Dispatch
Ohio State 44, Indiana 3
Transcript of Jim Tressel's postgame news conference
BuckeyeXtra.com
Saturday, October 21, 2006 4:51 PM
COACH TRESSEL: Well, we didn't start out great the first two or three minutes of the game, but I thought after that we did everything we had to do to have a decisive victory and the guys made plays. Again, you have to tip your cap to the defense for having the ball beginning on about the 15 yard line, and holding them to a field goal that first time, plus winning the turnover margin, obviously makes us happy, and have a pretty good balance, run/pass makes us happy, and I'm sure there will be a lot of things defensively. I thought we put a lot of pressure, I think the thing we had to do, I think their quarterback is a good one, the thing we had to do was put pressure on him and our guys did that. I feel like we took one more step and we have to get much, much better, but that's the fun of it.
SMITH: Start off by saying, Indiana did a great job competing the whole way through for four quarters. You have to commend anybody who comes in and is going to play tough and hard for 60 whole minutes. Offensively we did some positive things today, but there's always room for improvement. Defensively you can -- I still believe we have the best defense in the nation. They do a great job of pressuring the quarterback and stopping the run and coming up with turnovers and that's one of the things that we wanted to do at the beginning of the season is do better in the turnover margin and we're doing just that, and hats off to the defense also.
DATISH: Once again, thanks to the defense for really helping us out there early and throughout the game controlling the field position for us and doing a great job. Indiana did a good job, they didn't quit. We knew they weren't going to quit coming into it. And offensively, I felt that we got better as the game went on as we have throughout the year and we got rolling a little bit, got Pitt over 100 yards, so that was good.
PITCOCK: Indiana coming in, we knew they were a great team offensively. They strive to finish the game fully being behind, and I think the defense prepared hard. We stopped the run. We had some trouble with the quarterback scrambles at third and long, but we kept up persistent and we were able to get the job done.
PATTERSON: First I would like to take my hat off to Indiana. They were a good team, a great, young quarterback that I think you guys will have to watch out for in years to come. On the defensive side of the ball, just watching, like you guys, I think the guys gave great effort today, really ran the football and I saw some other guys step up. I was just happy I got to watch the best offense in the country with the best player in the country, Number 10.
REPORTER: Troy, could you talk about the touchdown passes today, and then also could you talk a little bit about the other quarterback who threw that touchdown pass later in the game?
SMITH: Talk about the second question first. Throughout practice, we always work on design plays, and then we come up with trick plays and things like that, and we had been practicing and practicing and practicing, watching duck after duck after duck and, you know, today, after I carried out the fake and I turned around and saw a perfect spiral and he always says that if he gets a chance, he's going to throw a touchdown, because we have an ongoing feud, way back in high school, way back in little league football, as far as him being the opposing quarterback and myself on the other side, but the offensive line did a great job. You had to block for at least two or three seconds, even longer, hold your block even longer for him to get around there. And Rory Nicol made a great play on the ball. Special people in special places, they do special things. Myself, I think it's just having an understanding of being consistent, staying the course. As we go along, it gets harder and harder, but consistency is the key. It's hard getting up every day and doing things the right way and I just want to take my hat off to my offensive line because without them, none of this goes on. The play doesn't get ran the whole way around and the receivers make plays on the ball, you know, get those guys the ball and big things will happen.
REPORTER: Coach, could you talk about the play today of Antonio Smith and his performance?
COACH TRESSEL: Seemed like every time I looked up, he was making a hit in the back field. He's such a smart player. He's an amazing person. I don't know how many people quite like him you get to be around in your life, just the character and the sacrifice he makes. And academically, he's in engineering, which is hours and hours of studying. He comes dragging into the Woody Hayes about an hour late every day and makes up the film time because he was in lab or whatever it happened to be, and he knows things inside and out. He's just a special human being and you appreciate it when good things happen to good people.
REPORTER: Is he the best tackler you've got?
COACH TRESSEL: Antonio Smith? Gosh, I don't know. I'll defer to the defensive guys on that.
REPORTER: What did they think about his play today, Antonio's?
PITCOCK: I think Antonio has always been a great player. I think he was just given the opportunity to be in situations to make big plays and I've thought he could do it and he was able to do it today.
PATTERSON: I just love watching Antonio play. Like Coach Tressel said, just the kind of guy he is, all the adversity he's faced, you just love to see that and I'm just ecstatic with his performance today.
REPORTER: What was special with today that you all decided to unveil your tight end package, from Nicol to Ballard, what showed you that made you want to go to the tight end today?
COACH TRESSEL: I appreciate your suggestion if that's what you're looking for. We said all along that we hope we throw it to the guy that's open and, you know, Rory got open and Ballard's catch, holy smokes, I mean that was pretty darn good too. And we're an equal opportunity employer. We'll throw it to whoever's open and that's what the quarterbacks are asked to do.
REPORTER: Troy, with the first couple passes, how much pressure did it take off of you once you got the 22 yarder to Antonio? How much easier did it make it for you from there opening things up?
