Football: Video and Transcript from Coach Tressel Weekly Press Conference – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
COACH TRESSEL: I told Coach Bruce this might be the shortest press conference we ever have if I run out of juice here. Obviously we were proud of how hard our kids played. They went up into a tough environment against a tough team and kept playing and playing and believing and we were awfully proud of them for that.
At the same token, we also know that we’ve got to play a lot better than that if we’re going to have a chance here in the Big Ten. The thing that jumps into my mind the most is you can’t have the ball on the ground as much as we had it. I think it was on the ground five or six times. Good fortune was with us where we only lost one of them, but that’s got to get better. And I think as we looked at ourselves, just from an execution standpoint in general, or consistency has got to be much, much better and that’s what we hope to get to work on this afternoon and we’ve got the kind of guys, I think, that are willing to do that and they’re interested in being good and we’re going to go to work on that.
We did have some winning performances. I think I forgot to bring my award things last week but I think we had eight guys grade winning performances, three on each side of the ball. A. J. Trapasso was the special units player of the week. All but one of his punts was extraordinary. I think he netted 44 point something and averaged 48.8. That’s huge for us. We can really use him being like that if we’re going to have a chance as you get into these tough ball games.
Ross Homan was the defensive player of the game, did an excellent job. It was a hard fought game. Your linebackers are going to need to make plays and he did and he battled away and was the defensive player of the game.
Chris Wells was the offensive player of the game. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure how much he could play because he’d only carried it a dozen times the week before and for him to step up after Boom got hurt and carry it over 20 times was a real plus for us, and to me, he looked healthier than he’s looked since preseason. And he got a little sore after the game, but in the last couple days he’s felt good and he was our offensive player.
Alex Boone had the highest grade on the offensive line. He won the Jim Parker offensive line award. Nader Abdallah was the attack force player, graded 92% down on the defensive line and did an excellent job there. Shaun Lane won the Jack Tatum hit of the week on a kickoff return and he was the only nominee from our side. They might have had one or two, but he won the Jack Tatum hit of the week.
We had some guys do a great job on the scout teams, Zach Domicone who’s going to be a great player, youngster out of Beavercreek. Cedric White, a young guy who transferred in here as a corner won the scout defensive award and James Georgiades who’s going to be a tough fullback, he played the role against the Wisconsin full backs, he’s a 255-pound guy and did a great job. He’s a kid that North Canton Hoover a year ago volunteered to move from defensive line to offensive line so the team would be better and that’s the kind of kid he is. He’s walked on here and he’s going to be a good player. He’s going to end up playing at Ohio State. So those guys did a good job on the scout units and got us ready to go.
And now we’ve got to kind of shift gears, it’s a little different world. Purdue brings in that spread attack. Purdue brings in a lot of blitz packages. I’m not sure how much Wisconsin was blitzing going into the game, I think it was 7 percent or something, didn’t blitz much more than that in the ball game, then you turn the tide and Brock Spack has been their defensive coordinator for some time, played there, he was a player there and he brings it. He’s not afraid to play pure man coverage with no free safeties.
So we have to kind of get ready for a different mode there. Joe Tiller coming into Ohio Stadium for the last time, and Joe’s an Ohio native, as you know, and the winningest coach in the history of Purdue. Just one of the great guys to ever coach the game, 10 of the last 11 years taken the Boilermakers to a bowl game and just done extraordinary things and he brings with him Curtis Painter who struggled a little bit at the back end of the Penn State game, but he’s clearly been noted that he’s going to be their starter and he’s the second leading passer in the history of the school and they’ve had some passers at Purdue.
I happen to think that their running back is as good as there is. I’m biased, I think Chris Wells is the best back in the conference. Kory Sheets is good. He’s special. And he does a good job as a return man. He does a good job as a back. He’s a good receiver. He’s a good one, and so we have to shift gears, get ready for a different attack, get ready for a different mode. We get to come back home. We get to work on getting better at things. If we’ll continue to play as hard as we did and hang in there as tough as we did and get better, we’re going to have a chance to have a good football team, so this is a pivotal week for us and I know our guys are looking forward to it.
REPORTER: You talked about consistency again on Saturday, you had a good drive and sort of sputtered the rest of the way, that’s happened several times in the last four or five outings. Is that your opponent making some sort of change in the way they’re defending you or are you guys stepping on your own foot?
