great job for us and was awarded our scout team offensive player of the week.
As we move into November, I hate to quote Coach Bruce, you know, sitting here, but, you know, November is for contenders. He always told us that. Told us that September is for pretenders, but November you find out who you are. And that’s what we’ll find out as we take the field at home, which we feel like we haven’t been there for a while. November begins on Saturday against the Illini.
I think if you watch the Illinois film chronologically and you look at some of the scores and then you watch the film and you see why some of those scores were what they were, then you watch some of their ball engagement here in the last couple of three weeks, their ball game I think with Wisconsin was a lot like our game with Minnesota. There was seven-point differential late in the game and all of a sudden, something big happened and it — what looks like a three-touchdown win or whatever, you know, truly was not that type of football game. I thought they played their best game this past weekend against Wisconsin. Their quarterback is effective both as an option guy and they give you a little different concept option than we’ve seen all year. And he’s also a good thrower. In fact, he’s somewhere in the — in the Big Ten standings there, total offense and he’s a tough kid and really the leader of that offensive team. Both those runningbacks are very accomplished. They’ve done it over multiple seasons, so they’re certainly bona fide excellent ball carriers. And defensively, they seem to be coming together a little bit. They had a lot of coverage blows early in the year. If you watch their Michigan State or watch their Penn State and you see some things happen and some easy touchdowns occur, you’re seeing a little less of that, you’re seeing a lot less of that and they play hard. We all know Coach Zook, he got, you know, some of his training right here, so he knows all about Big Ten football, he knows all about playing in Ohio Stadium, he knows all about how important November is, and I know having been a new coach in a new place two different times that what you’re most concerned about in your first year is that every day you get better, and I think they’re doing that. And you’re waiting for that moment that you make that break through to give a little proof to what you’re trying to get accomplished. And so we know we’ll have our hands full and that’s what November’s about. Every snap’s important, very day at practice is important, and we’re looking forward to being out there in the nice sunny weather this afternoon and getting ready to train to get ready for the November performances.
Questions? We have Archie Bell & the Drells Santonio Holmes here, and — he doesn’t even know who that is, he’s too young. That was a compliment, just so you know. And — and Donte Whitner here, so I promised them I wouldn’t get too windy. Questions?
REPORTER: Hey, when Todd Boeckman came in Saturday, where was Justin, why Boeckman instead of Justin?
TRESSEL: You’re the third person that’s asked me that. Where was Justin — I’m not exactly sure. At the moment in time we knew we had a couple — minute and a half, two minutes, whatever it was, to chew up and I was looking around to get some eye contact with a guy to send in and I happened to see Todd and, you know, I’d asked on the phone, hey, where’s Justin and so forth, and contrary to when Troy got banged up early in the game and it was third and three and all of a sudden looked like he might be out, obviously, hey, Justin, get going, get a snap, you’re going to have to complete a pass here. Didn’t feel like it was that kind of situation and had we thought about throwing a little bit there with a minute and a half to go, probably would have had Justin go in and get those reps, but, you know, didn’t see the need for it.
REPORTER: Do you not typically — you used to, I think, send your plays in with your two second and third team quarterbacks standing by you, one giving signals that don’t mean anything and one giving signals that are the play. Do you not do that anymore?
TRESSEL: Oh, yeah, we do that some. You know, it varies. Probably with a 1:30 to go and that type of thing it might not have been as efficiently that way, but most of the game, I think. At least they seem to be there, you know, when we need them to signal.
REPORTER: It seemed strange — I mean, was Justin not where he was supposed to be?
TRESSEL: Oh, no, no. It was — you know, we don’t get many of those 1:30 to go and the game’s still not in doubt. So he was probably just, you know, elsewhere. Nothing negative though. Don’t — not that you would, but don’t turn it into something it’s not.
REPORTER: How much did your return game, kickoffs and punt kind of drive the offense? It seems like every year at this time when things get hot, everything gets hot.
