Buckeyes Speak to the Media Before Kicking Off Against Texas
8/27/2025 10:12:00 AM | Football
On the balance between knowing there will be first game jitters but also understanding that you have to go win a football game:
“You just try to share your experiences with these guys of what you’ve seen. I think in first games, especially a game like this, it’s easy to have expectations and the only expectation is to win. Guys can get in their feelings because if you take a whole group of guys who are going on the field, they all have these great expectations of how it is going to go. But when you’re playing an excellent opponent like we’re going not play, it’s not going to go the way you think, coaches and players included. So we have to take one play at a time, play as hard as we can, stick together and find a way to win.”
On how he feels towards playing such a high ranked opponent for the season opener:
“I think it is great for college football, great for our fans, great for our team. Again, no expectations other than to win. It is going to be a great environment, like I mentioned before. The louder we can make it, the harder we can make it for Texas, the better for us. We need the crowd into it. Execution fuels emotion. I talk to the guys about that all the time, so the more execution we have, the more big plays that we make, the more the crowd will get into it. It is a great way to start the year. It’s just different. There’s positives and negatives to everything, but what a great game to kick off the season with against a great opponent. This is why you come to Ohio State. You come to Ohio State to play in games like this.”
On wearing the Block O as a Columbus native:
“Obviously it’s a dream for me to be in the Scarlet and Grey and when you wear that Block O, that means you’re representing everything that a Buckeye is suppose to be and it’s always been my dream, so I take it with a huge honor.”
On the anticipation to have an opener at home against the #1 ranked team in the country:
“It’s awesome. You have a great team coming in, who’s got a lot of talent and we just played them pretty recently, so we know they’re fired up and ready to play, but so are we. It’s going to be exciting. I can’t wait to be in the Shoe.”
On what you learn during the first game that you can’t during the preseason:
“Knowing how you are going to respond to adversity. It’s real heat. When they score in practice it’s different than in a game. The score goes on the board and you run to the sideline, stuff like that. Seeing how you are going to respond to controversy and I think we’re battle tested. We’re ready. Obviously the real test is in the game, but I think our guys are ready. We’re one group. We’re together. We know how to respond.”
On Matt Patricia’s leadership and being a leader:
“I feel a lot of respect because of his background and his career and everything that he's brought to the game. I've learned a lot from him. I appreciate him seeing my knowledge of the game too and saying that piece about it. For me, I’m trying to be the same player. I can't try to put more on myself to do anything more. Do what I can, try to settle the guys before the game, go out and play the game.”
On playing Texas for the first time:
“I was a rookie. I was a freshman playing against a really good team. It was a tough game for me. I gave up a couple of plays that I shouldn't have, but I also played solid and made a lot of plays. It was a challenge both ways. It's going to be a challenging game this year too.”
On what he looks for in his opponent:
“You never really truly know how the other team's going to come out. For me it's really just focus on my keys every snap. I can't really think about too much because you don't really know what the other team has been doing for the past however long they've been planning this. Just focusing on your keys and doing your job, if everybody does their job every play, we’ll be fine.”
On his responsibility as captain:
“I really have to step up my leadership role even more now. I am one of the leaders on the team. I have to make sure the standard is set here at Ohio State.”
On his thoughts on starting as left tackle:
“I always thought I would be at guard, but I've been working every day, working on my craft, and the coaches have been helping me out when I ask questions. I keep working every day to try and be the best player I can be.”
On him explaining his excitement going into Saturday's game:
“I am very excited. We can show, especially with this matchup, the hard work we put in this off season and show the whole country what we have been working on.”
On if this game feels different to him knowing he is a starter and a captain:
“Yeah, definitely. I wouldn’t say just for me, but the whole team. We’ve been waiting for this moment ever since we won the national championship last year. We know what we have coming in here. They are coming up here and we have to defend the shoe.”
On the energy from the team:
"We have great energy man. A guy that wasn’t named captain that has tremendous energy is Jermaine Matthews. We feed off each other and go back and forth."
On what gives him confidence that this defense can hang with Texas and the coach:
“I know what they can do, I know what Coach Patricia can bring to the table. They are going to do what we’ve been seeing day in and day out. I’m excited to watch them.”
