Transcript From Coach Tressel Weekly Press Conference – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
COACH TRESSEL: I started thinking about talking about last week’s game and I thought, I don’t even remember who got the awards because it was so long ago. We played at noon so I had to go back and write them down. I apologize, I won’t have eye contact with you back there all the time, but we did have some kids with excellent performances. I thought we came out ready to go, got the thing started right, and then we had the breaks. We had the break of creating the long punt return followed up by an interception return, and then all of a sudden, we had the game pretty much go in the direction we’d like it.
The bonus came when a lot of guys got to play in that second half. In fact, our offensive side, I think, had 42 snaps in the second half of the game, which when your second group can get that kind of work, that’s tremendous for you, but we did have some great performances.
Brian Hartline was the Special Units Player of the Week and I think also that same award in the Big Ten conference. Defensively, I thought we went after them pretty good.
We probably missed a couple more tackles than we have in the past, but Donald Washington, we thought, had the finest performance and he was the Defensive Player of the Week, and he continues to grow in his position there and prepares hard, plays the game hard, and is very, very talented as well.
Todd Boeckman was our offensive player of the game and he was very steady. Again, he only had like 24 snaps in the game, but he did a good job managing that and he did a good job of producing and he was our offensive player of the game.
Steve Rehring was our defensive — or, excuse me, our Jim Parker offensive lineman. 88% grade, I believe, which is pretty high on the offensive side, but again, 25 snaps or thereabouts, but it was good for him to play a solid football game.
Attack force defensive player was Dexter Larimore. Dexter has really come on and we talked a lot about we needed some guys to step up on that defensive front when you lose all those guys that we did and Dexter Larimore along with Todd Denlinger and Doug Worthington and Vernon Gholsten, Nader Abdallah, Alex Barrow has played a lot, but this particular game, Dexter was awarded with the attack force player of the game.
The Jack Tatum hit had two nominees and they were both Trev Robinson, so we don’t know which Trev Robinson hit will be the Jack Tatum hit of the week but it will be Trever Robinson, unless there’s a write-in, there happen to be write-ins occasionally. Our scout teams did a good job. We think it was our third week in a row where our preparation from the scout unit side of things was to the level we needed. That becomes increasingly more important as we have less and less practice time, as the season goes on and the number of snaps that you try to get in in practice are a little bit less, so you don’t need to have those ones where we need to do that one again, it wasn’t the right look and all those kinds of things. And for three weeks in a row really, we felt the scout units have come along. And Ben Kacsandi was the scout special teams player of the week.
A new young man named Tony Jackson was our scout defensive player. Tony was a guy that walked on after the first game, in preseason you’re allowed 105 players, then you’re allowed to add players to your roster after that and we added four or five guys and Tony was one of them, a local kid and really has done a nice job. He was our scout defensive player.
And then the scout offensive player was Spencer Smith. Spencer is a fullback tight end from down around Colerain High School. His father, Joe Smith, was a graduate here and a graduate of our veterinary school and a Cincinnati vet, and Spencer is a bright, young guy and has done a nice job for us and is going to turn into a good football player, so those guys did a good job.
But obviously real fast our attention turned to going back in the Big Ten and we know the grind that lies ahead. We know, as we watch Michigan State on film, you look at their offensive numbers and they’re very, very good. They do a great job of doing the things we like to do and that’s leading with the run and controlling the tempo of the game and controlling the clock and all those things.
They pound two running backs at you. They do it with an efficient quarterback. Hoyer is, I think, in second place passing efficiency in the conference and he’s done a good job of throwing. We really liked Hoyer when he was in high school. He was in our youth camp. He was excellent and we think he’s a very, very fine player.
Their receivers are very talented as they always have been. Their offensive line is a veteran group, and so they’ve done an excellent job. No. 5, you better know where No. 5 (Devin Thomas) is, because he will make things happen. They get after you in a lot of different ways. Obviously we know their coaching staff well, Donny Treadwell, their offensive coordinator, I’m so old that I was his position coach at Miami of Ohio in 1979. So I’ve known Donny for a long time, he was our offensive coordinator at Youngstown State for six or seven years and he’s an outstanding guy.
His quarterback coach happens to be Dave Warner, who I was his quarterback coach at Syracuse in ’80, I guess it was, somewhere along there, ’81. And Mark Staten is one of their line coaches and Mark was a GA here for us for two years. So we know about the quality of their offensive staff and you flip it over to their defensive side, they’re a high-pressure defense, they’re a Mark Dantonio defense, they’re pressure, they’re going to come with things to really test your pass protection, they’re going to come with extra people into the box to really test just how good you are at running the football.
