Postgame Press Conference Transcript From Ohio State vs. Eastern Michigan – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Video: Highlights | Head Coach Jim Tressel | Ohio State Players
Audio: Eastern Michigan Head Coach Ron English
COACH TRESSEL: I thought our guys came out ready to go and focused in to get better. You get a lead so quick sometimes you can relax just a little. I thought Eastern Michigan did a nice job. They hit a couple misdirection pop passes right in the scene which were well designed and hit a couple longer passes than we’re used to, which our defense then had a chance to rise up and make sure that didn’t happen anymore, but a lot of guys got to play and our guys are excited to be beginning Big Ten play.
REPORTER: Talk about Terrelle today. He got counted for six touchdowns today, threw for four, ran for one and got one, and then also piggy-back on that maybe also by talking about Dane Sanzenbacher caught four touchdown passes.
COACH TRESSEL: Dane caught four? Hmm. Hmm. Dane’s good. I don’t know what to tell you. He’s where he’s supposed to be and we don’t really go into a game saying, well, so and so is going to have this. It’s all according to who’s open, and some of the things we were doing, Dane was the guy that popped open. I thought Terrelle didn’t have many ill-advised throws. I’d have to go back, of course, I don’t know how many times he threw it, 20 for 26. I don’t think too many of them were not when and where they should have been, but, yeah, six touchdowns. If we could have that every week, we’d take it.
REPORTER: You set us into the record books today, I know scoring points hasn’t always been a point of emphasis, but it hasn’t been done since the ’50s. How do you gauge the offensive production today?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, we got a fast start. And your fourth tailback happens to be a guy that can play and he hit one. I don’t know how long Jamaal’s was, 67 yards. You know, that was just his own play. We weren’t looking to — you know, so we had a lot of opportunities. We moved the ball okay, but, again, we didn’t come in saying, well, you know, we’re going to go after X amount of points. I don’t know how many times we punted. Once. But there have been times when we’ve not punted and not scored this many points. It was a good thing, but we’ve got — what lies ahead is different.
REPORTER: Is it a morale booster for kids who don’t play much to get into the end zone?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, absolutely.
REPORTER: Guiton.
COACH TRESSEL: Kenny lost his mind, dropped the ball on the end zone floor and didn’t hand it to the official, it was obviously an excitable moment. But the interesting thing is all those guys work as many days and as many hours as the guys that get six touchdowns. So it’s neat for them to have those opportunities.
REPORTER: Was it a point of emphasis to — your number one D was in there quite a bit.
COACH TRESSEL: I’m not sure. You might want to ask Jim and Luke and those guys about that, but it may have been a little bit of they didn’t want their last years to be one where someone scored, I don’t know the answer.
REPORTER: Jim, the pass from Jordan Hall to Terrelle, why did you decide to pull that one out of the hat? And number two, has Jordan kind of jumped more into your thinking now as you head into the Big Ten?
COACH TRESSEL: Jordan is a physical — he’s a football player, whether it’s punt returns, kickoff returns, running tailback, he can receive, but as far as that throwback play, that formation we were in, that was the only time today we were in that formation, but that formation two weeks ago Miami was in probably a third of the time, 40 percent of the time, and they always played the similar coverage and so we thought we were going to catch them then, and after the QB pitches, there’s no man left for him, so it worked out as we’d hoped.
REPORTER: Do you see Jordan jumping into the rotation now at tailback? He’s shown a lot of —
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, it’s going to be a physical next couple of months and in our minds, Jordan is in the rotation, so he’ll continue to play.
REPORTER: I want to ask about injuries, Jake Stoneburner looked like he left early in the game and Chimdi Chekwa missed two quarters, anybody else who came out of this game banged up?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, Jake rolled an ankle early. Chim had a little bit of a back spasm, I think like mid first quarter, but then was back there a little bit later and was fine. I can’t think of anyone else.I don’t know. Anyone? Sweat got his helmet messed up on that one play. That’s why it looked like he was looking through his ear hole, but I think he’s fine as far as I know.
REPORTER: Now that you move into Big Ten play, do you like what you’ve seen from your team for the first four games? Can you assess where you are and how the challenge changes now?
