Sept. 5, 2016
Press Conference Transcripts:
COACH MEYER. Be it Butler By’not’e, Joel Penton, Roy Hall last night, yesterday, and he had an interesting thought I’d just like to share, because I think it’s pretty profound: That so often, whether it be a football team, whether it be an individual, a young player, even coaches or all of us that — so often people worry and spend so much time on what people think of you. You call it your image.
And then the second thing is the reputation you have, and that’s whether it’s — correct or incorrect. Can’t really control that all the time. But what we’re going to spend all our time on is our what our identity is.
So you’ve got image, reputation, identity. And because of social media, because of media, because of just the way the world works right now, everybody — I was talking to a couple of players just in my office a minute ago that these elite athletes a lot of times will hire PR firms. Why do they do that? Because they want to send out a certain image whether true or false because everyone is so concerned about image.
What is our image as a football team? That’s going to be the chat tomorrow with the football team. The reputation is, like I said, you can’t control that all the time. That’s just someone that usually can push enter, push send on the phone, or write whatever they want to write. It’s your reputation, which is important to a degree but what really counts is what’s our identity, what’s your identity as a player and that’s the truth.
The truth is in this: In our world when you push play, what are you? Play means everybody visualize that screen. When I push play, what is Curtis Samuel — I know there’s a certain reputation he has now after that game but really what was it? I’m just using that for example. Curtis did great.
I think that’s really intriguing right now and that’s occupying a lot of my thought and certainly our team’s because the way it was presented was so well done by Roy.
That’s first. Second, I’ll do champions. Champions on defense — Jalyn Holmes, Gareon Conley, Chris Worley and Joe Burger. Joe Burger played only 39 plays. Honorable mention guys were Hubbard, Tyquan, Mike Hill, Davon, Robert Landers, Nicky Bosa, Marshon, Denzel Ward, Erick Smith and Damon Webb. And player of the game is Malik Hooker, played outstanding.
On offense, you have champions — Mike Weber, first start, graded out at champion. And we do a separate — just because of the, I thought Carlos did a very good job blocking, but what we experienced the last two years and really two and a half years is the best, maybe, that certainly I’ve ever seen and that was the performance of our tailback without the ball blocking, selfless play.
So he had 91 percent blocking grade, which is very high for him. For any back. Wide receivers, Terry McLaurin, he’s going to play more. Terry McLaurin played 30 plays but he graded very high. He’s doing very well for us. And K.J. Hill.
Offensive line, Pat Elflein graded out as champion. We had co-players of the game — J.T. Barrett, who played outstanding other than the first miscue, but he’s really playing quarterback. A lot of things he did was — you can tell sometimes, other times you can’t, but he’s audible and making the right calls and doing, playing quarterback.
And then Curtis Samuel had an exceptional day. 13 carries, 84 yards, you guys know the stats. 177 reception yards.
That’s that. On the special teams front, our kicker was our player of the game. Right. Kicker. I think you spell that kicker, K-I-C-K-E-R. Just for his family, not for him because I love this guy. But still giving him a hard time. His last name is Durbin. That’s just for his family. So our kicker graded out at champion. He’s really a good guy, man. I love that kid. His effort was outstanding. Made a tackle at kickoff. Hustled all over the place, very talented. Best hanging time we’ve had on kickoffs and did a very good job.
Also Norwood special mention and EGW (phonetic) had an opening kickoff tackle within the 15 yard line. I think it was the 11-yard line. That’s it.
I thought our guys played pretty good. We had a code green around here as far as getting guys game ready to knock the rust off the old guys and then also to get them to breathe normally instead of, what do you call that, hyperventilate, which most young people do before you play in that great stadium.
I’ll answer any questions. It’s time to move on. I would not take anything more than the guys played pretty good. We’ve got a tough one coming up this week, a team that beat San Jose soundly from the get-go. And very talented receivers, two NFL prospects at wide receiver, a returning veteran at quarterback. And a D coordinator that used to coach here at Ohio State. They’re very sound on defense and do a nice job.
Q. I want to ask about Tyquan, deep position group can be intimidating as a true freshman. What made him keep fighting in that way?