They play with great effort. They’ve done a good job statistically against the run. Statistically against the pass, they haven’t been as good, but if you really evaluate their film, there have been four or five big plays against them that very easily could have turned out going the other direction and guys that made some circus catches or guys that maybe not made an interception opportunity that they’ve had and you can be sure that they’ll be bringing those types of things along. And Pat Narduzzi is their defensive coordinator, does an excellent job there, and he’s got the expertise of Mark right alongside there.
And Mike Tressel, the outstanding linebacker coach, special teams coordinator, fake field goal was really the key to getting them rolling in that ball game the other night, that’s a little paid commercial for Mike, fake field goal, they go up, they’re up 17-7, kickoff, go down, knock it loose on the kickoff, all of a sudden they’re up by a bunch and they never look back. They’ve done a good job with all of their special units.
In particular, their kickoff return is number one in the Big Ten. I think number two or three in the nation. It seems like every week we say that about the opposing kickoff returns and I’m not sure why we face that each week, but great challenge for our guys and they do an outstanding job. And we know a lot about the way they do things and how they prepare and they’re going to have no stone unturned. They’re going to have their guys tremendously well prepared for it. I think there are 16 players on their roster from Ohio. Javon Ringer who is as good as there is in rushing for, a hundred and whatever 70 yards a game, whatever it happens to be in the conference, and so they’ve got excellent football players. They’ve got it going in the right direction, and we’re anxious to tee it up against our friends who for four hours won’t be our friends.
REPORTER: Dantonio was talking about your ability to keep your team focused on the task at hand. What would you say his strongest trait is? If he’s speaking at a clinic, is it strictly defense or now that he’s a head coach, are there other things he’s developed as a leader there?
COACH TRESSEL: I think even when he was a defensive coach and not a head coach, I would tell you that his greatest trait is it’s very obvious to his players that he cares about them, and that it’s about football and it’s about executing and it’s about all that, but it’s about all the rest as well, and I think when a person knows that that’s the way he feels, they’re going to have a chance to perform at their best, and I know he did that as a defensive coordinator because he was with us two different places, and I’m sure that he does that as a head coach and as evidenced by the program he built at Cincinnati.
REPORTER: He said he got that trait from you a little bit, Jim. Where did you get that trait from?
COACH TRESSEL: About caring?
REPORTER: About caring, yeah.
COACH TRESSEL: I think most of your core values you get at home. We have — one of the signs in our staff meeting room, we only have two, one of them happens to be a quote that we attribute to my dad, I’m sure someone — Plato or someone said it before my dad did, but it’s a little statement that says, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” and that’s always been one of our core beliefs as a staff that we have to make sure they understand that, yeah, we want them to get first downs and touchdowns and win games and all those things, but that’s — that’s not the only part of who we are and what we want from a relationship with our players, but I think Mark innately had that prior to ever being with us. I think perhaps he enjoyed building upon it, and sometimes you have to come to the conclusion and confirm things as you go out into different environments, and I think perhaps that innate value of caring for people has always been a part of who he is and it was confirmed as we worked at Youngstown and back here and then as he’s had a chance to go out and test it on his own.
REPORTER: One of the things that Brian Hartline was asked last week, if you’re going to stick with the focus question for just a moment, he was asked how is Ohio State avoiding the upset, he talked about your record, and Tressel teams don’t typically get upset because of preparation. Now, staying with the focus question is, are you doing anything different this week not from a preparation and skills standpoint, but from a mental focus standpoint, and what do you look for in practice, dropped passes or something along those lines?
COACH TRESSEL: I think that the way to assess if someone is focused is if they’re doing what they’re capable of doing. If you were capable of catching that pass, there’s probably only one reason you didn’t, you didn’t pay attention. And it’s something that we talk about in terms of whoever they are. If someone is not getting as good a grade in class as they are capable of getting, chances are they’re not focusing on that class at the moments they need to be.
So it’s the expectation we have to become as good as we can at everything we do, and it’s not an easy thing. I don’t know that it’s human instinct to be focused all the times you should. I know I’ve been unfocused at home sometimes and my wife says something and I didn’t hear it and that was probably not the best focus. So that’s human. And we’ve got to make sure that we work as hard as we can to be focused on whatever the moment happens to need.
REPORTER: Jim, it seems like defenses this year more than last year are focusing on the run and you’re getting more single coverage and that kind of thing, is that the case?
COACH TRESSEL: Against us you mean?
REPORTER: Against you, yeah.
