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Oct. 24, 2006
COACH TRESSEL: It was good to get a Big Ten win. The first three or four minutes of the ball game, five, six minutes, whatever it was, weren't exactly the way we wanted them and hopefully learned some lessons from that. But I thought from the time our defense took the field, when they were back against the wall for the second straight week, which we've got to quit doing, they stepped up and held them to three and then unfortunately we were three and out and had to punt. Defense stopped them again and the rest, I thought we did a little bit more consistently.
I think offensively we had a dozen or better guys grade winning performance and nine or 10 over on the defensive side, we had some good winning performances from the special award winners. Our special units player of the week was
Brian Hartline for the second straight week, I think, in a row. Brian made the big hit on the kickoff, kind of gave a little energy to everybody, and made another hit on the kickoff. Did very well in his other special teams units and was the special teams player of the week.
Defensively,
Antonio Smith made a lot of plays out in the open, so of course everyone saw all the good things that he did, but he just continues to be a tremendously smart football player, a good leader back there. He's in a group of young guys in the back that we were all talking about -- wondering how they would do, and I think both he and Brandon Mitchell have done a nice job of helping those guys come along and obviously they have some tough tests down the road here, but I think they keep getting better and a lot of it's because of Antonio and Brandon and Antonio was the defensive player of the week.
Troy Smith was the offensive player of the week and the thing that impressed me most about Troy's performance was he misfired on his first three balls, they weren't great throws, and he didn't get shook, he didn't get rattled, he didn't worry about anything, other than getting things right, and then the rest of the game was very, very consistent, both throwing the ball, making decisions, getting us in and out of the right plays, making big plays, and just a very, very solid performance, graded winning performance, which is difficult at that position and was our offensive player of the week.
Jim Parker offensive lineman of the week was
Kirk Barton, and Kirk continues to gain momentum, I think, because he feels much better than he did for a year or so, and I think he'll keep getting better and he did an excellent job, graded in the high 80's, which is tough for a lineman and I think he was our Jim Parker offensive lineman.
The attack force player of the week was
James Laurinaitis. James was very productive, did a good job of getting us where we needed to be and continues to get better and better at both the base defensive things and the nickel defensive assignments he has and if he'll keep improving, we're going to have a good linebacker there.
The Jack Tatum hit, we had three nominees this week, I don't have the answer to who the winner is, because that's left up to the team and we didn't see them yesterday and they'll vote today, but
Jay Richardson had one,
Brian Hartline had one, and
Antonio Smith had one. So we'll see who wins that popular vote when we do that this afternoon.
We had some excellent work on our scout teams, as always.
De'Angelo Haslam was the scout special teams player of the week and he's Antoine Winfield's first cousin and just bleeds scarlet and gray and does whatever you would want anyone to do and did a great job and was awarded this week.
Ryan Lukens was the scout defensive player and Ryan, too, is a Buckeye born and bred and his dad bill Lukens and uncle Joe Lukens, he's trying to become a veterinarian just like his dad and just a special kid and plays linebacker and does it well. And he was our scout defensive player. And Danny Potokar was our scout offensive player. Everyone knows Ed Potokar and unfortunately, on the last play of team Thursday, he got banged and reinjured himself again, so we might not have Danny for a few weeks, but we really appreciate the effort that he gives.
As we head into the Minnesota challenge, I guess what everyone wants to talk about first and foremost is where are we health-wise and
David Patterson will be back full speed, which is a real plus for us. Teddy Ginn does, indeed, have a knick on a foot there, but that didn't affect his play Saturday and I'm sure won't affect his play this Saturday, but people do see him walking around with a little boot on.
Lawrence Wilson left the game and should be in good shape. We'll know a little bit more Tuesday and Wednesday, but for the most part, we continue to be pretty healthy and
Anderson Russell continues to make great progress in his post-surgery, and so we've been real fortunate from a health standpoint and we need to be, because the thing that impresses me about Minnesota is, number one, they've got 17 guys on their team from Ohio and half their coaching staff and you know they're going to not even need an airplane to come to Columbus, and they always play everyone that they play physical, they're very well schooled on every side of the ball. I don't think in the last 10 years anyone has run the football better than they have over the course of time and they're throwing it a little bit more than they have in the past few years, I think because they have the outstanding quarterback, Cupito is in the top three or four in passing efficiency. He's in the top two or three career-wise in Golden Gopher history. He's an Ohio guy that's just very disciplined, just does a great job with the football, knows their offense inside and out, knows what they want to be in, and has been throwing to a great group of receivers. That tight end is special and the wide-outs, Logan, Wheelwright, those guys have all done a tremendous job, so I think they're probably a little more balanced than they've been, but they're never going to stop being the physical run team, which is really their signature.