COACH MEYER: He was not a highly recruited guy. Came to our camp, Mike Vrabel was our “D” line coach. I remember it like it was yesterday right out on practice field number three. Just kind of dominated with effort. He’s an effort guy. And he’s a guy that just — our strength coach has him ranked very highly just as far as the way he handles his business. He’s a made player. Sometimes you get these guys that were already elite, but he’s pushed himself past the edge to become an elite player because of his work ethic.
Q. Did you have a tough time getting him to come that far away from home since he’s so close to his family?
COACH MEYER: No, no, he was, if I remember he said, you’re offered, put his hand up right away. I’m in.
Q. With Tracy Sprinkle out obviously Dre’Mont Jones needs to step up what’s another defensive tackle you need to step up now?
COACH MEYER: Davon is a guy that played pretty well Saturday. He has a little twitch to him. And Landers did pretty good at nose. So he’ll get more playing time. And we’re going to — Alabi and Malik Barrow. We’re taking a hard look at Malik. Josh Alabi played a little bit, but he’s more of a nose so we’re going to take a look at Malik Barrow. Very quick twitch, good hand placement, so he’s a guy that we’re going to look at as well.
Q. You have a lot of defensive ends I know you can move inside. Does that mitigate the damage a little bit? Not to sugarcoat the loss of Tracy. I know it’s a big loss.
COACH MEYER: Big loss, certainly third downs, you saw us put already Jalyn Holmes in there at the three technique. And obviously Nick Bosa is a very good pass rusher from in there, too. But first down and normal you want to have a good-sized three technique and right now we’re looking at some not defensive end guys, our inside guys.
Q. You said on Saturday that you have to look at the tape to see if the performance was really as good as it looked. What was your assessment after reviewing?
COACH MEYER: I think it was good. It wasn’t great. It was good. Some disappointments that — I think Corey Smith should be better than he is. I think he didn’t play great. He’s dealing with some injuries. And I don’t think that the technique of our wideouts was where it needs to be, even though they did make some very good plays. I thought our tailback played good. Offensive line, obviously when you only have one guy grade champion, they didn’t play very good. So they have to get much better.
What happens is, and you’ll hear the old adage that people get better between one and two and that’s because you get your game legs back. For example, our guys have been off since Wednesday — actually Tuesday. They didn’t have padded, there’s some guys on our team that have not hit since last Tuesday. And they’re not going to practice again until tomorrow. So your body starts to come back and you’ll be full speed.
Q. How’s Dante?
COACH MEYER: He’s questionable for Saturday. He’s got an MCL strain, but for sure he’ll be back soon. But he has a chance to play.
Q. You referenced J.T.’s one miscue early. Certainly he’s a veteran who faced a lot of adversity before. What if anything did he say or did you say to him after that early on?
COACH MEYER: I’m trying to remember if we said anything other than just move forward. And that was tactical error on our part, not just his part. But when it’s not right just burn it, don’t force something that’s not there.
Q. He talked a lot about different mentality this season as compared to a year ago. And do you think both the pressure — this is kind of speculative — that he could have bounced back as easily if he was playing with that same mindset he had a year ago, you know what I mean?
COACH MEYER: It always comes up when you have two quality players, you make a mistake like that and you’re out. The other guy goes in. Some people don’t like that. Obviously I’d love to have that. I wish I had three of them that were J.T.’s caliber.
Does that put more pressure on a player? So be it. That’s what happens at the next level. So I think he’s such a leader, such a veteran, and I think he knows this is his show that he bounced — there was zero conversation. We’re fine, move on, the next play, let’s go.
Q. Is there anything from a technical standpoint that J.T. is doing this year that he either couldn’t or wasn’t doing last year that might explain some of his plays on Saturday?
COACH MEYER: I think when you say that, it’s just the amount of repetitions at that position. Whether you’re a veteran or not you need all the reps. He’s our number one quarterback. He received all the number one reps. You get timing with receivers. You can see there’s some beautiful passes Saturday.
Off the top of my head, Noah Brown and K.J. Hill, that’s because they work with him so frequently and seeing there’s a couple of corner routes to Curtis and Dontre and those were well-executed plays because they practiced it all the time.