COACH TRESSEL: Conceptually I don’t know that there have been much difference. Depending upon what you line up in, we’ve probably not been spread out as much this year. I couldn’t give you a self-analysis off the tip of my tongue, but I’m sure we’ve had two backs in the game maybe more this year than we did a year ago so there doesn’t appear to be the number of people in the box. But I think every defense is structurally set to somehow, some way, get one more hat in the box than you have blockers, yet only the other hand, be able to cover and have three cover guys over two of your receivers and so I don’t know that people have structurally done things that much different against us, but we’ve maybe been in some of those types of formations that they really had to load up.
REPORTER: What’s the update on Anderson Russell and James Laurinaitis? Laurinaitis expected at practice?
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, Laurinaitis, I don’t think, will miss a beat. Anderson, I think what we’re going to do today is just go about half the number of reps. I don’t expect him to miss a beat on Saturday, but he just kind of got rolled from behind and fortunately it was one of those kind of games where you could have him just rest it and so forth, but I would expect both of those guys to be full speed and ready to go. We get Todd Denlinger back, which is, I think, important for us, especially in a game like this, and Brandon Saine gets nothing but stronger.
I think Beanie’s getting a little bit of rest. We wanted him to play some, and then all of a sudden the game was the way it was and so he got a little bit of rest, so I would expect him to be a little bit fresher than he has.
I’m trying to think of who else has been out. Lawrence Wilson is coming along good. He had his six-week x-ray and it’s looking great. And Andre Amos has been back full speed ahead and played significantly in the game and he’ll do nothing but get stronger. Ross Homan is still out, probably will be at least another couple weeks. Pettrey will be out probably at least another two weeks.
REPORTER: Jim, can you characterize the excitement level over being Number 1, and what I’d like you to do is compare it to other years where you’ve achieved that position courtesy of a win rather than having other people above you lose, is there a difference in the excitement level and maybe the euphoria over being Number 1 in the country?
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t know if there’s any euphoria, I hope not. The only euphoria about being Number 1 is if you’re that in the middle of January. It hasn’t been discussed, now is it talked about by individuals? Maybe. Not by this individual, but maybe people talk about it.
REPORTER: Are there teams that you’ve had that can handle being Number 1 better than other teams?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, I had a team once that, in ’94, that just, “Hey, we’re Number 1, we’re the best team, don’t worry about it, Coach.” If I heard that 10 times a day from those guys, “Relax, Coach. You know, we’ll be fine.” Start giving them your speeches, “Coach, relax.” That’s about the only team that probably legitimately could feel that way that I’ve been around. If you start feeling that way — and I was petrified, just so you know, thinking now, you guys are good, I understand, but so are those other guys. If you start being comfortable in thinking that that’s who you are, especially when you’re in a league like ours, in 1994, we weren’t in a league, and that’s different. When you’re in a league like ours, everybody knows everybody, everyone knows every step you’re going to take, every route you’re going to run, every everything, you better buckle up.
REPORTER: Are you comfortable that this team in particular can handle this?
COACH TRESSEL: You know I’m never comfortable. When was the last time you saw me comfortable?
REPORTER: Along those lines —
COACH TRESSEL: Being uncomfortable?
REPORTER: No. Well, I guess.
COACH TRESSEL: Okay.
REPORTER: Guys seem to thrive on being underdogs just by nature.
COACH TRESSEL: Human nature, probably.
REPORTER: Would you rather not be Number 1, would you just rather be Number 2 or less?
COACH TRESSEL: Doesn’t matter. I think you’re right, though. We always say adversity is a lot easier to handle than success. I think that’s natural. But again, you are what you are and when the game’s over Saturday, you’re going to be what you are or what you aren’t and we’ll be in here Sunday working, that’s just the way it is.
REPORTER: How do you stop a Caulcrick if they’re hammering you with him?
COACH TRESSEL: What I love about their backs is they have the Keith Byars-thing where they’ll have a big guy that will pound you and they have the smaller guy that will break tackles and do some of the other things. Those are tough kids. We were watching special teams films today. They were rushing punts, they’re running down on kickoffs, those kids are — they’ve got two really good backs, and Jimmerson, the third guy, is no slouch.
REPORTER: There’s a perception nationally that 41-14 has helped you motivationally get to this point, is that accurate? And if it is, what have you done as coaches to remind your guys of that game? Is it pictures in the facility, is it things that direct or is it more subtle, if that’s a factor at all?
COACH TRESSEL: I think anytime you come up short in anything it helps you. Unfortunately. I wish life were different, but things that maybe I haven’t done as well have helped me the next time I’ve tried to do them. Probably more subtle than direct. We don’t start every team meeting with, now, “don’t forget,” because you don’t have to. Now, if you thought there was ever a point in time where someone forgot something where they dared and not done as good as they could, then it would be a good time to remind them, but probably more subtle than —
REPORTER: Do you think that has driven your guys to get back where they are?
