Transcript From The November 8th Football Press Luncheon – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/8/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 8, 2005
WALLENBERG: We’re going to start today with Tom Hof, our associate athletic director. He is going to speak a little bit about a initiative we have going on. He’ll take some questions.
HOF: I’m excited to explain to you an initiative that we are undertaking on Saturday at halftime of the Northwestern game. We are going to recognize four special benefactors in a newly created benefactor group, donor group, called the Pay Forward Society.
And the membership in the Pay Forward Society, it entails making a gift of $5 million or greater to an athletics project. And we consider a gift of that magnitude what we would call a transformational gift. And we think it’s very appropriate to recognize those entities that have made projects possible. Without gifts of that level, we would not have been able to do the golf course reconstruction that we’re currently doing at Scarlet. It would not have allowed us to build the Jerome Schottenstein Center, Value City Arena. Similarly, gifts made to the Ohio Stadium.
So who we’re going to recognize, and we have a visual over here of what it’s going to look like at the stadium, are two companies and two individuals who have stepped forward, made four of the largest gifts in the history of Ohio State athletics, and they include Huntington National Bank. Huntington made gifts of $5 million each to the Ohio Stadium project and also to the Jerome Schottenstein Center project.
Al and Martha Phipps, who are going to be honored posthumously, they made a very sizable gift to the Ohio State golf courses, and their gift is enabling us to do the reconstruction and renovation that you’re aware of over at the Scarlet course.
We also have the McCorkle family, Bill and Mae McCorkle. We’ve just recently dedicated and opened the Bill and Mae McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Their gift, and a naming gift, the transformational gift, made that facility possible.
And the first gift, and really the one that I think kind of started a new era in Ohio State athletics, was the Jerome Schottenstein family Value City gift that resulted in the Jerome Schottenstein Center.
So those four — those two individuals and two companies will be recognized at halftime. We will do a short video. We really thought it was important to espouse Woody Hayes’ teachings, and that’s the genesis of the name, the Pay Forward Society. You know, Woody taught about paying forward for that next generation, and we really believe that these donors have done that in a magnificent way.
We hope, obviously, to grow this group over time for other projects as we move forward with new initiatives that Gene Smith is embarking on and the department’s embarking upon.
So at halftime there will be a short video and we will representatives of the families and the companies on the field and recognizing them for their extraordinary contributions to the department.
Happy to take any questions. Gene will be available afterwards if you have any questions about the program.
Terrific. Thank you very much.
SNAPP: As most of you know this will be our last Tuesday luncheon. Next week our schedule goes to Monday. That schedule is in the release, the interview starts at 2:30.
I guess I would just like to see a show of hands of everybody who would like to come back here and do it here as opposed to anyplace else.
Everybody is okay with this? Then we probably will continue this.
Also, we just got room — or word today that Dean Sensibaugh, who played for us in the second world war, ’43 to ’47, passed away in Lakeland, Florida. Dean still holds the record for the longest kick return in Ohio State history, 103 yards at Great Lakes in 1943.
Today’s practice, first four periods is open to the media, but not for films or any photographs of any sort. Then tonight after practice, we’ll have the four captains available.
Coach.
TRESSEL: I think he’ll have that record forever. You can only get a hundred now; right, Steve?
SNAPP: It’ll stand forever.
TRESSEL: The Pay Forward Society was mentioned, and what an exciting thing for Ohio State and what a difference it makes as you look at the landscape of us trying to do the things that we do with the largest athletic program in the country and the people that have stepped up in such a major way, that’s something that we certainly in the football office appreciate. And it’s a neat thing. And I think it’s one more way, too, to recognize Coach Hayes and what he brought to this place with the concept that that’s really all we can do in life is pay forward. There’s not much we can do backwards, but we can certainly help forward and that group is a special one.