COACH TRESSEL: Like most things, it’s probably both. When you go and take your first drive down, obviously they’re going to sit down and say, okay, here’s what they’re doing or maybe we need to come with this, and maybe after the first drive, we didn’t execute quite — or not maybe, we didn’t execute after that and three of our last four drives, on the other hand, were 10, 10 and 12-play drives. Why is that? I’m not sure. Do we need to be more consistent than that? Absolutely. And that’s what we’ve got to work to get better at.
REPORTER: They held Penn State to a season low 20 points last week. That offense had been really rolling. Just talk about what maybe they did to confound them and what’s your concern about them?
COACH TRESSEL: The thing about Brock Spack is he’s seen everything and he’ll have a plan and he’ll have his people in place. And if they’ll execute their plan is a good one. It puts pressure on you. He’s not afraid to apply that pressure and put the heat on the quarterback. I thought they did an extremely good job on third down against Penn State. I think Penn State was like 4 out of 14 or something. I think Penn State missed three short yardages which if you get stopped on short yardage, that’s not simply getting stopped, that’s an emotional thing for your defense as well, so you add all those things together, they’re a good defensive football team.
Now, they’ve had moments where they’ve had big ones hit out. Notre Dame threw a couple balls over their head and all of a sudden the tide turned. But you’re right, all you need to do is watch the Penn State game and you know how good Penn State’s offense is and Purdue was toe to toe..
REPORTER: Terrelle comes across as a very confident young man, but being able to do what he did in that last drive, direct the offense for the winning touchdown, what does that do for him, do you think?
COACH TRESSEL: The thing about Terrelle is, he’s only going to think about the things he didn’t do well. That’s his nature. And I hope it gives him confidence that, hey, I can do that, because he’s his own biggest critic, he should have made this throw, should have made this decision, should have read that, I had the dig on the one route, all those things, but he’s a perfectionist. That’s what he is. And he’s not going to stop competing until the game’s over, so going into that last drive, it wasn’t like he was, “Oh, my, what happens if this doesn’t work?” He wanted to go and get better. And so I hope it gives him some confidence, but on the other hand, I like people that know that, hey, we’ve got to get better every day.
REPORTER: You mentioned after the game that he got his hand gashed a little bit.
COACH TRESSEL: I think he got bumped and got a little goose type thing, you know, a little goose knob. What do they call those things? Back in the old days, we called that a goose knob. You’re too young for that.
REPORTER: I’ve never heard of a goose knob.
COACH TRESSEL: Earle, help me.
COACH BRUCE: I’ve never heard of a goose knob, that’s before me.
REPORTER: You talked about the hard hits on the Wisconsin side. Is this as banged up as you’ve been? Did the guys come through it all right, in particular the guys that left the game?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, we won’t have Dane or Boom, because typically after head injuries, it’s just at least eight days. Outside of that, we won’t have lost, I don’t think, anyone new. Shugarts will probably still be out. Spitler probably another game. Nicol probably another game. Who am I missing there?
REPORTER: Donnie Evridge?
COACH TRESSEL: Donnie’s been out, he’s kind of been in rehab mode at this point, like the post-surgery guys, Andre Amos and —
REPORTER: Denlinger’s been playing, but it seems like he’s still a little injured.
COACH TRESSEL: He only got in a couple or three plays this game, but they were the best couple or three plays he’s had in a month, because I think he finally — the problem with those ankles is, boy, you feel better, then you hit a plateau and you just don’t get any better, until you hit a certain point. I think he hit that point where he’s on the upward, because he made a couple really good looking plays, the few that he got in there, so knock on wood, I think he’s turned the corner.
REPORTER: Did you ask the Big Ten to take a look at the hit on Boom at all?
COACH TRESSEL: Every week we send in, because they ask us to evaluate what things do you think maybe could have been called or considered a different way, that was one of them, and I’m not pointing fingers that the youngster was trying to do anything, et cetera, et cetera, but we’re talking about how should the game have been called.
REPORTER: There was concerted effort, this year, to take more into account head to head or lead with your head. Did that one rise to that? Not saying maybe it was malicious, but maybe did it rise to that?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, they didn’t think so on the field. As you watched the film, it certainly were two head gears, actually in Boom’s case it was a head gear and a chin, and the jaw creates some of the worst concussions, but, you know, again, that game is happening fast and I’m not sitting here saying the officials need to be perfect because the game happens fast and you’ve got to make split-second decisions and sometimes they get them and sometimes they don’t.
