Ohio State to Play Florida for 2007 BCS National Championship – Ohio State Buckeyes
12/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 3, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio – No. 1 Ohio State will play No. 2 Florida in the 2007 Tostitos BCS National Championship game Jan. 8 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Head coach Jim Tressel and the four co-captains — Doug Datish, David Patterson, Quinn Pitcock and Troy Smith — met with the media Sunday night at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center.
Jim Tressel, Ohio State head coach
On the Bowl Championships Series title game
“It is great to get a chance to play an exciting Southeastern Conference team like Florida. With all the success our seniors have had they have never gotten the chance to play an SEC school, so it should be good for them.”
On Florida
“Florida is a great team. They have a great complement of players. We are very proud to be a part of this game.”
On the SEC
“Anytime you turn on an SEC game you know you know you are going to see great defense. Week in and week out, they play very hard and hit very hard.”
Troy Smith, senior quarterback
On the BCS title game
“We didn’t care who we played. We knew that we were in control of our destiny. I watched bits and pieces of their game (Saturday) against Arkansas. They are a very athletic team.”
On Florida
“They are great team. I am a huge fan of Chris Leak. I hope I get a chance to meet him.” On the loss by Southern California
“That is college football. You win some your lose some. It didn’t matter who we played in the national championship game. We were in and that was our goal.”
David Patterson, senior defensive lineman
On Florida
“I have only seen Florida on television. I wanted to play them because we have never played them before. Whoever we got, we knew it was going to be a great game.”
On the 51-day layoff
“I think it gives us more time to be ready. I have great faith in our coaches I don’t care if the game was a year from now, our coaches would have us ready.”
On Florida
“I took a visit down there with Deshawn Wynn, their running back. It should be a great game to watch with tremendous athletes.”
Quinn Pitcock, senior defensive lineman
On the long layoff between games
“Right now I would say that we have the advantage. We have done it before and it worked out pretty well for us.”
On the team reaction compared to Florida’s
“We already knew we were in the game. They didn’t know they were in the game, so that is why they were so excited.”
On playing Florida
“It is really exciting. It is good to get a chance to play someone new. It is good to get a new flavor.”
Doug Datish, senior center
On Florida
“I haven’t seen them much this season. I watched their game yesterday I switched between that and the Oklahoma-Nebraska game because I like Bob Stoops. He is a good Youngstown guy. They seemed like a pretty good team.”
On Florida
“The last few weeks we knew we were going to play in the game, but our opponent was in the shadows. It is good to know who we are going to be playing.”
On the game
“Well, we have never played them before and we always like to get off on the right foot against teams we have never played before. We are going to give them our best shot and will see what happens.”