As we get ready for senior week here, it’s hard to take the time to look backwards and talk about the last ball game. I thought our guys came out and defensively controlled the tempo of the game and gave us great field position, as we mentioned after the game. And we had, I think, nine players on the defensive side grade winning performance, and six or seven over on the offensive side grade winning performance. We had some outstanding performances, Josh Huston was our special units player. Eight touchbacks is something that I’m not sure I’ve seen. And I think he’s got a bunch of them in a row. And I know that he has a goal of having more touchbacks than Mike Nugent had a year ago. So we’ll see how he does there. I promised him at least three more kickoffs this year, and the rest we’ll have to earn.
But he did a great job as our special units player, two-for-two field goals, and made all his PATs, and gave a great effort on the botched snap. He claims he was clipped. But I told him I hadn’t seen him run that much in six years since he’s been here. Josh Huston has done an excellent job. And he’s one of those feel-good stories that — going through two and a half years of injuries and adversities in the deep shadow of a guy like Mike Nugent, and you have to really tip your cap to Josh Huston.
Defensively, Mike Kudla was our defensive player. Mike continues to get better and better and better every day. And he is an explosive guy, he’s a high-motor guy. And I think he’s an outstanding football player. And he made a big impact in the Illinois win.
Offensively it was Troy Smith, and the most important thing in my mind, is we didn’t have an offensive turnover, and that’s critical, especially in November. He did a good job controlling the football, made big plays, handled the offense well, started off with one for four, and ended up 13 for 21, so I thought he really settled into the ball game and graded winning performance. And was our offensive player of the game.
Up front on offense, the Jim Parker offensive lineman was Doug Datish. Doug graded 91 percent. He had an excellent football game and really has stepped up done an excellent job there at tackle. I’m not sure we went into the season thinking that he would be the left tackle all season. But we thought he could play tackle, guard, he’s our backup center. But when we had the injuries that we’ve had with Rehring out and Barton’s been out and Cordle’s been out and so forth. Really, he’s had to handle that left tackle spot and done an excellent job there.
Our attack force on defense was Marcus Green, a fifth-year guy, just gets better and better, works hard, studies the film hard, just a great young man. And it’s great to see older guys like that playing the best football of their career late in the season when we really need it.
Our Jack Tatum Hit of the Week has four nominees. And when there are multiple nominees, we put it to a vote. So I don’t have an answer to that. The team will vote on that this afternoon. They were off yesterday, and so there were pretty good hits in that ball game that that news will be pending.
And then the scout team players, Joe Gantz was our scout special teams player, young running back from Wooster, Ohio, good young man, does a great job on the scout team. And there’s not much worse position in the world as a scout team running back. They get beat up every day. And he happened to also have a great week on scout special teams and won that award.
Scout defensive player of the week was Doug Worthington. And Doug is going to be an outstanding defensive end. We’re red-shirting him this year, which I think is great for him. We came down, as we went into the opening part of the season, and we knew we wanted to red shirt one of the two young defensive ends between Lawrence and Doug, and also Ryan Williams, and so we ended up being able to red-shirt two of the three, which I think is going to be a great thing for us in the future, and Doug is going to be a good player.
Then the scout team offensive player was Robby Schoenhoft. Robby continues to do a great job leading the scout offense. And he’s competitive, fiery. He is going to be a great football player here at Ohio State.
It is senior week, it’s huge for the 16 guys playing their last game, there are some guys sitting in this room that have been in that boat, and they understand, once you get to the stadium that last time that that’s it. And that’s something that you never forget. We’ve also got another 15 or so people who have been toiling within the family doing things that maybe no one notices, we’ve got four guys that have been medical and have not been able to play that will be in the stadium for their last time. We’ve got four equipment managers who, believe me when I tell you they work hours and hours and hours and they’ll be recognized. And then we’ve got eight student interns who are undergrad students here, hoping maybe to go into coaching some day and have decided outside the classroom that they’re going to spend the rest of their lives here, and I mean 30, 40, 50 hours a week, going full-time school here, computers and printouts and stapling scouting reports and so forth. And we’ve got eight senior interns. And so there’s a bunch of people who this is a big week for us. And you add to the fact that we’re playing a great team in Northwestern.
