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- Thread starter 3yardsandacloud
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Yes, it is very lopsided. Iowa won 3 of 4 from 1959 - 1962, then lost 16 in a row from 1963 - 1980, with OSU holding them to single digits in 8 of those 16 contests, including three shutouts.el mastiff;618490; said:
In the post-Woody era, Iowa has only won four times: 1983, 1987, 1991, and 2004, plus there was a 24 - 24 tie at Iowa City in 1988.
The all-time series record is 43 - 14 - 3 (.742).
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A good indicator of how good this bend-but-don't-break defense is is the differential between the total defense (yards allowed) and the scoring defense (points allowed).biggsj6030;618034; said:
The OSU defense is currently requiring opponents to drive 247 yards per 7 points.
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txbuckeye1983
We are the innovators, they are the imitators
A lot of that has to do with how well this offense has protected the football, too.
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Just a little research would've found that since 1964 Ohio State is 13-2-1 at Iowa, and that the 2004 loss was the first there since 1983. By the way, since 1964 (inclusive) Ohio State is 30-4-1 against Iowa. Our last three losses at Iowa happened in 1962, 1983, and 2004. In other words, we lose there every 21 years. So, we're not due to lose there until 2027.
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Bleed S & G
Taking Crazy Pills
yes, as an ex-pitcher i refer to it has showing no emotionDaddyBigBucks;618440; said:
I picked up my iowa tickets today, section 23 row 4, anyone else going to be there?
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OZone
September 26, 2006 1:45 PM
Football: OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel announced the players of the week for the PSU game at his weekly press luncheon today. They were as follows.
Offensive Player of the Week - Brian Robiske who graded out to a game-high 92% against Penn State.
Defensive Player of the Week - Antonio Smith
Offensive Lineman of the Week - Alex Boone who graded out to 89%, highest of any offensive lineman.
Attack Force Player of the Week - Vernon Gholston
Special Teams Player of the Week - Anderson Russell
Scout Team Offensive Player of the Week - Albert Dukes
Scout Team Defensive Player of the Week - Juan Garnier
Scout Team Special Teams Player of the Week - Brandon Underwood.
A total of nine players on defense graded out to a winning performance against Penn State, but just five on offense.
September 26, 2006 1:45 PM
Football: OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel announced the players of the week for the PSU game at his weekly press luncheon today. They were as follows.
Offensive Player of the Week - Brian Robiske who graded out to a game-high 92% against Penn State.
Defensive Player of the Week - Antonio Smith
Offensive Lineman of the Week - Alex Boone who graded out to 89%, highest of any offensive lineman.
Attack Force Player of the Week - Vernon Gholston
Special Teams Player of the Week - Anderson Russell
Scout Team Offensive Player of the Week - Albert Dukes
Scout Team Defensive Player of the Week - Juan Garnier
Scout Team Special Teams Player of the Week - Brandon Underwood.
A total of nine players on defense graded out to a winning performance against Penn State, but just five on offense.
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Official Site
Transcript From The September 26th Football Press Luncheon
Previewing Ohio State at Iowa
Sept. 26, 2006
COACH TRESSEL: Antonio Smith is already here and Brian Robiskie has class until 12:18, so he'll be here shortly after, and then after practice, we'll have Troy and Antonio Pittman representing the offense and Malcolm Jenkins and David Patterson represent the defense. Snapper brought to my attention a great article that Tom Archdeacon wrote about a marine that was a guest. He said he sent it out to most of you, the information, it was a heck of a thing to see a guy, what it meant to him to be at an Ohio State game. It reminds you what a privilege it is to be a part of a spectacle like that, and you can't discuss this game without talking about our crowd. We talked all week how important it was going to be to have a sea of red and a lot of noise and I thought to myself, I wonder how much redder we can get than what we normally get. And from my vantage point, it was. It was redder than it ever was. Maybe everyone went out and bought something new, I'm not sure. And they were loud and into it and the weather didn't bother them and sloppy play at times didn't bother them and they were excited. You could feel the energy of 31,000 students, which is an all-time record, the number of students that bought season tickets. So you have to start with the fact that we asked for a little help and we got it. That was great and we appreciate it.
We had nine players on the defensive side grade winning performance and five over on the offense. We had some outstanding performances. Our special units player of the week was Anderson Russell. Did a great job of fielding that punt, downing it on the one, which was an extraordinary athletic play. It's hard enough to catch a play when you're facing it, but when you have to run and catch it from behind, it was extraordinary. And he was also on our kickoff team and on our punt block team and just an outstanding job, along with being our starting free safety. And Anderson would be here today but he's got classes until 1:18. But he had a heck of a ball game.
Defensively, Antonio Smith had an outstanding performance and I've said quite often here in the last few days that it's one of those stories that you want a lot of young people to hear about. He's a guy that had a lot of support at home and a lot of passion to reach his goals. He attends Ohio State on an academic scholarship, majoring in engineering, an outstanding student, works his way into some special teams, works his way into the nickel position and into the starting position and now one of the leaders back there in the secondary, and here he is in our opening Big Ten game as the defensive player of the game. And it's just, in my mind, a tremendous story. You have to get excited for guys like Antonio.
The offensive player of the game was Brian Robiskie and Brian will be here in just a bit after class. Brian has been very steady, kind of the unnoticed guy. Everyone talks about Teddy and Gonzo and so forth. And Brian's aware he's supposed to be doing what he's supposed to do. He's very meticulous about his film study, very meticulous about his route running, works very hard to be a good blocker, had the highest grade, I think a 92% grade in the game and obviously came up with a huge play and a couple other catches and he just keeps getting better as a wide receiver.
The offensive lineman of the week, the Jim Parker offensive lineman was Alex Boone. Alex, by far, had his best game. I think he graded in the high 80's, 89%, somewhere in there. I thought played a lot more physical, a lot lower, with a lot more confidence. He'd been nursing a little bit of soreness, and after we got through the preseason and he got his legs back with him, he seemed to be the freshest he was playing in this football game and he was awarded the Jim Parker offensive lineman award.
The attack force player was Vernon Gholston. Vernon is one of those guys thus far that we needed certain guys to step up and make a difference and he's a third-year guy, red-shirt sophomore, backed up Mike Kudla, didn't get a whole bunch of playing time, missed all of last year because of an injury and we were hoping that he would be all we recruited him to be. And after four games, his improvement each week has been tremendous. He gives great pressure, he's got great strength, he's tough on tight ends when he lines up over them, and Vernon Gholston was the attack force player.
We did not have a Jack Tatum hit of the week, but we did have three scout team guys to get us ready. One is a young man who's kind of spent some time away from us and got back with us after the first game, Brandon Underwood, and did a great job as the scout special units player and has shown great effort to catch back up and see if he can contribute to this football team.