Q. I think in the first quarter Saturday you already played ten receivers that had already caught a pass. A lot of guys had played. Do you see that pattern continuing or do you think you want to pare it down at some point?
COACH MEYER: No, because we want to wear people — notice they had 50-some plays too in the first half. So our objective, obviously need to get first downs to do that, but we want to play fast, play a lot of people and certainly receiver position. And you need to count Dontre and Curtis as kind of the hybrid. They’re also our second and third tailbacks. So, yeah, we’re playing 10 but there’s two hybrids in there as well.
Q. Lost in all this is how solidly the defensive backs played on Saturday. How big a step forward did they take Saturday (indiscernible).
COACH MEYER: I think they did okay. I think this will be more of a test Saturday. There’s — Bowling Green a year ago with the personnel they had, a real experienced quarterback, two real NFL receivers — I think one transferred and one is — I’m not sure he made the team.
But I think Bowling Green’s personnel is going to fine, just not as experienced as the year before. This one rolling in here is more experienced and very talented at this point. Once again go back to Bowling Green. Played them a year ago, they beat Purdue, they beat Maryland. They had a quarterback that played a lot of football for them. That would have been a challenge. I think as BG, once again I’m not here to talk about BG, but I think they’re going to be a very good team as they continue to grow up and get better.
Q. I know you’ve been running around for a long time, and it seems like there’s a lot of different offensive philosophies that fall under the umbrella of spread. But with Tulsa’s head coach from the Briles tree, and the coordinators they had last year were from the Briles tree. How is what you do out of the spread any different or similar to what Tulsa wants to do out of the spread?
COACH MEYER: I think when you hear spread, it’s about numbers. So I think that part is similar. I think the objective and what day one install and what’s your identity — there you go, image versus reputation, identity. But the identity is we’re going to line up and hammer the football and run the ball. And we expect to lead the conference or be close to the lead in rushing offense.
I can’t speak to what Baylor does. But when you look at Baylor and then Tulsa, they’re very balanced, more balanced than people think. And so I think it’s somewhat similar. But there are different fundamental differences to it.
Q. With the true freshmen — I think you played ten true freshmen on Saturday. You talked a lot in the past couple of years about redshirting and you guys don’t want to do that. Is it really at the point maybe with the exception of offensive linemen, who maybe take that year development, where a place like Ohio State, you just should not redshirt because either, A, they’re going to be too good, they’re not going to stay four years anyway — and if you redshirt them you sort of lose a year — or, B, if they’re not that, then maybe you don’t even necessarily need them around for a fifth year?
COACH MEYER: That’s exactly.
Q. Is it a hard and fast rule?
COACH MEYER: That’s exactly the thought process and I first learned that when Pete Carroll was at USC. I read an article that they don’t recruit a guy to redshirt them. There’s too many good guys that want to come to a top five-type school. And we consider Ohio State a top five.
And we’re recruiting a player to play immediately. You have some great story lines in there — why did you take Darron Lee then? Why did you take, maybe a Josh Perry or Tyvis Powell. Why did you take a Malik Henderson?
Those are the guys that maybe we just see this incredible end of a career. So usually you only take a handful, not even a handful, three or four guys like that that you call them projects, but if it develops, now watch out you have a monster.
But we don’t — we’re not in the game. Years ago you would do that. You’d say: Let’s take this kid, what do you think he’s going to be like in two to three years, we’re very rarely in that conversation now.
Q. But you only played four true freshmen, I think, last year. Are you pushing it to the point this year?
COACH MEYER: Pushing it very hard.
Q. Even if there’s a kid that’s maybe put him in, for a couple of plays here, couple plays there, we’re going to have him play?
COACH MEYER: That happened Saturday, Keandre Jones, Malik, Coop, some guys went into that game. Once again are they going to be here five years from now? Probably not. And if they are, they probably got bypassed.
Q. And maybe last year, maybe there would have been a year you would have held off on Keandre?
COACH MEYER: Yeah, well, just last year we had so many guys.
