Postgame Press Conference From No. 1/1 Ohio State vs. Penn State – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 23, 2006
COACH TRESSEL: Whenever your defense holds people to six points, you ought to have a chance. And when your defense scores two touchdowns, it’s pretty darn good. Offensively we didn’t get things going, dropped a couple balls and just didn’t play with the consistency that we would like to. I’m sure we’ll have a lot to learn from the film. But our kids kept playing on all phases of the game. They never stopped fighting against a very good football team. Penn State is always going to be tough and they’re always going to be there. They’re smart. They know what you do. Our guys just rose up. And in the Big Ten it’s always four-quarter games and we won the four-quarter game.
PITCOCK: I think the defense today was doing great up to the fourth quarter and we were able to hold rushing to 64 yards. We were able to make them miss a field goal. I think we had a couple bad penalties that really cost that field goal and I think we did great in the goal line situation stopping them. And winning the turnover is great, if we can get points off of that, other than that, we knew, like Coach said, it was going to be a four-quarter game and we were ready for it.
DATISH: First off, it seems like I’ve been starting this way the whole time, but thanks to the defense, they were tremendous for us today, they scored 14 points, really took Penn State out of their game, made some scores. Offensively we did — we got better throughout the game, which is something that we’ve been doing every week, and if we can turn around a little sooner we’ll be more successful early. Also this game lived up to what it was supposed to be, it was a Big Ten game, it’s like a back-yard brawl out there. It’s a great game. Penn State did a great job. I’m just glad we came out with a win.
PATTERSON: First I’d like to say that Penn State is a great football team. I think this is the funest game I’ve played so far because of their physicalness and their toughness, they really challenged our heart and our will. I was pleased with the defense being able to cause some turnovers. We’ve been preaching that since last year, something we really need to get better at, and I think we’ve been doing a good job of that. I was happy with the all-in-all performance of the team. Sometimes it was a little rough, but it just shows we’re a team that can keep fighting to the end.
SMITH: Again, hats off to Penn State. They came in and it was a tough game through and through, all four quarters, it was a fight, it was a battle. Offensively things aren’t going to go the way you want them to go all the time. I think the mark of a championship caliber team is to keep plugging away, keep going, keep going, keep going, and we did a great job up front today. Can’t give enough credit to those guys. Defensively, what more can you say? They’re showing up game after game, making plays, and I think that they’ll continue to get better through the course of the season.
REPORTER: Coach, all the questions in the off season were about defense. I still don’t believe they’ve given up a rushing touchdown and now they’re scoring for you. Have they answered all the questions you might have had of them?
COACH TRESSEL: They’ve answered them through four games. What I like about those guys is they have a passion to be good and good throughout. They’ve had four tests and passed them, some with better grades than others. I think they’re getting better and it’s a long football season when you have 12 games and I guess we’ve been through four of them. I’ve loved the way they’ve worked all the way back to the winter, spring practice. I liked what I saw of them in preseason, but then you have to go out and find out how you fare against others. And they’ve incrementally gotten better, and next week they face a veteran quarterback with an outstanding running back and a good football team and that’s the next test, but I have a lot of confidence in them.
REPORTER: Troy, can you talk about that big touchdown throw to Brian Robiskie, just what you saw as the play developed and how that all came together for you?
SMITH: From the start, the first route, the first read wasn’t there. Tried to come back and look to the other side of the field, but it was kind of clogged up and crowded, just tried to improvise and keep things going, the Penn State defender was making ground on me and I did one of the things that Coach always says don’t do and that’s reverse field, and can’t live by that, but Brian Robiskie stayed alive. He stayed with me. We practice scrambling drills like that all the time. The line gave me enough time to reverse field and put the ball in the air and Robo just went up and made a great catch. You need moments like that when you’re down and out when things aren’t going the way you want them to go, you’ve just got to keep going.
REPORTER: Troy, I’m just curious, though, is that what Brian is supposed to do on the scramble drill?