Juan Garnier was the scout defensive player. And then over on the scout offense, drawing a blank, oh, Albert Dukes, outstanding. We needed to know where jersey 2 was. We needed to know where a couple of their other people were because everything they did based upon their ability to make big plays, and Albert was outstanding. He did a great job and just keeps working hard. And when our defense gets to look like that, we have a chance to get prepared. Obviously we have a lot of work to do.
One of the things that you do is you enter your league play, as you know, you're raising it up a notch and you have to go and evaluate yourselves honestly and say, hey, we've got to get a lot better in this area and that area and we've got to have more consistency if we want to go on the road and win. So we've got a lot of work out ahead of us. Our defense knows full well that we're facing one of the premiere quarterbacks in the country. We're facing a running back who's a thousand-yard guy and he's got two back-ups that are very capable. The running back happens to be the leading receiver as well, so he's an all-purpose guy. Their tight end, Chandler is a 6-7 guy that they feature in their passing game without question. Their offensive line, very, very solid. One guy who's a four-year starter, Jones I think his name is, his first start was against us four years ago. So we know that the challenge for our defense is probably unlike any challenge they've had this year.
Likewise, our offensive challenge against a team who's very physical, last year, that front four was new, now they are truly veterans and very physical. Their linebacker corps, one of the three is a returning three-year starter, but the other two are first-year starters, they were back-ups last year and got spot duty and they seemed to be cut out of the same mold. The safeties are both back. The corners have played a lot in the past. They weren't the two corners that were the starters, but because of some injuries and so forth last year they played a lot of football. So our offensive football team knows that Iowa does not give up big play, Iowa is where they are supposed to be, they play low, they play physical, they play with good strength and you have to earn every yard against the Hawkeyes.
Their special teams, historically, have been amongst the best. Their kicker, Schlicher, is outstanding. Their punter, Fenstermaker, has been there, I think, has been there it seems like forever. Their returner is good. Their coverage team, we've always said that we feel as if Ohio State and Iowa have the two best kickoff coverage teams in the Big Ten and we've studied them, there's no question about it. So we've got tremendous challenge from that standpoint. And it goes without saying, as we enter Kinnick Stadium, which has been newly remodeled and people are excited about it and it's kind of the coming-out party for a beautiful job that they've done to make that one of the premiere places in the nation, and that's the fun of the Big Ten conference, every place you go, it's an extraordinary experience, it's tough, you better be tremendously poised when you go to Big Ten stadiums and I'm sure the place will be wired up on Saturday night at 7:13 Central Time. Clay, question?
REPORTER: They apparently have --
COACH TRESSEL: I was hoping someone would ask a question. I'm kind of calling on you, sorry.
REPORTER: It's not my "A" question, but I think it will get the ball rolling here. I guess they're going with a gold-out much like Penn State did, much like you did last week. How much momentum do they have going into the game? My friend Anthony says they haven't started 5-0 in quite a while.
COACH TRESSEL: I don't think they've started 5-0 since 1995, and being 4-0, beating their in-state rivals, which is a big victory, and winning a tough overtime game at Syracuse without their quarterback is a big one, and of course starting out 1-0 in the Big Ten when you started out on the road, so I'd say their momentum is as good as it could possibly be. They're healthy. They're going to have a tremendous atmosphere at Kinnick Stadium. So there's not anyone in our building that doesn't understand what a great challenge it's going to be.
REPORTER: Jim, looking back to the Penn State game, on Malcolm's touchdown when he spiked the ball right by the goal line or before the goal line, was that -- is that something you talk to the team about at all? Does that upset you when you see anything like that?
COACH TRESSEL: We do talk a lot about "Act like you've been there before," but you know, I thought about it, and Malcolm had never been there before, and so not that that excused that, in fact, I thought I saw a little high step by Antonio. Now, you guys will have him later, you can clarify that, I might have misjudged that. So we had a couple guys who it was their first time that they had that sensation, and I'd like to think that we'll learn from it and that won't ever happen again.
We talk a lot about handing the ball to the official and find the other 10 guys that made it possible and celebrate with them, and apparently we've got to get better at that.
REPORTER: Having won at Texas at night, do you think that gets the guys at least mentally over that mindset of not being able to do that?
COACH TRESSEL: I don't know if our guys had any mental problem with it, some of the people in the room did, but we've played -- someone told me the other day, we've played like 12 games on the road or at night since our staff's been here and I think won eight of them, which is below our winning percentage. So maybe we don't play as well at night, I don't know, but I've never heard our guys worry about that. It just so happens if you listed those 12 teams we've played at night, they've been pretty good ones, the Miami Hurricanes for one and Texas twice and Wisconsin and Penn State, and we didn't play Baldwin-Wallace any of those -- don't write that, Doug, please don't put that in there -- so I don't know that our guys have ever had a problem with that. And the quality of our opponent is just like those other 12, and so we know it's a great challenge.
REPORTER: What have you found to be the secret to killing time up to that 8:00 start on the road?
COACH TRESSEL: That is hard. At Texas, we did not want to go and be out in that heat during the day. Sometimes we've gone to the stadium and done a little walk-through in the middle of the day. In this particular case, the hotel and the stadium aren't that close that you could jump on the buses and we don't think you could make that trip efficiently. So we have meetings. We get them up and we have breakfast and we have meetings and I'm sure they watch a little football and get nervous like the rest of us.
The only downside to night games is you have to wait. The rest of it's good. Shoot, it's fun. You love knowing that the whole country's watching you and everyone's back in from their games that they went to in the afternoon and they've settled in and they're going to watch the Buckeyes and the Hawkeyes, that's good stuff, but it's the wait.
REPORTER: Aside from the quality of opponents that you guys have played at night, is there anything else that makes it tougher to win on the road at night?
COACH TRESSEL: Winning on the road is tough. Is it amplified at night? I don't think. In fact, I've heard a lot of coaches talk about the fact that they worry more about the week after that night game on the road than they do the night game on the road. In fact, theoretically, you should be more rested because you've played seven plus days ago. If you played at noon and then you play at night, you've gotten a few more hours' rest on your body. But a lot of people talk about the next week. I could see us a little tired the week of the Cincinnati week coming off preseason, coming off getting home at 5:30 or something in the morning, but as far as anything that would make it more difficult at night, I don't think so. You could ask our players today when you meet with them. I think there's even a little more energy when you're playing at night, just something about those lights, I don't know, but they all grew up playing at night.
REPORTER: How do you evaluate coming out of the Penn State game offensively? Was the weather an issue at all? Did you feel you were as consistent as you needed to be? What did you take off that game going forward at this point?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, we made some mistakes and we allowed some pressure on the passer, which you have to give some credit to Penn State. We dropped a couple balls, that's no one's fault but ours, a couple of third-down conversion-type things. We didn't execute perfectly. Did it have anything to do with the weather? Maybe. I don't know. I couldn't say that that was a primary factor.
As you all know, we've torn that field out. I felt bad about that field, not just for our sake, but for our opponent. To bring someone into a big game in the Big Ten and not have ideal playing conditions was disappointing, but you've got to put all that behind you and just like all those gold t-shirts in the crowd on Saturday night, that better not be an excuse because they're going to be there, you know it now, and it's Tuesday, so you better figure out a way to do your job. We've just got to do our job a little better.