Q. The other thing, the developed here that you’ve really pushed, it feels like, with a lot of the NFL guys that have gone on, you have that slogan, I think guys wear it now: “Developed Here,” that idea of do you want to make sure that people don’t think you just recruit good players and they just go, boom, they’re recruited, they’re gone? Do you want to emphasize that point?
COACH MEYER: It’s all Pantoni, I think I’ve seen that, like #developedhere or something like that.
Q. He’s got all those hashtags. For real, do you think some people would think like Ohio State, you just recruit the best and they’re good automatically, you send them on; it’s easy, right? You want to emphasize the development?
COACH MEYER: Mark works on our image a lot. I don’t care about our image. Reputation is important to recruit, but I care about the truth. And when they come visit and talk to our players and families they know the truth, the identity.
Write that down now.
Q. Coaches love teachable moments. When you win by 67, were there teachable moments, either positive or negative, that you work on this week?
COACH MEYER: Oh, sure. One lineman graded out a winner. Our starting receivers did not grade out a winner, I believe. There’s some great teachable moments in there.
You have a kickoff unit that’s expected to be the best. We had one good one and two or three bad ones. So there’s incredible moments. So it’s a lot more enjoyable to coach after a big win than the opposite. But, of course, yeah, big teachable moments.
Q. Going back to Dave’s question, is there a chance Tracy could play in a bowl game at the end of the season?
COACH MEYER: I don’t believe so. I’ll know more today. His patella tendon, had surgery yesterday, I got the text that everything came back. I have not seen him. He’s going to be here in a little bit. I will go talk to him, find out more.
Q. As far as the rest of the team is concerned injury-wise, how are you going into this Saturday?
COACH MEYER: Book came out of the game, but he’s questionable. And there’s a chance he’ll play. I think we’re okay everywhere else, right? Yep.
Q. Just a couple three. Is there a such thing as a quarterback having a knack for getting his team to the end zone? Because you’ve been around a bunch of them. And J.T. Barrett set the record two years ago in the Big Ten with 45 responsible for. Seven Saturday sets the school record. What is it about just him and that ability to get his team to the end zone?
COACH MEYER: When teams fail to score down there, it’s because they load the box. It’s hard to just pound the football at them. That’s where you saw the game last night.
I thought Texas did a heck of a job, spread them out, let the big freak run the ball. That’s pretty good game plan. Not everybody has the six foot whatever he is, big athletic guy.
But J.T. is athletic enough, certainly quick enough, twitched enough, to get us in the end zone. The other thing is you have to make those tight window throws.
And he’s pretty good at that. When you see teams score a lot, it’s because there’s creative ways of creating a run game. And that’s option, single-wing football, because the days of just we’re bigger and stronger than you, you can stop that. And then the other one are tight-window throws.
Q. Like Doug was talking about, about the young guys, when you’re in a game like Saturday, you’re playing against the school where you cut your teeth as a head coach. But you’ve got Demario McCall going into the game and Joe Burrow going into the game. Is there any such thing as calling off the dogs in that situation? You want to see those guys play, right?
COACH MEYER: I just kept — I did, and I don’t want to spend too much time on that. But I think we threw a swing pass or something. And I hear them saying let’s throw this. No, don’t you dare, just hand the ball off, hand the ball off.
And, yeah, especially sometimes you don’t give much thought to that; you’re more worried about your team. But in that situation, just out of respect for Bowling Green, yeah.
But Demario, you can’t tell him to slow down. He ran really hard and he’s trying to — he’s trying to become a backup tailback right now at Ohio State. He did a good job.
Q. Your father’s had three kids play sports. What’s it like to see like Demario and these guys that you recruited to bring in here to play and step up into that big time and make plays? Do you get — you just personally, do you get a little bit of that same feeling you get as a father watching somebody?
COACH MEYER: No doubt. I’m glad you asked that. As you get older, what do you coach for? That’s a big reason why we coach and the experience to see these young guys’ dreams fulfilled.
Demario ran into the end zone twice. Think about that for a minute. And kid that grew up near Cleveland, Ohio. Got to stick it in the end zone twice. That’s been his dream. I hope there’s more to add to his dream as we continue.