The thing I love about Northwestern, I guess it starts with that quarterback, you know, he’s a guy that you watched grow, and he’s been under center there or back in the shotgun for so long making so many plays and so tough, and the game’s never over, and it doesn’t matter what the score is, you can turn on any film at any time and he’s just flying around and making plays and what a tremendous leader, a kid who’s graduated from college already, and you know it’s one of those great stories about college football. And the cast he’s got around him is plenty good. Their receivers are outstanding, their running back, you know, is extraordinary, their offensive line is veteran. So they do a great job there.
Then when you shift gears to their defensive team, it’s an interesting study, when you look at their whole season, you would say those numbers aren’t as impressive as you’d like. Then when you pair off their preconference games and take those numbers out of it, and put the numbers of just the conference games, and you start to say, you know what, their numbers are solid. The biggest number, of course, that all of you know is the — maybe the second most dear number to me is the turnover margin. And they’re ranked number one in the conference, whether you count all games or just Big Ten games. And we’re last. And, you know, that’s something that on Saturday cannot end up that way because the team that wins the turnover margin typically wins the football game.
Their special teams, they’ve — they lead the conference in punt returns but haven’t had that many punt returns. And so I don’t know that, you know, you see them running for a whole bunch of them. But they’ve got — when people have kicked to them, they’ve had a chance and brought them back and have impressive numbers. When they kick off, very seldom will they kick the ball deep. You’ll see the ball pooch just over the front line, which they got one against Wisconsin, you’ll see the ball pooch higher to the second line, you’ll see it squibbed. They do everything different.
I think the last place it will go on Saturday will be deep, if I had to predict. Maybe it will, we’ll be ready if it does. But it just seems like they spray the ball everywhere and they have good design, they have a little deception. They’ve come up with big plays. Some of their take-aways have been in the special units. And they do an excellent job there.
They put a lot of thought into everything they do. You can see that their players are extremely well-schooled. Their pass defense, you never see them out of position. It’s interesting, you’re going to have to earn every play you get. You know, sometimes you go into the game and say you know what if we can catch them in this coverage, we can hit a home run and so forth. That doesn’t happen much against Northwestern. You’re going to have to be very efficient and very consistent and play probably the most efficient game we’ve played offensively to date. So it will be a thrill with all those seniors having a chance to go out there for the last time and a huge conference game, it’s November, all the things you’re excited about, the battle of the turnover margin, which we’re the underdog there, we’ve got to do a better job. So we’re excited to get ready for them and hit the practice field today.
REPORTER: Jim, with what happened last year? What have you said to the guys this year about that game? Is that something you’ve talked about what happened up there a year ago?
TRESSEL: Well, the results of the game are put away, and everyone knows them, and everyone knows how they feel about it.
We’ll obviously use the technical part, you know, why did it happen, what didn’t we do, what did they do well, you know, all of those things.
But, you know, it’s not something we’ll spend a whole bunch of time on because we’re a different team than then and they’re a different team from back then. And we’ve got to do — they didn’t have Tyrell Sutton that particular day, so it’s a whole different team.
REPORTER: Coach, you talked in August about the potential of this team, you said you knew what the senior class you had this year, it could be a special group, they’ve had their adversities and tough losses. Right now winning the four games, as good as the offense and defense, are they as good as you thought they could be right now? You’ve got to be happy with kind of the lay of the land on November 8th, whatever it is.
TRESSEL: Well, we don’t spend much time reflecting in that big picture. You know, we’ll look at this play, and did okay on that play, and didn’t do as well on that play. I’ve enjoyed their worth ethic throughout. You know I said preseason, I’d never seen a group work like that in the summer. During the preseason camp, excellent, like you said, handled some adversity, we didn’t do some things we thought we were capable of and came up short. No one batted an eye, just went back to work.
