Football: Video and Transcript from Coach Tressel Weekly Press Conference – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
COACH TRESSEL: Got some announcements before we go over the Michigan State ball game and on to Penn State. This weekend across the nation is Coats to Cure MD program sponsored by the American Football Coaches Association. There’s a rare form of muscular dystrophy that strikes mostly males and mostly young males and so every coach is going to wear a little arm band on the side line just to raise awareness. It’s an initiative that the American Football Coaches Association has joined in with and so that’s going to be part of nearly every coach’s wardrobe on the side line.
And speaking of wardrobes, we wanted to make sure we made it loud and clear that we need to be wearing red on Saturday. We need to make that place a sea of red and Bill Livingston even brought another prop.
REPORTER: That’s all I could afford on the Plain Dealer.
COACH TRESSEL: He stole this from a hotel when he was covering the Steelers or something, but there’s a rumor there may even be a few of those in the crowd to make it look good with our red. And someone mentioned that there was like a 40% chance of some showers, so I need to remind you on the wardrobe, bring your red poncho with you to go over your red sweatshirt so we don’t all of a sudden get all dressed in our red and then throw some other color over top of our red.
So that’s the final paid political announcement, and we’re looking forward to a great environment this weekend. When you go in the Big Ten — on the road in the Big Ten, you expect that the home team’s going to have a great home field advantage, and as we took the field at Michigan State they had one of their largest crowds. The neat thing was, there was some red speckled in there and our band was there and we were able to draw energy from both our folks that made their way into the stadium and our band, but also the energy that that home crowd had.
We didn’t start the game off with a bang. We dropped the opening kickoff and ended up starting from our own, I don’t know, seven yard line or thereabouts. And fortunately we moved it out of there. We call that a coming-out situation and it’s critical to at least get one first down so you’re not punting from your end zone and giving the football to your opponent on the wrong side of the 50. And we did that. We ended up punting them down after missing a short yardage at mid field which is critical, but we punted them down.
Our defense stopped them. They punted it back. Ray Small who did an excellent job returning the ball all gained except for one, he brought us up across the 50 and we went in and scored and got the thing started right. And then we had the ball bounce our way a few times, in part, due to some excellent hitting and pressure put on by our defense and the ball bounced into Austin Spitler’s hands fortunately on our fumble on a punt return and it was in large part because Austin still was hustling and he did a great job getting to the football.
So the ball did bounce our way, we understand that. You’ve got to create some of your own good fortune, but sometimes a good bounce doesn’t hurt. So it ended up being a good decisive victory. I think we raised the level of our consistency a little bit. We had six guys on each side of the ball grade a winning performance. That’s something that if we can have that continue to grow, especially against the competition we’re about ready to face that would be huge for us.
We had some excellent performances. We didn’t feel as if our special teams as a whole dominated by any stretch of the imagination and Ray Small was probably the most impactful special teams guy, but when you have a mistake like he made, you certainly don’t qualify for the special teams player of the game, but he did some excellent things.
Austin Spitler was on three units and was first game back and made the big play on the special teams by recovering that fumble, so Austin was the special units player of the game.
Defensively it was James Laurinaitis. James played consistent football as he has been all season long and double digit tackles and tackles for loss and quarterback hurries and excellent leadership and he was the defensive player of the game.
The offensive player of the game was Chris Wells. Beanie had 31 carries. It was his first 30-plus carry day this season and it was huge for us and he did an excellent job, 140 plus yards and did a good job on pass protection on the big play to Hartline that took it down to the one-inch line or wherever, there was a key block on a corner blitz by Beanie Wells. So his awareness was excellent. He picked it up and gave Terrelle a chance to lay it out and come up with a big play there, so Chris was the offensive player of the game.
The highest grade on the offensive line was Alex Boone, so he won the Jim Parker Offensive Line Award, and the Attack Force Player of the Week was Ross Homan. When you’re playing against a run team like Michigan State, your linebackers are going to be called upon to make hits in the open field and fill holes and gaps and so forth and Ross Homan did an excellent job and was the attack force player of the game.
