Weekly Press Conference Transcript, Player Audio – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
COACH TRESSEL: I heard that one of the lead stories on the radio this morning was that Earle Bruce will be on honorary captain and that’s a true story. We’re excited that the 1979 team is back for a big reunion and decided that Coach Bruce will be our honorary captain so I will confirm that before we begin talking about the rest.
It’s an exciting time on the campus. I’m sure you could tell by the traffic and the parking and everything else. 60,000 students are going to work tomorrow. There’s Coach Bruce right there, our honorary captain, he’ll entertain comments later, one on ones later. There’s a bit of energy. I had a chance last night to go over and watch the Block O folks rehearse and get ready and get fired up for their first Block O assignment on Saturday afternoon and there’s a bunch of energy when you have the largest freshmen class ever and along with the beginning of school and beginning the Big Ten season, we have our Hall of Fame this weekend and big alumni weekend. In fact, one of our own is getting the Gordon Gee Spirit Award, Tyson Gentry is being honored by the OSU alums for the man with the spirit of the year. So there’s a whole bunch going on.
Fortunately we took a good step last weekend, got a chance to experience being on the road, experienced putting on the white jerseys and staying somewhere else and traveling and doing all the different things in a different locker room. Came out of the gate well. I thought our kids played with a purpose and defense set the tone with the three and out and the offense responded and the defense just continued the pressure. We were only on the field 23 minutes and we had seven three and outs. A lot of guys got to play a little bit, nobody really played a lot on defense. I think guys, if they played a lot, it was 25 plays, which, they had earned their keep probably playing 70 plays the two games before and so it was a good defensive performance. I think we had eight or nine guys grade winning performance over on the defense and they certainly set the tone. Offensively, I thought we did some good things. We had five or six, maybe five guys grade a winning performance. Got a lot of plays. Got a lot of experience. Had some guys get a chance to rotate, seven or eight guys on that offensive line, had a number of receivers get in the game, a number of running backs get in the game. Joe Bauserman got in and got to throw the ball around a little bit.
So, again, I think we played Saturday afternoon with a good purpose. I thought it was good for the City of Cleveland, it was good for our Northern Ohio kids to have a chance to go back home and they’d always admired that stadium and the thought of playing in there, you could see them as we did our Friday walk-through kind of walking on to the orange helmet in the center of the field looking around and it was a pretty neat thing. So I thought it was a good day.
As far as the award winners, Ben Buchanan came off the injured list. There was a moment there where I thought Joe Bauserman was punting on Friday when Jon Thoma was told to stay away from the rest of the group with the flu and Ben had not punted for the last 10 days or so. A little soreness in his leg. And he was given a battlefield commission to step in there and did a good job, 42-yard net and handled a couple average snaps and really did a good job there.
Defensively Ross Homan did an excellent job there. He had five or six tackles and caused fumble and was really a productive guy and does a good job of being part of that leadership group on that defense even though Ross doesn’t say a whole bunch, in fact, he’s here today and I told him I was going to go real short and real fast because I know how much he likes to talk and he wants extra time with you and you’ll really earn your money today trying to get a story, but he really did a good job and was the defensive player.
Dane Sanzenbacher was the offensive player and came right out of the gate and really was a clear guy that first play that went for the long touchdown but they tried to disguise a coverage and gave their safety a little bit too far to run and Terrelle happened to see it and Dane was striding down the field and threw the ball on the money and we got off to a great start so Dane had five catches for 126 yards, thereabouts, a couple touchdowns and really played an excellent football game.
The Jim Parker offensive lineman was Bryant Browning. He graded in the high 80’s and played both guard and tackle as we had a chance to move some guys around and he was also the honorary captain going back home to Cleveland and did a heck of a job there. The attack force player of the game was Cameron Heyward and we rotate our front guys in there, I think Cam only had 20 or 21 plays, but the plays he was in there, he was disruptive, he made plays, he hurried the quarterback. I’ve probably not seen more throwaways in a game than I saw in that game and obviously the young man was well coached. If there’s nothing there, don’t just throw it up for grabs, and he didn’t. He threw it out of bounds a number of times because he was hurried by guys like Cam Heyward so Cam was the attack force player. We didn’t have a Jack Tatum hit candidate this particular week and we had some guys do a good job on the scout team.