Q. Tyler Durbin, your kicker, I don’t know, where did he come from?
COACH MEYER: I have no idea. (Laughter).
Q. You know where he came from, but this is a little bit —
COACH MEYER: I don’t know him.
Q. The guy never played football until he shows up here.
COACH MEYER: He made a great tackle Saturday. He had two actually he would have made — because they tried to get a field return. I don’t know where the hell he came from. He’s really good.
Q. He is a football player —
COACH MEYER: He doesn’t look like a football player.
Q. But he stuck his nose in there, is my point. This guy just shows up.
COACH MEYER: I don’t think I met his family. I guess we have to do that some day, because he’s our kicker. But they raised a good dude. He’s a very talented too. Thanks, guys.
Q. You were excited to see Mike Jordan play, as you call him. How do you feel like he performed in his first day as a Buckeye?
J.T. Barrett: I think he did well. I think his nerves kind of calmed down. I think that was very good to see being a true freshman. I have no idea what that must felt like being a true freshman coming in there playing in front of 100,000 people. I thought he did well.
Q. Urban said he wasn’t exactly happy with the wide receivers. That was kind of a surprise. Looked like the wide receivers played well. What was your take on the wideouts?
J.T. Barrett: There were some times when we had some missed assignments out there, which we could have scored. It was kind of like — I guess it was bad timing. So when they had their MAs, there were opportunities to score when those times happened.
So I wasn’t as upset. But he’s the head duck. So he does his thing.
Q. Dontre Wilson is a guy who has been, had all this potential all these years, two touchdowns the other day. You know what he’s been through. Could you describe what he brings to the team and what you know of him, how important this year is to him?
J.T. Barrett: Yeah, so that is my guy, coming from Texas. And I think with him it was just coming back off of injury, trying to stay healthy and just he is also that playmaker that we need in our offense as well.
We have Curtis Samuel, but Dontre — before Curtis, we were talking about Dontre. So they both do the same thing, could run between tackles, they get the ball outside on the edge of run plays and also could run routes.
So they both are very dynamic, being playmakers for us. And this year is his senior year, so I know it means a lot to him. He put in a lot of work in the offseason, him and me both have. I think he’s at a good place right now.
Q. How tired was he after the game?
J.T. Barrett: I don’t know. I didn’t really see him. But I know he was probably with his dad. His dad is hilarious. His dad is probably fired up. And his brother was there, too, so that’s good for him.
Q. Do you think with him that he was at any time discouraged during his career here?
J.T. Barrett: Yeah, because I think where he was in DeSoto, Texas, he didn’t have any injuries like that, especially with breaking his foot.
And if you haven’t gone through anything like that before, I am pretty sure it’s very difficult to trying to grasp that whole injury and trying to come back from it.
Q. J.T., Philip Montgomery, Tulsa’s coach was the quarterbacks coach for RGIII, Bryce Petty and Case Keenum and Kevin Cobb, I don’t expect you to speak on him, but I’m wondering what it takes — you’re an expert on this — what would it take to be a successful quarterbacks coach?
J.T. Barrett: I don’t know.
Q. What do you need from your guy?
J.T. Barrett: He actually recruited me when he was at Baylor, too. But so the question is what does it take to be a quarterback coach?
Q. What do you need from your guy?
J.T. Barrett: What do I need out of my guy? I think toughness is like — are you saying what I need from Coach Beck, is that what you’re asking?
Q. You should be an expert on what it takes to be a good quarterbacks coach because you’re a guy who needs —
J.T. Barrett: You’re asking me do I need out of the quarterback or do I need out of the coach?
Q. What do you need out of the coach.
J.T. Barrett: Out of the coach, I think something Coach Beck does really good job of is breaking down film and trying to transition that on to the field.
I think when he got here, that really helped me, because there would be times when I would sit there definitely, I’d say early on, my true freshman year, not my true freshman, year but redshirt freshman year, I’m watching film and I’m like, all right, I see it on film. It’s comfortable. I’m watching it in the chair, pressing buttons.