They continue to do that. I hope after four games in a row that we’ve run, is that right? I hope after four games in a row, we don’t say, hey, we’ve arrived. We’ve got to go to work. I’ve liked this team from the get-go, and, know, right in front of us, you know, we have the chance to play the last time in Ohio Stadium against a great opponent, and that’s right where you would like to be.
REPORTER: Prior to your biggest game, technically the Michigan game, is it good to have a game like this where you’re completely focused on this week’s opponent, a team that could come in here and beat you if you’re not ready.
TRESSEL: I think that’s a good thing, and it’s usually that way, because we’re playing in the Big Ten. Usually when you’re in week 10, it doesn’t matter who it is, last year it was Purdue. That’s a pretty good team. The year before it was — I don’t know who it was, probably Purdue. And the year before that it was — and we won that in overtime or something, and the year before that, it was Illinois and that was an overtime game. So in the Big Ten you’re going to have to stay focused. And if anyone is looking out beyond Northwestern, we’ve got a problem.
REPORTER: What about the pomp and circumstance of the day, when those kids run out and shake your hand or hug you, whatever, what goes through your head, are you so focused on the game that —
TRESSEL: Not at that moment. When you’re going through a senior festivity like that and you see a guy, they run like a hundred yards. So we almost have — you know, when Mo Hall came running out there, you can almost flashback almost to the first time you met him, what he’s meant to the program, what he’s gone through, and what he’s done, and his winning touchdown against Michigan, and the winning touchdown against Illinois, and his big punt return, his kickoff return, I mean, you know, that broke open the Penn State game a year ago. And that kind of all flows through your mind.
For a moment you allow yourself not to think about today, because, you know, that’s not why we have that ceremony.
REPORTER: During the course of a week like this, can you ever see something in the eyes or the way some — some juniors who may be thinking about not coming back for their senior year, can you ever see that, maybe taking in what may be their final home game as well?
TRESSEL: I never thought of it. You know, our focus is on the seniors, and we don’t change our dealings with our juniors. We’re in the same meetings, you know, they’ll be — they won’t be in the front row, but they’ll be in the second row when we’re talking and so forth. No, I haven’t really seen that.
REPORTER: Did I hear Steve right, we’re only getting the captains after practice today?
TRESSEL: Yes.
REPORTER: What is the reason for that?
TRESSEL: I think it’s a special time for that group. We’ve got a lot of work to do, you know, from that standpoint we want to march on.
REPORTER: You talked about how you’re a different team than when you played Northwestern last year. How is your defense — do you think it’s better equipped to handle some of the things Northwestern does than last year?
TRESSEL: The guys playing defense now, that was late September, early October, something like that, are much more experienced. That group coming off of ’03, where everyone had graduated, they were fairly new. Exactly how many of them are starting today, that started last time we played, I don’t know the answer.
But there’s a lot more experience. But so is Northwestern, you know, so it’s not like it’s — you know, like a great advantage. But we can only control, you know, what we’re doing. And I think with the experience that we’ve gained over the course of time since then, we’re a different team.
REPORTER: Seems like they’ve had a lot of instances where maybe at halftime things weren’t going that well, and second half turned around.
TRESSEL: We haven’t or they have?
REPORTER: You guys.
TRESSEL: Well, you know, I know this, a good defense gets better as the game goes. A good defense gets better the closer you get to their goal line, that’s one thing. I don’t know much about defense, but that’s one thing I really believe. As you get a handle, okay, I’ve seen that play, they got 7 yards, the next time I see, they’re only going to get 4, the next time I see it, they’re only going to get 2. That’s what a good defense does. The older you get, the more you can do that. I would like to think we’ve had better second halves, I can’t swear to it, but I would like to think we have.
REPORTER: Is Tyrell Sutton a benefit in Northwestern?
