Football: Big Ten Coaches, Media Members Talk Buckeyes – Ohio State Buckeyes
7/25/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Read some comments from Big Ten coaches about the team tabbed to defend its 2007 conference title. Also read some notes from Big Ten Network on Todd Boeckman and James Laurinaitis at media day. Laurinaitis spoke to a group of about 2,000 people, including coaches, administrators and fans, at the luncheon Friday. The notes follow the coach comments. All quotes courtesy of www.bigten.org or www.bigtennetwork.com.
What’s the first impression you get when you think Big Ten this year?
Big Ten Network and FOX Sports’ Charles Davis: I think Ohio State is the clear-cut favorite. You don’t return 20 of 22 players from a team that played in back-to-back national championship games, have James Laurinaitis back, Malcolm Jenkins back and not make them the clear-cut favorite. But they will be challenged. I think it’s going to be a very competitive conference.
Big Ten Network’s Howard Griffith: It’s going to be another very interesting year. When I look at it, Ohio State’s the cream of the crop, but there’s going to be some questions as to what happens next. You look at Wisconsin, Penn State, Illinois, those guys are going to compete — even Michigan State, there’s another team you have to keep your eye on. It’s going to be real interesting to watch.
If you were to start a team with one Big Ten player, who would it be?
Davis: I love running the football, so I have to take [Ohio State’s] Beanie Wells. A lot of people might take a quarterback, but Beanie is go, go, go; he’s kind of like a relief pitcher in baseball, or even a good starting pitcher, in that he can eat innings, get you late into the game. The thing about him, though, is he finishes the games and doesn’t need a relief pitcher.
Griffith: I’d like to take a couple, but if it’s only one, I’d probably take [Ohio State’s] Beanie [Wells]. It’s all about his physical attributes. He has the speed, the power, and he can make a lot of offensive lines look really good. I look at his talents and see someone who is destined to be great.
Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN: I would probably say [Ohio State’s] Beanie Wells. Even though we live in this era of the spread offense, I still think that when you have a back like that who is so disruptive, so powerful, can do so many things, it takes pressure off so many other facets of the game. I think he can be a top 5 pick [in the NFL Draft], and if Ohio State beats USC, he could win the Heisman.
Big Ten Coach Comments on Ohio State
Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern head coach
Q. Coach, it’s Ohio State, I think
Wisconsin, Illinois was the pick in the polls. Is
that legit to you? How do you see this
conference shaping up?
COACH FITZGERALD: I believe everyone
is looking up at Ohio State to play for back-to-back
national championships. That’s pretty obvious to
me and after that you look at last season and that’s
what I look at. We haven’t played a game and we have 10 bowl-eligible teams. That shows me that
this conference is as strong as it’s ever been, and
that goes to what we’re doing in the nonconference
schedule to put ourselves with 10 bowl-eligible
teams and ourselves and Iowa on the outside
looking in the Bowl season I think shows you the
strength of what we are as a Big Ten conference.
Our non-conference schedule has some of
those traditional powers year in and year out, and
it just seems like the Big Ten has success in our
non-conference schedule.
Rich Rodriguez, Michigan head coach
Q. Coach, you have experience in the
rivalry games, Pittsburgh and these kind of
things, and you know how to approach a rivalry
game. If you could talk about what you can do
going into Michigan, accentuating the rivalry
with Ohio State turning the results around back
in Michigan’s favor after what’s happened the
last several years.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Obviously you
don’t coach or live in Michigan without
understanding the rivalry games, and we’re a little
unique from the standpoint that Big Ten rivalries to
our fans obviously are Ohio State, Michigan State
and Notre Dame. You hear about them all the
time. I still have on my desk from the first day I got
the job a “Beat Ohio State” button, so not like I
needed to be reminded about that.
But I do think it’s fun. I’m not a coach that
has a countdown to a particular game other than
the game that’s next, but there’s nothing wrong
with that. I think some folks think it’s a great
motivator.
I’ve been focused on what’s the next day
and what’s the day after that so I try not to get too
far ahead, especially now I think everybody
understands we have so much work to do and
change in the systems, and the transition, if you
look too far ahead, you’ll stumble your way early
getting the right stuff. It’s a process we’re in.
I want to enjoy the process and our players
understand the process. Do I understand the
rivalry? You have to be deaf not to hear about it
every day, and our players hear about it every day.