TRESSEL: Well, you know, we’ve been fortunate with our return game. Remember earlier in the year, Santonio had two or three called back that could have made games a little different than they were, and when we get hot with our returns, you know, we can be even more explosive. And the field position situations, and even scores, you know, those are — those are great emotional lifts for us when we hit home runs or get the ball out to the 50, and that’s one thing that I really think that goes unnoticed in the Illinois situation, I think their punter’s perhaps one of the best in the league, is going to hit it a long way, and he’s also the kickoff guy and he’s had 18 out of 27 touchbacks, making people start on the 20 like we’re used to. We like getting those kickoff returns — we’ve got a chance to either score or start on the 40, but that’s huge when we spend a lot of time on it, we take a lot of pride in it.
REPORTER: Have you been able to see why Teddy’s been so much more successful the last couple weeks? Is it opposing teams not being where they’re supposed to be or Teddy doing something special on punt and kick returns?
TRESSEL: You know, I think all things are involved in it. One, I think our guys are doing a good job of blocking, whether it’s — you know, whether it’s a punt return team doing a better job holding up — for instance, Antonio Smith did an extraordinary job on Number 7, their best sniper. He made almost every tackles on their punt returns and Antonio Smith did a wonderful job of making sure we had some space when we caught the ball.
Minnesota historically has been a punt fake team so we didn’t feel like we could be in two returners as much because that really weakens you to the fade a little bit, and so we were back there with one returner and we had to make sure that we had good holdups and so forth. And from a kick return standpoint, I thought Coach Hazell made a good adjustment. People had hurt us a little bit with pooches when we had Santonio and Teddy way back there. Now we put them into what we call a diamond alignment and so if they want to pooch it, they’re going to have to hit it to Santonio short, or Gonzo short, allow Teddy to roam the center field there. I thought that was a good adjustment Darrell made with that group but I think we’re getting a little better and our guys take a lot of pride in it.
REPORTER: Jim, does it make you appreciate even more a guy like Josh Huston whenever a kickoff’s going on?
TRESSEL: No question. Remember going into the game that Minnesota was the second ranked kickoff return team in the conference and 19th in the country and every time we kicked off, I held my breath, because they do it well. If you don’t kick it to 7, you kick to Maroney and Illinois’s guys back there, both those good runningbacks, you know, so when you have a guy that pounds it through the end zone, you know — and we made the mistake five years ago, you get — you learn, you hope, and we went there and our kickers were excited and wanted to see if they could hit the roof and all that stuff and they were exhausted by the time the game started and we kicked off to about the 8 and then went out of bounds, if you remember that game.
You know, we learned a little bit and Josh had a lot of life in his leg and making them start 80 yards away, making anyone start 80 yards away for our defense will make their job harder and that concerns me about Illinois being so good at that.
REPORTER: Would you have mixed feelings if the NCAA moved the kickoff back to the 30 like the NFL?
TRESSEL: Would I have mixed feelings?
REPORTER: Because you have Ted, obviously —
TRESSEL: You know, I typically don’t have feelings about things that — if they vote for it, you know, that’s the way we play it. We’ll obviously be tested much more as a kick cover team if that occurs. Although Josh’s last week wouldn’t have mattered if he was kicking off from the 30. But then on the other hand, you know, might have more opportunities, so — you know, whatever the score is, we just play it from there and try to do what we can.
REPORTER: I think Glenn Mason after the game was saying about Josh, I’d like to find a guy like that, kicker like that. Are those guys hard to find or easy to find guys who can pound it through the end zone?
TRESSEL: They’re hard to find. It — you know, Mike Nugent took him until his fourth year to pound them through the end zone. You know, it — his third year, if you recall, 2000 — you were probably in Baltimore or more somewhere, but 2003, is that his third year? Our kickoff coverage was a nightmare, we just were only kicking the ball to the five and the six and here he was one of the great kickers in the country. Well, his senior years he was pounding it, so — Josh Huston kicked off for us some in 2000-2001 and pounded it through the end zone. Like anything else, I think you can develop it. We work hard to do that. I think we’ve got a couple young guys who have the ability to do that.