Tony Harlamert, a young man from Coldwater, the home of the Homans, who walked on here, had a chance, could have gone to the Ivy League on full scholarships, but he’s a Buckeye through and through and he’s going to be a great contributor to this football team, he was our scout special units. Jordan Whiting was the scout D. Jordan, I thin the last two weeks has come along pretty well as a linebacker and starting to figure out what it takes to play that position at this level and really his last two weeks on the scout team, I think have been very, very good.
And then Chris Fields, wide receiver from Painesville Harvey, I think Chris is going to be a good player. Identify told Darrell Hazell and those guys more than once that Chris reminds me of the way that Santonio looked as a freshman. Over there on the scout team, making plays, just has that certain something about him and I tell Chris that too. I mean, that’s who he reminds me of. Someone said, what’s he look like. I think Chris Fields is going to be a good football player and we’ll see if he gets to the Santonio Holmes level. Santonio obviously climbed, but at this moment, I’ve got a lot of good feel about what he’s going to become.
So we get a chance to fast forward and get into the Big Ten. We’ve been saying all along that this is going to be a tremendously challenging September and it certainly has been at that and it begins with the Big Ten and I felt going into the Big Ten year that Illinois probably had as good a personnel as anyone in the league. The explosive ability they have over on the offensive side, the uniqueness they have over on the defense. They’ve got big, strong front on defense. They have a coverage scheme that’s something we don’t face other than once a year against Illinois and we have to go a good job of emulating that as a scout team and understanding it as an offensive team and just the ability that a guy like Benn brings and — Arrelious Benn and Juice Williams and their tight end who’s a heck of a player and Cumberland out wide and Fayson out wide and all those running backs. I think our defense is going to have a tremendous challenge. And offensively, with the way that they play their defense, it’s going to be a heck of a challenge. So we knew that this was going to be a tough ball game as we enter Big Ten play. They were pretty banged up as they went into their Missouri game and as fate would have it, sometimes you like open dates, sometimes you don’t. They happened to have an open date and gives them a chance to get some guys back healthy. I think Juice was even banged up a little bit in the Illinois state game and gave him a chance to come back. It’s as it should be.
We go into the Big Ten. We’re fairly healthy. I think Jimmy Cordle right now is the only guy right now that you would say is totally out. Zach Domicone is probably a week from getting back in, but he’s moving. It will be probably next week before he would be ready. And Jamaal Berry, maybe another week, but outside of that, we’re in pretty good shape, go into Big Ten play with the energy that’s created on the campus and in the conference and all the rest and get excited about Hall of Fame weekend here at Ohio State.
REPORTER: Was Jon Thoma being kicked out of the game more about his illness or maybe to prevent a spread of flu?
COACH TRESSEL: Both. I think the flu thing is real. We had our team doctor speak to the entire athletic department about the realities of what’s out there and we’ve had a lot of our colleagues who were in semesters who have started school three or four weeks ago that can show us — you know, I talked to Houston Nutt the other night and if they’d have played two weekends ago, they’d have been without 19 starters. It’s real. So I think our doctors were — although Jon kept calling on Friday night, I’m feeling better, my fever’s down all that, it was both hey, protect Jon, but also protect the rest of the team.
REPORTER: Was he diagnosed with the flu?
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah.
REPORTER: Did they find it to be the H1N1 or the swine flu?
COACH TRESSEL: I don’t believe so. I’m sure I couldn’t tell you if I knew.
REPORTER: Is he better now?
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, he was here yesterday and feels better. What do you do to prevent? Wash your hands a lot, you know, and try to stay away from — they did a little seminar in our athletic department meeting the other day, instead of shaking hands, here, stand up, young man, you look like a lineman, you go like this, that’s the way — you’re supposed to elbow bump, that’s the newest thing, so you go back to the office, give a little — “s’happening,” you know. So wash your hands a lot and elbow bump, stay rested, stay hydrated, but there’s 60,000 students coming, it’s real.
REPORTER: Andy Williams is bracketed as a starter, assuming both those guys stay healthy, are you comfortable with the platoon situation there?
COACH TRESSEL: If we can, we like to play multiple guys because guys do get banged up or whatever and then you have some experience. It was good for Andrew to have a chance to play tackle and guard. It was good for B. B. to play guard and tackle. Mike Adams and J.B. Shugarts kind of stayed where they were, left and right tackle when they were in the game. Andrew Moses can play a little bit of both guards and he can play center if you need it. So right now that’s probably the group that’s most involved and we’d be comfortable with all of them coming along.
REPORTER: What did you like about J.B. Saturday? Where did you see room for improvement? Obviously he got whistled three times, he thought only one was really legit.