I think it’s funny. It’s obvious we’ve got some work
to do, Ohio State has had tremendous success in
the last several years, and Jim has done and the
staff has done a great job and they’re a top five.
They’ve been in the top five for several years now,
but those are easy games as coaches when you’re
getting ready to play that week that’s an easy
game to it use for a team motivator because they
hear about it all the time. I hear fans say well,
Coach, if you just win one game, it’s the Ohio State
game, we’ll be happy.
I don’t believe that; I’m not going to be
happy. I’ll be happy with that one but not the other
ones, so we talk about it, but nothing in particular
significant for just one team all the time. Our guys
hear about it.
Mark Dantonio, Michigan State head coach
Q. The top three in the preseason this
year in the poll Ohio State, followed by
Wisconsin, Illinois. Do you sense that the Big
Ten is in a transition, or is this just one of
those anomaly years before like Michigan and
Penn State get back up there? What’s your
sense of it?
COACH DANTONIO: Well, outside of
being in the Big East for three years, I’ve been in
the Big Ten since ’95. So throughout that time
what I’ve seen is people coming out of nowhere
and playing very, very well. 1999 we were picked
to be 9th, I believe, ended up 10-2. So, you know,
I think it can happen for any football team in this
conference. I think that’s basically the case
probably across the nation. We have these things
and have these magazines that set forth the
favorites and talk about all different people coming
back, but the reality is Devin Thomas, to give you
an example, didn’t catch a pass last year in our
spring football game. He caught six passes last
year for 60 yards, so the transition that he made,
the turnaround that he made, is just as indicative
as the turnaround that Illinois made and that
another team can make in 2008.
So as I said earlier, we’ll prepare for every
single game with the idea that we have an
opportunity to win that football game. If we tackle
well, if we catch the ball well, if we block effectively
and don’t turn the ball over, do the things that are
necessary to win a football game. So I don’t know
if I’m answering that question, but if I’m not, I’m
getting better.
Tim Brewster, Minnesota head coach
Q. You guys struggled with Big Ten
play. This year it’s not going to be easy.
You’re starting out with Ohio State, Illinois on
the road and Indiana at home. How important
is it for you to get off to a good start for a team
that struggled last year?
COACH BREWSTER: It’s really important
for us that we get off to a good start in nonconference
games that we start off. The most
important game to us is August 30th against a
Northern Illinois team that has a new coach, new
staff and new way of doing things. That’s all we’re
looking at right now.
At the end of the day on August the 30th
our goal is to be 1-0, and to be quite honest with
you, that’s as far as we’re looking. But you’re 100-
percent correct in that a team’s psyche is fragile.
We need to gain in confidence. We need to go out
and play well early as we move into that game on
September the 27th in Columbus.
Joe Paterno, Penn State head coach
Q. Having recruited Terrelle Pryor,
what kind of impact do you have think he’ll
have for Ohio State, especially if they employ a
two-quarterback system?
COACH PATERNO: I don’t think that’s my
decision to make. In fact, I think that’s a dumb
question to be honest with you, even though you
are a Penn State graduate. I think that’s up to
Jimmy. He has got to figure out how that fits in
with what his people are. I have absolutely no
idea.
Q. I wasn’t asking you if he should be
the quarterback, I’m saying what kind of impact
could he have?
COACH PATERNO: I don’t know. That
depends on what Tressel wants to do, Tressel
wants to do with what he’s got. The quarterback
he had last year took him to a shot at the National
Championship. I don’t know when he’s ready to
get into something else. He’s certainly capable of
running the Ohio State program. He’s done a
superb job out there. He’s an outstanding coach,and I think he’ll do what he has to do with both
Pryor and the other kid.
Brett Bielema, Wisconsin head coach
Q. Coach, listen, Ohio State has had a
recent run of dominance in the conference and
obviously back to 2002 winning the national
title, but they’ve lost decidedly in both those
BCS title games that they’ve been in back to
back. I think some have kind of thought that
maybe that reflected on the conference a little
bit and maybe kind of tarnishes what they
actually accomplished. Is that a fair
assessment for both the Buckeyes and the
conference do you think?