COACH TRESSEL: Again, I think anytime you come up short of what you’re capable of, it helps you. So, now, what degree? I don’t know. Would we be 4-3 had we won that game? I can’t say that, so I don’t know.
REPORTER: So it’s not an accident that — I don’t want to give away your security code, but it’s not an accident that somewhere in there 41-14 in ’06 figure in?
COACH TRESSEL: In fact, those numbers aren’t in there at all.
REPORTER: We’ve heard they were, is that wrong?
COACH TRESSEL: That’s wrong.
REPORTER: Never?
COACH TRESSEL: It’s wrong they’re not in there now. I’ve never lied to you. I’ve tried to avoid you, but —
REPORTER: Where does Brandon Saine fit in among backs in terms of receiving skills?
COACH TRESSEL: Brandon Saine is an extraordinary receiver. He was our leading receiver last week. That’s where I was amazed. When they came to our passing tournament, when he was going into his senior year, I knew he was a great back, and we’d offered him a scholarship and all those things, then I saw him in the passing tournament and he’s an excellent receiver, great ability to reach out with his hands. A lot of guys can catch the ball, not many guys can pluck the ball. He’s excellent.
REPORTER: What does that add to your offense that maybe you haven’t had or haven’t had as well?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, I think we’ve had guys with — we haven’t had any guys with bad hands, which is a good thing. I’ve had running backs with bad hands — as far as receiving — but it adds the ability to put them different places, which we had an evolution of doing that, and then we got sidetracked there for a few weeks and you start working on some other things and that kind of thing, but I think he gives you, just like we put him in as a fullback in the game and he ran a wheel route and I think it gives you the ability to do a lot of different things.
REPORTER: Jim, I know this is not your focus at all, but I’m just curious, what do you know about South Florida football?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I saw them on TV one Saturday night against West Virginia, or was that a week night? They’re good. That’s what I know about them. And I know they went to Auburn. I have to learn a little bit, because I have a vote, okay, and I haven’t been the greatest voter in the past, admittedly. South Florida’s good. They go to Auburn and win and you beat West Virginia who’s a great team. I can’t rattle off the rest of their schedule, but those jump out at me and they’re a good team.
REPORTER: You’ve stressed since you’ve been here about the importance of seniors, and I think you’ve even said your team will be as good as your seniors are, you don’t have an abundance of seniors this year, how much of a preseason concern of yours was that, and where is the leadership coming from if you don’t have an abundance of seniors?
COACH TRESSEL: We have 15 seniors, which isn’t a low amount, but not a lot of them are starters. Oh, fifth-year seniors, we’ve probably got five or six of those, but not many of them are guys that are out there on the field, in the battle, but we’ve got an extraordinary number of fourth-year juniors, like 22, so something we talked about this winter is it’s going to need to be a shared role, and I think that’s one of the reasons why the captain thing fell the way it did. We felt like there was one clear-cut person on the defense voted captain, but there were a whole bunch of other guys, Larry Grant, Marcus Freeman, Anderson Russell, Malcolm Jenkins, who are not newcomers, and they’re the kind of guys that can lead.
So I think our leadership has come with the belief that some of those fourth-year guys and third-year starters or something really feel like they need to contribute to that leadership, which really the leadership is serving the other guys and bringing them along and I think they’ve done a good job. It will get tested now, though. As the battles ramp up, that’s when your leadership is tested.
REPORTER: When you know somebody as well as you know Mark, what makes them tick, how does that help you? Does that help you in game planning or maybe on the sidelines, the cat and mouse game, how does that play out?
COACH TRESSEL: Probably not much, because Mark’s going to be who he is whether I knew him or not. You watch the film, and that’s who a guy is. So he’s not going to change his character, so everything that we’ve watched in the past is who he is, unless he’s been saving 19 things for this game and I doubt that, I’ve never been around anyone that’s done that. So I don’t know that that will give us a bonus and a leg up, because he probably knows me better than I know me.
REPORTER: Does that make it more challenging or more fun when you know somebody that well, sort of, again, the cat and mouse?
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t know how much — you know, cat and mouse is a little bit — you guys overrate this game. There’s not that much cat and mouse. Sometimes they jump up and catch it, sometimes they don’t. One was a great play call, one was a bad call, so I don’t know how much cat and mouse there is, but are these kind of games more fun? No. I mean, it’s a little bit easier when you don’t know the other guys so well because every week I’m rooting for Mark Dantonio, so you’ve got to change who you’re rooting for this weekend. So, no, they’re not easier.