REPORTER: What was the issue with the field, as far as was it footing or --
COACH TRESSEL: The field has gone through cycles. When they first put it in, it was good for about two years and then got a little slippery, then they put it in again, it was good for about two years, and then a little slippery. And it just -- we had an unusually wet August and September. We had a scrimmage in the rain there and then a first game on a wet field. And our grounds people worked as hard as you can possibly work with all the expertise you could possibly ask, but just right now it is not satisfactory, and I think by the end of tomorrow, we'll have a new field in there.
REPORTER: Would you be happy with a switch back to artificial?
COACH TRESSEL: I'm always happy. If it's good footing, I'm happy. I can live with artificial. I can live with immaculate grass. I've always felt an upside of artificial is more use, to practice there a little more, other people can use it, the band can march on it a little bit and all those kind of things. But the upside to a gorgeous golf course looking grass field is there's nothing better than a perfect grass field. So there's upsides to both.
REPORTER: Have they alleviated some of the problems there used to be with artificial turf, the injury factor?
COACH TRESSEL: I'm not sure there was ever validated information of injury factor. I think that was a little bit of a campaign by someone, at least I coached on old Astroturf for 20-some years and I'm still walking. And I think the stuff now, the advancements they've made with artificial surface, is very significant. And more of the kids have played on it. See, so many high schools have gone to it, and I think it's because of the use factor. Now you have 18 sports that the local high schools are playing their field hockey and soccer and freshmen football, JV football and all that stuff, so it became economically sensible to do that in high schools, so our guys have all played on it and I don't think they would mind either way. I know this, the next time we're at home, we're not going to have artificial surface, so I'm happy with whatever we have.
REPORTER: Jim, can you go over again what happened on Saturday with the wristband issue that was lost on the sideline that Penn State found or whatever that was?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, Tommy Bradley found a wrist band, said a wristband came off of one of our guys' wrists. So as we were leaving, he said, here, take this, we don't want this. I don't know if they'd copied down what was on it already or not, but -- no, Tommy wouldn't do that. It was just a defensive wristband. I don't know what, Antonio, had 10 calls on it maybe or something? It was just good sportsmanship.
REPORTER: Have you had that happen before where you've found that from a team or anything, ever heard of guys not giving those wristbands back or anything?
COACH TRESSEL: No. How do you know which of the 10? As soon as you start guessing which of the 10 they're going to call, you're thinking about the wrong things.
REPORTER: What makes a good home field advantage?
COACH TRESSEL: What makes a good home field advantage?
REPORTER: Iowa had a streak of 25 or 23 in a row and they were pretty dominant at home. Is it just crowd noise, good crowd factor or what all goes into it?
COACH TRESSEL: It starts with good players, then the energy that a good crowd can bring for those good players to play even better, now all of a sudden you win 20 some games in a row, but you can't have a great home field advantage without great players.
REPORTER: Will this be the best test for your defense? Will this be the best quarterback you've faced to date?
COACH TRESSEL: Absolutely. Drew Tate's a senior. The first game we faced a senior who had kind of split time his whole life. Second game we faced a guy with his second start of his life. Third game was a red-shirt freshmen or red-shirt sophomore maybe by now, played a decent amount, and then this past weekend, a guy in his fourth start. So Drew Tate, I don't know what number start this is for him, but he's good. So it will be a great test for us.
REPORTER: Can you talk about, a lot of the players after the game were still talking about the Iowa game from two years ago and how it still to this day, they refer back to that game as a turning point for them, almost like they're bottoming point at Ohio State. Can you talk about maybe some of the lessons you learned that day that you think still benefit this team almost two years removed from that game?
COACH TRESSEL: I'm sure the guys you were talking to were guys that were very young guys at that point. You wouldn't have been talking to anyone that wasn't there. And those guys learned a lesson of just how good the Big Ten is and just how good you have to play on the road to have a chance against the top teams in the Big Ten, and Iowa is, year in and year out, one of the top teams in the Big Ten and it was 33-0 at one point, and usually you don't forget those things.
REPORTER: Jim, I'm going to go back a little bit further, I think this is probably the most anticipated match-up with Iowa since the '85 game when Chuck Long came in, I think you were a coach then.
COACH TRESSEL: I hope it doesn't rain that much.
REPORTER: What do you remember about that?
COACH TRESSEL: The rain.
REPORTER: The rain? What else surrounding the pregame and the excitement that existed around that match-up then?
COACH TRESSEL: There wasn't quite the hype that there is today. I think Rusty and Tim were at practice and that was because we invited them.
REPORTER: Every day.
COACH TRESSEL: Every day. Tim was carrying our players around in his pick-up truck to dinner. The world was different. Isn't that true, Tim?
REPORTER: Did that a couple times.
COACH TRESSEL: Just so happened it was the week of the Iowa game.
REPORTER: The bus left them behind.
COACH TRESSEL: When you're a coach, you live in such a cacoon, I don't remember anything about that game other than I'm sure we prepared hard. We knew how good they were. We knew that Chuck Long was the quarterback and Ronny Harmon, was he on that team? And, oh, gosh, I can't remember who their defensive players were. It was a big game. It was a league game and it was against a great team just like very similar to what we have now. I remember coming out there and I was the quarterback receiver coach and when you see a monsoon, you're thinking, oh, man. It was just an exciting football game. I don't even remember the score. I just remember we won the game and at 7:00 a.m. the next Sunday morning we were watching the film with Coach Bruce.
REPORTER: Jim, I'm sure it wasn't as easy as Troy made it look up until last week. Is it good for him to have a game like that where he, I don't know if struggles is a fair word because he was under some duress, but where it's tougher for him?
COACH TRESSEL: Sure. I think adversity and more difficult situations always help you get better. Heck, all the way back to the Penn State game a year ago, that was tough. That was one of the top, in my mind, three defenses in the country last year. And here was Troy having to try to compete with them and I'm sure he learned a lot from that and every other game where you have some adversity. And Penn State and most every Big Ten school is going to put heat on you. They know you well, they know how you protect, they know how to get to you a little bit. They guess right sometimes, and they guess wrong sometimes. But, no, I think it is. Adversity is maybe the only teacher.
REPORTER: Jim, I've actually gotten several Emails this week asking this unbelievable question, "Do you think Ohio State's running enough," which I didn't think I'd ever have to ask you.
COACH TRESSEL: I got one saying, "Get rid of that shotgun and start running the ball down their throats." And the next one was, "I can't believe you're running so much."
REPORTER: How do you evaluate where you all are?
