Transcript From Coach Tressel Weekly Press Conference – Ohio State Buckeyes
8/28/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I know a lot of you wanted to ask about the kicking situation and we’ve settled on Jeff Hogan over Tim May, just, you know, probably go live with that. It’s exciting times. Last time we had a chance to play, we didn’t as well as we thought we were capable of, and we’ve had to wait this long to get a chance to get out and play a football game and now it’s game week. Our guys have worked extremely hard. Their winter’s been good, spring was excellent. I thought their summer training, based upon the way they came in and tested here in early August was very good. The preseason has been excellent. We’ve had good, hot weather to test us. We’ve had good focus and concentration. I think our coaches have done a great job teaching and I think we’re growing to understand more and more every day what are the things that our guys do best, and now we get to have a game week practice and go out there and see how we can do at Ohio Stadium. The opener is always a great deal of fun. It’s the alumni band and you see how fired up they are. Four Script Ohios is out of this world. And you see all the people coming back that are enthused that haven’t had a chance to really emote about football since back in January, and there’s a lot of electricity and all of your good weather people are saying nice things about what Saturday’s going to look like so it’s going to be an exciting time. Much has been asked over the Big Ten call and discussions throughout the preseason of what will it be like coaching against your former team. During preseason, it really didn’t feel any different quite honestly because you’re so focused on those mundane fundamental preseason type things and all of a sudden you get into game week and you start watching the film and you see the stadium you used to stare at on film for hours and hours and hours, and I’m sure it’s a different feeling for Jim Heacock who will be squaring off against his brother Jon (Heacock), and Shaun Lane who will be lined up against his brother Ben (Lane). I remember back in 1994 getting in my car with our athletic director Joe Malmisur driving down and seeing if we could get a game together and be careful what you wish for or whatever, but here we are and it’s an exciting time and Youngstown State has an outstanding football team and we had a chance to watch them a lot against Penn State because we know a lot about Penn State’s personnel and had a chance to watch their playoff games against great teams like Appalachian State and James Madison and the likes. Just as I would hope, they’re a well coached football team and maybe I’m a little biased, because Jon Heacock and I have spent a lot of time together, but they fly around the field, they take great pride in special teams, they believe in establishing a great running attack, they fly around on defense and put pressure on you from a lot of different ways so we’re excited about that. Yes, it will be a little different having spent so long there, but just like that guy that goes out into the stadium for that first game, as soon as you get whacked one time, you forget about any of those kinds of things and you’re focused on the task at hand and we’re excited to get going into our regular season and to see how good this 2007 team could be. As we think about how our preseason went from a defensive standpoint, I thought our kids have been playing with a lot of speed and understanding of the concepts that Coach Heacock and Coach Fickell and the staff have been laying out for them. I think they’re going to grow into being a very, very fine defense. I think you have to figure out who you are when you lose up-front guys like the four we lost, four of our top six guys not being with us, so there’s going to be some feeling out as to what are we like up front. Hopefully we can continue to grow with the linebacker play that a lot of those guys got to play a lot last year and then the secondary, it’s great to have Anderson Russell back and flying around that field, so I have high expectations for what we could be on the defensive side. On the offensive side, we’ve probably got to replace a lot more than ever on the defense, which replacements are significant. Up front, you’ve got to get a new chemistry. I’ve been really happy with Kirk Barton’s leadership and the veterans like Steve Rehring and guys that have stepped in there, Alex Boone, I think they’re doing a good job trying to gel as a unit. There’s so much communication that goes on up front on offense, I think Ben Person has worked his way into that position well as Steve Rehring who’s got a lot of experience, Bryant Browning has been impressive and Connor Smith is coming along, Josh Kerr has really come along in this preseason, Andrew Moses is coming along. We’re still missing Mitchum and Skinner and maybe missing them for a bit longer, which affects our depth, so we’ve got to have some of these young kids coming along and I think Jim Bollman and