REPORTER: Beanie said last week that Terrelle’s not afraid to get in guys’ faces and kind of reminded him a little bit of Troy and I’m wondering if you see that comparison already that he has a little bit of Troy quality in him to tell someone off if it needs to be.
COACH TRESSEL: I think Terrelle and Troy are very different, but yet I think they do have some similar characteristics, and that might be one of them, is that they’re highly competitive, hold their teammates accountable, and not bashful.
REPORTER: What impressed you the most about that last drive, Jim? Obviously you said Terrelle’s a perfectionist, but the way the whole unit operated?
COACH TRESSEL: When we needed the time on third down to let the second receiver get open, we got that extra — we had good protection. I’m trying to — I’ve been watching so much Purdue, I can’t even remember that drive. To me, the thing that jumped up at you is we just held in there and hung in there. I think the first play of the drive, we had a route open and we didn’t hit it, so we’re second and 10 and to me it was just the fact that there was a focus that as long as we had one more play, we’ve got a chance.
REPORTER: Offensive video from that game, how much different are you all as you watch that tape than what you envisioned this team would be about six games into the season? Are you running a lot more option than you thought you would? Obviously that’s because of the quarterback.
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, I think that we’re a little bit different in that there is a little bit more of the zone read-type thing in the package. We’ve always had it in, but I guess it’s been used more. A little bit of the reality that Beanie was out and Terrelle was in there and those kinds of things, but we’re only six games into the season and how it’s going to play out, I think — I still don’t know.
REPORTER: You mentioned shifting gears a couple of times in your opening comments. How difficult is it to go from spread offense as in Wisconsin from Wisconsin back to spread offense?
COACH TRESSEL: I think that’s the hardest thing about coaching and playing defense in college football. I think that’s where the NFL’s kind of got it made. Every Sunday you turn it on and everything looks the same, but you turn on a college Saturday and there’s 17 different offenses being run and those defensive coaches have to be prepared for that, the players have to understand conceptually what people are trying to do.
The good news is, we try in the spring and preseason to give them a smattering of all the concepts. In our early season scheduling, it turned out that we got a little smattering of the spread stuff and a little smattering of the power stuff, and so you hope in the middle of the year there’s good callback on, this is what — Troy did this and had some success, so Purdue lines up similar, they may go to that. So you hope the learning that took place has a little carryover.
REPORTER: After such a big win on the road at Wisconsin, such a physical game and all that, now you play a team that’s at 500, is there a concern of being a letdown and if so how do you go about avoiding that?
COACH TRESSEL: I would hope not because like every week, we say, turn on the film, you see what you see, understand that we’ve got to get better. And the first film we turn on, isn’t our next opponent, it’s us playing on Saturday, saying, oh, man, we’ve got to get better at this, our aiming points, our eye discipline, I hope we’re really caught up in us trying to get better and learning what they’re going to try to bring to us and that Big Ten game is worth as much as any other Big Ten game so if you want to be the champions of the Big Ten, you better not have, quote, letdowns.
REPORTER: With a thrilling win in a crazy environment, what does it do for the team’s confidence in terms of fun, because with the waited expectations of the season and the USC loss, it seems like that hasn’t always been there with the guys.
COACH TRESSEL: It’s a lot more fun to win, no doubt about it, and tough wins are the most fun, just like anything in life, anything that’s tougher is more rewarding. That was a tough win. We made it tough because we didn’t do as good as we could have maybe in some areas, but that makes it fun.
REPORTER: Was there a common thread in the times that you put the ball on the ground or was it primarily Wisconsin was a hard hitting team and forced the ball loose or was there some culpability on your ball carriers?
COACH TRESSEL: I think the only common thread you could say is if I have the privilege of touching this ball, no one is going to get this ball other than the official when the play ends and when that doesn’t happen, that means you didn’t have that thought process. So that’s the common thread is whoever had their hands on the ball, that wasn’t the most important possession in the world at that moment and that’s the way we look at it.
REPORTER: How would you evaluate the play of the defensive line so far this season?
