BCS Postgame Press Conference – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Audio and video links at top of page along with PDF transcripts of postgame press conferences.
An Interview With:
OHIO STATE
COACH JIM TRESSEL
BEANIE WELLS
VERNON GHOLSTON
THE MODERATOR: We’ll open the press
conference from head Coach Jim Tressel, then
we’d like to take your questions for the players.
After the players finish answering questions, then
you can ask Coach Tressel with questions.
COACH JIM TRESSEL: Hats off to LSU.
They did a great job preparing for this game. We
said all along they’re a very tough football team, a
very mature football team. That’s why they’re the
SEC champions, they’re very deserving national
champions. It was a clean, hard, tough football
game. Our kids played hard to the bitter end, and
we just didn’t do the things that you need to do to
win a ball game of this nature.
But we’re awfully proud of our 2007 Ohio
State Buckeyes, and we are very aware that LSU
is a deserving champion.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Vernon, what were they doing
offensively, they were moving the ball at will, it
seemed like. What were they able to do against
you?
VERNON GHOLSTON: Nothing in
particular, nothing we didn’t prepare for or we didn’t
see. It was just a matter of us executing. Some
days we do and today wasn’t the day for us to
execute well. We didn’t execute well.
Q. Beanie, you ended up with the
record for most yards by a sophomore running
back in Ohio State history. Number one, does
that mean anything to you at this point? And,
number two, your opening run, 65 yards, what
did you see there and did you think you guys
were off to the races at that point?
BEANIE WELLS: First, to the first
question, it doesn’t mean anything to me. For that
you have to give credit to the offensive line. But
today’s not the day to dwell on that.
As you can see, we took a loss today. It’s
unbelievable.
Q. (Question off microphone.)
BEANIE WELLS: Offensive line did a
tremendous job blocking. I give them all the credit
in the world. They make the holes. I just run
through them.
Q. Vernon, all year you guys have been
successful in getting guys 3 and out, and today
you weren’t successful doing that. LSU went
through a stretch of eight and nine they
converted eight of nine 3rd down conversions
in the first half. Can you talk about what was
different today against the rest of the season?
VERNON GHOLSTON: 3rd down is the
biggest down in football to me. Biggest thing, they
executed well. It always goes back to execution.
It was situations where we had a chance to get off
the field and we didn’t do that, not because their
scheme was great or they were faster, it was just
simply execution.
Q. Vernon, this is the second year in a
row that you guys got off to a quick start. Do
you think it affects the way the defense plays,
overconfident?
VERNON GHOLSTON: If anything we
learned from last year that it was going to be a
60-minute game, but obviously that wasn’t the
case. But get off to a good start. Maybe LSU was
a little slow getting out of their start, but either way,
we knew it was going to be a 60-minute ball game
and we didn’t carry out through the whole game.
Q. Beanie, you all got the lead early,
thanks in part to a lot of big plays, but you were
never able to really sustain long drives the way
you all have most of the season, why was that?
BEANIE WELLS: The main thing today
was we didn’t execute. We talked about that all
week, execution. When you make mistakes, you
don’t execute, it’s going to be hard to win a football
game.
Q. Jim, you guys had a couple of
personal foul penalties, probably more
penalties than you’re used to. Do you think
you guys lost your composure at any point
today?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: I don’t know
about that. I think one of the ones over on the
sidelines was just guys running hard to the ball and
maybe one of those — I think the other one was — I
don’t know if it was any vicious thing or loss of
composure or anything like that.
That was a tough football game and it was
very demanding and I’m sure there were moments
where we weren’t perfectly on cue as we should be
and I’m sure there were moments that LSU felt like
they lost their equilibrium, if you will.
But, no, I don’t think we ever lost our
composure.
Q. Chris, you talked all season like a
rallying cry to get back to this point and prove
to the country that what happened last year
was a fluke. Considering that and what
happened tonight, how much does it hurt
considering all those?
BEANIE WELLS: It hurt tremendously. I
mean, the pain, you really can’t compare it to
anything. To go to the national championship
twice and lose, I mean, it’s incredible.
Q. Vernon, their tight end sneaked out
wide open several times. Did you all talk about
that at half time and stuff and it still bit you all
in the second half? What were they getting
done there?
VERNON GHOLSTON: I mean, I can’t
really explain it any more than execution. We have
a defense call. 11 guys got assignments. And
simply put somebody just didn’t do their
assignment.
Q. Did this feel any differently than last
year, or does it feel just the same? Seemed
like you guys obviously came out this year with
a little more fire and intensity at least early?