his crew have done a great job. I think they’re going to be flanked by great tight ends, Rory Nicol and Jake Ballard have had good camp. They’ll be young out wide. Brian Robiskie and Brian Hartline have been the vets. Dane Sanzenbacher. Devon Torrence has come over. Even though he started a few days late on the offensive side he’s going to be impactful and will be without Ray Small, which hopefully before the year is out, he’ll be a significant part of what happens out wide. In the back field, I know that at fullback we’ve got Dionte Johnson, Tyler Whaley, and Trever Robinson, they’re all seniors. And Chris Wells and (Maurice) Mo Wells are two guys that are battle tested and we need them to rise up and have great years. And we’ve been very impressed with Brandon Saine and (Daniel ) “Boom ” Herron. Both guys have really shown that they’re going to be ready to help the Buckeyes here in 2007. And then of course at the quarterback position, you know, the one that everyone was waiting for, maybe we will go live, really it hasn’t changed from what we’ve been talking about before, Todd Boeckman is the guy that’s going to have the first chance to go out there and be nervous and have some fun and he’s been waiting so long for this opportunity. He’s been studying hard, paying close attention. He knows who we are and what we want to do. I think Jim Bollman and Joe Daniels and that group have done a nice job of seeing what he does best and building some things around that. I’ve been happy with Rob Schoenhoft and I expect him to have some opportunities to play on Saturday. Not a hundred percent sure if Antonio Henton will, we’ll have to see how it unfolds, and Joe Bauserman has been a pleasant surprise, a young guy coming in from Major League Baseball and hadn’t played football in a while and he’s going to be pretty fair. Special teams, of course we lost the Teddy Ginn factor, which was huge. We’ve got some guys battling out to be the returners, got a good kicking battle going on as we begin the game, Aaron Pettrey will kick off, and Ryan Pretorius will do the placements, but I’d like to, throughout the course of the early season make sure they both have opportunities to do both. A. J. Trapasso, I think, will really bloom as a punter, he’s been really solid, we need him to take the next step and become extraordinary. We’ll be working some long snapper battles, still Dimitrios Makridis has done a nice job as a senior, Jake McQuaide, a red-shirt freshman and Jackson Haas, another senior, will all be in, in the early going, have some opportunities. We’ve been working extremely hard on special teams, our coaches have been doing a good job there. So we’re anxious to put all this rhetoric out onto the field and see what it turns into from a play standpoint and we’re happy that it’s game week.
REPORTER: Would you say that you’ve fought to get Youngstown on the schedule?
COACH TRESSEL: Fought?
REPORTER: Pounded the table for them or —
COACH TRESSEL: No.
REPORTER: Was it more of a natural progression?
COACH TRESSEL: Really the evolution of it was when we went to the 12th game, when that was voted in, all of a sudden everyone is saying, hey, the 12th game was voted in, now we’ve got to get 12 games, we sat down first and said, what’s our strategy, and our strategy was to continue the intersectional home-and-home things, like we were in the midst of with Texas, and then try to have the rest of the games be at home. And then we had to build a hierarchy of who we were going to attempt to schedule on home games because it’s tough to schedule some teams because they want a return game. We had to find a group of teams who we could play here and so we said, okay, our first thought will be in state. So we began all the Mid-American and Youngstown State and started building our schedule that way. So, no, there wasn’t any pounding on the table. We knew it was a natural thing to happen when the 12th game occurred.
REPORTER: Michigan charges $50 or $10 less than — for Appalachian State. When Michigan plays Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan State, they charge $60. They charge less for lesser opponents such as I-AA, they’re playing Appalachian State. Do you think that’s fair to a fan that they should pay the same for a I-AA opponent as they would for a premiere opponent coming in.
COACH TRESSEL: Do I think it’s fair? Yeah, I think it’s fair. I’ve been to a couple concerts and things like that and our tickets are very reasonable. I was out in Vegas to speak at a Nike clinic and Ellen and I went to see Celine Dion, I don’t know, or whatever, and it was like $200. You can go to three Ohio State games. And I knew the words to the song. At least when you go to the game you don’t know what’s going to happen, so do I think it’s a problem? No. And remember this about Ohio State football, it’s about the band. It’s about the pageantry, it’s about the tailgating. If we’re silly enough to think it’s just about us, then we’re a little bit short-sighted. So I guess the answer to the question is, no, I don’t think it’s unfair.