COACH BIELEMA: No one can argue with
Ohio State’s past history and tradition. I was at
Kansas State when I saw them win a
championship in 2002, and they did it with a solid
defensive play. They didn’t hurt themselves
offensively and great on special teams. They put
themselves in the national championship game in
back to back years.
Obviously things didn’t fare well for them in
those games, but as a conference we need to
have out there that last year we played Tennessee
in a heartbreaker, a loss at the end. Two years
prior to that we had beaten Arkansas and Auburn,
who are huge favorites in our game who as you
know are SEC opponents and we were able to win
both of those games.
So during my time at Wisconsin we’re two
and two. I think the great indication of where our
conference is at, the next marquee Bowl game
outside of the BCS games is actually the Capital
One Bowl in Orlando, and you saw Michigan who
had all the reasons in the world maybe not to play
their sharpest game ever, with all that was going
on there, go out and basically defeat the Florida
team that was really a heartbeat away from playing
in a national championship game, SEC
championship game. So if you want to group and
gather, make sure you have appeared all the
things gathered together because I really believe
the Big Ten conference is strong as ever and go
out and play anybody on any given day.
Q. You have big back-to-back night
games at Camp Randall. Did you have any say
at that at all, and what do you think of those?
COACH BIELEMA: As you know, the
powers that be determine our game schedules. If
they make a certain game a night game before a
certain date, there’s nothing anybody can say,
either home or away. Because three two
back-to-back night games, we had to go through
some proceedings within our campus.
But we’re very excited. We have a great
record in night games, and any advantage you can
gain on Ohio State and Penn State is a good thing.
Hopefully Wisconsin fans if they have a couple
more hours to relax in the stadium parking lot, it’s a
festive environment so we’re excited about that
opportunity.
Q. Some teams in the Big Ten run the
spread offense, and what’s it like to be one of
the few teams putting such a strong emphasis
on the run?
COACH BIELEMA: The thing I like about
being at Wisconsin right now is we’re unique. Five
years ago when the spread first starred coming
into the league, you needed preparation versus
those teams. For us now Wisconsin is unique.
You line up with a fullback and tailback and have
some big ugly guys in front that come downhill. It’s
a different preparation. So I like that.
I think now people have to go into a certain
preparation mode against Wisconsin, which to me
is an advantage. Now, we have to make certain
adjustments defensively because we go against
our offense in fall camp. We’re going to set aside
certain amounts. We almost doubled the
preparation time that we have for our preparation
versus the spread. The spread is a unique
offense. To me as an old defensive coordinator,
the thing people use the spread for is to create
spacing; they create one-on-one tackles and make
you make plays.
Everybody’s spread is different. Illinois’
spread is different from Northwestern,
Northwestern is different from Indiana, and Indiana
is different from Purdue. Michigan is going to be
their own variety, Ohio State, whatever they do;
everybody’s spread is a little bit different, which
makes that preparation even more so.
Ohio State Big Ten Network blog notes (www.bigtennetwork.com)
ONE POPULAR GUY: Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis is destined for great things at the next level, so maybe that’s why everywhere he went he had a bevy of reporters following his every move. If you wanted to have a few minutes with the national superstar, I kid you not, you had to take a number. I was never patient enough, but I did hear him speak as the player representative during the Luncheon. Laurinaitis was humbled by the gesture and thrilled to “speak into the same mic as Joe Paterno, Pat Fitzgerald and all the other coaches.” Best of all, his sentiments seemed 100-percent genuine.
POPULAR DRAWS, AS WELL: Take a guess who else’s every step was followed by reporters? If you said JoePa, Jim Tressel or Rich Rodriguez, you’re right. But there was one more, at least on Thursday, and that was ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit. It seemed like everyone who saw Herbstreit wanted a minute of his time. To no surprise, just about every women in attendance made it a point to talk to what is basically ESPN’s male version of Erin Andrews. Heck, even Curtis Painter told me “Herby” is the most famous guy programmed in his cell phone.
OSU’S BOECKMAN HAS EVERYTHING BUT…: Life is good for Buckeye quarterback Todd Boeckman. He’s the conference’s reigning highest-efficient passer, he boasts weapons all over the field, and he calls Ohio Stadium home. He has it all, really — that is, everything but an IPod. I was shocked to find this out when I asked him what his favorite song was on his IPod. And here I was thinking I’m the only 20-something who hasn’t come to grips with technology. Glad to know I’m not alone.