As we move forward, we understand the difficulty of the challenge. Penn State’s an excellent football team. I think anyone that’s watched them play knows that, number one, they’re veteran laden across the board, very talented offensively, defensively and special units. If you look at the Big Ten statistics or the national statistics, you see Penn State at or near the top in many, many of the categories, that’s the way they’re playing. I think — someone asked me on the Big Ten call just a few minutes ago what do I see as the difference between their team from this year and their team from a year ago and I think the fact that Daryll Clark has taken over as quarterback, he adds that dimension of excellent passing like the Penn State quarterbacks always do, but he gives you that run dimension like Michael Robinson did for them a few years ago. I think he gives an excellent leadership dimension. He’s a guy that he’s put his work in and he’s waited for his opportunity and he’s made the best of his opportunity and you could see that in the second half of their bowl game. I think they were behind in their bowl game and he took over and got them a victory in their bowl game and I think that began their momentum and he’s got a lot of weapons with him, veteran wide receivers who seem like they’ve been starting for four years. I think some of them have. Excellent tight ends. The offensive line is very, very good. Their center is, I think, one of the best anywhere. And their running backs are very talented and very explosive and I think Royster has well over six yards a carry for the season.
Daryll Clark has got a lot of people around him and he’s doing a great job of directing them and making plays for them and making sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. Their special units are as good as always. Their kicker and punter are veterans, both lefties, both been there, doing it for multiple years. Their coverage people are very good. They’re very dedicated to special teams as they have been for 42 years or whatever it’s been that Coach has been there. Their return men, obviously, are scary. Williams has two kickoff return touchdowns, he has a punt return touchdown. Great acceleration. He’s an up-the-field guy. He’s not a guy that’s going to run around you, while he could, though, with his speed, he puts his foot in the ground and he goes north and he’s very, very dangerous.
Their kickoff return is ranked number one in the Big Ten and Number two in the country. So across the board, then you get over to their defensive side and they’re the steady defense they’ve always been. They’re going to make you earn it the hard way. They’re always going to have more guys up there than you can block. They’re very sure tacklers, their rotation is excellent, they have excellent speed at end and big powerful guys inside like you would like to have. Linebacker-wise, they have some new faces, but they’re very technique sound and very on the spot as to where they need to be. Obviously bright, bright guys that know their place. They know their gap. They know their zone. They know their man if it’s man-to-man, whatever it happens to be, and then they’re backed up by a veteran secondary. Both those safeties are seniors. Two of the three corners who play a lot are seniors. The third one, A. J. Wallace, is a third year junior who’s been starting ever since he got there, and various — whether it’s been receivers or kick returner, whatever it happens to be so they’re very, very solid there.
Number 28 comes in as a nickel guy and he’s very solid. He’s also their back-up safety and he played the last 40 plays of the Michigan game, Number 7 got banged and missed the last 40 plays, and 28 stepped in and might as well have put Number 7 in there because he was very, very sound. They make you earn every inch. They don’t get hit with homeruns. That’s why they’re a good defense. It’s an outstanding football team. It will be great for our fans to have an opportunity to be a big part of this and to be there and to be having fun and be loud and create that energy that the Buckeyes can use as we get ready for a big challenge.
REPORTER: Is this the type of game where the offenses and defenses appear to be so closely matched that special teams is even more important this week?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, the special teams are always huge because of what they can do and because of the errors that can occur. I think Freddy Pagac, Jr.’s. dad, Fred Pagac, had one punt block for a touchdown and another punt hit off of a guy and set up a touchdown, they lose the game by five points. So not just for what they can do, but how they can hurt you. So we have to make sure if there are any big special teams made, they’re made by us, but we have to just be rock solid on our special teams because offensively and defensively people are going to do what they do and see how we match up and so forth, but never underestimate the impact of special teams.