COACH TRESSEL: They’ve had to do a lot of different things, play a lot of positions. They’ve gone to spread things and we’ve moved guys inside, outside, so forth and so on. I thought they faced a couple of real good offensive lines in Southern Cal and Wisconsin. I don’t know how many of those Wisconsin guys are seniors, but three or four guys that were pretty impressive to me as I watched the film from a technique and physical standpoint and those kind of things.
So I think they’ve been solid. I don’t know that they’ve been out of this world and I think they know that, that we’ve got to get better, we’ve got to play lower, we’ve got to play faster, but it’s still a team defense and I think it’s not like we’ve had D linemen out of a gap or missed assignments or those kinds of things, but winning comes down to defeating the guy trying to block you and being in your gap and defeating the guy trying to block you and I’m sure we have to get better at that, but it’s not been — I wouldn’t grade it down by any means.
REPORTER: After the game, Terrelle said he still thought he made some young plays out there before the last drive. When he says that, what do you think that means or what does that mean to you? Is it throws that he made that he shouldn’t have? Is it throws that maybe he should have made that he hung on to? How does it manifest itself when a young quarterback is doing young things still?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I think that a young thing is a thing that you haven’t slowed the game down and just made a crisp decision, the right decision. The thing about Terrelle, as I said, he is going to analyze every single thing that he didn’t do perfectly, and if he threw it too soon or if he could have hung on or if he didn’t look at when the first option was taken over and he didn’t look at the dig or whatever it happens to be, he’s going to be tough on himself from that standpoint, and he is going to really focus on what he didn’t do, where the rest of us sometimes focus on what he does do and maybe that’s why he gets good, because until he plays a perfect game, I don’t think you’re going to see him smiling and happy in a post-game thing because he’ll be thinking about that one pass he should have made or one check-off he didn’t do or something like that.
REPORTER: Are you surprised at all at how poised he is? I mean it’s easy to forget this guy was playing high school ball last year at this time.
COACH TRESSEL: I heard one analyst say he had spring practice so he got to learn the system, and I’m thinking, I don’t know where he was at spring practice, he came in in August. For a guy to come in in August and step up — he’s passionate about learning. He picked Todd’s brain. Todd I’m sure got tired of talking to him about things he wants to know. He’s got an innate need for information and some guys don’t have that. Some guys would just rather go out and play, but he wants information because he wants to play as well as he can play.
REPORTER: Early in his career, I think you said you needed to convince Troy — you weren’t interested in a baller, you were interested in a quarterback.
COACH TRESSEL: Right.
REPORTER: Is it a fine line between being a baller and being a quarterback because at times it looks like Terrelle is balling, but he’s obviously doing what you want, so —
COACH TRESSEL: I think the fine line is the guy that wants to know what’s going on and wants to know the coverage and wants to know how we’re pass protecting, wants to know all those things, why are we running this route or whatever, that’s the guy that’s not balling. Now, when the ball is snapped, things don’t always work right. That right guard was supposed to block that guy and it didn’t get blocked and now put the chalk down because it didn’t work and now you have to go and make something happen. And so within every play, there’s a little bit of an analyzation and a little bit of instinctive reaction and so forth.
REPORTER: A long time reader, first time emailer was asking —
COACH TRESSEL: Long time reader, first time emailer, just got a computer, okay, go ahead, just trying to put it all together there.
REPORTER: — why you guys don’t run more play action in the red zone, obviously you’ve got the threat of Beanie back there, and number two, I wanted to follow up with, as you looked at your red zone play selection the other night, what did you like, what did you not like?
COACH TRESSEL: I liked the last one. I’m trying to think. I’d have to sit down and look at it on the film. Our red zone day typically where we study ourselves and our opponents is Wednesday. I was just looking at a little bit of Purdue in the red zone before I came over and they’re going to blitz you. And so according to what you think you’re going to see and sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong, according to how you execute, sometimes it looks like it was a good idea, sometimes it doesn’t. And I guess the reality is, the ones that worked, those were good decisions and the ones that didn’t, should have changed the call.
REPORTER: As you watch Terrelle on tape now, six games in does he process things very quickly as he sees them on the field? Do you understand what I’m saying? Has he impressed you with that aspect of his game?