COACH TRESSEL: I told him, I’ve been coaching 35 years and I’ve never heard an offensive lineman question an official’s call like that. That wasn’t good, he was anxious, and he tried to be quick. People talk about come off the ball and all that stuff. So obviously we have to eliminate that, we can’t — and Justin had one as well. We can’t have those.
REPORTER: You talked about him and Justin being the quickest guys off the ball.
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah. Did you guys write that?
REPORTER: Yeah.
COACH TRESSEL: Thanks. Because they must have — they must have, you know — so you think I was quick then, you watch now, you know. Well, we’ve got to go off on the count, but I thought J.B. did some good things. He’s a young guy playing a tough position. These ends, as we head into Big Ten play, are going to be good ones, but he’s got to progress, as does Mike, as does Andrew. We’ve probably still, in our minds, are thinking that Corey Linsley and Marcus Hall may redshirt, but we’ll just have to keep playing along, because we think that we can be contributors as we go, but they’ve got to keep getting better. It sure helps to be good at tackle.
REPORTER: Jim, do you bring up the game two years ago over here?
COACH TRESSEL: I think for the people that were a part of it, it’s relevant, and for the people that weren’t a part of it, if you bring it up, they might not have even known it happened. So I’m sure some of the guys that were a part of that game, like the coaches that were here and which is, I guess, all of us, and some of those kids, that will be a reminder, but I don’t know what it will do for us. I mean, we’ve got to go out and do the things we have to do and get focused in on what we have to do against their current personnel. But it’s real, and so if it’s real, then you better consider it.
REPORTER: Along those same lines, they’ve won seven of the last 10 here at the stadium, do you make that an issue? Do you bring it up to your players or figure they’re going to know it anyway.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, these guys were in third grade in 1999 or whatever. It’s brought up in all the releases and all the stuff that they are privy to as well, but, no, I haven’t mentioned to them, hey, did you guys know, we have talked about the fact that it’s a long rivalry, it’s for the Illibuck, the last 18 meetings, each team’s won nine, I mean, it’s a long standing rivalry, but I haven’t really brought that one up about the stadium.
REPORTER: Did Jordan Hall impress you in his late game running there and how much will that earn him more playing time?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, Jordan’s been impressive since he’s been here. He’s a hard-nosed kid, studies the game, has done well running the football every chance he’s gotten, so now that we’ve seen him in a game, obviously it makes it easier to put him into a game, but, no, he’s going to be a good player. He’s a tough oh he’s a tough kid.
REPORTER: You mentioned Berry, along the same lines, is he missing practice?
COACH TRESSEL: I’m not sure he’ll be ready to go full speed this week.
REPORTER: Now you’re four games into it, do you contemplate not playing him at all?
COACH TRESSEL: I guess you cross that bridge when he’s healthy, according to how your health is, if you’ve got three or four guys that you think — you’ve got obviously Boom and Brandon Saine and Marcus Williams and Jordan Hall, so if you feel like you’re solid with that and you can redshirt him, or if all of a sudden we need a little help there, but Jamaal is going to be a good player too. I like both those guys.
REPORTER: Other parts of your run game, I guess Boom in particular, his yards per carry averages aren’t great so far, are the holes not there? Is he not finding the hole, the rest of your running game outside those freshman what do you think so far.
COACH TRESSEL: I think Boom had a couple chances last week where he just got shoestringed and you could see where he might pop it and all you need is to pop it and all your yards per carry is totally skewed. I haven’t seen his grade and so forth as being anything less than excellent. He’s where he’s supposed to be. He has been called upon at times when it was loaded up in there, but he’s not unlike someone asked, well, was that good for Terrelle to pop that long one to start the game Saturday, that’s what a running back needs is, go hit one for about 27 and all of a sudden, you get a little bit of that momentum going. No, Boom will be fine.
REPORTER: Would you kind of compare and contrast the two quarterbacks, the development track that Juice has followed somewhat similar, very athletic quarterback and where Terrelle is?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, you know, I think the reality for any quarterback, those two in particular you bring up, is that that’s a tough position and especially when you get put in there and it’s a little bit of on-the-job training, but that’s the blessing of it later is that you’ve had a chance to be in there, you’ve had a chance to experience it, you should grow from where you’ve been and I think the reality that both have faced already is that your cast changes over the years. And Terrelle’s cast is different totally than it was a year ago and Juice has probably had two different casts and people like to evaluate things exclusive of others and everything is so intertwined in this game and I think for the quarterback, who you’re working with and whether it’s the recognizable guys like you don’t have Mendenhall anymore or it’s the unrecognizable things like that left guard was killing people, that’s all part of — you’re affected by that.