REPORTER: How do you explain the difference in your team between the Purdue game and last week and which team do you expect will show up this Saturday?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I think that our guys have been preparing hard all along and executing to a certain degree at times and then all of a sudden you have one guy that doesn’t and you look like you’re not quite the same team, but I think we came out and seized the momentum early in the game and that really does something for you. And when the defense is flying around like that and all of a sudden Michigan State has to be a little different team than they really are.
Offensively, we had a chance to go down to the red zone and all of a sudden we became a good red zone team after not being a good red zone team and I’m not sure why exactly other than we executed. So which team needs to show up Saturday night? The best team we’ve got. The best we can possibly play.
REPORTER: Was anything said or done —
COACH TRESSEL: Are we almost done, Dionne? This is a union shop, you know. I’m sorry, go ahead.
REPORTER: I’m jumping ahead. I got one starting chance and I can’t stop. At any rate, was anything said or done differently in the preparation that perhaps will be repeated again this week to get that same momentum and jump against Penn State?
COACH TRESSEL: Every week is so different. You think, what’s the difference between this week and next week, in your growth and in your understanding of what needs to be done and what we’re up against and the thorough understanding of their — what they’re trying to do and so forth and so on, we’ve just got to be tremendously focused and make sure that we use every practice snap from a learning standpoint.
Our scout teams need to do a good job of emulating what they’re going to do. We can’t let a second go by without moving forward in our preparation and that’s the same every week that that’s needed. Maybe sometimes we don’t always do that as well, but we have to raise it up a notch as we get to this point in the season and get to this type of ball game.
REPORTER: Specifically the offensive line, what did you see that you liked Saturday, Jim? You’re talking about continuity or consistency and execution, but did you see that’s the best you’ve seen in a while?
COACH TRESSEL: I thought our guys did a good job of understanding what they were going to come at us with, their preparation, learning it. I thought the coaches did a good job of perhaps scaling down conceptually what we were trying to do. And then we got out there and they were doing what we thought they’d do and we were executing a little bit more in sync with 11 guys at a time. I think you get a little bit of confidence, and it doesn’t hurt when Beanie breaks a couple tackles and those kinds of things or Terrelle runs around a guy who’s — you know, Michigan State had the right defense on and they had a guy assigned to him, but Terrelle was faster than the guy assigned to him. You know, that helps too.
So all those things contribute. You have to make plays and you have to execute and be consistent and have the right amount. Sometimes you get excited about these big games and you want to have 90 different — oh, man I saw this, Illinois did this and Wisconsin did that and Purdue did this and Coastal Carolina, they had this one little — all of a sudden you’re there. We always say anything we put on the board past 10:00 at night probably won’t work. And we were there past 10:00 last night, so we had to erase anything we put on there past 10:00. We have to have the right amount and I think that’s key.
REPORTER: You talked about Clark being — he’s waited a long time there. How difficult was it for Terrelle to step in as a true freshman and also you always say he’s calm, is there a special stress this week playing his native state’s team?
COACH TRESSEL: Terrelle would never admit it if there were. I’m sure he’s excited. He loves the big stage and the big challenge. He watches that film. He sees how good they are. He knows he’s from there. Columbus is just as close as State College is. I mapped it out for him. But he’ll be excited.
How difficult is it for a freshman quarterback? It’s tough because so many new things coming your way and you add to it that you’re not only playing up a notch from a football standpoint, but every class you’re sitting in is up a notch and the rigors there are more challenging and the off season is more rigorous than the in-season lifting you had a year ago, so there’s a lot of things to balance and get used to. That’s what you have to admire about Daryll Clark, he kept doing what had to be done, he kept progressing along every front, whether it was academics or football or weight lifting or whatever. Now he’s a big strong guy ready to get his degree, ready to lead his team, ready to do extraordinary things because he just kept stepping up to the challenge. And you have to admire people that persist.
