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Transcript From The September 19th Football Press Luncheon
Previewing Ohio State vs. Penn State
Sept. 19, 2006
COACH TRESSEL: We knew that the Cincinnati game would be a tough one for us from the standpoint of how well their staff knows what we do and what we like to do and how we think. Also the number of players that are on their roster from the State of Ohio that probably since they were very young envisioned themselves playing in the Horseshoe and they didn't disappoint anyone. They came out and I thought they made a good plan trying to do defensively what would affect us. I thought they made a good plan offensively to try to keep us off-balance and not let us seize the tempo of the game.
I thought they had a real good plan to try to double Teddy on some things, and you know Mark (Dantonio), he's got some coverages that I can't even draw up. So we knew it was going to be a battle and it was that. I was pleased from the standpoint that our guys did a good job of adjusting and figuring out what it was they were doing. Our coaching staff did a good job upstairs of saying, hey, here's what we need to go to and our guys kept playing and that's important. And we improved. I was hoping we'd improve a little more than we did, but that's just the coach in me that wants to get better and better and better all the time because we know what lies ahead in the Big Ten Conference, and Penn State, starting off with Penn State in league play is as challenging as it can possibly get.
We had five guys on each side of the ball grade winning performance, which again, I would have liked a little more than that from a consistency standpoint. We did have some outstanding performances.
Aaron Pettrey was the special units player of the week. He had six touchbacks on his kickoffs and hit two good-sized field goals and seems to be finding a little more consistent stroke, which when it's the first time out there as a starter, I think that takes a little more experience to really get in a groove. And I think he's moving in that direction.
And we were pleased, obviously, with
Ryan Pretorius. His two opportunities, hit a 52-yarder and hit his kickoff for a touchback. So Aaron was the special units player of the week.
On defense it was
Quinn Pitcock. Quinn is an outstanding player and I've said many times that our two inside guys in
David Patterson and
Quinn Pitcock are as good as it gets. Those guys create havoc and you've got to really figure out a way to slow them down. Quinn had three sacks, I believe, and multiple tackles and so forth and was our defensive player of the week.
And then the third "P" was
Antonio Pittman. He was the offensive player of the week and he had 16 or 15 carries for 150 some yards and a touchdown. And what I thought he gave us was when things weren't exactly right, he broke some tackles, made some plays, maybe made some plays out of very little opening and so forth and just played, I thought, with a little bit of spark that we needed to get things going. He continued to get better, and again, if we'll keep growing at that tailback position with he and Beanie and Mo being able to provide a little bit each in all phases, catching and blocking and most especially running the football, we've got a chance to grow as an offensive football team.
The Jim Parker offensive lineman of the week was
Steve Rehring. Steve had the highest grade which was very encouraging. He played both guard and tackle. He played with both the first and the second units and it was good to see him grade as well as he did and win the Jim Parker offensive lineman.
The attack force player of the week was
James Laurinaitis, and James continues to age. This was his fifth game, if you will, playing the significant snaps and I think he keeps learning while he's doing it. He studies the game hard, trains hard, and does a good job of leading that group from the middle in there. The Jack Tatum hit of the week, this might be news-worthy, was by Ted Ginn, and don't tell Jack, because it didn't live up to Jack's hits, but Ted Ginn had a heck of a hit on
Antonio Pittman's touchdown run. That guy had a little bit of an angle on him and Teddy caught up to both those guys and put a pretty good whack on them. And Teddy's probably more proud of that than any play since he's been at Ohio State, so he won the Jack Tatum hit of the week.
Our scout special teams guys continue to work hard, try to learn the systems of the other teams and then provide us with the best possible looks we can get.
De'Angelo Haslam from Akron Garfield was our special units player, and De'Angelo was Antoine Winfield's cousin and loves Ohio State, bleeds Ohio State, and just does whatever the team needs and we're excited for him to win that award.
Over on the offensive side,
Andrew Moses did a good job and won the scout offensive player. And
Chimdi Chekwa from down in Orlando, Florida, who's a good corner, who at this moment we're red shirting, did an excellent job. We knew Cincinnati would do a lot of press man-to-man stuff and we would have to do a good job of being able to get off coverage, and Chimdi really did a good job of putting pressure on our receivers and giving them as close a look as he could possibly give them and he won the defensive player.