SMITH: Didn't feel any pressure. Some games are going to go the way you want them to go right away, some aren't. Just had the understanding, obviously my staff understood, something short, something simple would have to get the offense going, not just myself. That play got the offense going and got us going on the scoring drive. I guess you would have to say the coaches are in that position for a reason and they just made a good call.
REPORTER: Jim, Minnesota comes to town next week. Just your scouting report on the Gophers, what you know about them.
COACH TRESSEL: We know historically they've been a great run football team, we also know that they threw the ball effectively against us a year ago. We know every time we've played them it's been a battle. They've been a bowl team for I don't know, five or six straight years, and I don't know who they played today or how they did today, but it's a Big Ten game against physical folks. They have a lot of guys on their team from Ohio, and so it's special anytime kids get to go back home and play in a place like this, so it's going to be all we can stand.
REPORTER: Troy, can you just talk about what you saw on the 29-yard run when you had the option play right and then cut it back left?
SMITH: One of the things I saw, first off, was a mass of bodies, you know, towards the middle of the field where I tried to cut it up the first time. My left tackle did a good job of securing the left edge back side and he just gave me a chance to get around the other way, and I had been being teased the whole week about not being able to pull away from a defender, so that was one of my reasons for really, really bearing down and trying to get around that edge.
COACH TRESSEL: Did you pull away?
SMITH: A little bit. Just enough.
REPORTER: I was just -- anybody have a reaction, Hartline's hit seemed to kind of fire up everybody. I was curious, defensive guys, anybody have an impact to that play?
SMITH: I think I'm going to speak on behalf of the X-Zs as we call it, we take a lot of hits from the defense and I know it was uplifting from the guys on the sideline for Hartline to come down and deliver a blow because a lot of times they take them and they absorb them and he got a chance to really let out on a defender, and it's a great -- it's a tremendous thing for Hartline to do something like that, because his job, thus far, is pretty much hustle plays all the time, you see him flying around the field all the time and it's a great credit to what kind of guy he is.
REPORTER: Quinn, can you talk about just how the defensive line played, especially in that first half? I know Jay Richardson had three sacks in the first half, just talk a little bit about that.
PITCOCK: I think defensively we were attacking well, again, stinting around, getting in the quarterback's mind. The biggest things, we weren't able to contain the quarterback as well as we wanted, very quick guy, speed and everything. Other than that, I'm happy for Jay to be able to get some more production, he's had two great games, Antonio Smith making big plays and everything, a lot of guys are stepping up through the season and making a name for themselves.
REPORTER: Troy, I'm wondering about your touchdown pass to Teddy where you went and threw across your body, talk about that play a little bit if you could, and Coach, what was your reaction to that play? It looked like you might have had some running room, but you decided to throw.
SMITH: Anytime you're in a situation where you have to step up and throw or step up and go, we're always taught to square our hips and square our shoulders to deliver the ball. In that case, it really took me to get squared and get my fundamentals right in every aspect of throwing that ball, because if I didn't, who knows where that ball would have went. The coaching staff really, really, really tries to ram that into our heads about square shoulders and square hips and the ball will go wherever you want it to.
COACH TRESSEL: I think anytime you break contain, you step up and get outside of the defense, just like their guys did, it's frightening, he got outside the edge of our defense two or three times and was able to hurt us a little bit. So you know, big things can happen if you step up and remain alive.
REPORTER: Jim, did Teddy do any campaigning to get another shot at that play after it was incomplete last week and does actually completing that and having to go for a touchdown give future opponents something else to think about?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, he campaigns all the time to throw. He thinks he should be lined up in the gun throwing the ball. But the one the week before was a little bit different one and -- but, no, he gets excited, though, when he gets to throw it, because like Troy said, he thinks he's got the greatest arm in the world or something, but he just has fun.
REPORTER: For Doug and Troy, can you speak to the play of the offensive line today and how you guys have progressed as a unit this season?
DATISH: I think today we could have done a little better, be a little more consistent on different pass protections and stuff. It seemed like there was just one guy getting through on a few occasions where we just wanted to be a solid wall and Troy coming back there. But I think overall the offensive line played well. I think there will be some good rushing lanes there. It was nice to see the twos get in there, have a scoring drive, go down to the other end, have another scoring drive. So overall, I think we're increasing our depth and trying to hit our stride.
SMITH: Any and everything that Doug says, I'm cool with. I can't upset my guys up front, so Doug's right.
REPORTER: Coach, you got less than one minute in the first half, you're up 21 points and you come back aggressively throwing passes, is that consistent with your strategy playing or is that different from what your pattern of playing is?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I'll tell you. It's all a matter of where you get field position and we happened to have good field position. And we always say at the end of halves, especially when we're going to get the ball to start the second, like we were this time, we'll be aggressive if we have good field position, but we want to be smart. We caught the one ball and got the face mask one time, was it that drive? And all of a sudden now we're down in there. And again, all you had to do was watch Indiana, they're down 23-7 to Ball State, they win; they're down 25-7 to Illinois, they win; they're down 21-7 to Iowa, they win. So what should make you think you shouldn't get as many points as you can to win? So that's why you start off with solid field position, hit the nice post route to Robiskie, got the add-on, now we're down there knocking at the door.