COACH TRESSEL: Those Emails, that's the way I evaluate. We evaluate it play by play and competition versus competition and what needs to be done. I think the unusual thing this season that we've seen is that there have been not quite as many plays, and then that was really accentuated by the fact that the last six minutes and three seconds of last week's game, we didn't have an offensive snap. I don't know how many plays we had, Steve, in the fourth quarter, four or something. So we probably haven't run it enough. I wish we would have run it more, but that doesn't mean I wish we would have passed it less, but that's the way it is. And as we've said to our guys more than once, the way the game is beginning in 2006, each play is more valuable.
REPORTER: You're kind of touching on it, just what do you think of the new rules with the new clocks and everything else, the less plays? A lot of coaches have had mixed reactions.
COACH TRESSEL: My reaction, I think, will be based after a whole season and we can do a whole study and we can find out what impact did that have, if any, on the competition of the game, and maybe more importantly, what impact did that have on the injury study that's done, did that offset the 12-game thing, because there was some discussion by a lot of us that you start adding another game to those guys' bodies and so forth, is that going to make an impact on them. It will be interesting to study it after the season. But up until now, I can -- my eyes aren't great, but I can see how much time is left and the score and I know what we've got to do.
REPORTER: Does it affect your end game management at all?
COACH TRESSEL: No.
REPORTER: What kind of a personality, would you say, would Kirk Ferentz' team have, somebody would say, what do they do year in and year out?
COACH TRESSEL: Physical to start with. The next thing that comes to my mind because I've been watching so much of their defense is sure tacklers. I just don't see them miss tackles at all. Technique sound. And they are who they are. They really don't care how you line up, they're going to do their thing and see if you can handle it. So they're very confident.
REPORTER: What were your impressions the first week of the Big Ten? I don't know whether you got a chance to see, did you watch Michigan State/Notre Dame.
COACH TRESSEL: I saw the end of it. My impressions of the Big Ten, I've obviously studied the Illinois/Iowa game and Illinois went with a young quarterback who's going to be a good one. He's a kid we looked at. He's really going to be a good one, but he wasn't ready for Iowa. It will be a valuable learning for him, though. I didn't see really any of the other -- I didn't see really any other Big Ten other than the end of the -- turnovers will get you every time.
REPORTER: Have you had an opportunity to see Michigan yet?
COACH TRESSEL: I saw a couple shots of them against Notre Dame a couple weeks ago when we were playing -- when did they play them?
REPORTER: Cincinnati.
COACH TRESSEL: So they played after. Yeah, I saw some.
REPORTER: What did you think of them?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, gee, they're good. Whoa.
REPORTER: You said Iowa, they are who they are. Last year Anthony Gonzalez took advantage of some match-ups, scored a few times. It seems like he's done that a few times this year, is that because he's in the slot? Is that something you're looking to do, I guess, with that slot?
COACH TRESSEL: If you're fortunate enough to guess the right match-up, unfortunately they don't play the same coverage every time and if you can get match-ups, that's the name of the game. If you can run the ball when they have less hats in the box or you can throw it when they have a lot of hats in the box and protect it and all that, it's still a game of numbers and match-ups, but they do a good job of knowing how you're going to try to attack them. Both ways. They know what your defense is going to do because they know what needs to be stopped and they know how you're going to attack them because they know -- they know their defense through and through and they know the adjustment to make off of it, and it's just a matter of sometimes who has the chalk last.
REPORTER: Can you talk a little bit about the long pass from Troy to Robiskie, exactly how it developed and what they did that was beyond what the play called for in the huddle?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, Robie was on a short route and when he saw Troy start to scramble, he took off deep. And then when Troy reversed field kind of, he took off sideways because he was about as deep as he could get and still, a marvelous throw, I mean, 57 yards on a rope. I mean, it was -- it was something.
REPORTER: What would you say about the catch part of it?
COACH TRESSEL: They would have had to surgically remove it, I think, if he didn't catch it. I mean, it was great concentration, because there was some people storming after him and great awareness of how to get away from them and then to see where the ball was going, its trajectory, but Robie's got great concentration.
REPORTER: Could you count on one hand maybe how many times you've seen a guy throw a ball like that?
COACH TRESSEL: Count on one hand?
REPORTER: Do you see it very often?
COACH TRESSE: Not like that. Especially after two pirouettes, not often.
REPORTER: I thought I heard on the Falcon/Saints game last night that the Falcons got their read option under your tutelage.
COACH TRESSEL: I know our staff was down there last spring, but they never told me they gave away our secrets.
REPORTER: I know our offensive staff was down at Clemson with the Falcons for spring practice and they spent some time with them. I thought we were studying them, but maybe they were studying us. We're free about that. We talk about what we do.
REPORTER: Do you find yourself tutoring more NFL teams due to the success you've had or not?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, we had so many NFL guys come in to work out our players that our coaches had lots of time to sit down and talk with them, but I don't know if we were tutoring them, I just think it was an idea exchange.
REPORTER: What did you all get from the Falcons? What did you all glean from them?
COACH TRESSEL: Their quarterback can move around and I think Joe and those guys studied a little bit of that, and Coach Bollman got together with their line coach and I'm sure grunted back and forth, whatever they talk about, but I'm sure I couldn't decipher that, but it's just an exchange of ideas. I hope he doesn't read the paper.
REPORTER: Just about Robiskie, what do you see about him that tells you he's a coach's kid and what just stands out about that aspect? I mean, of having a kid like that, like you said, he's a smart kid, but also he studies and seems to be aware of stuff?
COACH TRESSEL: I think awareness is the right word because he saw how hard his dad as worked to get to the level he's gotten. It wasn't just casual that he's had the opportunities he's had. He paid attention. There are some people that I'm sure are around excellence all day long and don't even know it, but Brian's a guy that, I'm sure he picked up off of his dad and they're a very close family, so I'm sure dad took him to training camp and all those kinds of things and he's wondering why the heck are they in the meeting room eight hours a day and as he got older, he figured it out, it's because you need to be. So I think I'd use your word awareness. I've got a crick in my neck. Hold on a second. Anyone over here? You're waiting, okay, we'll go one more and then we'll get Marla.
REPORTER: I know opponents get up for Ohio State every year, but now four games into this as the number one team, have you found anything different week to week from the outside that there is something when you are number one over the course of a season, that anything feels different, do you think the players feel anything different maybe from the outside?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, I can't speak for the players because they're on the outside a lot more than I am, I'm in the film room, but Ohio State is always circled on everyone's calendar. I don't feel any different about this year than any other year, and we're also very realistic about all of the areas, we've got to get a lot better. And polls are polls and I guess they're fun to have out there for people to talk about and so forth, but the bottom line is the games, and if we're going to have a chance to win the games, we have to get better. And we have some great challenges on our schedule and the next one is a big one. Marla?
REPORTER: I have a request from the back, so it's going to be two short questions. Did the pink locker room survive the renovation, do you know?
COACH TRESSEL: Don't know.
REPORTER: If Antonio Smith had not given the ball to the ref, would you have let him keep it?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, those guys are in pretty good cahoots with the equipment managers, so I don't know what they end up with. But I don't think in the college game the guys -- do the guys bring the balls to the sideline, hide them in the equipment bag like you see in the NFL? I don't know. He would have gotten billed for it, though, knowing our equipment managers, he would have gotten billed if he took it.