Penn State, you've all watched Penn State for a long, long time. It starts with them being physical. Probably the next thing you think of when you think of Penn State is they're so well schooled that everybody on the field, whether it's an offensive play, a defensive scheme, a special units play, everyone on their field knows exactly why they're doing what they're doing, and they know the technique that's necessary, they know their role, they play their role, and then I think what they've added in the last couple years is tremendous speed. When you look at their skilled people, tremendous, explosive speed. Their return men are frightening, their receivers are outstanding. I love that back, he's an old-fashioned, physical-type guy, (Tony) Hunt. So you add the toughness with the understanding and speed and you've got a good football team. And everyone in our locker room knows when you go to the Big Ten you better take it up a notch. You better understand that everyone now has had some games to get better, and if you're going to be successful in Big Ten play, you're going to have to rise up and play better than you've been playing the whole season.
Our guys are excited. You can feel an energy around campus. The students are back. It's an exciting time. I think Steve told me that we had an all-time record number of students purchase season tickets, like 31,000, which is extraordinary. And I know they're excited about being at their first game here at the beginning of school. So this is going to be a great energy around the campus and in the stadium and now we have to make sure that we put the plan together and do our jobs to make sure that we can hold up our end of the bargain.
REPORTER: Can you talk about what's going on with the offensive line with Schafer and Rehring and Boone; is Boone okay and is this kind of to get Schafer ready to play?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, both Schaf and
Steve Rehring have to be ready to play tackle and they have to be ready to play guard. And what we've been trying to do the last two weeks is make sure we even get a series for the entire second offensive line so they've been in there and they've been under duress and maybe even upgraded their preparation knowing that, hey, I'm going to be out there.
So we're trying to become as deep as we can. We're trying to become as fresh as we can, but, yeah,
Alex Boone is fine and we need to rotate people around so that when you get into this grinder now called the Big Ten, and especially the other factor involved is now you're in a 12-game season that's 12 straight weeks and we think that's important to build that depth and those experiences. And the other problem you have, I think, is you have less plays, and so if you don't force yourself to substitute some, you're going to turn around, the game's going to be over and you won't have had as many plays as you'd like. So I think you add all those things up and it's why we've done what we've done.
REPORTER: No one has had much luck running against them; do you think you'll have to pass?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, one thing about Penn State, all the way back from the beginning of time is they're going to have eight up in the box if you're in the standard formation. And they're going to get a ninth guy up there once they see where the ball's going. If you spread them out, they're still going to have one more hat in the box than you have blockers, that's just the nature of the way they've played it. It's the nature of the way we've played defense. The number one goal our defense has is to make it difficult to run, that's the same from their standpoint, and most certainly, I don't think anyone will line up and just run the football and be successful against Penn State, us included.
REPORTER: Jim, where -- this is the other team you play every year, obviously, where does this stand rivalry-wise?
COACH TRESSEL: We've had some great games. I think it's so natural because we're contiguous and -- Rusty, do you want me to spell that?
REPORTER: Yeah, could you, please?
COACH TRESSEL: It's so natural from a rivalry standpoint. A lot of guys have played against each other in the Big 33 game and we have some good Pennsylvania guys, they have some good Ohio guys. It's natural. Two of the great programs, historically in the nation and like you say, we've had some great games and they're always physical, they're always clean, they're always tough. They're like what rivalries should be all about. There's no question, it's going to be an every-year thing forever.
REPORTER: How much does Joe Paterno's presence and continued presence add to that just because of his history?
COACH TRESSEL: I think anytime that you have one of the legendary people in the game, associated with the game, it adds something to it. I was looking at some of the -- I think Joe's played against us, I don't know, almost 20 times. That's incredible. And his history and his knowledge and his expectations for his players, his ability to see because of his vast experience of what they need to do to get better, Joe Paterno is one of the great ones and he does make the game even -- if you can make it even tougher than it is, he makes it tougher.
REPORTER: Is there anything about him or the way he's gone about building or doing his program that you've emulated over the years or that you've learned from?