REPORTER: You mentioned how you thought playing against Youngstown will be different, how will it be different for you from an emotional standpoint?
COACH TRESSEL: I think when you look across and see the helmets, every shirt I owned for 15 years had one of those helmets on it, but after the first time, it’s a game. It’s a good football team we’re playing. In fact, I saw something in their release which I wasn’t aware of, since 1990, Ohio State and Youngstown State have more victories than any program in the State of Ohio, which they’re used to winning. There’s 155 wins they’ve had or something since 1990, so it’s going to be about a football game. But I think you’re not human if you don’t, you know, when you see something that was part of it doesn’t at least catch your attention for a minute. It better not catch your attention long or you’ll be in trouble.
REPORTER: You said in ’94 you came down here and tried to get something together, what did they tell you?
COACH TRESSEL: They said they weren’t interested.
REPORTER: Did they give you a reason why?
COACH TRESSEL: I can’t remember.
REPORTER: How bad did you want this game when you were at Youngstown State, Coach, and how much does it mean to the people at Youngstown State to get this opportunity?
COACH TRESSEL: We were really anxious to do it because we happened to have open dates at the same time. And I know how hard scheduling is because I was an athletic director as well. But after it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen. It’s not like it was something that we thought about every day, but the opportunity for the fans to go a short distance to allow the a lot of the kids on the roster are from here. I think it’s all of the same reasons that Akron or Kent or Toledo or Miami or Bowling Green, it’s a neat thing. Ohio Stadium is special, to have a chance to coach there or play there or be a fan there or watch the band there, so to me it’s a special thing.
REPORTER: What’s your ideal scenario for the quarterback’s playing time, you alluded to each guy getting an opportunity and what gives Todd the edge over Robbie right now?
COACH TRESSEL: The ideal scenario is that Todd will do very well and when Robbie gets thrown into the fire, and it will be early, it’s not like it’s going to be later, it’s not going to be an after thought, it’s going to be preplanned, that they’ll make good decisions and do a good job. What gives Todd the nod over Robbie and Antonio and Joe I think is his understanding of the whole system of defensive football and all that goes into it, he’s just got so much experience. Now, we need that to translate into game performance. That’s why it’s neat that we get to start playing games, but I’ve been very pleased with Todd this preseason. I thought his first practice or two were average, and I thought after that, the next 20 plus have been progressive and he needs to know and we need to know he’s not going to be Troy Smith the day he walks in, because Troy wasn’t Troy until he grew. So we’ve got to make sure that we continue to improve every snap and learn from every snap. Robbie needs to do the same when he gets his opportunities. If Antonio gets an opportunity, he needs to use every single snap to get better and move towards his goals.
REPORTER: Coach, obviously a rough start for Louis Irizarry when he came here to Columbus, has he turned it around a little? Can you speak to that.
COACH TRESSEL: We talked when he went through that and he ended up leaving our program, our hopes were that he would get back on his feet and get back in college and we’d have a happy ending. We’re moving towards that, he’s done a good job for Jon there at YSU. You watch him on film, he’s a very good football player like we knew he would be, and it’s exciting for him. He’s getting to do what he wanted to do and that’s play football.
REPORTER: What kind of reception do you think he might get from fans here at the stadium or reaction?
COACH TRESSEL: Sometimes unfortunately our fans don’t give the whole opposing team the best reception. I don’t like that boo when somebody comes out on the field because we respect our opponents. Most especially I would hope that from an individual standpoint, our fans would treat people properly.
REPORTER: Is Chris “Beanie” Wells one hundred percent now?
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah.
REPORTER: How set to go do you feel?
COACH TRESSEL: A hundred percent.
REPORTER: Do you feel him chomping at the bit a little bit?
COACH TRESSEL: I think he would play today if you would let him. He would have played last, whatever day that was when we scrimmaged if we would have let him.