TRESSEL: Oh, Tyrell Sutton would be a good benefit in anyone’s system. He is a tough, competitive, and everyone has seen what he’s done. Every team would love to have a guy like him.
REPORTER: You said yesterday that a lot of times [inaudible] you guys [inaudible] was that just because of the size [inaudible]?
TRESSEL: No, I think if I had to look back, I would say his was more of a timing issue than anything. And that’s, you know, you have to tip your cap to Northwestern. That’s one of the difficult things in recruiting in this day and age, is the accelerated pace that recruiting has. And one of the most difficult things we have in Ohio is that we have so many people come in here so early and talk to our sophomores and juniors, not illegally, you know, but legally, and have them at camp and have them at their schools and so forth. And the accelerated pace of people getting offered scholarships and so forth, that’s one of the battles in recruiting right now.
REPORTER: What about the timing of Northwestern?
TRESSEL: They were early, yeah, they did a good job.
REPORTER: Sutton talked about a little bit about as a smaller guy, he can sort of almost hide behind the linemen sometime. Can a smaller guy really do that?
TRESSEL: Oh, sure. Especially when the linemen are big. The good backs do that, no matter what size they are, they kind of play hide-and-seek with those linebackers.
REPORTER: What do you think’s going on in Akron that they’re producing running backs like this. You’ve got one in Terrell.
TRESSEL: In our history we’ve had guys from Akron, and they’ve been all over the country. I think it goes back to that same question, when people ask about the number of kids from Ohio that play all over the country, you know, Akron is right in the heart of it, from the standpoint it’s culturally important. You know, that’s something that those kids grew up 15 miles from the NFL Hall of Fame, you know, they grew up an hour and a half, hour and 45 from Three Rivers and 45 minutes from Brown’s Stadium, and they hear about it every day, read about it every day, they have great high school coaching. That’s why we’re fortunate, every day we should give thanks that we’re located in Ohio.
REPORTER: Jim, is it possible that Josh Huston is hitting the ball better than Mike Nugent did last year? I mean, when you watch his kickoffs and stuff and his field goal — you know, he’s been a little bit off on his long ones, high and long and stuff. How would you compare those two?
TRESSEL: They’re both very good. And I — you’re trying to get me in trouble with one or the other. That’s a tough one.
Next question, right, Mr. Smith?
You know, he’s got a powerful leg, always did. I betcha someone in here remembers when we were having a battle back in ’01, what’s the difference in the two, and the difference was consistency. He has gained a lot of consistency. And he’s healthy. In fairness to him. After Mike won the job at the end of ’01, and it really wasn’t until the Michigan game and the bowl game in ’01 that Mike had really gained as much consistency as you wanted. From that point on, Josh had about two and a half years of injury. That’s just the way it happened for him.
Back then we thought that was a hardship, and now we see what was going on. We were trying to get him a sixth year, I guess, I don’t know. We’re fortunate that the NCAA saw fit to see his circumstance the way they did, and we’re lucky we have him.
REPORTER: Jim, Michigan had last week off, Penn State has this week off. In a perfect — if you had a perfect schedule, would you prefer to have a later bye week, just to rest everybody up before that stretch?
TRESSEL: I don’t know. I was kind of hoping that bye week question was over, because the next one will be you’re 1 and 9, or whatever, your bye week. So I don’t ever want a bye week. How’s that?
But I don’t know, you know, anytime we’ve had a bye week, I didn’t think it was a bad time. It gave opportunities for guys that weren’t a hundred percent to get healthy. Gave us an opportunity to study ourselves. It gave us an opportunity to get out and see some high schools, you know, because so many of those guys had already been offered by other people. You know, we were maybe a little behind.
And so, you know, wherever it is, and we don’t have one the next two years. Hopefully that will be the last bye week question.
REPORTER: Any update on Darrell Hazell? Will be he back to work this week?
TRESSEL: Darrell Hazell is probable.