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, I would say this, that most of us in coaching who have been at it for quite some time have always noticed that Penn State's been up near the top. They've always had to be reckoned with. So you always ask yourself, what's made them so good? They've always been physical. They've always played great defense. They've always gotten the ball to their playmakers. They've always had great special teams. I can remember back in the '70s studying their punt returns. So I don't know that consciously everyone knows that they're studying what's made them so successful, but I think you do. You just -- whenever you turn on the TV or you happen to be in their conference and you see them on film constantly, you see what they do and what they've done for years and years and years and I know when we were at Youngstown State, we went over there to visit often, and that's just -- why? Because they do things well.
REPORTER: Do you think your defense has found it's identity yet?
COACH TRESSEL: I don't know that you find an identity until a season ends, whether it be offensively or defensively. There's always a transition. You have an evolution of how you're attacking on defense or how you're attacking on offense, and then the guys in the next game are sitting in the film room saying, okay, I see what they're doing. Here's what we're going to do to hurt that, and then your ability to handle the next step. I think our defense is improving. They've done a good job of limiting people from a point standpoint which is the bottom line. We did a great job in the last two ball games from a take-away standpoint, if we can continue that. But I don't know if -- you talk about having an identity after three games. You've got so much more to prove as a team or as an offense or as a defense or as a special unit, but I think they're coming along.
REPORTER: Someone suggested Saturday that maybe it's your aggressive and take-away that the aggressive defense thrives off of.
COACH TRESSEL: We haven't changed our style of play. We're going to be an aggressive, high-pressure defense. We're not going to sit back and hope we can stop you. We're going to attack you. Now, sometimes, if you happen to hit the wrong place, you might see a play go out, but that's not going to slow our aggression. In this day and age the way people can throw and catch and spread you out and all the multiple things that they do, you better put the pressure on. We've said it a million times in this room, football is a game of pressure, who's putting it on whom, and defensively we want to put pressure on the offense.
REPORTER: Jim, I know you don't talk about -- maybe you want to talk about the consecutive streak that Troy has without an interception, but I wonder if you can --
COACH TRESSEL: Since you brought it up.
REPORTER: I know you don't talk about those, but what is he doing that he's able to throw to the right people to avoid that basically?
COACH TRESSEL: I think the first thing that a quarterback needs to do to begin a streak like that is to first believe how important it is for us to take care of the football. And Troy is very careful about our football. And he knows that the impact of us losing our football on the whole team is significant. So it starts with a belief in its importance. And then it comes down to a knowledge of what we're doing and what they're doing. And where I think he's really grown is we play against all different schemes of defenses, and he studies them hard.
Cincinnati defense is very dissimilar from Penn State defense conceptually. There are some similarities, but just in general, you wouldn't say that it's a similar style defense. And Troy will know the difference by the time he has that ball in his hand in the game, because he's committed himself to that. And of course he knows more and more about what we're doing, and there's got to be a little luck, a little good fortune when you have a streak of any kind, but he believes it's important and he's very careful with the ball.
REPORTER: Well, Craig Krenzel, he was a guy known for protecting the ball. Troy is at that level, yet also a playmaker too.
COACH TRESSEL: We talk about three things, that if our quarterback can make good decisions for the team, have no turnovers, and then make big plays, that's what we need. Now, there are 500 other little things we want him to do, but if he'll do those three, and
Troy Smith has demonstrated he can do those three things, now he has to continue to demonstrate it against a good defense like Penn State.
REPORTER: In three games, what are the areas that you have not developed as quickly as you thought you might have?
COACH TRESSEL: That we have not developed. We're probably not as consistent across the board. There's not really a position I could point to because I don't know that there's one I can say, hey, you know what, we've developed consistency in that position. So I think across the board I don't know if we're as consistent with our excellence as we need to be and hopefully will be as the season goes along.
I don't think there's any one -- after the first game, we kind of had a similar question, we said, you know what, hey, we've got to do a better job kicking the ball. But now the thing is, we've got to do a good job kicking the ball consistently because we did a pretty good job of it last weekend, first two weekends it was maybe not quite as good as maybe what we needed, but consistency up front on offense has got to be better, consistency with our perimeter blocking has got to be better. Defensively, we've got to be more consistent with our tackling, and I'm sure the defensive coaches could list six things for you. But there's nothing that jumps out at me and says, oh, man, we have regressed in this area. I think we are progressing in many areas.
REPORTER: Can you talk about
Roy Hall, where he is health-wise and also the situation with he and Robiskie and how much will they share the position?