REPORTER: Everybody in college football is talking about all the upsets. Do you think this is a year that’s unique or is this a trend we’re going to see more of this and this is going to be the way it is from now on?
COACH TRESSEL: I just spent five minutes talking on the conference call with the Big Ten with that question. I think there’s lots of reasons why it occurs. One, there’s a lot of good football players. Football is so much more understood by kids. This generation of kids, ever since they decided they had an interest in football, have been watching football night and day. Their coaches have more video. They have training techniques that are better. They have youth camps, passing leagues, combines, unbelievable amount of resources to learn about the game. So I think you have more good players who understand the game than maybe at any time. That being the case, if you have a group of good players and you do what is necessary to win a game, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing.
REPORTER: Wouldn’t the better players continue to migrate to the better programs?
COACH TRESSEL: But there’s good players everywhere and perhaps the great players maybe have remained at a constant, but the supposedly ones that are the next group are so much better than they were maybe one day because they know so much more about the game and they’ve trained so much more knowledge, you know, coaches whine about the media and all the talk shows and all the talk shows on TV and all the coaches that have been fired and all that stuff, but you know what, that’s helped kids know more about football, that helps coaches, I watch things on TV and I learn something every day, because those people know what they’re talking about. So I think it’s very natural that there are more good players, which means there are more good teams and more good games.
REPORTER: This series between Ohio State and Michigan State has had some games in the past that have not gone Michigan State’s way in history. How much does history, when you’re preparing your team during the week and what’s happened in the series, do you even bring that up?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, absolutely. We do that with everyone we play. Our guys knew that an Ohio team hadn’t beaten Ohio State for 86 years. I don’t know if they cared, we give them a lot of stuff I don’t know if they care about. History is one of them. Young people don’t crave history. History to them is last week’s Sportscenter, and it is, but still, I think you give it to them. And we do that, I don’t care who we’re playing, and to me — and maybe it’s just to make ourselves feel good that we know it and so we’re going to share it, but absolutely, we always talk about story lines and things like that, historical series and those type of things.
REPORTER: What do you think about Michigan State’s punter? He’s an Ohio kid, a freshman, did you recruit him at all out of high school, out of John Glenn, and do you think he’s matured now as a freshman and being responsible right away?
COACH TRESSEL: First of all, he’s a heck of an athlete which I think you need to have as a punter. I get nervous about having someone back there where if the snap is six inches one way or the other way, they’re going to stumble over things. He’s an excellent athlete. We knew very well about him. Excellent player. Did we get involved in recruiting a punter last year? No. With A. J. having a couple years left and John Thoma having one more after that and some other ones out there on the horizon for the future, that wasn’t something we were involved with. Knew him, hated to see him go there, wished he would have gone to the Pac-10 or somewhere, but he’s a superb athlete, has good punt placement which I think is very important, he’s just an excellent, excellent player and I hope he goes out early to the NFL.
REPORTER: Jim, we talked about a lot last year with Troy, how much the Heisman in recent years had become linked to team success and how important that was. You guys are the Number 1 in the country, any Heisman suggestions off this team?
COACH TRESSEL: Haven’t given that one bit of thought. Steve was kind of pushing Teddy and Troy to start the year because they had the numbers to back it up. We kind of made the decision that I’m not sure there was a person that — if someone went crazy the first five games, you’d mount your campaign, you’d owe it to your school and to the individual, but I don’t know that we have any Heisman-esque guys right now.
REPORTER: What did your guys learn from facing Jarvis last week that they can maybe apply to Ringer this week? The defensive players said they really wanted to see improvement.
COACH TRESSEL: No question, you better get them on the ground because we thought going into the game that Jarvis was a heck of a running back and all I could think of as that game was going on, once I was a little more relaxed, was that, oh, my gosh, if Jarvis can do this, what’s going to happen with Ringer? And so the importance of tackling, working like crazy, not to have any missed tackles and I wish — I was thinking about this coming over. I wish I would have asked the defensive guys what our number of missed tackles was, because usually when it’s double digits or more, it’s a problem, and I’m going to ask them when I get back, but I’ll bet you we had more missed tackles in the game than we’ve had in games prior to that. I might be wrong, but it just felt that way to me.
And if we’re going to be successful against Michigan State, we better tackle and Javon Ringer is a great back, and Caulcrick and the number of reverses and jail-break screens and the bubble, and you better tackle. There’s no question about it. If we’re going to become as good as we’re capable of, that’s an area where we’ve got to be great.