REPORTER: What Northwestern is able to do, they’ve got six wins, maybe three straight years, is it a greater accomplishment for a program like that, with a 46,000 seat stadium to win consistently than it is Ohio State and Michigan and Penn State, is it a tougher place to win?
TRESSEL: You know, I don’t know if I would say that. I would say this, though. They’ve done a great job. You know, Randy Walker is coaching that team just like he played, relentless. You know, first class.
They teach very well in all phases. But to compare, you know, is it harder than Penn State or harder than Ohio State or harder than Indiana, or harder — I don’t know. We’ve all got our issues, I’m sure. But the bottom line is, Coach Walker and his staff have done a great job.
REPORTER: Another comparison question. Across the board, where do you rate your special teams this year compared to the prior four years? Is this among the best across the board?
TRESSEL: Well, you would have to divide them. Our punt game, which is the most important thing we do, for probably six or seven games, or eight games, was right up there with the rest. And we had had I think four straight years where we led the conference in net punting. Our last two games haven’t been quite as good.
Our kickoff coverage, I don’t know if it’s been tested, 40 touchbacks out of 56. So I don’t know if we’ve been as tested as maybe some years.
But our net is very good.
Our field goal, very solid. Maybe not as good as Nuge’s year where he only missed one or two or something — three? Is that what it was. But maybe as good.
Our return games, I think we’ve created a lot of good things. Maybe had a penalty or two more than maybe an optimum year. But I think our staff has worked as hard, our players have worked as hard as ever. And we’ve got good specialists, which is a huge key, to have a good special teams.
Got two games to go. So if they do even better than they’ve been doing, maybe we can come back and answer that affirmatively and say maybe they’re better than they’ve been, but we’re working at it.
REPORTER: Jim, Troy Smith, areas that you’re happy with, areas that you would still like to see improvement?
TRESSEL: Probably the biggest area that I’ve seen him grow in is his comfort and command of playing that position. You have to work at it so hard, and you have to understand that people are going to do different things each week. And you have to try to learn the evolution of someone’s defense, it’s not simply they’re going to line up this way against this formation. And why have they — where is Santonio, you know, maybe that’s why, or what personnel group do we have on the field.
I’ve been really pleased with his work ethic to gain that command.
He’s always been highly competitive. And he continues to be so. An excellent leader just by the nature of how much it means to him.
But — but, again, not unlike the special teams question, we’ve got Northwestern coming in here, and this is going to give a lot of answer to that.
REPORTER: Is he doing a better job? I mean, when you talk about the command, just — the question is he better in athleticism, the mental part of the game?
TRESSEL: Is he more experienced there? Absolutely. Has he prepared very, very well? Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re younger how hard you have to work at something. That’s why, you know, you wake up as a — someone has a handle on it. I think he has a much better handle on it. Obviously we’re pleased with that. He’s got a lot of tools. You put that with the preparation, you have the chance. Now you have to go out and do it.
REPORTER: The reason I say, like the game slows down —
TRESSEL: Yeah.
REPORTER: — is that what’s happening?
TRESSEL: Well, I was never a great one, and the game never slowed down. Okay?
But if you do talk with the great ones, you’ll tell them — they’ll tell you that what made the difference for them is they just slowed the game down, they knew what was happening.
And it looks like it, you know, is slowing down.
Sometimes when you get something new thrown at you, it speeds up for a minute, and you have to get — step off to the side, get on the player phone with Coach Daniels, talk through it and so forth.
But I think your ability to regain your command is a real sign of consistency. And we’ve got some, you know, high, intense situations come up, and we can keep that command even if something goes the wrong way, ball gets tipped, you know, whatever, and you regain your command, that’s the key to consistent performance.
REPORTER: Do you feel it was almost threatening on this film thing?
TRESSEL: Have you ever seen me threaten anyone?
REPORTER: I’ve never seen it. But I wouldn’t put it past you.
TRESSEL: Wouldn’t put it past me. Wow. Is that the last question?
REPORTER: For her it is.