REPORTER: You’re a 35-point favorite this week. As a coach, what are the challenges when you’re that much of a favorite in terms of — I asked you two weeks ago about Indiana, convincing your kids, does that make you uncomfortable —
TRESSEL: I didn’t know it until this moment. Yeah, it makes you uncomfortable because we’re not 35 points better. And that’s — if we do everything perfectly, and so forth, you know, let the chips fall where they may, but we’ve really got to focus on Ohio State becoming the best team we can be in November. Because that’s where you win championships and it happens to be Illinois, it happens to be a team hungry. I’m sure they feel a little improvement. I’m sure that locker room after the Wisconsin game was a lot different than that locker room a couple games earlier. So — but it’s still going to be about what we do.
REPORTER: Jim, I know this has a bearing on your season, but nonetheless you didn’t even play Wisconsin but Wisconsin played at Penn State this weekend and does have a lot of bearing — your thoughts on what kind of teams they are and what will be — what Wisconsin confronts at Penn State and what Penn State has to do against Wisconsin.
TRESSEL: Well, you know, like you said, we didn’t play Wisconsin. We have got to watch them on film. The thing I like about Wisconsin right now is they seem to find a way — they’re young, probably not as talented as they were a year ago. As you enter November last year, they were a team that didn’t seem like they were going like that, you know, they seemed — they kind of plateaued. Right now I see them going that way. From a experience standpoint and so forth, I would say Penn State’s got an advantage. And where’s the game?
REPORTER: At Happy Valley.
TRESSEL: Happy Valley, there’s a little help there. But other than with Coach Bruce, I don’t do any betting. We occasionally have a dollar bet on plays run back in the ’80s, but — yeah, I wouldn’t know who to go with.
REPORTER: Are you expecting Barton back this weekend?
TRESSEL: We were told that Kirk could go today. Last night. Now, we’ll see what that means. To what effect — that would be great. I don’t expect Hamby and Schnittker. I’m trying to think who else — we expect Tyler Everett, yeah.
REPORTER: Boone, how’s he playing, will he still start if Barton came back?
TRESSEL: I think it would depend how far back Barton is. I think Alex has come along. Graded a winning performance for the first time which is pretty good and he’s coming along, but we always talk about, you don’t lose a position by injury as long as you’re a hundred percent effective when you come back, so we’ll have to assess that.
REPORTER: How did your defense played Saturday in light of the 578 yards?
TRESSEL: You know, that was — that was a different situation there. Eight of those plays were 297 yards. I’ve never seen that happen. Minnesota’s credit, they jumped up and caught some balls, made some plays. The thing I liked best about the whole scenario was that our guys weren’t going to sit and sulk about that, they were going to keep playing and keep pounding. As the second half unfolded, I don’t know how many yards they rushed for in the second half, but it wasn’t very many. And take away that last 80-yard drive, we — we really dominated the second half with our defense, but we can not afford to have eight plays like that. That’s for sure.
REPORTER: Jim, do you worry about Ashton Youboty losing confidence?
TRESSEL: I don’t worry about that.
REPORTER: (Inaudible.)
TRESSEL: You don’t have to say anything to him. You know, it’s — he has a lot of pride in his performance and he has a — a deep commitment to what he wants to do for his unit and his team, and no one feels worse when you end up a play and two bodies end up on the ground and the other one has the ball. The guy without the ball feels bad, whether it’s our receiver or our DB, and I don’t worry about his confidence. He’s a competitor.
REPORTER: Not to make excuses for Ashton, but is he still hurt, is he a hundred percent right now?
TRESSEL: I don’t know if he’s a hundred percent, but he’s tough. He played the run — they put a lot of balls out in his area and he played it. And so — I don’t know that I’d say he was a hundred percent but I don’t know who is, you know, at this stage of the season. If you you’ve been playing as many plays as Ashton and Quinn and Donte and Santonio and the rest. Everyone’s a little sore.