REPORTER: Running back-wise, if Mo Wells would get some opportunities, do you see the third guy being Brandon Saine getting some opportunities?
COACH TRESSEL: Yes, Brandon Saine will get some.
REPORTER: How is that breaking down?
COACH TRESSEL: You’d have to talk to my older brother (Dick Tressel) about that.
REPORTER: How close is the battle between the number two and number three running back there, between Mo Wells and Brandon Saine?
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t know that we compare that type of thing. We have a lot of reps in 20 some practices in the preseason. It’s hot out there and guys are rolling in. I think we’ll be able to answer that as the game unfolds. A lot of it will be how do you do when you’re in there. So if you’re doing well, I’m sure you’ll get more reps. If you’re not doing so well and then Lou Gehrig comes in, you might not get in the game again. So I feel like those guys will all do well.
REPORTER: Do you have some things for Brandon that are special for him, has he impressed you that much that you can —
COACH TRESSEL: There will be a day, probably not today, but he has that type of ability that he’ll figure out some things to highlight, but at this point in time, we’re just trying to progress in who we are as a whole group. But I think there’s no question, there will be a day that you’ll have to know where number three is.
REPORTER: What is your impression of your freshmen class as a whole? You have them on two-deep already, how many do you foresee getting in the game on Saturday and really helping you?
COACH TRESSEL: We have a little bit of a red-shirting discussion and you start building your special teams and who you’re going to put in there because if they play a play, it’s a year. And as I listen, and visualize how it may unfold, it looks like more of them will play than redshirt. Exactly how that’s going to unfold, I don’t know, but we’ve been very impressed with how quickly they’ve come and they got to come in June and they’re a little more adjusted maybe than a normal freshman and very talented as well.
REPORTER: A week or so ago I think you said eight of 15; is the number higher?
COACH TRESSEL: Will it be higher that plays 8 of 15? I don’t know. But I think it will be more than half, and eight’s more than half, so I can’t tell you exactly. Are you testing me, Clay, to see if I knew —
REPORTER: Your math?
COACH TRESSEL: — my Math?
REPORTER: No, not at all.
REPORTER: There’s a big difference between I-AA and I-A, I wonder if you can speak to the fact of how much of a difference there is, most people think far less of I-AA than what you may think.
COACH TRESSEL: That’s probably most people that never played or coached. There’s less numbers, there is they’re not allowed as many in camp. You’ll probably not see the same size in every position. You take their punt return or kick returner, corner guy that transferred in, and he led, what’s Nevada in the WAC? He led the WAC in punt returns and averages 24 yards in punt returns or kickoff returns and I think there’s five guys on the roster that were at division one schools and then I look at number 96 playing against Penn State and he was incredible. He was first team all conference for them and so forth. And so are there as many? Probably not. That’s the difference is in the numbers. 63 scholarships versus 85.
REPORTER: Can you see the day when Ohio State might play more games against I-AA other than against Youngstown State?
COACH TRESSEL: Probably not. Just from the standpoint of our philosophy being in state first, intrasectional rivalries, so I doubt if we would need to venture outside of that parameter.
REPORTER: You talked in the preseason a lot about hoping to get three quarterbacks in the first three games, did anything change in fall camp that would mean Antonio (Henton) might not get in or was that kind of the thinking all along?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, you never know all along. I didn’t know we were together that much that I talked that much about it. Tim May said I never talk to him.
REPORTER: I didn’t say that.
COACH TRESSEL: But you only have so many reps to get guys ready, and I suppose if you had a veteran coming back who you felt like was way far along and didn’t maybe need as many reps and didn’t want to get them banged in a scrimmage or whatever, you could give more reps and maybe have three guys ready, but — and I’m not saying Antonio’s not, I just said I can’t promise it.
REPORTER: How much of a relief will be to get a game under your belt, to get rid of the thoughts of your last game?
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t know if it will be as much about the thoughts of our last game as it will be about the thoughts of the future, because you don’t know who you are until you’ve strapped it up once. You know who you hope you are and who you’d like to think you are, but until you strap it up, you don’t know who you are, and it’s really hard to dig into your evolution if you haven’t played a game. So I think it’s more for that reason than burying your thoughts. On September 2nd I’m not going to have forgotten that we didn’t play well on January 8th. I’m going to be awfully focused on the 8th of September coming, but I think it’s more that you just get anxious to move forward.