REPORTER: On punt returns do you have a rule, don’t catch the ball inside a certain yard line, it used to be the 10, it used to be the seven, do you have any particular —
COACH TRESSEL: I never heard the one about the seven, but the 10 is the rule. And usually when you’re in a punt return situation and that rule comes in place, as you put your toes on the 10 and you never take a step backwards, if you can step forward to catch it, fine. The hard ones are when you’re up on the 18 or the 20 and the guy hits it over your head and the last thing you have time to do is look down and see what yard line you’re on. Sometimes we put into effect that seven yard line rule that you just invented or the five-yard line rule or whatever, but that’s hard. But when a guy kicks it over your head, if you’re at 42, 43, wherever we have them, if a guy kicks it over your head and you happen to catch it on the seven, chances are there’s a little separation because he’s kicked it so far, but 10 yard line is the rule, but go back there and try to catch a punt and look down.
REPORTER: Did you reinforce that with Ray afterwards immediately after that?
COACH TRESSEL: No.
REPORTER: Obviously, because he went back in for the next punt.
COACH TRESSEL: You mean as far as fumbling the ball?
REPORTER: No, where to catch the ball and where to not.
COACH TRESSEL: No, because again, that’s a no-win situation. Oh, Coach, now you want me to look down while I’m looking up? So, no, it wasn’t addressed by me. I hope it wasn’t addressed because it’s not a bad decision. It’s not like he caught it three yards deep. I hope he could understand if he went from 18 back to five yards deep, he could tell that he’s gone a ways, but from the 18 to the 10, 18 to the eight, how do you know the difference when the ball is hanging up there, so I thought he did good job. If he’d have hanged on to the ball he’d be special teams player of the week because he did a great job.
REPORTER: It’s a night game and Gameday is going to be there, what kind of atmosphere effect does that have for you?
COACH TRESSEL: The fact that the world is at the end of their football watching day and they all get to sit back and watch us play is exciting. There will be great energy. I don’t know that we’ll know the difference between whether Gameday was there or not, but it’s exciting to have attention. It’s exciting to be recognized. It will be neat for our students that they’ll go to the Gameday thing all day long and get to scream and yell and have fun and just the environment, the energy, it’s a neat thing to have that on your campus and I’m proud of our guys for earning that situation because they didn’t name that back in August, they just named it this week, where’s the best game of the week and here we go.
REPORTER: Jim, you’ve talked about in the past, the fans will have all day to get ready for the game, but going into tough environments on the road at night knowing that you guys feed off that environment, what about when the game’s at home and what’s your expectations for what it’s going to be like in there Saturday night?
COACH TRESSEL: I expect it to be loud and fun and energetic and I hope it’s very difficult for the away team to hear. That would be one of my goals. I hope all they see is red and Bill’s towels waving next to the red. I hope it’s a tough environment. Now, good teams enjoy that too when they’re away from home. I know we’ve enjoyed going into those scenarios. Doesn’t make them easy.
REPORTER: What do you think is their most impressive win this year, Penn State’s, out of their eight, what is their most impressive win?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I was watching a little bit of the Oregon State who beat Southern Cal who we played and I think Southern Cal is pretty good and they blasted Oregon State. Probably the most impressive thing is that they were able to go to Wisconsin and win so decisively. The other thing that you can’t lose sight of is you’re behind 17-7 with three minutes to go in the first half at home, and just to have the poise to just relax and we’ll be fine and turn it into a decisive win, so there’s a number of impressive wins.
REPORTER: Is their offense radically different than what it has been in the past or is the personnel just more effective doing what they wanted to do?
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t think it’s radically different in all phases. I think Daryll brings a running threat that Michael Robinson brought, so that part of the offense from that era has a little bit more presence. He throws the things that Morelli threw well, so all of that stuff’s in there, and then all the people that were doing that stuff for the last three years are back there doing it and they do it well. They’re very, very balanced and you start overcommitting yourself one way and they can strike. Their big play potential with Williams and Butler and Norwood and Royster, all of a sudden then you’re not looking at the tight ends and they’re running down the field with the ball, they’re very talented.