COACH TRESSEL: I was going to give you the injury report. Maetzold is out, probably for the season.
MAETZOLD: Yeah, I'm done.
COACH TRESSEL: And
Roy Hall was maybe 85% last week and maybe played 10 snaps, probably up to 95% now and exactly how many snaps he'll play, I wouldn't even venture to throw a number out, but I'm hoping it will be significant. Plus don't forget the special units that he adds to the depth and so forth, about the only guy that we'll miss this week will be
Todd Boeckman. He rolled his ankle. Someone fell on him as he was falling and it didn't even happen really in the course of a play, but he was falling and the play kind of ended and someone fell. So we probably won't have Todd. Outside of that, Roy will be back healthier. Everyone else is doing fine. We'll not have Todd and Maetzold.
REPORTER: Going back a year ago to the Penn State game out there, what changed with this team after you lost the game? I don't know if it was something that was intangibly different about perhaps Troy and Ted and the offense, but what changed with your team mentally after that game?
COACH TRESSEL: I think anytime you play tough games and tough teams and so forth, you learn lessons. You learn what needs to be done to be successful, and when you get tested like we did last September and you get tested like we are this September, unless you're not paying attention, unless you don't care, you're going to learn lessons, so I just think it was a gradual learning of, hey, here's what it takes to play against the top end and here's what we're going to have to do to become at that level. And I don't think it was any light bulb that went on, I think it was just a gradual learning.
REPORTER: Where did Penn State succeed where everybody else has failed in terms of stopping Troy, and does this year's defense look a lot like that defense from last year?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, they haven't changed their defensive scheme at all. Someone asked over at the Quarterback Club they've gone to a three, four or something and they moved Number 20 down to an end position, but he just stands up, and they're playing the same schemes. What they did last year on defense is I thought they were solid everywhere. They were good up front. Their linebackers, say no more. Those guys are extraordinary and now they're a year older. Their secondary was very, very solid and what they did was they didn't make mistakes, they didn't miss tackles. They were a good football team.
REPORTER: Jim, can you talk about Morelli and how different their offense is with him at quarterback as opposed to what they did with Michael Robinson at quarterback?
COACH TRESSEL: Penn State is a smart football staff and they're going to feature what guys do best, and Morelli is a guy that probably they're throwing the football more -- I don't have the stats in front of me -- and probably running him less than they did with Robinson. He doesn't have the experience Robinson had. You know, Robinson had been in, he'd been a wide-out, he'd been a running back, he'd been a quarterback, he'd been in a lot of football games. He digested a lot of game plans and learned a lot about defense. And Morelli is a good player. We recruited Morelli. He's out of Pittsburgh. He's a guy that's going to be a good quarterback and they're going to be smart. They're going to do the things that he can do. And the thing that you can see is they have got fabulous weapons that are lined up with Morelli.
REPORTER: How did your relationship with Paterno change, if it did, when you were at Youngstown and you've recounted over the years how you used to correspond with him, then when you moved up in the Big Ten and became his rival?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, nothing changes with Joe. He's who he is. He's an open-arms guy. I see him more than I did then. I'd see him every once in a while back then, but now I get to see him at the Big Ten meetings and media days and obviously when we play and big 33 banquets. You get to see him more. Joe Paterno is the same guy as he was when I met him in 1974 in the fall. He loves the game of football, loves education, loves to compete, and just because you become his rival, he doesn't treat you any different.
REPORTER: You don't call him to ask him about --
COACH TRESSEL: I called him when Tyson got hurt, absolutely, because he'd been there. In fact, I mentioned to the group I was just with that Adam Taliaferro and Tyson are going to have a chance to be together this weekend and Adam was one of the first people that called Tyson and one of the first persons I called was Joe, and Joe was one of the ones that would call back periodically throughout the rest of the spring. Joe Paterno became Joe Paterno because he's good.
REPORTER: When are they getting together, before the game or something?
STEVE SNAPP: Halftime.
COACH TRESSEL: Halftime right before the third quarter.
STEVE SNAPP: Correct.
COACH TRESSEL: The reason they're getting together, I think is going to be wonderful for
Tyson Gentry to have that opportunity to learn from Adam, and the other thing is to raise the awareness of spinal cord injury research. That's part of what we'd like to do because it's real. Some of the great research is being done at places like this. And the awareness of that, if we can help raise awareness, that's a good thing.