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, he really has. Just take the first third down in that game. We were at an empty set, and the only time we had seen them use a certain blitz with a deuce coverage that’s not used very often was in a different set. They happened to use that blitz against an empty and I mean from the snap, you knew he was going — you knew where the hole was, he knew he could hit Dane from about 17 yards and I’m thinking, he never did that once in his life, I mean, we didn’t rehearse that. Now, he’d seen it on film, so I think he does not only process when he’s trying to learn, but he has a good feel for things around him.
REPORTER: Did he tell you he noticed their confusion on the touchdown, the option for the winner, did he notice their confusion?
COACH TRESSEL: He said he was calling for the ball and I was screaming, “Get it snapped,” but he didn’t tell me that. I didn’t talk to him after the game, you guys did.
REPORTER: Speaking of that, Jim, he said after the game that you sent him out there with a simple, “we need a big drive here,” is that all you said to him and what did he say back?
COACH TRESSEL: If he said that’s what I said, I’m sure I did, I can’t remember. And I was hoping he was listening close to what play was being sent out there, but you need to go one play at a time. And so “we need a big drive” makes sense. Okay, now, here’s the first play, we went out on the first play, was wide open, we didn’t hit it, could have been caught, could have been thrown a little better, all those things, but now it’s the second play. He’s willing to go play by play and that’s what was impressive.
It’s not all about the guy with the ball in his hands. The rest of the guys were willing to go play by play and believe that they were going to be successful and do what they had to do to get Beanie in the end zone or Terrelle in the end zone or the receiver in the end zone and there was a good feeling. Now, did I know we were going to go down and score? Absolutely not. You didn’t have time to think about too much.
REPORTER: The offensive line, I know Rehring got in for a couple series, but what did you think about the offensive line play in general and how do you maybe see them getting Rehring in or moving around this week at all?
COACH TRESSEL: Rehring only got in a dozen or so plays and I’ll have you ask him why it was — he missed an 11-play drive. He had to go to the restroom, and so he probably would have played closer to half of the time, but he missed an 11 and then he missed like a 10.
REPORTER: That’s a long bathroom break.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, there were multiple. But to answer your question, we’ve got to keep getting better. I think every time Mike Brewster plays in a game, he’s going to get better. He had a couple MAs near the end of the game, that if those weren’t MAs, he may have graded winning, he’s getting that close.
I thought Alex Boone played solid. Ben and Bryant Browning and Steve kind of handled the right side. Jimmy Cordle handled the left guard. I think the more he plays guard, the faster he’ll play. But we’ve got to get significantly better up there. I think we all know that.
REPORTER: Talk a little bit about the series since you’ve been here. Seems like there have been a lot of thrillers.
COACH TRESSEL: Purdue?
REPORTER: Yeah, from Kudla makes a play —
COACH TRESSEL: Right, it was fourth and one up there and the next year it was overtime, wasn’t it? And the next year we’re in the red zone five times and turn it over and lose and then we took a two-year hiatus? Or did we? Somewhere in there we did. I don’t know, did we? Yeah, ’05 and ’06, I don’t think we played. And then in ’07 was up there. Yeah, it was up there, night game. But, no, they’ve been battles.
That’s why when someone asked, is this something the guys are going to have a letdown, not if they’ve played against them. Remember how much film we watch of the Big Ten schools as we’re playing each other, you can’t relax when you’re playing Purdue, they’re good. It’s Big Ten and we’re right in the midst of it and we’re at home and there’s a million reasons.
Dionne I don’t know, I’m going to have you take the last one. You’re the new Emily who was the new Lori who was the new Marla. So you’re like the fourth — fourth generation.
REPORTER: I’ll take it. Some of those plays Terrelle talked about not getting rid of the ball because he was so rushed, because he’s so hard on himself, do you have to do a lot of coaching in those situations or does he recognize that and make the adjustment himself?
COACH TRESSEL: He’s the first to tell you what he didn’t do as well as he should have and I think the coaching is just making sure that we learn from them and not beat ourselves up about them and that’s hard for a young guy because he feels a lot of responsibility. He cares for his team and those older guys and they’ve embraced him and they want to him to have the opportunity for him to have as fine a season as he can have, but he’s a guy that he wants to be good and you don’t have to point out — he would be mad at you if you didn’t point out something that could have been better. He would be disappointed that you’re not helping him become as good as he can become. So he’s one of those kind of guys that he works hard at it. Thank you much.
