Postgame Press Conference From No. 4 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Texas – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/11/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 11, 2005
BROWN: First, let me say what a great college football game. You’ve got to give Ohio State credit. Jim had those guys ready to play. They played 60 minutes of football. They played like he likes to play, they forced turnovers, they were great in their kicking games and they took it down to the wire. We’ve all heard all week about the Shoe and it lived up to expectations. These people are wonderful fans, they’re loud, you can’t hear at all. We had three motion penalties on short yardage that really hurt us. They were key, we thought we worked on it and we were in good shape with it, but give them credit. Those seven seniors on defense fought so hard that they forced turnovers and really put us in a bind and when we had the short field with the turnovers, our defense kept forcing them to kick field goals and the last time had a sack, took them out of field goal range, kicked the 50-yarder, missed it to the right and gave us a chance to win the game.
I thought the most proud I was of our football team was their effort. At times we didn’t even play very good, but we played hard and we believed and we played with confidence and that’s what we told the guys in the dressing room. Very seldom can you give up three turnovers like that and still win the ball game but our guys kept coming band back and kept coming back and believed in each other and gave themselves a chance to win at the end. We’ve obviously got to improve our kickoff coverage. We used the same coverage we used against Michigan in the Rose Bowl and it stunk. We didn’t use the same coverage, but we had the same results for you that are thinking we did the same thing. Our punting game was great. We kept it out of their hands and covered well and changed field position, which really, really helped us. David Pino did a super job of matching their field goals and their extra points. And we did good a good job of trying to keep — one of them was a little bit of an adventure, but we averaged over 24, 25 yards on returns as well. But we’ve got to do a better job of protecting the ball and we’ve got to do a better job of kicking and covering kickoffs, but those are all things we can work on after a win easier than a loss. But, again, let me compliment Ohio State. Our guys were talking about how classy the game was. It was very similar to our Michigan game. There was great sportsmanship throughout and I thought both sets of fans and TV got a real treat tonight the way the kids played. REPORTER: Mack, what does this mean to you personally?
BROWN: Oh, boy, you know, coming out of the Rose Bowl was so much fun because we won the last game and it was an exciting game like this one and coming up here everybody picked us to lose all the kids that watch TV said nobody gave us any chance and you can’t win here and Ohio State’s never lost at night, and so what it means personally for me is that I’m just thankful for these assistant coaches and kids that fought so hard with all of the odds against them to hang in there and not give up, because that’s really what football’s about.
REPORTER: Does it silence the critics that you can’t win the big game?
BROWN: I don’t think you ever silence critics anymore. Critics are critics because they’re called critics and that’s what they’re paid for. We have to go back and beat Rice next week and there will be critics in the morning. What you do learn at Ohio State and Texas is you do your best and understand there will be critics and you’re not perfect and you make mistakes, we’ve made them tonight and I’ll always make them and I’m not worried about that anymore.
REPORTER: Can you talk about the final touchdown pass.
YOUNG: Working all week, that was the first time I seen them go to the go-to all night. Basically go to the go-to and blitz dropping back in the zone and Sweed came off the ball real good and I just made him — threw the ball outside so he would make a great play and Sweed make a great play for us.
REPORTER: Vince, when they went up by three field goals, what were you thinking on the sideline, were you just thinking —
YOUNG: Basically we’ve been through this, man, and I was walking down the sideline telling the guys, man, we’ve been through this play by play, the defense is going to give us the ball and they did a great job. Defense did a hell of a job for us.
REPORTER: Mack, a lot of guys have criticized your receivers. Can you talk about what you —
BROWN: I thought Limas and Billy Pittman for sure played the best game they have ever played. What a great catch by Limas down in the end zone, and Billy made two or three great plays and that’s the first time Billy’s played a lot and I thought one of the throws to get off of our goal line that Vince made on a third and twelve to Brian Carter was a huge play, so we felt like that we weren’t in sync some tonight and things weren’t as smooth but give Ohio State credit and the crowd credit for some of that but we’re really proud of our guys.
REPORTER: Do you think it helps to win with the passing that you were forced to do in the fourth quarter as compared to Vince running more than he has in the past?
BROWN: We’ve thrown it better than we’ve gotten credit for, too, in the past because Vince is such a great runner. And Selvin was hurt and I thought Jamaal Charles did a fantastic job of protecting and running and catching tonight for a true freshman and I thought we should have replayed that last one down there that we dove in with Henry Melton, too, that was pretty close from my seat but I thought those freshmen did a good job hanging in there with Selvin being hurt and since we didn’t run it as much, we were proud of the passing game. When you look at our team and I don’t know what the explosives (12+ yds. run/16 + yds. pass) ended up but we didn’t gain a turn over and we had our hands on about three and we lost three turnovers and then we go back to a position where you look at the explosives but usually it’s hard to win football games if you lose turnovers 3-0. We did it 2-0 against Michigan in the Rose Bowl and 3-0 tonight.