REPORTER: How much did you look at Clark when he was in high school?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, yeah, we knew Daryll real well.
REPORTER: He had some challenges academically.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, he was a good football player. Look at him a lot more right now than I looked at him that I can remember five years ago. I think he’s a success story. He’s a guy that was patient and committed and here he is leading an undefeated football team. To me, that’s a great story.
REPORTER: You mentioned a couple minutes ago about scaling back offensively, and I’m wondering, was that because of what you’d seen through the Purdue game or why was that?
COACH TRESSEL: I think anytime you don’t execute consistently, the first thing you have to do is look in the mirror and say, okay, are we doing too much, and I’m sure that’s the same on your jobs if all of a sudden you look at an article and it wasn’t that good and you say, shoot, I was writing three other articles at the same time, no wonder that wasn’t so wonderful, so you say, I’ve got to get focused on the task at hand and scale back, so absolutely, yes, I think that it’s a result of what you’ve learned about yourself in prior situations.
REPORTER: Without giving away secrets, it looked like — I don’t know how you scaled down because it looked like the run/pass balance at least was skewed to begin with. So what exactly do you scale down?
COACH TRESSEL: So in other words the more you pass, you’ve scaled up?
REPORTER: No, I’m saying it looked like you were focusing on just a couple things to start with, so what do you scale down to? What are the core basics that you try to get down to?
COACH TRESSEL: I’m not sure. I guess I would be giving away secrets. That’s a little — you can take my coaching class and we could spend more time on that one. It takes a while.
REPORTER: Both the Brians had big plays this past week. How have they handled, as veterans, a reduced role as obviously you haven’t passed as much, has that been difficult on them?
COACH TRESSEL: Fortunately they understand the times they’re out there blocking is not a reduced role and if it they do a good job downfield blocking, we’re going to move the football. Have they had as many catches? No. How have they handled that? From where I view, it hasn’t changed the way they prepare, the way they compete. Do they wish they had more catches? I bet you if you gave them a lie detector, the answer’s yes. Do they wish that the team will succeed even more than that? Yes. And I think that’s real. And they’re veterans and they’re quality guys.
REPORTER: Coach Paterno has established coordinators like Bradley and not just because he’s sitting in the booth, that’s a health thing, but is he hands-on now any more?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, man, Coach Paterno is on top of — he’s amazing what he’s on top of. My only reference to that question is I sit in the Big Ten coaches meetings and he’s hands-on. In fact, the other 10 of us talk maybe once a year and he talks throughout the whole meeting. I mean, he is on top of things. He’s had his staff for so long that the expectations are crystal clear and if they’re slipping away from what’s expected, I’m sure he pounces. I’m sure if they’re doing what he expects — he’s not a micromanager, so I’m sure he’s — obviously he’s got the right formula going whatever it is.
REPORTER: Where’s Terrelle right now from a passer standpoint as far as his evolution right now?
COACH TRESSEL: Where is he from a passer standpoint? I think he’s in the midst of growing in his understanding that you first find out where our guys are going and so you throw against air. But later you find out the passing game isn’t about where the receivers are going, it’s about the defenders. And that’s the evolution that’s so different because those defenders can break on the ball so much more quickly than the defenders he threw against a year ago, so the biggest change from high school to collegiate quarterbacking is the speed of the defense.
The next step you go to in the NFL, nobody’s open, because there’s so much quickness and coverage and so forth, and so you not only have to put it to the right guy, you have to put it to the right body part, because if it’s not the right body part, you’re not going to have the chance to get it. So where is he? He’s on the trail to understanding where is the defense and based upon that, where do I need to deliver the ball.
REPORTER: Would you be confident if he had to throw the ball more than 30 times in a game?
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, it’s hard to catch back up with anybody, but when the opponent knows that you’re passing, that’s tough, but would I be confident with Terrelle throwing 25 to 30 times a game? Absolutely.