REPORTER: (inaudible) — defensive coaches, a lot of those he looked like he was right there or just timed it wrong or something.
TRESSEL: You know, you could probably throw four of those balls up like that this and they might get one, they got the one. It counted. So usually when you throw deep, if you’re an offensive coach and you hit 33 percent of those, you’ve had a wonderful day. You know, they happened to hit four or five of them, so — but that’s to their credit. That’s not taking anything away from what they did.
REPORTER: (inaudible) — kind of curious about how Malcolm Jenkins was going to hold up against a physical team.
TRESSEL: I thought Malcolm did a great job. First and foremost, running down Maroney. I didn’t know he was that fast. He ran him down pretty well, then I thought he played pretty well and almost made that pick on the throw back, you know, I think Malcolm keeps getting better. It’s important to him. He’s a lot like those other guys in that room, Ashton and Donte and Nate and those guys, he wants to be good.
REPORTER: It’s been kind of hinted as the weather cooled off whether or not you might think about using Ted Ginn on defense a little bit.
TRESSEL: It was kind of hinted when the weather gets cooler? I’ll defer that to Donte. He sees him over there in drills, you can ask him that. If our team needs to do that to be better, you know, then — we wouldn’t do it in a normal situation. Might do it in a nickel or a dime or we’re banged up back there or whatever, but Donte can tell you more about how he does.
REPORTER: Coach, was Troy hurt worse than you initially thought during the game? I know he got the stitches. Is he taking some hits —
TRESSEL: He did that time. He got whacked.
REPORTER: He lowers his shoulder and goes in there, are there times you’re like great job but don’t — try not to get yourself in a position where you’re going to get injured?
TRESSEL: I don’t think you can tell guys how to run. The minute you start telling them to — you know, before the game I told them every inch is important. During the game, I can’t tell them, well, you know, don’t go for that extra inch. He’s a touch kid and he got banged pretty good and, you know, he — his head was a little wobbly after the ball game, but he’s a tough kid.
REPORTER: Is he okay for Saturday?
TRESSEL: Troy?
REPORTER: Yeah.
TRESSEL: As far as I know.
REPORTER: Some of the guys after the game were saying they’ve noticed a difference in him this year he’s not as aggressive when another guy makes a mistake as much as he did last year. Have you noticed that and kind of talk about his maturity process and how that’s going throughout this year.
TRESSEL: I think whenever you have more confidence in what you’re doing, you know, that kind of evens your keel a little bit. You know, it — I’ve never really seen him jump on guys too bad. You know, sometimes you do step over that line of competitiveness and wanting us all to do well and we all say something wrong at times but I’ve never seen it being a big issue, but I think Troy has done a good job, especially in the last month of really focusing hard on simply what he needed to do and not worry about, you know, things beyond his control and outside of his realm and I think it’s paid well for him.
REPORTER: Can we get him today? We haven’t had him on Tuesdays, and I’m curious if there’s a reason for that?
TRESSEL: Well, we kind of made an assignment for a post-Tuesday practice extra film session a few weeks ago, and that assignment’s still on.
REPORTER: Is that going to be all year?
TRESSEL: It’s today. I can’t — go day by day.
REPORTER: We don’t need him for very long but we do need to talk to him because a lot of people want to know what the quarterback at Ohio State has to say.
TRESSEL: I understand.
REPORTER: Any way we can get him Wednesday?
TRESSEL: We’ll see Wednesday. I’ll trade you him for me. You’ll take it won’t you?
REPORTER: We might.
TRESSEL: All right, Marla, one last question.
REPORTER: Whoa, whoa. We’re not there yet.
TRESSEL: Okay.
REPORTER: We’ve still got six minutes.
TRESSEL: Coach Bruce, was it this way when you were here?
REPORTER: No. A lot better.
TRESSEL: It was a lot better.
