Postgame Press Conference Transcript (OSU vs. Miami) – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Recap | Notes | Quotes | Photos | Box Score (html) | Box Score (pdf) | Postgame Transcript
Video: Highlights | Head Coach Jim Tressel | Ohio State Players
Audio: Miami Head Coach Randy Shannon
COACH TRESSEL: There was a lot of intensity and hitting going on, and when you can create four take-aways, you’re going to have a chance, and when you have zero give-aways, you’re going to have a real good chance, and our kids played hard. We’ve got a lot of work to do and we know that and you don’t give up two long returns like that and usually survive. So our other guys stepped up and overcame that and our returns were pretty good, which was a little bit of a tradeoff. But two good teams battling hard at the beginning of the year. It’s going to be fun to watch both those teams the rest of the season and we’ve got to make sure that we go back to work tomorrow and study what we’ve got to do better and come out and get after it.
REPORTER: Coach, two-part question, the first being the defense has now gone two games and allowed one touchdown. And can you talk a little about what you like best about the defensive unit right now, and then also Devin Barclay, despite missing the last field goal, tied an Ohio State record today with five of them, can you talk a little about Barclay and what he means to this team?
COACH TRESSEL: It was the first time I’ve ever been in a game where the kicker cramped up. It’s unbelievable. I guess we called on him so much he cramped up, but I didn’t realize he made five field goals. I know that we had to go for some field goals and they’re a tough team and we had some chances down there and didn’t put it in and had a penalty one time that, you know, had a touchdown called back and all that stuff, but I would have liked him to have made six because they were certainly all makeable, and he would expect that of himself, but we called on him to do a little bit of the pooch kickoff stuff, so we needed every one of those points. Defensively, I mean, we flew around and our guys up front are relentless and those linebackers are active and the DBs will hit you even if you might catch a few on them, but they’ll hit you. And they did a heck of a job against a very talented team. I mean, those guys — a couple of those — I told Hankerson, we tried to recruit Hankerson and I said, now, you were supposed to be doing this for four years up in this stadium, not this time. They’ve got some good guys, but our defense was smacking them and there’s no question our defense loves to play the game.
REPORTER: Talk about the impact of the Cameron Heyward play, the return, and then on top of that just what this win means to you guys, a big nonconference win, you’ve been looking for this for a couple years.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, Cam’s play was extraordinary because it was down in the red zone and they were in scoring territory. I don’t remember what the score was at the time, but they were going to bring it down to a one-score game whatever it was at that moment, and he made the play and I was shocked how far he got, and I kept thinking that someone was going to catch up to him and strip the ball ‘a la Clarett and Shawn Taylor because he was swinging it out there. Oh, man, I was petrified. But the other thing was he was tired for about 15 minutes. I mean, that was a long run for a big guy. But Cam Heyward is a great player.
REPORTER: Talk about the fact that this was a victory.
COACH TRESSEL: As long as we continue to grow, this is huge. You play a top — I think they’re a top 10 team. In my mind going into the game, you know, I was interested to see if we were a top 10 team, and I thought we played a very good team. So now if we’ll keep growing from that, we’ve got a chance. If we think we’ve arrived, we’re done, but that was a tough game. They’ve got some good athletes and they’re disciplined and once they got behind a little bit, all of a sudden they were sending nine million people in the box and taking some — you know, made it really hard to gain yards and took some chances, but we weren’t going to do something crazy and put our defense in bad stead. So it was a long game, I was starting to wonder if we should have bought lights because it seemed awfully dark out there.
REPORTER: Jim, can you talk a little bit about the play in the second quarter where Terrelle went to Posey, 62-yard, kind of got the offense, they kind of kept moving after that point.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, yeah, that was a 60-yarder and a 20-yard touchdown to Saine on the next play and we got 80 yards and a huge score and there was just a little belief that started happening from there that, you know, I think we can pass protect and we can throw and catch, and again I don’t remember what the score was at that moment, but it was a good answer. Was it 10-3? Yeah, huge answer. That was a great drive.
REPORTER: The first time in school history that a team has returned a punt and a kickoff in the same game against you guys, is the special teams becoming —
COACH TRESSEL: I’ll put that in my memoirs. That’s really good. I’m really happy you brought that up. What do you want me to do? They ran them. Are we concerned? Of course. Can you win typically if that happens? No. But the good news is, our guys didn’t fold and they — they know we’ve got to get better at that.
REPORTER: Jim, you mentioned that you were interested to find out if you guys were a top 10 team coming in here. After today, in your mind, are you clear, any more questions in your mind on whether you guys are a top ten team?
COACH TRESSEL: I think we are if we keep getting better. The problem with ratings and whatnot is you have to prove it every week. So I think we proved it this week that we’re a top ten team and now we’ve got to prove it next week and the next week and that’s a grind, but our guys are workers and we were very fortunate this weekend. We had two guys speak to our people that I thought really struck a nerve with them, one was William White spoke to them on Friday night and the other was Cie Grant spoke to them this afternoon at pregame meal. Those are pretty special players, and you could just see our guys’ reaction. They gained a little confidence and felt a little sense of responsibility listening to those two guys. And I thought that was as key a play as anything for us.
REPORTER: How would you evaluate Terrelle’s passing today, Jim?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, he didn’t have any interceptions, so that’s huge. And, wait a minute, I’ve got the numbers here. 12 for 27. You know, we’d like to be a little bit better than that, but when you throw it 27 times and get 233, that’s probably, you know, nine yards or so plus per attempt or something like that. So anytime you’re over eight yards an attempt, that’s a good thing, but I thought he did some good things and he’ll have a chance to go back and study his feet. Those people put a little pressure on you. It’s not like going against a scout team or something like that where you can stand there all day, so it will be a good moment for him to really latch into the film and try to get better.
REPORTER: There were some pretty good runs.
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, the thing we always say is if they’re going to play man-to-man and edge rush you with speed and so forth and if you can step up, they’re dead, they’ve got nobody there. And so I don’t know how many of his 113 yards rushing were on passing plays, but I think some of them were, so probably 80 of them. So that’s a pretty good job passing. Part of passing is deciding when not to pass.