VERNON GHOLSTON: I would say
obviously we’ve been in this situation before. We
know what it takes — not necessarily what it takes,
but what is going to be at stake with a national
championship game. And going back to last year
and with this year being — having a chance to get
back, we just simply didn’t do what needed to be
done to win the game.
THE MODERATOR: Yes, thank you very
much for your time.
We’ll take questions for Coach Tressel.
Q. Jim, following up what the guy
asked earlier, they got the tight end open two
or three times in the red zone, wide open, what
did you see on those?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: I’m sure one of
two things happened. One, it was a misdirection
pass, I think, in both cases, reaction of the play.
And our guys love to pursue to the ball. And the
tight end leaked back away from it.
I can’t tell you that I know if it was a man
defense or a zone defense where backside zone
defender was just pursuing what he thought was a
run play. But in either case, those were
well-conceived and well-executed. And those
were good football plays and we didn’t stop it.
Q. Coach, at the end of the first
quarter, Austin Spitler, Spitler fell — he seemed
to fall on top of a muffed punt but he didn’t
come up with it and then the missed block punt
later on, did you say anything to him after that,
just maybe boost him around? What do you
say to a guy after that?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: What we say to
all of our guys that we’re coaching them is you
evaluate effort first and foremost, and Austin
Spitler gives great effort. And those are the types
of things that you’re inches away from maybe
turning a tide in a ball game, whether it’s
recovering a muffed punt or blocking a punt.
But we didn’t do it. But what I appreciate
is all of what we didn’t do had nothing to do with
effort. Our kids played hard. LSU played hard.
LSU made less mistakes than we did. The one
mistake we did force kind of got us back into the
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Ohio State – 01.07.08.doc 3
flow of the game, but then we couldn’t capitalize to
bring it even closer. But our kids played hard. And
pretty proud of what they did in 2007.
Q. What will you say to the team to turn
this into a positive and how will it be different
from last year at this point?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: Oh, you know,
we talked to the team, of course, already. Told
them we appreciated their effort and that just a
difficult situation when you go into a ball game and
you don’t win it. But just like anything else, I’m
sure there will be some X and O things that we
learned from it.
There will be some things outside of Xs
and Os that we’ll learn from it. But just like any
experience, you have to look at the facts so you’ve
got to evaluate the film and all those things. But
for the moment we probably won’t jump right on
that, quite honestly. These kids have been at it
since August the 1st and given up a lot.
Time and effort and they’re going to head
back to campus and go to school and we’ll figure
out how we’re going to use this to help us probably
down the road.
Q. On the blocked field goal attempt,
did it look like they just got good penetration
there, or was the ball mis-hit?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: From my vantage
point, looked like they penetrated well, got into our
back field a little bit. And it was not a high kick. It
wasn’t — so I would guess — and I’d have to see
the film, play it slow and all that stuff. But I would
guess it would be a little bit of a combination of
both. They did a good job pulling one of our
linemen. And we always tell them you can’t allow
yourself to get pulled. But did a good job pulling a
lineman and somebody penetrated and got their
hand up. And those are big plays.
You saw in the bowl games all two or three
weeks long that a blocked field goal here or a
roughing the punter there or something like a
penalty here or there, those are the things that
separate the teams that win big games like bowl
games and championship games and those that
don’t.
Q. Coach, what was your reaction to
the penalties on your team tonight, especially
the back-to-back penalties on that opening
drive of the second half, with the roughing the
kicker and then the personal foul?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: Well, roughing
the kicker, you know, we were going after their
punt. And our guy did a great job. He was right
there.
You know, it was just one of those things.
Kind of went right by the ball. And so how do you
react to that? I guess the first thing as a coach,
you think to yourself maybe we should have been
in punt safe, maybe we shouldn’t have been
rushing. That’s your first self-evaluation.
Then the personal foul a little bit later, you
know, again, I didn’t think it was an intentional loss
of composure, those kinds of things. Although, I
wasn’t watching right on the spot. But how do you
react to it? You get ready to play the next play.
Q. Your offense faced a lot of big plays
by LSU’s defense. Which among the big plays
do you think was the biggest?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: Our offensive
faced a lot of big plays? What do you mean by
that?
Q. Well, LSU made a lot of big plays on
defense.
COACH JIM TRESSEL: Any time we turn
it over, that’s a big play for LSU’s defense. So I’d
say those are the biggest ones, when we turn the
football over, because obviously whether it was a
fumble or an interception or whatever it happens to
be, those are the biggest detrimental plays to your
offense and the biggest big plays for your defense.