REPORTER: As honorary captain, will Coach Bruce give the pregame speech?
COACH TRESSEL: Yes. Our honorary captain always addressed the squad at the pregame meal because it’s too late once we get to the locker room. If we’re not ready to go by the time you walk through that skull session and into Ohio Stadium, if you’re not ready to go, it’s too late, so Coach Bruce will visit with our guys Saturday at pregame meal.
REPORTER: As you watched film from Terrelle on Saturday, did you see him kind of play in the way you envisioned all along, a little more free, running, throwing?
COACH TRESSEL: I thought he played a little more relaxed and I think getting that momentum helps that. You hit a homerun right off the bat and the next few at-bats you have a little confidence about you. I don’t think it was perfect and that’s the thing that when the game ends and it was 38-0 and statistically 500 some yards and all this and that, when you go back to watch the film, there are still a number of things we have to get a lot better at and we understand we’re entering the league and the difficulty ratchets up when you’re playing against people that you play every year that know what you do and how you do it and so forth, but I thought it was a good step, I really did.
REPORTER: Jim, do you see any similarities between the progression of this offense and the ’05 offense, the evolution of Troy in ’05 and the evolution of Terrelle this year?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, the ’05 situation was, you know, after about five games we had lost a couple tough ones, hadn’t really gotten going on all cylinders consistently. When we lost to Texas and we came back against Iowa, I think it was, maybe, and played really, really well and we go to Penn State and didn’t play as well, it wasn’t until significantly into that season that we really started doing what we needed to do, so I’m not sure we’re far enough along. Hopefully we’ll get consistent more quickly this time.
REPORTER: Back to Jordan Hall for a minute, he looks very good as Anthony pointed out, what does he need to do better to play even more? Is it learning the offense? Is it blitz pickup?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, there’s only one tailback and Boom’s going to play and B. Saine is going to play, so he’s going to get his opportunities but to say all of a sudden you get 30 carries or whatever, I don’t know that he’s warranted that at this point. He’s done well. And the beautiful thing about football is every opportunity you get, if you can — if you can take advantage of it, who knows where that ends, but — where that leads, but right now, he’s doing as well as you could ask him. He has no learning issues as far as pass protection or how we’re blocking things or, shoot, he’s anxious to get on special teams. He’s out there working on trying to break into the lineup on the kickoff cover team. So, no, he’s a football player.
REPORTER: Are you looking at him sooner in a game though now? Does he have that kind of trust?
COACH TRESSEL: I think the fact that he’s been in there and demonstrated that he can go, I’m not sure our guys would be concerned at all at any point in time.
REPORTER: Kind of the legend of Andy Katzenmoyer as you saw it from afar, a guy that game in here with Spielman-esque.
COACH TRESSEL: I just talked to Andy last night, did you know that?
REPORTER: Wasn’t aware of that.
COACH TRESSEL: I thought you were bugging my phone or something.
REPORTER: He started — he was unbelievable as a freshman.
COACH TRESSEL: What do I know about it? He was a big guy. I saw him on TV highlights. I said, that’s a big guy that can run awfully fast. He was on some very, very good teams, as I recall. Went on and was projected to do the same at the next level and then what I know of is, his injury stopped all that and that’s the reality that all of our guys need to know is that you’re one play away from the thing maybe you enjoy the most not being a part of what you do.
REPORTER: But so many of these guys do come here as kind of folk heros, maybe his status was exaggerated, but what he did so early in making a mark on that Rose Bowl team.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, you know, James Laurinaitis used to wear Andy Katzenmoyer’s jerseys around and I’m sure we hadn’t have gotten James Laurinaitis if there hadn’t been that connection, that draw to the way that Andy played and so forth. I’ve always enjoyed every time I’ve been around Andy and he loves Ohio State and loves central Ohio and all the rest. But I was engrossed in what I was doing. I didn’t read a whole bunch or whatever while he was playing here, but he was certainly well thought of nationally.
REPORTER: Is John Simon, he seems to be playing more and more, what’s your take on him?
COACH TRESSEL: John Simon is a great player, active guy, first guy into the meeting room, first guy into the weight room, he’s going to be a good football player. He really enjoys it. You can tell the guys, you see the Homan brothers in the weight room and you see Simon in the weight room and you’ve got to throw them out — Spitler, you’ve got to throw those guys out. John Simon — John Simon loves it.