REPORTER: Do you have any thought to kicking a field goal in that final minute?
BROWN: Yes, we did. We thought we would score and we were down there at the one yard line and when they lost their last timeout because we made the first down on Jamaal’s run on first down, we felt like it would be very, very difficult for them to go 99 yards in 25 seconds with no time outs and very honestly, I wasn’t really excited about kicking off to them again, if that makes any sense.
REPORTER: Limas, you’ve never had a chance to make a play in this kind of a stage, this kind of game, what is that like for you?
SWEED: It’s a great feel, you know, but it just goes back to practice. We do it every day in practice, so it really wasn’t nothing. Just like another day in practice.
REPORTER: Did you guys believe, though, did you like your odds, having the ball in your hands, having the chance to win at that point?
SWEED: We always believe. That’s something Coach Brown talks about a lot. You always come out and believe in each other. We told defense, we get the ball back, we’re going to make things happen, we’re going to make plays and that’s exactly what we did.
BROWN: It was a great catch but it was also a great read and throw. It wasn’t the primary read and Vince took it all the way across the field and laid it up over the outside shoulder and made a tremendous pass.
REPORTER: Mack, was this team more relaxed going into this game?
BROWN: I don’t know where it comes from, but everybody always says we’re uptight. Shoot, they’re dancing in the dressing room. If I let you all in there, you wouldn’t believe it. In fact, I want to turn down the music sometimes because it’s too loud in the dressing room but I think the more confidence the better you play and the more relaxed you are and I felt we played a great first quarter so obviously they were ready to play and attack the field. You can be excited about playing and not be uptight. You can be focused and tough and not be uptight.
REPORTER: Five minutes left in the game, down six, big stage, everything on the line, did you have a chance at all to appreciate how much fun that was or was it all tunnel vision?
YOUNG: It’s basically staying poised, man, knowing that Coach — just pitching in my head, do not turn the ball over, take care of the ball, just find the plays and take it a play at a time. We’ve got some great athletes on our side of the ball. Just in my head, just saying, man, do not turn the ball over. That was the only thing in my head.
REPORTER: Vince, Bobby Carpenter said something earlier in the week that you would walk off this field no longer a Heisman trophy candidate. Do you want to answer that or did that inspire you this week a little bit? YOUNG: Trash talk always inspires me, man, that’s where I’m from, just growing up, hearing things like that, but Carpenter knows. He did a great job playing a great game. Their whole — Heisman is in the back of my mind right now. I’m all about my teammates right now.
REPORTER: What happened when you got shaken up on the hit, did you land on your shoulder —
YOUNG: On my head.
REPORTER: Vince, what about the noise, how did you handle it? YOUNG: Playing in the Rose Bowl, playing at A & M, Arkansas, we’ve played in a lot of stadiums, at home in front of our crowd, it’s always loud, so Coach did a great job this week, with the radio, with the loud noise, just getting us prepared for things like that. We’re used to it.
REPORTER: Was this the worst? Was this the most?
YOUNG: Oh, no, we’ve had worse.
REPORTER: Coach, you talked about the Melton play not being reviewed, do you see a potential problem with replay when it’s left up to the guys in the booth?
BROWN: No, I think we all have to trust the guys in the booth and I thought the pass to Limas was a touchdown and I thought the fumble was not a fumble. In fact, we already told our defense, if they didn’t review it, we were excited but if they were going to, we were going back out there. But we felt it was really important that our defense was out on the field before there was an emotional change and it was reviewed but we also felt like — I thought it looked like from our standpoint that Henry reached out across the pylon, but obviously it wasn’t. But people want to be fair to — to athletes and I think instant replay’s one of the best things we’ve ever done. I saw a Michigan play today on the goal line that was reviewed that made a tremendous difference in that play and officials want to be right and coaches really want it to be right. You want to win but you don’t want to win because somebody made a poor call.
REPORTER: (inaudible) — were committed to stopping the run with Vince and you were going to have to win with the pass?
BROWN: Yes, we did. We decided — it looked like to us they decided to keep everybody in the box and make us throw the football and we had a — a great game with the play action pass, and then they — they had a few blitzes that got free and hit Vince right as he through the ball and turned it over, but we felt like at one time that we were going to be able to stay on the field to keep their defense on the field all night and that was one of the reasons we were no-huddle, but they did a good job turning it. And that kicker is a great kicker. Gosh, is he good. I know he’s got a sixth year, I can see why they gave him one.