Q. There was a time in the game when
Craig Steltz, all-American safety, goes out of
the game. They bring the back-up in, and he
turns two blitzes into big plays for them. Is that
something you as a coach you even kind of
think about or prepare for?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: Well, it wasn’t
any different blitzes than Craig runs. He runs the
same schemes. And I don’t know if Bo ran those
blitzes because Craig was out, or I doubt it. But
they have good players. Their top back-ups are
very, very good players, too.
Q. Looked like your quarterback had to
stand up through a lot of tough shots. I
wonder if you could talk about that. Took a lot
of big hits on those blitzes, too?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: Our quarterback,
I don’t know how many times he went back to pass
and that type of thing. But LSU is a good pressure
defense. If you watch the film all year long, they
did a good job putting pressure on quarterbacks,
and that’s why they won the SEC and were here.
But Todd’s a tough kid. And he had a couple of
throws I’m sure he wishes he had back and maybe
held onto the ball once or twice when maybe he
needed to throw it away.
But a young guy, you know, in his first
prime time championship or bowl game or
whatever. Todd hung in there.
Q. Coach, a lot’s already been said
about the defense maybe not executing as well
as you would have liked. On the flip side, and I
know sometimes you have to go back and
evaluate that, when LSU was on offense, was
there anything that you thought that they did
that was especially effective against you guys
and what did you think about their running
game? I know they kind of spread it a little bit.
It wasn’t just Hester. Was there anything that
you thought was especially effective that they
did?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: Well, what I liked
all along studying LSU is the fact that they can hit
you in so many different ways. They can spray it
out to their receivers. They throw it to their tight
ends. They run speed sweeps. They run the
option a little bit.
You know, they give you so much to
prepare for, and were a mature group in that they
could execute all of those various things that they
give you. Lots of different formations and sets.
And Gary does a great job with that stuff. And they
give you a lot of problems.
Q. Jim, I want to take you back to the
second quarter. Did that just seem like a
quarter that was a nightmare, a bad dream that
wasn’t going to end, didn’t seem like you guys
had anything to go right in that quarter?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: You know, we got
off to that lead and then they fought back, which
you knew they would. But then still we were
hanging in there. Drove it right down and I think
the field goal block was when it was 10-10. And
we could have — you’re not always going to get
touchdowns in the red zone. If we could have
attacked on another field goal, that type of thing.
But as you say, that was a quarter where
we certainly won’t make a highlight reel of. We
didn’t do the things that we would sure like to think
we could do. But, you know, again, your opponent
has something to do with it when you don’t
execute.
I hope no one gets the idea that I’m
discounting the fact that LSU played very well and
deserves their recognition.
Q. Could you talk about Beanie’s start
and did you guys have to at any time get away
from the game plan of running him?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: You know, I
thought that Beanie is the kind of guy that he loves
to pound it in there. And he can really seize the
tempo of a game.
I think where we did lose a little bit was
LSU did such a nice job of keeping the football and
didn’t seem like we had as many possessions as
you’d like to have in that first half, especially.
So when you get behind, it does change
your game plan a little. Not dramatically. But they
did a good job of playing with their front and
bringing people on blitzes and so forth, which
sometimes when you overload the box it’s tough, I
don’t care how good your back is. You’re not going
to be able to gain yards if there’s more people than
you can block.
But Beanie Wells is a special player and
I’d like to think he’s one of the best backs in the
country.
Q. Jim, your team endured a
tremendous amount of backlash from last
year’s title game loss. With so many of these
guys coming back for next season, how
concerned are you about possibly having to go
through that again for another 12 months?
COACH JIM TRESSEL: Backlash
meaning? You mean the disappointment of a
loss? I worry about disappointment because I
know how hard these kids work. I don’t worry too
much about criticism because if you’re not tough
enough to handle criticism, then you better get out
of this game, because there’s a whole lot of people
that have interest in this game. And there’s a
whole lot of people that don’t really have much
understanding of what it takes to be good at this
game but yet love to have opinions.
If you struggle taking criticism, then you
need to not be at Ohio State or not be playing the
game of football.
OHIO STATE LB JAMES LAURINAITIS
You guys had the momentum and then it got away in a hurry;what happened?
“I just think they were
more physical then us…when you don’t execut and do your job, a great team like this is going to hurt you.”
you guys takled about facing the multiple looks and the multiple personnel. How difficult was that to
face?