Transcript From The September 26th Football Press Luncheon
Previewing Ohio State at Iowa
Sept. 26, 2006
COACH TRESSEL: Antonio Smith is already here and Brian Robiskie has class until 12:18, so he'll be here shortly after, and then after practice, we'll have Troy and Antonio Pittman representing the offense and Malcolm Jenkins and David Patterson represent the defense. Snapper brought to my attention a great article that Tom Archdeacon wrote about a marine that was a guest. He said he sent it out to most of you, the information, it was a heck of a thing to see a guy, what it meant to him to be at an Ohio State game. It reminds you what a privilege it is to be a part of a spectacle like that, and you can't discuss this game without talking about our crowd. We talked all week how important it was going to be to have a sea of red and a lot of noise and I thought to myself, I wonder how much redder we can get than what we normally get. And from my vantage point, it was. It was redder than it ever was. Maybe everyone went out and bought something new, I'm not sure. And they were loud and into it and the weather didn't bother them and sloppy play at times didn't bother them and they were excited. You could feel the energy of 31,000 students, which is an all-time record, the number of students that bought season tickets. So you have to start with the fact that we asked for a little help and we got it. That was great and we appreciate it.
We had nine players on the defensive side grade winning performance and five over on the offense. We had some outstanding performances. Our special units player of the week was Anderson Russell. Did a great job of fielding that punt, downing it on the one, which was an extraordinary athletic play. It's hard enough to catch a play when you're facing it, but when you have to run and catch it from behind, it was extraordinary. And he was also on our kickoff team and on our punt block team and just an outstanding job, along with being our starting free safety. And Anderson would be here today but he's got classes until 1:18. But he had a heck of a ball game.
Defensively, Antonio Smith had an outstanding performance and I've said quite often here in the last few days that it's one of those stories that you want a lot of young people to hear about. He's a guy that had a lot of support at home and a lot of passion to reach his goals. He attends Ohio State on an academic scholarship, majoring in engineering, an outstanding student, works his way into some special teams, works his way into the nickel position and into the starting position and now one of the leaders back there in the secondary, and here he is in our opening Big Ten game as the defensive player of the game. And it's just, in my mind, a tremendous story. You have to get excited for guys like Antonio.
The offensive player of the game was Brian Robiskie and Brian will be here in just a bit after class. Brian has been very steady, kind of the unnoticed guy. Everyone talks about Teddy and Gonzo and so forth. And Brian's aware he's supposed to be doing what he's supposed to do. He's very meticulous about his film study, very meticulous about his route running, works very hard to be a good blocker, had the highest grade, I think a 92% grade in the game and obviously came up with a huge play and a couple other catches and he just keeps getting better as a wide receiver.
The offensive lineman of the week, the Jim Parker offensive lineman was Alex Boone. Alex, by far, had his best game. I think he graded in the high 80's, 89%, somewhere in there. I thought played a lot more physical, a lot lower, with a lot more confidence. He'd been nursing a little bit of soreness, and after we got through the preseason and he got his legs back with him, he seemed to be the freshest he was playing in this football game and he was awarded the Jim Parker offensive lineman award.
The attack force player was Vernon Gholston. Vernon is one of those guys thus far that we needed certain guys to step up and make a difference and he's a third-year guy, red-shirt sophomore, backed up Mike Kudla, didn't get a whole bunch of playing time, missed all of last year because of an injury and we were hoping that he would be all we recruited him to be. And after four games, his improvement each week has been tremendous. He gives great pressure, he's got great strength, he's tough on tight ends when he lines up over them, and Vernon Gholston was the attack force player.
We did not have a Jack Tatum hit of the week, but we did have three scout team guys to get us ready. One is a young man who's kind of spent some time away from us and got back with us after the first game, Brandon Underwood, and did a great job as the scout special units player and has shown great effort to catch back up and see if he can contribute to this football team.
Juan Garnier was the scout defensive player. And then over on the scout offense, drawing a blank, oh, Albert Dukes, outstanding. We needed to know where jersey 2 was. We needed to know where a couple of their other people were because everything they did based upon their ability to make big plays, and Albert was outstanding. He did a great job and just keeps working hard. And when our defense gets to look like that, we have a chance to get prepared. Obviously we have a lot of work to do.
One of the things that you do is you enter your league play, as you know, you're raising it up a notch and you have to go and evaluate yourselves honestly and say, hey, we've got to get a lot better in this area and that area and we've got to have more consistency if we want to go on the road and win. So we've got a lot of work out ahead of us. Our defense knows full well that we're facing one of the premiere quarterbacks in the country. We're facing a running back who's a thousand-yard guy and he's got two back-ups that are very capable. The running back happens to be the leading receiver as well, so he's an all-purpose guy. Their tight end, Chandler is a 6-7 guy that they feature in their passing game without question. Their offensive line, very, very solid. One guy who's a four-year starter, Jones I think his name is, his first start was against us four years ago. So we know that the challenge for our defense is probably unlike any challenge they've had this year.
Likewise, our offensive challenge against a team who's very physical, last year, that front four was new, now they are truly veterans and very physical. Their linebacker corps, one of the three is a returning three-year starter, but the other two are first-year starters, they were back-ups last year and got spot duty and they seemed to be cut out of the same mold. The safeties are both back. The corners have played a lot in the past. They weren't the two corners that were the starters, but because of some injuries and so forth last year they played a lot of football. So our offensive football team knows that Iowa does not give up big play, Iowa is where they are supposed to be, they play low, they play physical, they play with good strength and you have to earn every yard against the Hawkeyes.
Their special teams, historically, have been amongst the best. Their kicker, Schlicher, is outstanding. Their punter, Fenstermaker, has been there, I think, has been there it seems like forever. Their returner is good. Their coverage team, we've always said that we feel as if Ohio State and Iowa have the two best kickoff coverage teams in the Big Ten and we've studied them, there's no question about it. So we've got tremendous challenge from that standpoint. And it goes without saying, as we enter Kinnick Stadium, which has been newly remodeled and people are excited about it and it's kind of the coming-out party for a beautiful job that they've done to make that one of the premiere places in the nation, and that's the fun of the Big Ten conference, every place you go, it's an extraordinary experience, it's tough, you better be tremendously poised when you go to Big Ten stadiums and I'm sure the place will be wired up on Saturday night at 7:13 Central Time. Clay, question?
REPORTER: They apparently have --
COACH TRESSEL: I was hoping someone would ask a question. I'm kind of calling on you, sorry.
REPORTER: It's not my "A" question, but I think it will get the ball rolling here. I guess they're going with a gold-out much like Penn State did, much like you did last week. How much momentum do they have going into the game? My friend Anthony says they haven't started 5-0 in quite a while.