Defensively they fly around and they're led by a guy in the secondary from right here in Columbus who's also a great punt returner, kickoff returner, he's got a 99 yarder for a touchdown and a couple other ones way out there and just a firey, physical guy and he's played both safety and corner, so it will be interesting to see which way they deploy him this week. But I think they run well to the ball. I think they're pretty simple. And usually when you see a simple defense, that means they know what they're doing. They're not going to be out of position. They fly around to the football.
What has impressed me most about this Gopher team is you watch the Penn State game, which they clearly could have won. You watch the Michigan game, and they were toe to toe throughout the game from a physical nature, got hit by a couple big plays and that was the difference in the game. They're a team that they could win any football game they're in and they're going to progress every day as they go and you know they're going to be excited about coming in here.
From our standpoint what's critical is obviously it's our homecoming. It's our captain's breakfast, which is a very proud tradition here where we'll have close to 70 captains back who will share our pregame meal with us, and be here. Jack Nicklaus, the museum we're standing in, is "Dotting the I," which is something not many people have done in this long, long history. And we still have a lot of work to become better and I think our guys are focused on what they need to do today and they're not afraid to look at the film and say, here's where we need to get better and I'm sure our guys are going to watch our film from a year ago against Minnesota closely because we certainly didn't have the best defensive game we've ever had and so there's a whole bunch of things from our standpoint, but what's most important is we attack today to get better today so that we'll be ready to go on Saturday.
REPORTER: Do you not feel the need to rest Teddy or --
COACH TRESSEL: To rest him?
REPORTER: He's playing?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, yeah. I'm not the doctor. I'm the coach. He's playing. I can be trumped by the doctor, but, no, all indications are he'll be fine.
REPORTER: Jim, talking about the scout team play, is that a place where those young guys aren't just getting you ready for the next game, but maybe they're developing some chemistry that's going to pay off when those guys are two, three years down the line, the guys who are out on the field?
COACH TRESSEL: I think you learn a lot if you're paying attention on scout team. There's two different types of scout team players, there's the ones that just look at the cards and go through the motions, and then there's the guys that look at the cards and see why we're blocking something the way we're doing or why we're running a blitz against this look and so forth and they learn from it.
There are guys that take a tremendous pride in that being their role to help the football team. There are other guys that, woe is me, I'm on the scout team. I would go along with your thought that, it would help guys down the road if they will pay attention to scout team as they should. And we've been very fortunate. Guys take a lot of pride. You hear them talking post-practice meetings about
Antonio Henton did this and we'll say so and so on the defensive field did that, and in fact, we have a grade sheet which quite honestly is new. A couple of our guys over on the defensive side created,
Chris Hauser and
Doug Phillips created a grade sheet for the offensive scout team with comments and grades and this and that and that's just been tremendous for the coaches, because when we see something written, so and so did this down there or he needs to get better at this technique or whatever, it gives us a chance to coach up a guy when we weren't, perhaps, at the drill. So it's something that we try to become as good as we can at it.
REPORTER: Have you seen Henton, on those sheets, have you seen Henton make progress?
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah.
REPORTER: What have you seen him become better at since he's been here?
COACH TRESSEL: I think early on he wasn't doing anything other than looking at the card and saying, where do you want me to throw it and so forth, like any young kid. And I think now he's trying to learn the concepts of what people are doing to try to attack defenses and I think he's always had the ability, they've said from day one in practice when we began scout teams, which isn't until the season begins, that he could really make things happen and keep things alive.
Now they're talking a little bit more like, not only does he pose that threat, but he has got a handle on what each team is trying to do conceptually against us. So again, I just think he's paying good attention.
REPORTER: A year ago, going into this game, Pittman hadn't scored a touchdown all last season and then he started a streak of like 12 straight games. What happened there? Do you have any idea?
COACH TRESSEL: It would be too simple to say he scored a touchdown.