“with all the great players that they have and the great coaching staff, its hard. I think that we hurt
ourselves. I think in a game like this you cant afford to haver those plays where you shoot yourself in the foot.
When you help them by messing up mentally it starts to snowball on you.we settled down at halftime and we
came out in the second half a little better, but we werent able to make the plays.”
what about your inability to get off the field on third down?
“we stress that we have to get off the field.
When a team converts a lot of third downs, it builds momentum and we didn’t make the plays that we needed
to in crucial situations.”
How does this compare to last year?
“I think that we competed a lot better this year. I think that last year we
were out of it from the start.”
Did you hear them chanting SEC?
”yeah, and that hurts, just because the media really builds it up as we are
slow and all of that stuff. I don’t think that it is a speed thing. I think that the team that wins in this type of game,
is the team that is more physical and the team that executes the best. They executed tonight and they did it
longer then we did.”
OHIO STATE LINEBACKER MARCUS FREEMAN
What are your overall thoughts on the game?
“It obviously wasn’t the way we had it planned, but LSU is a
dang good football team. They showed today that they’re the best in the nation.”
Did they throw anything at you that you weren’t expecting?
“They didn’t and that was surprising. We
expected them to do something that they hadn’t shown. Everything we saw today we had seen on film. They
just did a better job of executing.”
What were the keys to the game?
“It was the little, costly mistakes. Whether it was penalties, a missed
assignment or a guy dropping a pass or a fumble just those little things cost you a chance at a national
championship.”
Did not playing for seven weeks play into it at all?
“I don’t think so. I think we were well-prepared but they
just came out and executed a lot better and came out with the victory.”
What do you think happened to give up the early lead?
“We knew how talented a football team that LSU is.
I hope there wasn’t a relaxation from anybody on this team because we knew that any chance they could come
back. I think we were very confident. When you go up 10-0 against a great team like LSU, you get confident,
but they were able to come back and put points on the board and kept it going and stopped us. Anytime you
can’t put points on the board and you can’t stop a team, you’re not going to win.”
OHIO STATE CORNERBACK MALCOLM JENKINS
What are your overall thoughts on the game?
“It’s disappointing. But I’m proud of this team. I know God
has a plan and it just wasn’t meant for us this year. I’m proud of the way our team played; we fought until there
was no time left on the clock. Unfortunately we didn’t come out with the win.”
What happened to allow LSU’s offense to get on a roll?
“This game is about momentum. We started off
with the momentum but then we gave it away. We tried to get ourselves back in the game but we kept giving it
away with penalties and turnovers. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot.”
What kind of difficulties did their offense present to you?
“It just came down to execution. They didn’t do
anything new; they just lined up and executed.”
Was third down a key to the win for them?
“With a team like LSU and they way they can run the ball, thirdand-
one or two is going to be hard to defend. I think we did a good job of putting them in some situations but
we couldn’t convert and get off the field.”
With the personal fouls, was there a lot of trash-talking going on?
“No, they were just mistakes. Running
into the kicker and the other one was just a stupid push. It was unnecessary but really not that big of a deal.
The little things hurt us. We needed to just keep our heads and play.”
OHIO STATE SOPHOMORE WIDE RECEIVER BRIAN HARTLINE
On the biggest momentum-changing plays of the game:
“The big one was the blocked field goal, the
turnovers, and the personal fouls. The interceptions were big, but the personal fouls were probably the biggest
factor. I think that’s a lot of emotion. There were a couple of the D-linemen and L-linemen getting after each
other. We have a couple of younger guys and this is a big stage: there’s a lot of emotion.”
On playing in back-to-back BCS National Championship games and losing:
“It’s a disappointment for our
fans. Everyone has supported us and did a great job of traveling. I wish I could put them in all in one room and
apologize to them. I think they know how we feel. We tried to play hard for them. We just shot ourselves in the
foot too many times, and against a good team like LSU, that’s not going to fly.”
On LSU:
“They were good. Third down was big. They put a lot of pressure on you on third down. If you can get
those third downs, you can cut them up a little bit. After that, you start to second-guess yourself.”
On the season as a whole:
“You’ve got to keep it all in retrospect. I didn’t play much last season, so was
there a little more burden on my shoulders this year? Personally, I feel it was a great season for us: First off, to
have the opportunity whether we deserved it or not — to come back to the the National Championship game
is always an honor. You know, we don’t vote for us. I was glad to represent the Big Ten. We played hard, and
again, LSU is a good team.”