REPORTER: No, but I mean, has he taken to it now?
TRESSEL: I think anytime anyone asks you to look at a way that you do something, when all of a sudden you see how that helps you, you know, like they said, you know what, if you exercise a little more, you’re going to feel better. All of a sudden you’re doing something, you’re right, I do feel better. That’s the same thing when you study. You say, wow, I am able to slow this game down. So it wasn’t a threat. I just said to him, here’s a way that you can approach it. And if you don’t, go. No, not at all.
REPORTER: He was watching film, he just wasn’t — some people I think got the impression he wasn’t watching film.
TRESSEL: Oh, no.
REPORTER: You showed him another — or y’all showed him another way to kind of look at things? How would you describe it? I mean —
TRESSEL: Sometimes film-watching is overevaluated, you became like you’re in front of a TV set or something, and you’re looking for a big hit or something, I call that recreational study. And that’s not the way you learn the game.
You learn the game by trying to figure out the whys and the wherefores, and that takes time. And the older you get, the more you understand it. And, you know, I’ve been pleased with his progress. But it’s got to continue, obviously.
REPORTER: They’ve thrown I think a hundred passes in the last two games, you guys have five interceptions all year. Is this a game where maybe you can tip that turnover battle, like you were saying?
TRESSEL: We would sure like to. Someone asked me over at the quarterback club, how can you explain, they’ve got, you know, in Big Ten play 18 take-aways and you have four. And I can’t explain it. But I do know this, over my experience, is if you just keep doing things right, you’re going to make some things happen. In fact, Bob Tucker, who was our defensive coordinator back with Earle, and then was our defensive coordinator at Youngstown, reminded me in 1997 in a regular season, we only had 16 take-aways the whole season. And we can’t figure it out, we had a great defense, we were 10 and 1 or something, but we only had 16 take-aways, and all of a sudden we had 16 in the four games in the playoffs and that was the difference in winning the national championship. What did we do different? Nothing. Just kept playing hard, hitting hard. Because they throw it 50 times, does that mean we’ll get it. I don’t know. Brett Basanez doesn’t make that many mistakes. We’re going to be in as good as position as we can be. I haven’t seen our guys drop a bunch of balls, or a bunch of balls rolling on the ground that we didn’t go for. We’ll just keep playing hard.
REPORTER: You played Stanton or Vince Young. This guy last week you know his game. This guy has more active passing yards than anyone in the country. Is he on underrated?
TRESSEL: Makes me feel better.
REPORTER: Is he underrated? Would he ever — why wouldn’t a guy from Northwestern ever be considered for the Heisman?
TRESSEL: I don’t know. You know, Matt Leinart won all of his games. I’m sure that’s one of the first criteria. But I don’t know that there’s anyone that does his job better than Basanez does in the country. And what more can you ask for a guy to do his job, and extraordinarily.
REPORTER: What did Michigan do to them, what from what you see?
TRESSEL: I thought Michigan just did what they do and were physical and relentless and played a good hard-nosed football game. You know, just kept — they didn’t come unglued. You know sometimes people try to change a whole bunch of stuff when — when people are moving the ball down the field, and, you know, they panic a little bit. Didn’t see that in Michigan. I thought they just played a very solid game. And their special teams did some good things. And offensively they had the ball, I want to say, like 88 snaps or something. So there’s a combination of what they were able to do.
REPORTER: Jim, there are 117th defense out of 117 teams. What is you’re seeing could be the reason for that?
TRESSEL: Well, I think their first three games, there were some extraordinary numbers against them. And sometimes when that happens, you never catch up. And I haven’t put a whole bunch of focus on the whole year thing, I’ve looked at the Big Ten, and I’ve also asked myself this question: 24 take-aways. What’s that worth in yards? You know, if you think about that. You know, how many yards is that, you know, the equivalent of?