REPORTER: No, was there pressure there, do you think?
COACH TRESSEL: I think your buddies always give you the jabs and the raspberries and I'm sure more than we even know. So, yeah, perhaps his buddies were telling him, hey, I thought you were a running back, and don't running backs score touchdowns and all those things. But Pittman, to me, has always been a quiet, determined guy, that he's not going to worry about whether he scores touchdowns or whatever.
In fact, we were talking to him that last scoring drive in the Indiana game, that we took him out pretty early, you know, only 16 carries and we said, don't worry, when we get down there, if it gets in the goal line area, we'll give you another chance to keep your streak alive. Then Beanie broke the one for 12 yards, and that didn't bother Pitt. He was happy for Beanie.
So he's pretty focused on doing what he can do and playing a great role on our team and I've been impressed with him this season because not unlike Minnesota, Minnesota's probably thrown more than they're accustomed to, Ohio State probably has too. And again, it's because they've been efficient doing it, thus far we've been efficient doing it, and the runningbacks at Minnesota aren't getting as many carries, nor at are the ones at Ohio State at this moment.
REPORTER: Did he have to show you something to earn your trust for goal line carries, because it seemed last year Troy got most of the carries around inside the 10 and inside the 5 and Antonio is getting most of those this year.
COACH TRESSEL: Most of the carries Troy got inside the 10 were option plays, he just took the option to carry it. And we teased him a little bit in practice. I remember one time Pitt not having the greatest option course, and I said, hey, Pitt, you need to have a little bit better
phase and he kind of gave me a look like, you mean, like he's going to pitch it or something? Just different things have evolved and Antonio's always had our confidence.
REPORTER: Coach, what does homecoming and homecoming week mean to you in this football program?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, probably haven't spent as many hours on it as you have being the chairman of the homecoming committee, is that accurate?
REPORTER: Pep rally chair.
COACH TRESSEL: He sent me a script for the homecoming pep rally and I thought, I'll print this off and give it to the guys who were going, it was 44 pages long, the copy machine broke and the whole deal.
Homecoming, when you talk to high school kids, we get to talk to high school kids all the time, the first thing they'll bring up is, hey, this is homecoming. And it reminds you of there's something about that word that's important, and it's something about it's the day, it's your stadium, a lot of alumni, if they don't get a chance to get tickets for every game or have the time to get back for every game, they make it back for homecoming, and you have a little bit more festivities going on with the parade and the pep rally and those types of things, and there's just an increased energy.
When you go into play at Ohio Stadium, there better be a lot of energy, period, but it just turns up a notch at homecoming. And I think in our particular case, it's also the day that the captains come back and our guys get to meet so many former captains, which is like a homecoming for them, so all of those things put together, we don't have a 44-page script for our homecoming day, but it's a pretty special day.
REPORTER: Jim, you've got Jack Nicklaus coming back, and I know you're not a big golfer, but he's a big football fan. Has he had any communication? Have you talked at all about this football game or about this event that you will that's coming up.
COACH TRESSEL: Haven't really talked about that. The last time I saw Jack was at the dedication of the golf course. He's been busy since then, I'm sure and I have as well. I don't know exactly when he's getting back to town. If he happens to get in on Friday, I mentioned to Mr. (Gene) Smith that I'd love to have him stop over to the golf course because we'll be there for dinner.
Now, I don't know his travel plans are, I'm sure, very, very busy, but I know he loves Ohio State football and I know he gets to a couple or three games a year and doesn't make it real public and doesn't make a big hoopla about it, but I am sure having grown up right here in Columbus and been to that Horseshoe as many times as he's been, when he gets that chance to dot that I, he's had a chance to do a lot of neat things, but this one will be pretty special, I'm sure.
REPORTER: Coach, you're leading the conference in scoring, you're leading the conference in points given up, 35 and 8. Now that you're eight weeks in, are those the kind of numbers that you were foreseeing before the season that you would like to keep opponents to under 9 a game, that you could imagine?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, our goal each week is to hold our opponents to 13 points or less and you've done a good job if you can do that. So to hold them to 8 or 9 is excellent. But again, we're in the middle of the discussion. So thus far, I guess, that's what we'd hoped for, but we've got to make sure we continue to get better and keep scoring points like that and keep holding them to points like that, and it becomes more difficult as time goes. And what I think has been a good thing is there's been a good compliment of one another, and you help one another, defense doing a great job and getting us good field position, the offense doing a good job outside of the last two games of not having possessions begin on the wrong side of the 50, the special units doing their part, and to me there's been a pretty good mesh of consistency.