REPORTER: Jim, you and Joe have also kind of given back to the universities you've been at, did you see that in him or was that something you decided as a young coach that's what you wanted to be about?
COACH TRESSEL: I think if you're paying attention to the right things, you see that in the people that you'd like to study from and I saw that type of thing from my father and from Joe Paterno and guys like John Wooden and Earl Bruce and all the rest. Joe has always been front and center for loving education. He was big behind their library campaign. Well, all of a sudden a need has arisen at Ohio State and three or four years ago Joe helped us with our library campaign and was more than happy because he knows the importance of the library as the heartbeat of a campus.
So, yeah, I think, we just had a meeting yesterday with our guys. School starts tomorrow, we talked a lot about academics, talked about how the landscape changes on the campus when 40 some thousand more people get here and picking who you are around and who you choose to learn from is very important, and I think choosing to learn from guys like Joe Paterno and having a chance to learn from guys that I worked for, Dick McPherson or Earl (Bruce) or Jim Dennison or Tom Reed. You're fortunate when you get to work for people, but you better choose wisely who you would like to study from, and Joe Paterno has been a great study for a lot of us coaches.
REPORTER: Joe Paterno is 79 years old and been in this business for a long time, do you see yourself being a young coach --
COACH TRESSEL: I am a young coach. I keep telling myself I'm a young coach. Joe Paterno is a guy that in my football lifetime he's always been there. To me, there's no age to that, he's just there. He's had great programs and not just the guys he's sent to the NFL, but the guys he's sent out into the world, he's made an impact and it doesn't really have much to do with age, it has to do with effectiveness and he's been very effective.
REPORTER: Jim, what was your reaction yesterday to finding out that Maurice Clarett is going to be in prison for at least three and a half, four years, and just your overall feelings about him and the situation?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, the little bit I heard about it sounded like it was a decision that he made, and that knowing Maurice like I do is that I like to think that he'll have a plan for his growth while he's taking care of those consequences. And my feelings don't change any for him. I would say this, like any situation that arises, if you'll take it and use it to grow, it's amazing what it can do for you. So my prayer is that he takes that time and creates a plan for his life and that he'll have a wonderful life.
REPORTER: But at one point, he was considered a Heisman candidate his sophomore year, he had this budding career. Would you call it an athletic tragedy? How would you describe it?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, from an athletic standpoint, he didn't reach his potential. But I very seldom use the words athletics and tragedy, maybe an injury might be tragic, but, yeah, he had abilities athletically and those didn't get fully realized, but the good news is that maybe he'll take this time and really become the best he can possibly be.
REPORTER: Teddy has five touchdown catches, which is I think one more or less than he had all of last year; where have you seen the biggest improvements in him as a receiver?
COACH TRESSEL: Teddy continues to grow into understanding of how they're trying to play him. Cincinnati tried to double him a number of times. He was aware of that. He knows how secondaries play and he knows about undercoverage and he knows about what the quarterbacks are looking at and he just keeps improving. I've been saying that about Teddy for quite some time. He continues to improve as a receiver. And he happens to have a good guy throwing him the ball. That helps you get some touchdowns as well.
REPORTER: There was a play, I think it was a pitch to Antonio, it was in the first half, I believe, where Troy was out leading on a block. One, is that designed that way and, two, what does that do for the rest of your team to see the quarterback out there leading, blocking for the tailback.
COACH TRESSEL: It's great to see the effort that Troy has going down there trying to make a block, I think, you can ask him, he might have been in the way. But you ask him, he's here today. Marla, let's go one more.
REPORTER: Some of the guys have already talked about the disappointment, how upset they were. Do you think them carrying that this week will help or is that a good thing?
COACH TRESSEL: We all were disappointed to have an early loss in your conference when one of your passions is to see if you can earn the chance to be the champion is tough. Now, what are you going to do with that difficult situation, and what they can do with it is they can continue to work to try to become better. Will that help us or hurt us in this ball game? I don't know, that won't block anybody and that won't tackle anybody, but our guys know how tough Penn State is, whether it was because of experiences like last year or two years ago or three years ago or four years ago, the ones that have been here that long, they know we better be at our best to compete with them.