And so I think they get better and better and better. They had, I think — gosh, probably at least six new starters there early. And if you look at them now, you wouldn’t say, you know, that that looks like someone who would have those numbers. And people haven’t had those kind of numbers recently.
REPORTER: Coach, also the way they won last week, that certainly has to help every — you know, their momentum, their psyche.
TRESSEL: Belief is an important thing. And they have great belief in who they are and what they’re capable of doing. And that there’s always enough time to do it. And when you have leaders like they have, you know, their middle linebacker’s been there forever, I don’t know how many thousand tackles he has, and their quarterback has been there forever. That’s a pretty good start from a leadership standpoint. Coach Bruce used to always say the game is never over until — what did he say? — 28-point differential and you’ve got the ball with a minute to go. And, you know, look at the game last week, four minutes and however many seconds and it’s a 13-point game and they win, that’s belief.
REPORTER: They only have five sacks, what do they do in order to keep Basanez?
TRESSEL: Basanez does a great job of throwing it away, he does a great job of stepping up. They do a good job of moving the pocket away. He’ not a drop-back going and going to stay in the same place, you can put a dummy up in practice and have pass rush drills like you do. He’s everywhere. They’re spread out all over the field. Their run-pass balance is good. You’re not teed off in rush-pass mode. And he’s very aware of when the blitz is coming and does a great job.
REPORTER: Jim, Donte Whitner seemed to have a couple good hits Saturday. What kind of season do you think he’s had?
TRESSEL: Donte Whitner has had an excellent season. You talk about a guy who has studied films with purpose. He walks around here with a notebook that’s full every week.
He knows how to study it, and very bright football player. Loves to hit. He’s special.
REPORTER: Do some guys just have that edge, they really want to pound guys? You seem to have a couple guys on your defense that really —
TRESSEL: I hope we have 11 of them that want to get after you and — if you’re on that defense, you’d better be a hitter. Because they might not let you in the room, you know, if you’re not.
REPORTER: Jim, what has Santonio meant to this club this year, and are you worried that you might not get him back next year?
TRESSEL: Well, he means a lot to our club. Santonio Holmes is tough, is blockings, he won the Jack Tatum hit last week and is one of the nominees this week, wide receiver. Big-play guy. Plays with a lot of injuries and so effort. Am I worried we won’t have him next year? I’m worried about this week, obviously. And he’s been here four years, you know, and we’ll have that discussion after the season. But my standing rule has always been, let’s discuss guys going out if they might be a first round. And I don’t know why he wouldn’t be a first round, but I’m not an NFL guy.
REPORTER: Coach, it’s easy to say this now, is Mike Kudla a guy that you would red-shirt if you had to do it over again?
TRESSEL: Mike is here right now. We have Mike Kudla and who else is around?
SNAPP: Josh.
TRESSEL: Is Josh here? And would we have liked to red shirt him? Next year, I would say yes. He can — he contributed on our team his true freshman year. And I’d love to have everyone red-shirted. I’ve been voting for the five-year eligibility, because I’d love to have guys here for five years, get their master’s degree and then go to the NFL. We’re just thankful for every moment.
Marla gets one more before we move on here.
REPORTER: Did you say anything to Pittman to keep him from [inaudible]?
TRESSEL: Pittman’s not speaking to me right now, because I took him out with 96 yards to go. So — or with 96 yards. You know, I haven’t said anything to him about that. Antonio loves to compete. And, you know, I think he’s got, I don’t know, 900-and some-odd yards.
SNAPP: Needs 22 to get there.
TRESSEL: One of the things in his mind is to get to that thousand-yard mark. Maybe you can ask him about — we’ll give you a special disposition — dispensation to ask him that question. But, you know, he’s a competitive guy. And I hope he doesn’t get too amped up, he’d better get the ball and hand the ball to the official.
Mike Kudla, and where’s Josh?
SNAPP: Josh is coming right here. And Gene Smith and Tom Hof are still available if anyone has any questions about the Pay Forward Society. Thank you.