Now, I think you really are rolling the dice if you start a third game in a row giving them the ball 30 or closer, because you can't do that and become the best you want to believe. But pure numbers, those are the kind of numbers you like.
REPORTER: Coach, obviously Minnesota coming off a game where they were very fortunate to win against a I-AA team, in your study of that visit what did you find that led you to think maybe why they struggled in that game or are they just a really good I-AA team?
COACH TRESSEL: North Dakota State is good. They went down a week ago to Georgia Southern and won like 35-10 at Georgia Southern and I've been down there. I mean, that's a heck of a job. On the film, they look very good. 35 guys or something on their team are natives of the state of Minnesota, so those are kids that couldn't wait to get to that Metrodome and they played lights out. And I think it will be a great thing for Minnesota.
They got exactly what they needed, which was a win, and they also had another reminder like we all have at times that every play, every day, you better be at your best, but I'm sure that I don't know what Minnesota has to say about North Dakota State, but I was very impressed.
REPORTER: With as much as you've substituted early in the year and the margins of victory lately, how much depth have you been able to develop and did you envision having as much as you've had?
COACH TRESSEL: You never envision things like that. You envision going down to the final snap of every game. And I think we've had good reason to envision that, because that's happened a lot. This has been a little unusual. I hope it pays dividends. A lot of the guys that have gotten reps haven't necessarily got them when the fire's real hot and the game is on the line and I don't know that you know totally about someone until they're in that situation, just like I don't know if you know about a team, we're talking about numbers from a team, we're eight games in, we're only two/thirds of the way, and the fire is heating up. But hopefully, that time will give them a little head start so that when and if they get thrown in the fire, just like
James Laurinaitis last year, who would have envisioned him getting thrown in and played the whole Michigan and Notre Dame games, and he didn't get many of those kind of reps last year, but he was prepared, and I hope the guys are prepared and I hope this experience has helped them, but you never know until you're really tested.
REPORTER: You said something last week, you actually sounded concerned that some of your starters may not be playing enough. Is that actually a concern at times?
COACH TRESSEL: When you're used to having those games that are 75 snaps for both sides, 70 to 75 and all of a sudden guys are getting 40, yeah, that's a little concern to me. I don't know, we'll find out. I know this,
Quinn Pitcock mentioned to me and I don't know if I'm repeating myself, but he mentioned to me that he was really tired at the end of that ball game, chasing that quarterback. I mean, the number of times we had to run around and he broke contain, and Quinn said he was tired and sore at the end of that ball game, so we'll see, I hope that we're getting the seasoning we need, but we'll find out.
REPORTER: Jim, when you look at Minnesota, do they miss those three offensive linemen they lost as far as their running game goes or do they miss Laurence Maroney and of course they lost the kid grade-wise, runningback wise, what do you think they miss there?
COACH TRESSEL: Gosh, do we miss Santonio (Holmes) more or Nick Mangold? I hope we're carrying on without either of those guys. As you watch Minnesota, they're pressing on, that's college football, guys graduate, guys leave early. Sometimes when you go from lots of experience at quarterback to next to none, you see a more dramatic change, unless a guy really evolves quickly, but those two or three linemen that they lost and the back that they lost, those are significant.
But Pinnix looks good to me. There's only one ball and you give it to one back, and they've been giving it to him and he's been doing a good job, but you might have to ask them which they think they're missing the most, but they're still doing those things that give you problems. They make you put a lot of people in the box to stop them and they do a great job with play action, which we knew firsthand last year and everyone else has known every time they've played them. So they're still who they are.
REPORTER: Will Ray just had a one-game hiatus, coach-imposed.
REPORTER: Coach, can you talk about
Stan White and the Draddy award and how that reflection on your program?