But then I get out there and the bullets start flying, it’s like I don’t see anything that I saw on film. So I think that’s something he does a really good job.
And then just being I guess calm on game days. I think that’s something that is really helpful as a quarterback, because we’ve got a lot of stuff to handle. Everything’s flying around.
So with that, I think that was something that I enjoy with Coach Beck.
Q. I’m curious, you know a lot of famous people. You had a record-setting day on Saturday. Who was the most famous person who texted you congratulations?
J.T. Barrett: Most famous person? I talked to Kirk Herbstreit. We text every now and then. That’s pretty cool.
Q. From a technical standpoint, or anything on the field, is there anything that you improved during the offseason that you either weren’t or couldn’t do last year?
J.T. Barrett: I wouldn’t say something that I couldn’t do. The things I got better at was things I talked about like being able to see the defense, transition what I saw on film on to the field, like the first touchdown to K.J., I saw the no-deep look that we practiced on the field and in practice but also saw on film and what the look was going to look like and then checked into the protection and gave the routes, and we scored.
So that’s something that just from seeing that on film and they would go out there and know what to do and execute it.
Q. Is that something that comes from experience, or is that something you like specifically tried to work on?
J.T. Barrett: It’s a little bit of both. I think experience, it starts to slow down a little bit for you, as far as the game. And then something we definitely worked on in practice.
Q. There’s no quarterback competition this year. But there is one behind you. I’m just wondering, we saw Joe play. What you’ve seen from that quarterback competition and how do you believe Dwayne Haskins is coming along?
J.T. Barrett: I didn’t know there was a quarterback competition. Did you know? I didn’t know that there was.
But I guess my man, John, he did well. I think he’s just a funny guy. Like, he’s out there on the sideline, Coach Meyer tells me: Go get Joe ready. And I could see his eyes like this, warming up.
(Laughter).
Oh, man, John, he was hilarious. But same thing with Ross. That’s Dwayne. So Ross, I think with him, he just needs more reps. And I think the same thing with John. Both of them need a lot of reps.
And I think that’s going to be helping them definitely get better and develop is reps. But I think, like I said, I didn’t know there was a quarterback competition, but I think John’s ahead of Ross, because that’s just off of experience.
Q. I’m guessing that that start wasn’t what you had in mind, with the interception. What is the conversation as you come off the field or briefly in between those drives, is there any at all?
J.T. Barrett: The conversation with myself?
Q. Or do you talk to anybody?
J.T. Barrett: Coach Meyer, he doesn’t say nothing to me. The conversation I had with myself, though, is just like, well, darn, J. I didn’t use “darn.” But try and keep it PG in here.
But I was, like, man, J, somebody could’ve told you you was throwing a pick six the first drive of 2016, you’d be, like, you’re a liar.
So I was sitting there, I said: Sheesh, J.T., it’s a pick six, but relax, you know what happened. You were just being greedy. So stop being greedy.
And then I went to everybody and I was, like, it was on me. I apologize. It won’t happen again. And then we went on about our day.
Q. J.T., along those lines, what will you look at film-wise this week will you look at the positive, will you look at the negative, which will you spend more time on?
J.T. Barrett: Well, we watched film yesterday of the game. And we always try to critique ourselves and make sure we try to get better. So the positives you kind of flip through those like quickly, rather quickly. And look at the plays that need work on still.
So but I think that’s how any team should look at it. Especially we had a good day, but there was still things we could improve on.
Q. By way of self-evaluation, don’t give yourself a grade, but how did you feel Saturday went?
J.T. Barrett: After the game, I felt good about how I played. Of course, wish I had a couple of balls back.
But other than that, I was at a good place on how I performed.
Q. To go full Tim May on you here with three questions, you’ve referenced hilarious people three times here since you’ve been here. Who are your favorite hilarious people that are a part of this program, coach, player, whatever? You seem to enjoy that aspect of that personality.
J.T. Barrett: John is hilarious. He’s just a weird cat, man. I think as quarterbacks we’re all kind of weird dudes. I think it’s part of I guess if job or role. But he’s different.