COACH TRESSEL: I don't think they've started 5-0 since 1995, and being 4-0, beating their in-state rivals, which is a big victory, and winning a tough overtime game at Syracuse without their quarterback is a big one, and of course starting out 1-0 in the Big Ten when you started out on the road, so I'd say their momentum is as good as it could possibly be. They're healthy. They're going to have a tremendous atmosphere at Kinnick Stadium. So there's not anyone in our building that doesn't understand what a great challenge it's going to be.
REPORTER: Jim, looking back to the Penn State game, on Malcolm's touchdown when he spiked the ball right by the goal line or before the goal line, was that -- is that something you talk to the team about at all? Does that upset you when you see anything like that?
COACH TRESSEL: We do talk a lot about "Act like you've been there before," but you know, I thought about it, and Malcolm had never been there before, and so not that that excused that, in fact, I thought I saw a little high step by Antonio. Now, you guys will have him later, you can clarify that, I might have misjudged that. So we had a couple guys who it was their first time that they had that sensation, and I'd like to think that we'll learn from it and that won't ever happen again.
We talk a lot about handing the ball to the official and find the other 10 guys that made it possible and celebrate with them, and apparently we've got to get better at that.
REPORTER: Having won at Texas at night, do you think that gets the guys at least mentally over that mindset of not being able to do that?
COACH TRESSEL: I don't know if our guys had any mental problem with it, some of the people in the room did, but we've played -- someone told me the other day, we've played like 12 games on the road or at night since our staff's been here and I think won eight of them, which is below our winning percentage. So maybe we don't play as well at night, I don't know, but I've never heard our guys worry about that. It just so happens if you listed those 12 teams we've played at night, they've been pretty good ones, the Miami Hurricanes for one and Texas twice and Wisconsin and Penn State, and we didn't play Baldwin-Wallace any of those -- don't write that, Doug, please don't put that in there -- so I don't know that our guys have ever had a problem with that. And the quality of our opponent is just like those other 12, and so we know it's a great challenge.
REPORTER: What have you found to be the secret to killing time up to that 8:00 start on the road?
COACH TRESSEL: That is hard. At Texas, we did not want to go and be out in that heat during the day. Sometimes we've gone to the stadium and done a little walk-through in the middle of the day. In this particular case, the hotel and the stadium aren't that close that you could jump on the buses and we don't think you could make that trip efficiently. So we have meetings. We get them up and we have breakfast and we have meetings and I'm sure they watch a little football and get nervous like the rest of us.
The only downside to night games is you have to wait. The rest of it's good. Shoot, it's fun. You love knowing that the whole country's watching you and everyone's back in from their games that they went to in the afternoon and they've settled in and they're going to watch the Buckeyes and the Hawkeyes, that's good stuff, but it's the wait.
REPORTER: Aside from the quality of opponents that you guys have played at night, is there anything else that makes it tougher to win on the road at night?
COACH TRESSEL: Winning on the road is tough. Is it amplified at night? I don't think. In fact, I've heard a lot of coaches talk about the fact that they worry more about the week after that night game on the road than they do the night game on the road. In fact, theoretically, you should be more rested because you've played seven plus days ago. If you played at noon and then you play at night, you've gotten a few more hours' rest on your body. But a lot of people talk about the next week. I could see us a little tired the week of the Cincinnati week coming off preseason, coming off getting home at 5:30 or something in the morning, but as far as anything that would make it more difficult at night, I don't think so. You could ask our players today when you meet with them. I think there's even a little more energy when you're playing at night, just something about those lights, I don't know, but they all grew up playing at night.
REPORTER: How do you evaluate coming out of the Penn State game offensively? Was the weather an issue at all? Did you feel you were as consistent as you needed to be? What did you take off that game going forward at this point?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, we made some mistakes and we allowed some pressure on the passer, which you have to give some credit to Penn State. We dropped a couple balls, that's no one's fault but ours, a couple of third-down conversion-type things. We didn't execute perfectly. Did it have anything to do with the weather? Maybe. I don't know. I couldn't say that that was a primary factor.
As you all know, we've torn that field out. I felt bad about that field, not just for our sake, but for our opponent. To bring someone into a big game in the Big Ten and not have ideal playing conditions was disappointing, but you've got to put all that behind you and just like all those gold t-shirts in the crowd on Saturday night, that better not be an excuse because they're going to be there, you know it now, and it's Tuesday, so you better figure out a way to do your job. We've just got to do our job a little better.
REPORTER: What was the issue with the field, as far as was it footing or --
COACH TRESSEL: The field has gone through cycles. When they first put it in, it was good for about two years and then got a little slippery, then they put it in again, it was good for about two years, and then a little slippery. And it just -- we had an unusually wet August and September. We had a scrimmage in the rain there and then a first game on a wet field. And our grounds people worked as hard as you can possibly work with all the expertise you could possibly ask, but just right now it is not satisfactory, and I think by the end of tomorrow, we'll have a new field in there.
REPORTER: Would you be happy with a switch back to artificial?
COACH TRESSEL: I'm always happy. If it's good footing, I'm happy. I can live with artificial. I can live with immaculate grass. I've always felt an upside of artificial is more use, to practice there a little more, other people can use it, the band can march on it a little bit and all those kind of things. But the upside to a gorgeous golf course looking grass field is there's nothing better than a perfect grass field. So there's upsides to both.
REPORTER: Have they alleviated some of the problems there used to be with artificial turf, the injury factor?
COACH TRESSEL: I'm not sure there was ever validated information of injury factor. I think that was a little bit of a campaign by someone, at least I coached on old Astroturf for 20-some years and I'm still walking. And I think the stuff now, the advancements they've made with artificial surface, is very significant. And more of the kids have played on it. See, so many high schools have gone to it, and I think it's because of the use factor. Now you have 18 sports that the local high schools are playing their field hockey and soccer and freshmen football, JV football and all that stuff, so it became economically sensible to do that in high schools, so our guys have all played on it and I don't think they would mind either way. I know this, the next time we're at home, we're not going to have artificial surface, so I'm happy with whatever we have.
REPORTER: Jim, can you go over again what happened on Saturday with the wristband issue that was lost on the sideline that Penn State found or whatever that was?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, Tommy Bradley found a wrist band, said a wristband came off of one of our guys' wrists. So as we were leaving, he said, here, take this, we don't want this. I don't know if they'd copied down what was on it already or not, but -- no, Tommy wouldn't do that. It was just a defensive wristband. I don't know what, Antonio, had 10 calls on it maybe or something? It was just good sportsmanship.
REPORTER: Have you had that happen before where you've found that from a team or anything, ever heard of guys not giving those wristbands back or anything?
COACH TRESSEL: No. How do you know which of the 10? As soon as you start guessing which of the 10 they're going to call, you're thinking about the wrong things.
REPORTER: What makes a good home field advantage?
COACH TRESSEL: What makes a good home field advantage?
REPORTER: Iowa had a streak of 25 or 23 in a row and they were pretty dominant at home. Is it just crowd noise, good crowd factor or what all goes into it?