REPORTER: He seemed to do a good job on that roll-out to the right where he found Robiskie in the end zone. With a young quarterback, do you like him on the run? Do you like him better in the pocket when he’s throwing? Is there any kind of throw that he’s more comfortable with or that he’s better at right now?
COACH TRESSEL: The thing you like for your offensive scheme is to never be at the same launch point. We can’t say, okay, they’re going to be back there at seven yards and here comes Penn State’s defensive ends and defensive tackles and linebacker blitzes because they know where we’re going to be standing. You have to change your launch point. Penn State does a great job of changing their launch point. Do I like them one place or the other better? No. Early on in preseason, I wasn’t sure he was throwing the boot leg kind of thing as well as maybe I thought he would. Three weeks later, you could see his evolution because maybe he hadn’t done as much of that. So his growth in becoming a guy that can throw it from every action, it’s coming.
REPORTER: On signing day when he delayed — made his announcement that he was delaying his decision, did your heart sink that day or did you have confidence? Joe Daniels said you always had confidence but what do you remember about your emotions?
COACH TRESSEL: I had confidence all along, but I know recruiting is about the person that’s being recruited and it’s not about us. But a person is free or they have that opportunity to do what’s best for them. So for me to sit back and make the assumption that, well, I’m confident because this is the best place for him, that’s a little short-sighted, but I felt that he felt that way and if he continued to feel that way it would go our way.
REPORTER: Penn State and Oregon, they had really been in the mix, did you suddenly think, oh, know, you’re going against the home state school now?
COACH TRESSEL: I think you always think that when you’re recruiting out of state that there’s a certain interest by some, there’s also a certain disinterest by some. We’ve had guys that say, hey, I’m not staying in Ohio, that’s not what I’m interested in. And the only guys we want are the guys that want to be here. So I think you had that all along.
REPORTER: Paterno said this summer he felt the deal was done his junior here. He said, we never — that deal was done, like they never were in the running. So how did you make it so closed door?
COACH TRESSEL: I guess we tricked him, because I’m not sure that was true.
REPORTER: After the USC game, there was no guarantee you guys would get back in a position like this with a win you’d be right back in, all your goals still out there, have you talked to your guys about that or do you stress the opportunity that they’ve got now?
COACH TRESSEL: We’ve never discussed the BCS standings. It’s way premature. We didn’t even discuss them last year after we were done with the regular season because there were games to play. Because we truly believe you get as your works deserve and we’ve got a lot more works to do, and whatever it is we earn is what we’ll get and so far we’ve earned seven wins and a chance to play in a big game on Saturday night and see what we can do there. Dionne, better get going, you get one last shot at it. Ken’s got a question for you.
REPORTER: Injuries.
COACH TRESSEL: Injuries?
REPORTER: Herron.
COACH TRESSEL: See, that’s good. She read your mind. Ken, it’s not that hard to read your mind, just so you know. Boom Herron will be fine. He’s ready to go. We took him to Michigan State and I asked the trainers if there was an emergency, if we got like three guys hurt, could we put him in, they said, oh, better not. So we didn’t even dress him, but he’ll be ready to go.
Chekwa looks — this morning’s report was that he’ll be ready. Now we’ve got three days of practice to see if that’s true. Rory Nicol will be stronger. Austin Spitler will be back stronger. Of course Lawrence Wilson won’t be back. Shugarts and Adams are still out.
REPORTER: Beanie feel good?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, Beanie was sorer after 31 carries than he was after 20, which is understandable. You get hit 11 times by a truck, it hurts more. But he’s fine. Trying to think of anyone else who’s missing.
REPORTER: Would Washington move up in that starting spot at that corner?
COACH TRESSEL: If Chim wasn’t there. They’ve gone every other series anyway. All of a sudden he’d be going every series. Where you’d be affected is in your dime package and those kinds of things. Don’t forget to wear red. Bring your red poncho just in case, and bring your Holiday Inn washcloth that Bill brought back.
REPORTER: It’s Marriott.
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, it’s Marriott?
REPORTER: Sports writers are Marriott.