REPORTER: You moved up a couple spots in the BCS, and I know you don’t think way out but doesn’t mean more possibilities in the post seen or did you take note of that?
TRESSEL: Didn’t really take note of it. Apparently some people lost in front of us?
REPORTER: Georgia moved below with one loss.
TRESSEL: Okay. You know, there’s not much — you know, we haven’t discuss that had as a group and I don’t know if guys look at it — different people look at different things. I didn’t really take notice of it. You know, and you know how I feel, I’ve said it a few weeks ago, whatever we deserve is what we’ll get and we have to make sure that when November ends, we’re a very deserving team.
REPORTER: Talk about Santonio’s intangibles. I know production-wise he’s always been there, but seems like he’s got an energy or competitiveness that kind of transcends the other —
TRESSEL: Santonio grew up with expectations that you win every time you compete, whether it’s in a race or a baseball game or a football game or a conference championship or whatever, when you go to Glades Central and you’re not the state champ, you had a bad year. That’s just what he was raised with and brought that here and added that to our football team in 2002 and you talk about all the little things that piled up to have a great 2002, Santonio Holmes’ competitiveness and expectations and all that against our defense every day is huge. And he’s carried it on now that he’s been the guy we go to and we constantly look for ways to get the ball in his hands so that he can make things happen and I think he gives the rest of the offensive group some energy and the return units energy and you know, that’s why he’s a special player.
REPORTER: Do you remember having to sell him on blocking or was he already sold on that?
TRESSEL: Santonio got the Jack Tatum hit of the week.
REPORTER: I know, I’m saying —
TRESSEL: No, you don’t have to sell him on blocking. I have to sell him sometimes you can’t hold. Because he brought back a couple runs — two — that’s a couple.
REPORTER: Jim, when you talk about November and how crucial it is to play well, are there one or two, three key areas that your looking at with team.
TRESSEL: I think you — I think as you look at the key categories that determine whether you’re going to be successful on a Saturday, we need to — to gain greater consistency in all of those. Lump special teams together. We’ve been having our moments of having some great things happen. We need a November to be very, very good in all of them and have some great things happen and not have a net punt of 33 or whatever we had this week, you know, we’ve got to put it all together. So that would be one.
You know the two things that make up the turnover margin, offense’s ability to keep it and the defense’s ability to knock it loose and, you know, and then I hope that in November, you really have a clearer picture of what your guys are most capable of, we’ve had eight games with them and what is it we do best offensively, defensively and special teams wise and we’ve got to make sure as a staff we do a good job of highlighting what our guys can do. There’s no margin for error now.
REPORTER: Can you talk about Pittman’s maturation.
TRESSEL: I think Antonio Pittman, we’ve said it since last spring and everything else, he’s going to grow into being an outstanding Big Ten tailback and I think he’s doing that and, you know, it was exciting for him to get in the end zone this past weekend. I thought he played a complete game. His — assignment wise, he graded a winning performance. Assignment wise was excellent, pass pro he was solid, did a good job on the screen play and made a big play and of course got to carry it 23 times. I know he’d like to carry it 30 and maybe one day we’ll mature into that and grow into that; but I think any time we can spread the ball out and Santonio get it X number of times and Teddy and Gonzo and Antonio carry it a bunch, we still need to get a second tail back, in my opinion, a few more carries for us to be complete and that’s what November — to answer George’s question, too, that’s what November is to become a complete team. But Antonio Pittman, I think, has progressed just exactly as we hoped.
REPORTER: Jim, you talked about Troy’s focus the last month on what he really needs to do. What would have brought that on? Something he decided himself —
TRESSEL: I think more opportunity. He went through a period from December, really, through the first game where he didn’t get to saddle up behind the center the whole time and do it every day, every snap. And so I think the opportunity, as he earned it back, if you will, and then taking advantage of it — a lot of times it’s just a matter of, you know, a guy getting a chance to get better and — and get focused and so forth.