COACH TRESSEL: It starts with good players, then the energy that a good crowd can bring for those good players to play even better, now all of a sudden you win 20 some games in a row, but you can't have a great home field advantage without great players.
REPORTER: Will this be the best test for your defense? Will this be the best quarterback you've faced to date?
COACH TRESSEL: Absolutely. Drew Tate's a senior. The first game we faced a senior who had kind of split time his whole life. Second game we faced a guy with his second start of his life. Third game was a red-shirt freshmen or red-shirt sophomore maybe by now, played a decent amount, and then this past weekend, a guy in his fourth start. So Drew Tate, I don't know what number start this is for him, but he's good. So it will be a great test for us.
REPORTER: Can you talk about, a lot of the players after the game were still talking about the Iowa game from two years ago and how it still to this day, they refer back to that game as a turning point for them, almost like they're bottoming point at Ohio State. Can you talk about maybe some of the lessons you learned that day that you think still benefit this team almost two years removed from that game?
COACH TRESSEL: I'm sure the guys you were talking to were guys that were very young guys at that point. You wouldn't have been talking to anyone that wasn't there. And those guys learned a lesson of just how good the Big Ten is and just how good you have to play on the road to have a chance against the top teams in the Big Ten, and Iowa is, year in and year out, one of the top teams in the Big Ten and it was 33-0 at one point, and usually you don't forget those things.
REPORTER: Jim, I'm going to go back a little bit further, I think this is probably the most anticipated match-up with Iowa since the '85 game when Chuck Long came in, I think you were a coach then.
COACH TRESSEL: I hope it doesn't rain that much.
REPORTER: What do you remember about that?
COACH TRESSEL: The rain.
REPORTER: The rain? What else surrounding the pregame and the excitement that existed around that match-up then?
COACH TRESSEL: There wasn't quite the hype that there is today. I think Rusty and Tim were at practice and that was because we invited them.
REPORTER: Every day.
COACH TRESSEL: Every day. Tim was carrying our players around in his pick-up truck to dinner. The world was different. Isn't that true, Tim?
REPORTER: Did that a couple times.
COACH TRESSEL: Just so happened it was the week of the Iowa game.
REPORTER: The bus left them behind.
COACH TRESSEL: When you're a coach, you live in such a cacoon, I don't remember anything about that game other than I'm sure we prepared hard. We knew how good they were. We knew that Chuck Long was the quarterback and Ronny Harmon, was he on that team? And, oh, gosh, I can't remember who their defensive players were. It was a big game. It was a league game and it was against a great team just like very similar to what we have now. I remember coming out there and I was the quarterback receiver coach and when you see a monsoon, you're thinking, oh, man. It was just an exciting football game. I don't even remember the score. I just remember we won the game and at 7:00 a.m. the next Sunday morning we were watching the film with Coach Bruce.
REPORTER: Jim, I'm sure it wasn't as easy as Troy made it look up until last week. Is it good for him to have a game like that where he, I don't know if struggles is a fair word because he was under some duress, but where it's tougher for him?
COACH TRESSEL: Sure. I think adversity and more difficult situations always help you get better. Heck, all the way back to the Penn State game a year ago, that was tough. That was one of the top, in my mind, three defenses in the country last year. And here was Troy having to try to compete with them and I'm sure he learned a lot from that and every other game where you have some adversity. And Penn State and most every Big Ten school is going to put heat on you. They know you well, they know how you protect, they know how to get to you a little bit. They guess right sometimes, and they guess wrong sometimes. But, no, I think it is. Adversity is maybe the only teacher.
REPORTER: Jim, I've actually gotten several Emails this week asking this unbelievable question, "Do you think Ohio State's running enough," which I didn't think I'd ever have to ask you.
COACH TRESSEL: I got one saying, "Get rid of that shotgun and start running the ball down their throats." And the next one was, "I can't believe you're running so much."
REPORTER: How do you evaluate where you all are?
COACH TRESSEL: Those Emails, that's the way I evaluate. We evaluate it play by play and competition versus competition and what needs to be done. I think the unusual thing this season that we've seen is that there have been not quite as many plays, and then that was really accentuated by the fact that the last six minutes and three seconds of last week's game, we didn't have an offensive snap. I don't know how many plays we had, Steve, in the fourth quarter, four or something. So we probably haven't run it enough. I wish we would have run it more, but that doesn't mean I wish we would have passed it less, but that's the way it is. And as we've said to our guys more than once, the way the game is beginning in 2006, each play is more valuable.
REPORTER: You're kind of touching on it, just what do you think of the new rules with the new clocks and everything else, the less plays? A lot of coaches have had mixed reactions.
COACH TRESSEL: My reaction, I think, will be based after a whole season and we can do a whole study and we can find out what impact did that have, if any, on the competition of the game, and maybe more importantly, what impact did that have on the injury study that's done, did that offset the 12-game thing, because there was some discussion by a lot of us that you start adding another game to those guys' bodies and so forth, is that going to make an impact on them. It will be interesting to study it after the season. But up until now, I can -- my eyes aren't great, but I can see how much time is left and the score and I know what we've got to do.
REPORTER: Does it affect your end game management at all?
COACH TRESSEL: No.
REPORTER: What kind of a personality, would you say, would Kirk Ferentz' team have, somebody would say, what do they do year in and year out?
COACH TRESSEL: Physical to start with. The next thing that comes to my mind because I've been watching so much of their defense is sure tacklers. I just don't see them miss tackles at all. Technique sound. And they are who they are. They really don't care how you line up, they're going to do their thing and see if you can handle it. So they're very confident.
REPORTER: What were your impressions the first week of the Big Ten? I don't know whether you got a chance to see, did you watch Michigan State/Notre Dame.
COACH TRESSEL: I saw the end of it. My impressions of the Big Ten, I've obviously studied the Illinois/Iowa game and Illinois went with a young quarterback who's going to be a good one. He's a kid we looked at. He's really going to be a good one, but he wasn't ready for Iowa. It will be a valuable learning for him, though. I didn't see really any of the other -- I didn't see really any other Big Ten other than the end of the -- turnovers will get you every time.
REPORTER: Have you had an opportunity to see Michigan yet?
COACH TRESSEL: I saw a couple shots of them against Notre Dame a couple weeks ago when we were playing -- when did they play them?
REPORTER: Cincinnati.
COACH TRESSEL: So they played after. Yeah, I saw some.
REPORTER: What did you think of them?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, gee, they're good. Whoa.
REPORTER: You said Iowa, they are who they are. Last year Anthony Gonzalez took advantage of some match-ups, scored a few times. It seems like he's done that a few times this year, is that because he's in the slot? Is that something you're looking to do, I guess, with that slot?