COACH TRESSEL: The Draddy award is like the Heisman Trophy award is to the academic sector and to have anyone mentioned for that is extraordinary. Stan, the curriculum he's taking, the accelerated he's taking and to see what he's taking now, he'll be close to having his MBA at the time he's done next spring. I don't know exactly where he'll be, but that's pretty impressed. So I would think Stan's bio of his academic excellence, his community service efforts, the fact that he was a very good member and contributing person on the football field, I think he lines up very well to have high consideration and I haven't seen any pared-down list or anything. I think a couple of the ones came out, like the Butkus and Lombardi and so and so list, but I have not seen that list come down yet, maybe it has, but I haven't seen it.
REPORTER: I think there are 160 semi-finalists, but he's one of them.
COACH TRESSEL: 160? Great. Very deserving.
REPORTER: There was a column in Sunday's Plain Dealer that floated the idea that you could be the next Browns' coach.
COACH TRESSEL: Did you write it? Did Doug write it?
REPORTER: I just wondered if you had a reaction.
COACH TRESSEL: I've not spent one day playing in the NFL or
Coaching in the NFL and I've got my hands full doing what I'm doing, so that's my reaction.
REPORTER: But it indicated they could lure you with money and a long-term contract.
COACH TRESSEL: I've got money and I've got a contract, so --
REPORTER: Is there any way you could foresee, what would it take for you to give the NFL a shot?
COACH TRESSEL: Don't know. Can't think of a thing.
REPORTER: Not to belabor this point, Jim.
COACH TRESSEL: No, I can tell. Antonio, are you here yet? He was there every time I needed him Saturday, and now he's not here.
REPORTER: Do you feel like who you are as a coach and the way you coach fits better in college than it would at the professional level?
COACH TRESSEL: I think it does simply because I don't know anything about fitting at a different level. I don't know how I'd do coaching high school, teaching math five periods and then coaching them. I don't know how I'd do coaching in the pros where it's a whole different world. So I hope I fit well in this environment. And I do consider myself a teacher, and love the collegiate environment, I've been in it virtually my whole life. We moved to Baldwin-Wallace when I was five, so nearly 50 years I've been in this environment and happen to like it.
REPORTER: Would you be satisfied saying at Ohio State for the rest of your coaching career?
COACH TRESSEL: Absolutely.
REPORTER: All right. I'll switch topics.
COACH TRESSEL: Thank you, Ken.
REPORTER: What did you think of the turf? Some of the players said it was kind of falling apart already.
COACH TRESSEL: It wasn't as good as we'd like it. But don't get me in trouble. I've got groundskeepers that work their rear ends off doing their best, but it wasn't as good as we'd like it.
REPORTER: What did you think of Michigan jumping to two in the BCS?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, didn't really study it that close. From where?
REPORTER: From three.
COACH TRESSEL: From three? The Big Ten should be on top.
REPORTER: Is there a part of you that understands human nature, like even a couple of guys mentioned last week, yeah, we're focused on Indiana, but hard not to notice that Michigan is ranked third or second or whatever, is there part of you that understands the human nature that your guys, I'm not saying they're looking ahead, they're focused on each game, but that November 18th is out there and it looks like as big as it always is, it may be bigger than normal.
COACH TRESSEL: I think they think about that one all year long, even in spring practice where you tell them to be focused on today's practice, I think there's a little part of them that that's the reason they came to Ohio State or that's the reason they went to Michigan was to play in games like that.
So, yeah, humans sometimes ask themselves why they're up at 6:00 in the morning working like mad and things flash through your mind like games like that. But then quickly you need to say, okay, I've got to get back and have proper technique on this set of squats, but I think humans do that, we all do. Antonio here yet? Okay. I've got one question left and then tell them we're ready. Marla?
REPORTER: I'm just curious of what you've seen in
Beanie Wells. I saw he got quite a few carries last week, has he grown a lot this season?
COACH TRESSEL: I think Beanie came here as a very good ball carrier and has become an even better ball carrier. I think his ability from a pass protection standpoint, which is usually the slowest thing that comes with a back, because there are so many things going on, and they get the last choice.
The linemen decide who they block and then they're supposed to handle the rest. I think he's done a good job of growing in that area and I think he's a solid receiver. We haven't had him out wide, but we have had him swing out of the back field and he knows where to go. Every receiver, every running back, has to know where his check-down spot is according to the routes that are being run by the other people and he knows it cold. So I think Beanie has come along very well and at the pace we'd hoped and I've said many times if we can continue to have three guys progress, that that is going to pay dividends and, knock on wood, we're still sitting at that point. Thank you.
