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Game Thread #1 Ohio State vs. #8 Wisconsin, 2019 B1G Championship Game (Lucas Oil Stadium Dec 7 8:00 PM Fox)

BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME PLAYERS' TELECONFERENCE: JORDAN FULLER, JOSH MYERS, JASHON CORNELL, JONATHAN TAYLOR AND MORE PREVIEW OHIO STATE'S REMATCH WITH WISCONSIN

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Ohio State S Jordan Fuller:
  • On the targeting penalty that was reversed on Saturday, Fuller said he did not think his hit was malicious but thought the same thing last year against Nebraska, when he was ejected for targeting. Was glad that the penalty was reversed so he isn't suspended for the first half of this week's game. He felt like it was a similar play to last year where there was "nothing he could have done differently." Fuller said he would never try to hurt an opposing player. "I would say if I was reviewing it, I wouldn't call it targeting, so I guess we're just kind of on the same page."
  • Fuller said the Buckeyes are going to "work really hard for this one."
  • On Ohio State head coach Ryan Day: "He's just a different personality than Coach Meyer, maybe a different vibe." Said Urban Meyer was more stern at times, whereas Day is more conversational with players. "Different guys, different personalities, but still just great experiences."
  • Fuller gave credit to backup defensive backs Amir Riep, Sevyn Banks, Cameron Brown and Marcus Hooker for how they stepped up coming off the bench in Saturday's game with Shaun Wade and Damon Arnette both injured.
  • Fuller said he expects Wisconsin to not only feed Jonathan Taylor the ball but to try to get the ball to Quintez Cephus and their other receivers as well. "Jonathan Taylor's a great player, but they also have other great players that can hurt you as well, so we got to be prepared for everybody."
Ohio State C Josh Myers:
  • "We're excited to be back in the Big Ten Championship Game. It's always an honor. It's such a fun game to play in."
  • Who's the best offensive lineman on the team? "That's a good question. That's a tough question to answer. I think all five of us across the board have done a great job this season."
  • Does playing a power team like Wisconsin make you want to establish the run more? "We always want to establish the ground attack ... I think with how well their ground game was, I think it was definitely on the mind of our offensive line, and I think we wanted to be able to show that we're in that same conversation ... It's something that we're obviously going to try to do again on Saturday."
  • On Ryan Day saying Sunday that he thinks Ohio State's interior offensive linemen are the best three in the country: "That's super high praise, and I take that as a huge compliment, especially coming from Coach Day."
  • On the chemistry of the offensive line: "All five of us are extremely close."
  • Myers said he thinks the athleticism and mobility of Ohio State's offensive line has been key to its success.
  • Myers said he thinks it is a "huge advantage" for Wisconsin's defense that they have had an opportunity to play against Ohio State's offensive scheme, so the Buckeyes have to be prepared to do some different things, knowing the Badgers will do some different things on defense as well.
  • Myers said it is easier to play indoors as a center because he doesn't have to worry about the ball being slick in bad weather and potentially slipping through his fingers.
  • On Day: "We just love him so much ... I personally want to win for him ... I can't say enough about how good of a job he's done since he's gotten here."
  • Myers said he still watches tape of former Ohio State centers and Rimington Trophy winners Billy Price and Pat Elflein because he wants to be able to live up to the level of success that they had.
  • On J.K. Dobbins: "He's just such a good player, and an even better person. He runs the ball incredibly hard, and as an offensive line, we just respect that so much."
Ohio State DT Jashon Cornell:
  • Cornell feels like Ohio State's defensive line has proven its ability to stop the run when most of the hype surrounding them entering the season was about its ability to rush the passer.
  • Cornell said the Buckeyes view Wisconsin as a "completely different team" than it was when it played Ohio State in October and that the Badgers will be "way hungrier" than the first time around, so the Buckeyes have to be prepared for a tougher challenge. "We have to play our best game because they're going to give us their best game."
  • Cornell said the Buckeyes are having a lot of fun and that the brotherhood this year is "so much better" than previous years. "We're all playing for each other. We don't have anybody playing for individual stats." Said in the past, there was more of a laser-focus on just winning whereas now, they're having more fun together and really focusing on playing for each other.
  • On going up against Ohio State's interior offensive line: "We don't take it easy on each other."
  • Cornell said the Buckeyes have treated "every game like it's a March Madness game." March Madness has been a motto for this year's team led by Day, and Cornell thinks the team has bought into that approach each week.
  • Cornell said he doesn't have a preference on playing indoors or outdoors. He grew up in Minnesota, so he's used to playing in bad weather.
See what some Wisconsin said in the entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...myers-jashon-cornell-jonathan-taylor-and-more
 
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OHIO STATE PREPARING FOR A RARE REMATCH IN BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME AGAINST WISCONSIN

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Ohio State has only played the same team twice in the same season once since the turn of the 20th century, and that game could serve as a warning against overconfidence for this year’s Buckeyes in the coming days.

In 1975, Ohio State earned a 41-20 win in a regular-season non-conference game against UCLA but suffered a 23-10 loss to the Bruins in the Rose Bowl, which spoiled what otherwise would have been an undefeated season for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State will look to avoid the same fate when it plays its first in-season rematch in 44 years against Wisconsin in Saturday’s Big Ten Championship Game.
The Buckeyes rolled to a 38-7 victory in their regular-season game against the Badgers at Ohio Stadium on Oct. 26, which is why they’re a three-score favorite to win Saturday night’s game in Indianapolis. Ohio State can’t simply be satisfied with its success in the first game, though, as it prepares for this week’s game.

“We absolutely respect these guys,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said of Wisconsin during the Big Ten Championship Game coaches’ teleconference on Sunday. “They’re one of the best-coached teams in America, toughest teams in America. They run the football, they’re very, very well-coached on both sides of the ball and we were in a dogfight in that game. And I thought we did a good job at that moment, but we’re both different teams at that point.