SMITH: Usually the guys that are deep are supposed to come back and the guys that are close are supposed to go deep, but we all mixed and matched a little bit that play.
COACH TRESSEL: Most scrambles don’t last that long.
REPORTER: For Coach and Doug, following the missed field goal, Antonio had that long run that kind of got the crowd into it and scored five plays later, can you just talk about that, Coach, and Doug after, just what that meant.
COACH TRESSEL: We feel as if we have to be a balanced football team and I think that getting a little bit of an offensive drive cranking with the run, our guys did a good job of adapting to the fact that on typical pass-downs they were laying their ears back and rushing the passer and we had to mix up a little bit of what we were doing just to have a chance to be balanced, and that was a huge drive there, and Antonio Pittman, really for the second week in a row, gave us a little burst at the time we needed it.
DATISH: I’d just echo what Coach said. On that particular drive we needed to score and we went down there and I think the best thing we did on that is we started to see a blitz happening, and on that particular play they scored on, we picked up the blitz and got in, which was nice, and Pitt gave us that spark that we needed.
REPORTER: Do you subscribe to the style points for number one ranking and if you do, do you think that you guys play with style?
COACH TRESSEL: I’ve never been accused of style? No, I don’t subscribe to the style points thing. I know when you get into your conference, there’s nothing stylish about it, they’re battles. And when you get against a game where you play that team every year, there is no rotation off the schedule and it’s a battle every time you play them. You better not go out there with any thoughts of style points. You’ll get those. No, I don’t subscribe to it.
REPORTER: Coach, you talked before about answering questions defensively, Laurinaitis has really stepped up as far as the losses at linebacker, can you tell us about him a little bit?
COACH TRESSEL: James Laurinaitis was a guy that was in the two-deep last year and got a lot of practice time. When Bobby Carpenter went down, he played the entire Michigan game and the entire Notre Dame game. This is his fourth start. He’s smart. He studies it. He’s committed physically. He’s very instinctive, and I think he’ll do nothing but keep getting better.
REPORTER: Troy and David, you heard Coach touch on the game in Iowa next week, wonder if you could give your thoughts, obviously your last trip out there didn’t work out so well.
PATTERSON: Well, Iowa is a great team, it’s going to be a great challenge for our football team. We’re just going to do everything we can and our coach is going to prepare us as hard as he can to try our best, to go up there and execute and be focused. Anytime you’re playing a great team like Iowa, you have to be on top of your game. You have to be focused. You have to execute.
SMITH: Can’t say enough about any team you play in the Big Ten especially if it’s Iowa at home. They’re going to have a great football team. Having a veteran quarterback, great guys up front, and a good defense, it’s going to get better, their play is going to be a test, going to test our football team, but through and through we just have to execute the game plan and hopefully we come out with a win.
REPORTER: Jim, Troy said you tell him not to reverse field like that. I’m wondering if you would still tell him that based on a couple of plays he made at Michigan last year and this year. And the second thing, were you aware of Joe Paterno being ill, coming in and out of the locker room?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, no, I was not. I talked to him before the game and after the game and never saw him in between. Is he okay?
REPORTER: Yeah, he left and came back out.
COACH TRESSEL: No, I don’t like Troy to reverse field that deep because if it’s a fast guy like one of our defensive guys, we’re going to have a problem. But like on checking off plays, if he wants to change the play, that’s fine, if it works. If he wants to reverse field, it better be a touchdown, but like he said, sometimes there’s moments where you just feel like you need to do something and to take someone’s instincts from them, we’re very meticulous, we ask a lot of him, three inches is different than six inches on a stride and a million different things we ask of them. Sometimes when you’re out there in the fray, you have to play.
REPORTER: Jim, Antonio Smith scored a touchdown today. He was a walk-on at this university. How thrilling is that for you and how — can you sort of reflect on Antonio and for his moment in the sun here today?