REPORTER: Having been at both schools, how much does the atmosphere and playing in front of a crowd this size, how much does that affect a school like YSU?
COACH TRESSEL: On the Penn State film it didn’t seem to, and Penn State is about as rabid a place as there is in America. In fact, there were more procedure calls that day on Penn State than there were on Youngstown State. You didn’t see any situations where it didn’t look like they could communicate their things at the line of scrimmage or in the secondary, you didn’t see any busts because of noise. The “Ice Castle” (YSU’s Stambaugh Stadium) gets a little noisy too. Get my dukes up here for a minute.
REPORTER: Do you see Dan Herron getting in the mix anywhere?
COACH TRESSEL: Dan Herron has done a great job. He was one of the guys Clay was talking about, is he on the bubble, is he going to be number nine or whatever it happens to be, and he may, because he brings a little advantage on the special teams as well. So I don’t know that we know whether he’s going to get in the game or not. I think we’re still, because it’s Tuesday at noon, I’m not sure we know.
REPORTER: You mentioned (Ray) Small earlier, made it sound like he was out definitely, do you have any sort of time line on him?
COACH TRESSEL: Not really. I asked that same question to the trainers today and they stopped at he won’t be playing this week, so I think he’s termed questionable for the next week, I wouldn’t call him doubtful, I would just say questionable.
REPORTER: Jim, you said that you wouldn’t be able to get a good read on who you are until you’ve strapped it up once. When you play a team like Youngstown State, after that game’s over, do you think you’ll have a good read on who you guys are or will you need couple of weeks?
COACH TRESSEL: No, I think we’ll have a good read. Every football game, just turn on the YSU/Penn State game, some might say, well, you don’t watch the games of the people you don’t play against, well, we play against Penn State and Penn State learned a lot about who they were as they played through that game and it was scoreless through the third quarter and if you remember the game, the big reverse kind of changed that whole game midway through the second quarter, but, no, I think we’ll know a lot more. Really, we try to focus on who we are and how we perform and really it’s not about our opponent whether it’s Youngstown State or Michigan, or Florida, it’s did we do the best we were capable of and are we growing, so, yeah, I think we’ll have — game one is — you’ll hear us say next Tuesday, now theoretically the biggest improvement is made between games one and two, and I think that’s because you find out so much in game one, both as a player and as a coach, that you’d like to think if you’re focused on the task at hand that you’re going to improve a lot.
REPORTER: Eugene Clifford, did he make a pretty good move the last couple of weeks? What’s been your impression of him?
COACH TRESSEL: Eugene is a good player, to start with. He’s a good hitter. He’s got good make-up speed. He hasn’t played as much out on the corner as we’ve been playing him. He’s been more of a probably predominant safety in high school, kind of roaming and being the great eraser all over the field or if they had a great receiver, probably go cover them, but he’s been very impressive and he’s going to be on some special teams, he’s in our two-deep right now in the corner position. You’re going to like what you see out of Eugene.
REPORTER: Does he factor as the nickel back or how does that look like now, he or Jamario, who’s in that mix?
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t think it would be Eugene, and you may want to ask those guys this afternoon, but I don’t know that he’s the next guy in the game, but you could make ask (James) Laurinaitis or one of those guys that’s here in a minute.
REPORTER: I’m sure your preference here would be to win in a closely contested game, if it gets out of hand, given your affinity for Youngstown State, how will you handle that?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I would be shocked to start with, that’s the least of the planning I’m doing in my mind right now. I’m going to try to make a first down, so that’s — I don’t think that’s going to happen, so I don’t have to worry about it. It’s like what are you going to do if it snows on the 1st, it’s probably not going to snow.
REPORTER: Coach, you talked about how hard you guys were working through camp and they’re a little heavy-legged at the scrimmage, do you feel like they’re going to be light on their feet by Saturday?