And I said that to you all before. When he comes up a couple of years, you’re going to be talking to John and he’s coming up with his American flag wolf T-shirts, and he has a Tom and Jerry T-shirt. He’s got awful green shorts.
He’s just — that’s the thing, he doesn’t laugh. I’m laughing at him. I’m really not laughing with him. I’m laughing at him. Another funny guy is Michael Hill. He’s my classmate. He’s hilarious. I’m just trying to see, as coaches, funny coach. Ever get a chance talk to coach stud he’ll have you rolling on the floor. Funny people.
Q. J.T., you mentioned Coach Montgomery recruiting you when he was at Baylor, what was your relationship like with him and how do you think you would have fit into that Baylor-type spread offense?
J.T. Barrett: Relationship, I talked to him a couple of times. I went to Baylor Junior Day and sat down and talked to them, but it wasn’t — I guess it wasn’t anything bad.
It was just where I was thinking about the whole Baylor system, like I really liked their offense; but as far as winning a national championship, that’s all I wanted to do, and I didn’t see that happening at Baylor. That’s why I came here.
But me fitting in the offense, I think what they do, they play fast, which is great, a lot of power run stuff and throw verticals down the field. So it’s a lot of explosive plays.
Q. Is the quarterback — you say what they’re doing now at Tulsa, what they do at Baylor — similar to what you do at Ohio State, or how is it a little bit different?
J.T. Barrett: I have no idea what they do at Tulsa, honestly.
Q. Now that he’s at Tulsa?
J.T. Barrett: It’s the same type thing? Yeah, I think it’s different, just because we do a lot of — I guess it’s power run as well, but I guess I think we run the ball more.
They do a lot of more play action but probably don’t run the ball as much. But I don’t know. I’m not a — I don’t analyze, I guess, offenses like that. So I don’t know.
Q. Another question. After Houston’s win, what do you think of Coach Herman, and do you think Houston could be a playoff contender?
J.T. Barrett: Coach Herm. Big Herm. Yeah, I think — I mean, I wouldn’t bet against Coach Herman. He’s a great coach. I think he does a great job of getting his guys ready to play, despite who it may be. And as far as them being a playoff contender, I mean, I don’t know, that’s really not my job. I just go out there, try to win football games.
Q. There’s no doubt now statistically that you were very good at taking your team to the end zone, with either you scoring or throwing a touchdown pass. You set the Big Ten record two years ago for that. You set the school record Saturday. As you analyze yourself, what is it about you being able to get your team to the end zone? Can you describe, I guess, your mindset or whatever it is that’s given you a knack for that? Obviously that’s your ultimate goal every time anyway.
J.T. Barrett: I think the way I think about it if we go into a drive, just positive plays. And I think with that — it could be two yards. But just make sure that we keep on progressing going forward.
And I don’t know if that’s something that a lot of people may think about, but I know it’s just, like, say we’re trying to take a shot and we take a shot and the shot’s not there and they cover it.
Well, it’s okay. You hit a check down and let Mike Weber, Curtis Samuel, Dontre run for seven yards. It’s a whole lot easier than me taking off running.
I think it’s just positive plays. Even if it was me taking off and running, if I get four yards, it’s still a positive play. So we’re not looking at a third and 12 or a third and nine.
So trying to make it easier on ourselves as an offense. And that’s something that I think about and I think that’s just as a quarterback it’s something real simple you could do, is try to limit bad plays and negative plays.
Q. And the other thing Saturday you had a bunch of new guys around you. Did you find yourself, I don’t know, playing more cautiously than you would like to going into your fourth year? How did you sort of like go in with the mindset knowing, hey, the lights are on and some of these guys may not be on the same page as I am, how did you approach that as a veteran quarterback with new guys around you?
J.T. Barrett: Honestly, I didn’t think that way at all. Because the guys we have, whether it be a wideout or mainly just wideouts, and even tight end, Marcus, they’ve been here for a couple of years, so they know our offense.
They went through it with the spring and fall camp, so we got a lot of reps in and kind of know where guys are going to be and kind of the same page. So I don’t think that was something I really thought about because the guys they’ve been here they know the offense and we got a lot of reps. So that wasn’t a thing at all.
