Ohio State Practice Report Quotes – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/6/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Jan. 6, 2007
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Head Coach Jim Tressel:
On Saturday’s Practice And Injury Status: “It went well. The only guy I’m a little concerned about is (LB) John Kerr; he was banged a little bit throughout. Antonio (Smith) is going to make it. Kerr didn’t practice the first half of bowl practices and came back, but I still don’t know if we’re going to have him.”
On If The Players Are Tired Of Preparing: “I don’t know if we’re tired of getting ready, we’re just anxious to play. You’ve done all the things that you anticipate doing and all the fun preparation things so we’re just anxious to play.”
On Why OSU Practiced Late (5 p.m.) Saturday: “Well, kickoff is about 6:30, so I guess to emulate the circadian clock.”
On If They Were Able To Accomplish What They Needed To In Arizona: “We put together probably 85 to 90 percent of our game plan before we left home. And then we worked a little bit more those first couple of days we got before we moved to game week. And then in game week, we refine and keep studying, and see if there is another little thing you can find here or there. Just reinforce and reinforce.”
If It Was A Bittersweet Moment On Being The Last Practice: “I don’t think guys wanted to talk about that since they’ve enjoyed spent so much time together. That’s one of the bonuses of playing in this game is that we can spend a whole ‘nother week together. Especially those guys who know this is your last practice. It’s one thing to have a senior tackle and you know you’re going to a bowl game in two months. Now they know.”
Has It Been A Long Season With The Long Time Off: “It hasn’t seemed real long. I’ve been through some 11-game seasons when you’re 2-9 and those are a lot longer.”
On If Team Is Getting Right Amount of Sleep and Prep For Game Day: “We’ve had a couple of snorers complained about, but we kind of de-escalated our curfew, or whatever you want to call it, you know, earlier and earlier (11 O’clock curfew Saturday and Sunday). We talk a lot about rest, being mentally sharp and physically as ready to go as we can.”
On If He Had Kirk Herbstreit Speak To The Team: “No, I couldn’t put Herbie in the spot of being a journalist and giving the pregame talk.”
Is There Anything He Is Concerned About In The Last 48 Hours Prior To Kickoff: “No, want to just keep focused at the task at hand, and I’m not concerned about that, because I know the guys will.”
On The Confidence Level Of The Players is Where It Should Be: “I’m sure those are all individual. There are some guys right where they want to be, probably some who don’t have enough and some guys who have too much. Collectively, I don’t know.”
On What He Likes About His Players Right Now: “I liked the way our guys have stayed purposeful throughout the year. I’ve liked that about them all year long, and continue to like that.”
If They Got A Lot Done In The Final Practice With A Large Crowd Watching: “(laughing) You mean at that closed practice? They met the criteria of former players and whatever, but we could get the same amount done, sure. We didn’t have a whole bunch of things to do, but the guys watching practice, no offense, but they couldn’t skunk us.”
On The Mood of the Team, If They’re Focused: “I haven’t been disappointed with their mood really ever. They could have when the game was far from them they could have gone through the motions and didn’t. We practiced for so long they could have got a little bored with that, and collectively they haven’t. I’ve enjoyed the mood of the team, I think they’re going to go out and do their best and we’ll find out if they’re good enough.”
Notes
When asked if anyone else in the two-deep had injury issues, Tressel answered no… He also said that he didn’t have any one person formally speak to the team as a group; so many former players were at the last practice, many went and spoke to individual positions.