“Teams change and they take on different personalities as the season goes on, and they’re playing really, really good football. So we’ll absolutely understand that going into the game, and nothing but the utmost respect for this team. So we got to do a great job preparing, we’ve got to do everything we’ve done so far to this point in this game.”

While Ohio State ultimately defeated Wisconsin by 31 points, it was nonetheless one of the most competitive games of a dominant regular season for the Buckeyes. Ohio State scored just 10 points in the first half and led by only three points after an early third-quarter touchdown by the Badgers before the Buckeyes scored four consecutive touchdowns to turn a close battle into a blowout.

Ohio State was clearly the better team on that day, and it still is. But the Badgers remain capable of giving the Buckeyes a test, especially now that they’ve already played each other once and will be meeting on a neutral field this time.

Wisconsin was coming off its first loss of the season, a stunning upset loss at Illinois, ahead of its loss to Ohio State. The Badgers bounced back by winning all four of their games in November, against Iowa, Nebraska, Purdue and Minnesota, to finish the regular season with a 10-2 record and win the Big Ten West title. Their defense ranks sixth nationally in yards allowed per game (277.0) and ninth in points allowed per game (14.6) while their offense is tied for 16th in points per game (35.8) and 36th in yards per game (442.6).

On paper, Wisconsin doesn’t look to be too different a team than it was when it played Ohio State the first time. Its offense still relies heavily on star running back Jonathan Taylor, though quarterback Jack Coan is coming off a 280-yard passing game in the 38-17 win over Minnesota. Its defense has been solid, but not nearly as dominant as it was in the first half of the season. While the Badgers held each of their first six opponents under 300 yards and 15 points or fewer, all of their last six opponents have topped 300 yards and scored at least 17 points.

That said, Day is expecting that the Badgers will try to do some different things against the Buckeyes than they did the first time, which means Ohio State will spend just as much time preparing and studying film to try to come up with the best game plan.

“They’re going to have different things they do,” Day said. “They’re going to work different mix-ups. When you work through a season, you find out what works, what doesn’t and you kind of find the strengths and weaknesses of your all three phases, and it morphs as the season goes on. And you make adjustments and you make corrections and you enhance certain areas and that’s typically why most teams are different at the end of the year than they are at the beginning, certainly, but also at mid-year.

“Certainly you look at that film (from the first game), but I think both teams are significantly different than when we played on Oct. 26.”

Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...n-big-ten-championship-game-against-wisconsin

Re: Ohio State has only played the same team twice in the same season once since the turn of the 20th century, and that game could serve as a warning against overconfidence for this year’s Buckeyes in the coming days.

In 1975, Ohio State earned a 41-20 win in a regular-season non-conference game against UCLA but suffered a 23-10 loss to the Bruins in the Rose Bowl, which spoiled what otherwise would have been an undefeated season for the Buckeyes.
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I knew the answer to that one, I was at the 1975 Rose Bowl. We were undefeated, were #1 in the country, had a 2 time Heisman Trophy winner in the backfield, and had already beaten UCLA fairly bad in the regular season. We just played terrible and let the National Championship slip away.
 
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SKULL SESSION: OHIO STATE'S THREE HEISMAN CANDIDATES, JIM HARBAUGH IS GOOD BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH, AND URBAN MEYER'S BIG TEN TITLE ADVICE

GRAB THE WHITE ROPE.
Urban Meyer knows about coaching in the postseason, and outside of a loss to Michigan State that still haunts me in my sleep, he was damn successful in Indy.

His key: focus on absolutely nothing else besides the game.



"If I hear anybody talk about anything other than the focus on beating Wisconsin, it's going to be a bad day for everyone."

And knowing how intense he is, I absolutely believe that's true.

Urban also tossed some delightful and unintentional (yet also 100 percent true) shade at Wisconsin when he offhandedly explained that the Badgers aren't going to have to deal with agents calling their players, because... Well...

Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/skul...-but-not-good-enough-and-urban-meyers-big-ten
 
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No weather
Fast Track
A team that's "been there before"

If Day can keep them focused, if Fields is healthy enough to keep pushing and if the defense doesn't revert to 2018, Ohio State should (hopefully) cruise in this one. It's going to be a testament to this team and coaching staff if they can come out focused and hungry after beating the Pedsters in a super physical game, after ripping scUM's soul from their still-living body and feeding it back to them and after a full week of basking in the glory of that game this past Saturday.
 
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No weather
Fast Track
A team that's "been there before"

If Day can keep them focused, if Fields is healthy enough to keep pushing and if the defense doesn't revert to 2018, Ohio State should (hopefully) cruise in this one. It's going to be a testament to this team and coaching staff if they can come out focused and hungry after beating the Pedsters in a super physical game, after ripping scUM's soul from their still-living body and feeding it back to them and after a full week of basking in the glory of that game this past Saturday.


THIS
 
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My only concern is Justin Fields health throughout the game. Wisconsin got to him and hurried him a number of times last time around. I think we need to keep in a TE or RB on throwing downs, or maybe roll Justin outside the pocket on some plays to protect him. If he can get through the game injury free I am convinced it will be another impressive victory.
 
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My only concern is Justin Fields health throughout the game. Wisconsin got to him and hurried him a number of times last time around. I think we need to keep in a TE or RB on throwing downs, or maybe roll Justin outside the pocket on some plays to protect him. If he can get through the game injury free I am convinced it will be another impressive victory.

I really liked the short WR screens they ran to Olave and Mack last Saturday. Not sure how well they work against Wisconsin's scheme, but will how much pressure they brought, you'd think they'd be vulnerable to screens.
 
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