COACH TRESSEL: It’s a great example of good things happen to good people. Antonio came here on an academic scholarship with a lot of confidence in himself. He’s an engineering guy, so you know he’s in the book. Everyone said Antonio’s a good guy, he might never play here. All of a sudden he was on special teams because he was the best at whatever he was asked to do. Then everyone said, well, Antonio might not be the guy that would end up being a starter, and here he is. He’s playing two positions, he plays corner and nickel for us. It just shows you that smart people with great passion, great toughness, can reach their goals and it’s a wonderful story for a young person in today’s world.
REPORTER: Jim, for as good as Troy and Teddy are, is Big Ten football still about running the ball and can you speak a little bit about Antonio Pittman? It seems like he’s been flying under the radar, but I don’t know how much longer he’ll be able to do that.
COACH TRESSEL: We always want to have a 100-yard back, but I don’t know if he got 100 yards. Did he? In fact, we’d love to have two if we could. If we can rush the ball for a couple hundred yards, we don’t think we’re going to lose the game. Now, I don’t know if we met that goal. Running the football is important. A wise coach told me one day that the bottom line is there comes that moment when you need a yard and you better be able to get it. That moment also comes when they need a yard and you better be able to keep them from getting it and that still is the fundamentals of football. And Antonio Pittman has never been under our radar.
REPORTER: Troy, specifically what were they doing defensively that were giving you guys fits today?
SMITH: It wasn’t that they were giving us fits. A lot of times in routes when we were ready to throw or when I was ready to throw, some of the receivers were getting bumped off routes, and just through the course of everything, we had to just go into our short and our quick game and that opened some things up. The guys in the front, again, they battled through and through, through the whole game, and without them, the play still wouldn’t happen.
REPORTER: Troy, was Robiskie open when you had to reverse field or what was he doing on that, because he was still open when you could finally throw it to him?
SMITH: The first time I was going to throw it to him, there was a safety over top of him, and that was when I reversed field and was going towards their sideline, and when I came back, he just came over top of the safety and I think that was clear enough to deliver the ball to him. He just made a great play on the ball though.
REPORTER: Jim, Malcolm Jenkins today, he started off the goat, he got the penalty on the field goal, and then he makes the pick. Did he get the penalty or I got it wrong?
COACH TRESSEL: They told me it was 21, but I couldn’t tell you who it was. The officials could have been inaccurate, but, no, I wouldn’t call anyone a goat for having a penalty. He was playing hard. Whoever that was that roughed the kicker was playing hard. I think the kicker slipped and went flying into our guy who was at a good angle, but again, I’m not the official, so I wouldn’t say that anyone was a goat, but I would say this, Malcolm Jenkins is a good player, he’s constantly getting better, he does a good job leading even from a young age, and the play he made when it was 14-6 was back-breaking.
REPORTER: It seems like a long time ago, halftime, that you guys were actually down, but what was the atmosphere like in there? Was it noisy, pumping each other up, or were you guys kind of relaxed?
DATISH: Offensively we were just focused waiting for the adjustment from Coach and everyone was just trying to figure out what we needed to do from here, and then we came together and Coach Tressel gave an inspiring speech and we went out and did our thing second half.
REPORTER: What did he say?
COACH TRESSEL: There’s some fiction out here.
REPORTER: Troy, can you talk a little bit about the weather and if that affected the passing game at all?
SMITH: No, I don’t think the weather affected us. We came out with a game plan to put the ball in the air and we still did that. Sometimes you get drops and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes guys drop the ball when it’s 80 degrees and sunny outside. So I don’t think the weather has anything to do with it. Those are excuses that we stay away from.
REPORTER: Troy, if you could talk about the defense and especially in the first half with the game going the way it was, were you guys making an effort just to not make mistakes?
SMITH: As a unit? And as young men? We want to go out there and make a play at all times. We have a saying, who says we can’t score every time we get the ball, we say that. The mistakes we make stop us from scoring. They just came out there with a game plan and sometimes you get those calls where they just make the right call at the right time and sometimes you don’t. They just had a string of plays going good for them and they did a good job.