REPORTER: Did you see this coming with him?
COACH TRESSEL: We thought he was a good player. You never know how a guy’s going to do and that’s the beauty of getting them in here and getting them comfortable in the summertime and let them train with the rest of the guys, you could tell by his training he was serious and of course, let’s see how he plays football, you could tell right away he loves the game. John’s going to be a good football player.
REPORTER: You have won or shared four Big Ten titles now, there’s nobody in the locker room outside of players — outside of guys who transferred in who all they know is Big Ten titles, does that ever get taken for granted in this era, so much is on national title, the BCS, does winning a Big Ten title not mean what it meant 20 years ago?
COACH TRESSEL: I’m sure there’s some people that take that for granted. Anyone who’s played in the Big Ten doesn’t because they know how hard it is, or play in any conference, they know how hard it is to win a conference title that’s a difficult task, but I’m sure some people take it for granted. Hopefully it’s not any of those guys in that locker room you were talking about because if they do they’ll catch it with a left hook under the chin if they don’t think that this is a task that’s going to take everything they’ve got and we’ve got.
REPORTER: You’ve talked about in the past you’ve almost been more concerned with how your team handles success than adversity. It’s only been a week now, but do you have to caution against that? Do you have to remind the guys? What’s your message? Last week everything was doom and gloom and this week everything seems great.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I guess you could give them a little, I’ve shared with you before, the C.S. Lewis, “The greatest danger is the illusion that all is well,” when indeed all is not well, and that’s the truth. Whether you want to believe it or not, we did some good things Saturday against Toledo, but Toledo, everyone knows, is not in Big Ten so it has nothing to do with the Big Ten championship and yeah, the disappointment was two weeks away, the people that fought like crazy in that football game, I’m not sure that that is a distant memory for any one of us, but the task at hand is Illinois and task at hand is the Big Ten, so I would like to think — I’m not saying we’re the most experienced, mature football team yet, but I’d like to think we’re aware enough to know that we’ve got to get much better and it begins in the Big Ten.
REPORTER: The attractors to the Big Ten, if you’re watching, when you turn on the TV and someone says something about the Big Ten, does it anger you or do you find yourself having to defend the Big Ten?
COACH TRESSEL: It disappoints you, you know, that perhaps someone from a vantage point feels that way, but on the other hand, you throw out a statistic about this or this is the bowl record, you know, you have to — you have to understand that there are facts. Does it add one more thing that — of your list of 50 things of why you want to get better? Yeah, maybe. I’m not sure you give it more than it’s due.
REPORTER: Can you come after Juice the way you went after Toledo defensively?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, the bonus defensively, and these guys keep peeking in here. I’ll get one more. The bonus defensively is if you can put pressure without sending the masses, if you can put pressure and still cover with adequate people, if you have to send extra people, obviously there are spots open to throw the football. We hit a few of those spots last week. Toledo was bringing a few extras and we saw some seams and where there’s risk and reward and all that stuff. So can we put pressure on with three- and four-men rushes? We’ll see. I’m sure that’s part of what we’ll do. I know our defense likes to bring extras as well.
So the mixture of all that. Still, don’t forget this, in light of all those — people love quarterback discussions. Whoever can run the ball has got a great advantage. Toledo had, what, 13 carries, and that’s a huge disadvantage when you can’t run it. And I think Illinois does a good job running the ball, so first and foremost, we better make sure that they can’t have their way running it and first and foremost we better make sure that we can do some things running it and I don’t mean we’re going to go out and run every play, but we better be able to do some things running the football. All right, Lori.
REPORTER: Speaking of running the football, are Brandon Saine and Daniel Herron more alike than different at this point? It was always described that Dan’s the straight ahead guy and Brandon’s your space guy, but are they maybe more similar than we originally thought?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, I think that Boom and Brandon, Jordan, Jamaal, Marcus, are all fairly similar. In fact, they’re a little dissimilar to Beanie. So as you go back and you’re always looking at, here’s what we did against these guys last year, here’s what — I think they’re a little bit different than Beanie. So I would agree, and that’s a little bit helpful because at times a year ago we were saying, okay, well when Beanie’s in there, this is kind of the package, and when the other guys are — now, you have an opportunity, I think, for them all to grow and if we can grow as a run team, continue to have our quarterback to contribute yards and throw the football effectively, we have a chance to grow offensively, but we have to get better at all those things and fortunately they are similar and we don’t waste a whole bunch of repetitions conceptually going back and forth with some things.