REPORTER: What does it say to you that in Big Ten play he’s the top ranked quarterback in passing efficiency?
TRESSEL: What it says to me is that’s why we’re contending. And if he’ll remain excellent — he doesn’t have to be the top ranked guy but if he remains a top guy passing efficiency wise, then we will contend. I think, you know, it’s not a surprise or a coincidence that that’s the case.
REPORTER: Is he better, Troy, when he doesn’t have distractions, maybe, you know, the media stuff, a lot of the hype that comes outside of this building, is he one of the — maybe part of his maturation in due part to stay more focused and coaches having to — I don’t know if you remind him or not, but of that kind of scenario plays out.
TRESSEL: I think we all are better, you know, when there’s less distractions. You don’t — you don’t always get to be that way. Because that’s part of what we do, go to class and have time with the media and so forth and so on. But the better job you can do focusing on the things that are, you know, most important for the group you care most about, you know, of course you’re going to be better and, you know, Rusty was cringing when you — you made the question because now you just given me ammunition to keep — I can read you Rusty.
REPORTER: Is that why this session is on Tuesday, not Wednesday, the extra assignment film session, because that’s when we’re here?
TRESSEL: No, no. Wednesday is because the coaches get to go home a little earlier, to be honest with you.
REPORTER: You said a minute ago to Doug’s question that Troy didn’t get to take every snap in November and stuff like that —
TRESSEL: November?
REPORTER: He didn’t get to take every snap for a while while he was out.
TRESSEL: It wasn’t November.
REPORTER: I think you said November —
TRESSEL: December until now.
REPORTER: I’m wondering if that’s the unseen portion of the penalty, that he and the team suffered for his indiscretion was that he wasn’t as sharp when this season started as he would have been had he been available to you to practice all that time.
TRESSEL: You know, I suppose you could draw that discussion or argument or whatever, but nothing we can do about it because you have to do what is the right thing to do and go from there.
REPORTER: You play a team that you’re on paper and at home you’re supposed to win convincingly this week. Is that good or bad when you’re in November and you want to keep the guys playing at the ultimate level? Do you like when the competition is a little more of a test or how do you view this week as far as how it will keep you guys going on the right rise?
TRESSEL: Well, this competition will be plenty of a test. To me what the thing is is do we understand that, and if you’re going to be a complete team in November, it’s really irrelevant, you know, who the competition is, because every snap might make the difference in your season. Do I worry about it? Not really. Do you work on it, absolutely. You start with yourself and make sure that, you know, everything you do is with the same passion and understanding as you enter November and you hope your coaches do the same and what’s key is what do your older guys do, you know, and do your older guys attack it like it’s the national championship game and if doesn’t, I don’t know how the younger guys will. So you hope your leadership corps sends the right message.
All right, Marla, we’ve got to go. Was that six minutes?
REPORTER: Yes, sir.
REPORTER: This might have been a coincidence, but last week, whenever Troy ran the ball, the drive at the very end he didn’t score —
TRESSEL: Wait a minute now, give me that again.
REPORTER: There was only one drive at the end where — Troy ran the ball during a series, you did not score and if he did not run the ball during the series —
TRESSEL: Well, then, we shouldn’t run him anymore.
REPORTER: I’m wondering when he’s concentrating on passing first, there’s something to be said for run as a — keep — you know —
TRESSEL: I don’t know if any of Troy’s runs were improvisation. He didn’t have too many of what we call step-ups. A couple maybe. I think that’s a coincidence. I hope that he focuses on whatever the — is called for on that play. If it happens to be a design quarterback run, I hope he’s working on exactly where he needs to hit that or if it’s an option, who he needs to read, then obviously if it’s a pass, what’s their coverage, where are we going to be, who can take it away and if it’s not there, then step up and go. But I think you could do both at the same time.
REPORTER: He’s that good at reading the field now that he can do both.
TRESSEL: Yeah, I think he can go do both at the same time. The more you play, the more confidence you get and more skillful you get at those things.