COACH TRESSEL: They better be. In fact, we had that very discussion in our staff room this morning, with our coaches and our strength coaches. No one could question the time and effort they’ve put in to prepare physically. Now let’s make sure we’re fresh physically and we’re crystal clear mentally and emotionally, so that’s our task. If we go out there and are heavy-legged and appear heavy-legged, I’ll be disappointed.
REPORTER: From an Xs and Os standpoint, as you visualize this offense, how much different will it look this year than say a year ago?
COACH TRESSEL: That’s a hard one to tell. I really feel good about our tight ends and we probably will be less percent of the time without a tight end in the game. If you remember back to last year, we were four wide, one back, or maybe even five wide, a significant amount of the time. I don’t know if we’ll be without a tight end that much. Beyond that, I’m not sure you’ll see a great difference.
REPORTER: You mentioned in Chicago —
COACH TRESSEL: Let me get Rusty, I’ve got you next.
REPORTER: You and your family gave money to Youngstown State this past summer. Do you have strong emotional ties to Youngstown State or is this a team you root for on weekends when you’re not playing, do you find out what their score is?
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, Youngstown State is like home. 15 years when you’re only 30, that’s half your life. Come on, Rusty, you’re supposed to laugh. Rusty’s kind of sour today. Come on. Get excited. It’s game week. Of course it’s part of me. Of course I root for them 99.9% of the time, other than this Saturday. And then I hope they win it all. So, yeah, there’s no question, Ellen graduated from there, I spent half my life there, it’s a great place. I remember when Earle Bruce was sitting right here when he called on my behalf over there. I remember in his calm way, said, “You can win there!” Right, Coach? And, you know what? He was right. He knew more about it than he did, because he spent time in Salem (Ohio). Scared you guys, didn’t I? You liked that, Clay. Your camera was down.
REPORTER: You’ve always had teams that have done a good job keeping their eye on the target and as you say, task at hand. Just looking at the depth chart, a lot of younger guys, a lot of first-time experiences. Do you do anything different than say what you’ve been saying, Youngstown State can play, does the I-AA factor scare you because these guys here know in terms of them not being as mentally sharp as you need them to be?
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t worry about that at all. I think they have a lot of respect, they live around here, they know what Youngstown State has accomplished. But they’re most concerned, at least they seem to be, how good are we. And we individually and we collectively. We’ve got some people fighting for their lives for positions, for playing time. So I don’t think that the issue of we haven’t played them before, they’re in a different division, all that stuff, I don’t think that, because the respect is there, the basic respect of people that know how to win is there. Now, I better take care of myself.
REPORTER: Are you surprised at how good these freshmen have performed in their short time here?
COACH TRESSEL: Not really surprised. They’re bright, young men. They were very talented on high school film. They’re confident. Let’s not put them into the Ohio State Hall of Fame yet. Let’s let them get out there and see how they match up in a real situation, but we’ve been really pleased with them.
REPORTER: Have you heard about this Florida fundraising scheme that you can book a dinner with Urban Meyer (Florida head coach) for a million dollars.
COACH TRESSEL: Have not.
REPORTER: What do you think you’d draw?
COACH TRESSEL: A buck fifty ($1.50).
Earle Bruce (former Ohio State head coach): And you’d buy the meal.
COACH TRESSEL: That’s right. We better get our guys on. Last question, where’s Marla? She’s with the Browns. She’s big time. Wait a minute, our new Marla, where’s Lori?
REPORTER: You have some very smart players, but relatively inexperienced at this point, considering that how deep do you feel you can get into the play book right now?
COACH TRESSEL: Most preseasons you’ll find, no matter how veteran your team is, is you don’t get very deep, because you have to execute. And you’ve been working hard and sometimes in the spring, you can get caught up in expanding too much because you’ve got all those days without a game and you’ve got the preseason, all those days without a game, but you better find out what you can execute, and that’s what we hope we’re planning here, and last night and tonight and tomorrow night as a staff, is finding the right amount that our guys are ready to execute when they’re nervous and they’re excited and it’s different than the practice field.