COACH TRESSEL: If you're fortunate enough to guess the right match-up, unfortunately they don't play the same coverage every time and if you can get match-ups, that's the name of the game. If you can run the ball when they have less hats in the box or you can throw it when they have a lot of hats in the box and protect it and all that, it's still a game of numbers and match-ups, but they do a good job of knowing how you're going to try to attack them. Both ways. They know what your defense is going to do because they know what needs to be stopped and they know how you're going to attack them because they know -- they know their defense through and through and they know the adjustment to make off of it, and it's just a matter of sometimes who has the chalk last.
REPORTER: Can you talk a little bit about the long pass from Troy to Robiskie, exactly how it developed and what they did that was beyond what the play called for in the huddle?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, Robie was on a short route and when he saw Troy start to scramble, he took off deep. And then when Troy reversed field kind of, he took off sideways because he was about as deep as he could get and still, a marvelous throw, I mean, 57 yards on a rope. I mean, it was -- it was something.
REPORTER: What would you say about the catch part of it?
COACH TRESSEL: They would have had to surgically remove it, I think, if he didn't catch it. I mean, it was great concentration, because there was some people storming after him and great awareness of how to get away from them and then to see where the ball was going, its trajectory, but Robie's got great concentration.
REPORTER: Could you count on one hand maybe how many times you've seen a guy throw a ball like that?
COACH TRESSEL: Count on one hand?
REPORTER: Do you see it very often?
COACH TRESSE: Not like that. Especially after two pirouettes, not often.
REPORTER: I thought I heard on the Falcon/Saints game last night that the Falcons got their read option under your tutelage.
COACH TRESSEL: I know our staff was down there last spring, but they never told me they gave away our secrets.
REPORTER: I know our offensive staff was down at Clemson with the Falcons for spring practice and they spent some time with them. I thought we were studying them, but maybe they were studying us. We're free about that. We talk about what we do.
REPORTER: Do you find yourself tutoring more NFL teams due to the success you've had or not?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, we had so many NFL guys come in to work out our players that our coaches had lots of time to sit down and talk with them, but I don't know if we were tutoring them, I just think it was an idea exchange.
REPORTER: What did you all get from the Falcons? What did you all glean from them?
COACH TRESSEL: Their quarterback can move around and I think Joe and those guys studied a little bit of that, and Coach Bollman got together with their line coach and I'm sure grunted back and forth, whatever they talk about, but I'm sure I couldn't decipher that, but it's just an exchange of ideas. I hope he doesn't read the paper.
REPORTER: Just about Robiskie, what do you see about him that tells you he's a coach's kid and what just stands out about that aspect? I mean, of having a kid like that, like you said, he's a smart kid, but also he studies and seems to be aware of stuff?
COACH TRESSEL: I think awareness is the right word because he saw how hard his dad as worked to get to the level he's gotten. It wasn't just casual that he's had the opportunities he's had. He paid attention. There are some people that I'm sure are around excellence all day long and don't even know it, but Brian's a guy that, I'm sure he picked up off of his dad and they're a very close family, so I'm sure dad took him to training camp and all those kinds of things and he's wondering why the heck are they in the meeting room eight hours a day and as he got older, he figured it out, it's because you need to be. So I think I'd use your word awareness. I've got a crick in my neck. Hold on a second. Anyone over here? You're waiting, okay, we'll go one more and then we'll get Marla.
REPORTER: I know opponents get up for Ohio State every year, but now four games into this as the number one team, have you found anything different week to week from the outside that there is something when you are number one over the course of a season, that anything feels different, do you think the players feel anything different maybe from the outside?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, I can't speak for the players because they're on the outside a lot more than I am, I'm in the film room, but Ohio State is always circled on everyone's calendar. I don't feel any different about this year than any other year, and we're also very realistic about all of the areas, we've got to get a lot better. And polls are polls and I guess they're fun to have out there for people to talk about and so forth, but the bottom line is the games, and if we're going to have a chance to win the games, we have to get better. And we have some great challenges on our schedule and the next one is a big one. Marla?
REPORTER: I have a request from the back, so it's going to be two short questions. Did the pink locker room survive the renovation, do you know?
COACH TRESSEL: Don't know.
REPORTER: If Antonio Smith had not given the ball to the ref, would you have let him keep it?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, those guys are in pretty good cahoots with the equipment managers, so I don't know what they end up with. But I don't think in the college game the guys -- do the guys bring the balls to the sideline, hide them in the equipment bag like you see in the NFL? I don't know. He would have gotten billed for it, though, knowing our equipment managers, he would have gotten billed if he took it.
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SI
The X factor
Iowa will wield great influence in national-title chase
Posted: Tuesday September 26, 2006 1:50AM; Updated: Tuesday September 26, 2006 1:26P
The Iowa Hawkeyes come in at No. 12 in this week's Power Rankings -- but they may be No. 1 in importance when it comes to determining this year's national championship matchup.
It's clear at this point that Ohio State and Michigan, both 4-0, are among the elite teams in college football this season. It's also clear that they aren't going to face too many real challenges on their Big Ten schedules. Who's going to touch them? A rebuilding Penn State team? A Michigan State team that imploded against Notre Dame last weekend? The Buckeyes don't face Wisconsin -- a team the Wolverines struggled with for a half last Saturday -- and neither team faces 4-0 Purdue.
It may be that only one remaining team, Iowa, stands in the way of a possible showdown of undefeated teams on Nov. 18 at the Horseshoe. The Hawkeyes host Ohio State on Saturday night and visit Ann Arbor on Oct. 21 with a chance to possibly ruin at least one team's national title hopes -- or to enter themselves into the discussion if they were to upset both.
The X factor
Iowa will wield great influence in national-title chase
Posted: Tuesday September 26, 2006 1:50AM; Updated: Tuesday September 26, 2006 1:26P
The Iowa Hawkeyes come in at No. 12 in this week's Power Rankings -- but they may be No. 1 in importance when it comes to determining this year's national championship matchup.
It's clear at this point that Ohio State and Michigan, both 4-0, are among the elite teams in college football this season. It's also clear that they aren't going to face too many real challenges on their Big Ten schedules. Who's going to touch them? A rebuilding Penn State team? A Michigan State team that imploded against Notre Dame last weekend? The Buckeyes don't face Wisconsin -- a team the Wolverines struggled with for a half last Saturday -- and neither team faces 4-0 Purdue.
It may be that only one remaining team, Iowa, stands in the way of a possible showdown of undefeated teams on Nov. 18 at the Horseshoe. The Hawkeyes host Ohio State on Saturday night and visit Ann Arbor on Oct. 21 with a chance to possibly ruin at least one team's national title hopes -- or to enter themselves into the discussion if they were to upset both.
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f'ing ncaa.
OregonBuckeye
Semper Fi Buckeyes
osugrad21;618546; said:
You gotta' be shitting me! We would beat them by atleast 40. They are the least impressive 4-0 team in quite some time. Purdue is thanking their lucky stars that they don't have to face scUM or us.
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gregorylee
I'd rather be napping!!
OregonBuckeye;618606; said:
Not to dog on you bro, but Purdue didn't play tOSU, or scUM last year either.
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