Buckeyes Chat with the Media on CFP Rankings and Rutgers Matchup
11/2/2023 9:36:00 AM | Football
How important it will be having Emeka Egbuka back this week
"Emeka has had a really big impact in the games we played with together and he's done a good job of making plays with the ball in his hand. And so to get a guy like that back is huge. So when he's finally back out there, I'm excited for it."
On having Marvin Harrison Jr. as a target during games
"Given the type of player that he is, there's a lot of times where it is not a bad answer to try to find him regardless of the route and coverage. He's going to do a good job of finding a way to get open. I think we see that day in, day out just how consistent he is."
On begin a Heisman Trophy contender
“It's not something I'm really focused on at the moment, we still have four games left of the regular season. All of our goals are still in front of us. My goal is to beat that team up north and get to a Big Ten Championship.”
On what he looks for when figuring out defensive coverages at the line of scrimmage
"You start with the safety, and if he's pushing you a little bit, deep balls are probably going be limited here. Then, if the corner has outside leverage, that means he probably has help inside. So, different things like that are huge to think about before pre-snap, and you go from there."
On TreVeyon Henderson's touchdown
“We knew that we had to keep chopping wood… trees don’t fall on the first chop. It’s awesome if they do, but most of the time against a stout defense like Wisconsin, or a stout defense in general, that doesn’t really happen. We just knew that we had to keep taking it to him.”
On Rutgers' defense this upcoming weekend
“They’re very well-coached and they play very fast so they’re going to present a great challenge to us. We just have to trust in the game plan and execute.”
On how his game changed being in a different defensive line position this season
“You've got to be able to knock the offensive line back regardless. You've got to play the run always no matter what.”
On playing at Wisconsin
“It was a great environment to play in and definitely a lot of energy going around. It was a crazy game.”
On being ranked No. 1 in the first College Football Playoff rankings
“We're just focusing on getting the next win.”
On whether being No. 1 in the CFP rankings makes any impact
“It means we've got a good start. We got a lot of football ahead of us and we've just got to go to work. At the end of the year our goal is to be the number one team.”
On making explosive plays happen
“A lot of it is executing things well, getting your playmakers the ball. Then there are times were you have got to design plays to do exactly that.”