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, their work ethic is very good. They love to prepare. They really genuinely enjoy one another’s company and push one another, are happy for one another when good things happen. So we’ve obviously got to get much better at some things and we’re going on the road, which really turns it up a notch. We’ve had the good fortune to play here four straight weeks, which is a decided advantage, but I like where we are. Now we’ll find out how good we are.
REPORTER: Jim, you obviously emphasized the passing game today with great success. I’m curious how you would grade your offensive line in particular with run blocking and if that’s going to be maybe an emphasis as you move forward, as you say, into Big Ten play.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I thought our pass protection was good and that’s why you could throw it a little bit. Run blocking-wise, there really wasn’t anything there other than there was an extra safety down about four yards from the line of scrimmage every time we had two backs and they weren’t going to let us just line up and run the ball and so that’s why we — 26 times doesn’t sound like many throws, but it was a decent percentage of the throws while the game was still — the first group was still in, so I don’t know that we had a blocking problem, but there are some times when they can bring one more guy and it’s going to be harder.
REPORTER: Jim, there were times when you guys were getting to the line pretty quickly with the offense, was there something of a hurry-up you guys wanted to work on today or were you trying to give the offense a tempo boost?
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, we thought it would be good to come in and go quick tempo. We felt we probably had more depth than they, and we thought if we could come out and really make them play fast, frequent, that it would give us an advantage. Plus I think it helps you, sometimes you’re in a nonconference game and everyone’s talking about maybe the challenge isn’t as great as some challenges. If you’re out there and you’re just going, you don’t have time to think about anything other than execution.
REPORTER: Jim, what is just your thoughts on the idea of style points for wins now with teams unbeaten and a lot of people think Boise State, the last big statement game tonight against Oregon State, you guys face a tough Big Ten, but what do you think about the idea that you’ve got to every week look good so to speak?
COACH TRESSEL: I suppose if someone isn’t sold on your league, maybe that’s something that you consider, but we’ve always said that if we could be successful in our league and obviously in our nonconference schedule that we’ll have enough style and you’ll see where you land, but it’s a whole different world when you go into conference play. There’s not a whole bunch of style points, more heavyweight bout than it is a style show, so — thank you.
REPORTER: Dane, can we start with you tonight instead of ending with you tonight? Four touchdown receptions today. Could you talk about, A, the thrill of having four touchdowns in one game and, B, Terrelle’s passing?
DANE SANZENBACHER: Well, I think obviously you never come into a game expecting to do that. I think as an offense, we don’t come into the game planning on 73 points either, but sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time and Terrelle put the ball on the money for me and I think you saw throughout the game, we got in the hurry-up offense a little bit, and he could kind of command that and still keep his composure and make good throws.
REPORTER: Brandon, can you talk a little bit about the turf burn you had this week and how that affected you today and how it’s going to affect you going forward?
BRANDON SAINE: My turf burn is fine. It’s healed up really well and I barely even noticed it today.
REPORTER: For the three defensive guys, after they scored their third touchdown, before you guys went back out there, you had a big all-defensive huddle on the field, what was said? What was reinforced or what were you talking about there?
CAMERON HEYWARD: We just had to — we didn’t play Buckeye football in the first quarter or second quarter. We had to let all the guys know we had to step it up, just do our job. We just talked about guys were just flying around and really not thinking about tackling, we were just flying around, but I think after we had that little huddle, guys did their job and pulled it together.
REPORTER: Your secondary has been kind of depleted recently, banged up. You guys gave up five pass plays of 20 yards or more, is that a point of concern right now? ROSS HOMAN: I don’t think so at all. I know our D line has to step it up. I think if we had gotten to them a little bit earlier and just disrupted passing, if we control it up front, it leaves our back end, but I think our back end is doing a really good job right now.
BRIAN ROLLE: Always with the DBs, a big pass play comes, really the DB’s job too to get some pressure and drop back in coverage, so it’s not the DBs, it’s a cooperative effort.
REPORTER: Bryant, we’ll take you. Can you reflect on the fact that the nonleague season’s over, it’s called the Big Ten now. Do you want to talk about what Big Ten football is and what it means to you to still go after a six straight championship?
BRYANT BROWNING: Going into the season, we’ve had Big Ten Championships, now it’s time to start our conference play, a repeat for the championship last year, we have a target on us, so all of it is focus in the end, get ready and make a run at it.
