From the Big Ten Media Days (the next post has this in video):
JT - "Our 2010 Buckeyes are, I think, a little older group than we've had. 25 seniors, and I feel good about the maturity and the leadership. I think our rising junior class has really grown quote a bit, and you can see how they're coming along. The back half of our team, I think, we need to find out a little bit more about, to see just how far along they've come. And we're gonna need them to provide depth. We losrt a good senior class from a year ago, and not all of them were starters, but all of them were excellent contributors. So there are some roles that have to be filled, and we need this young group. Most of our freshmen were in this summer, and they seem to be like a good group. And I've heard good things from our academic people and our strength people, as to how they're tending to things, and now I'm anxious to see them on the practive field.
"We get going, reporting for camp on the 5th, and lookin' forward to a fun year in 2010."
Q (Tim May) - Jim, what is it like playing with a target on your back, and do you like that. in some way?"
JT - Well, I think the reality we've had for years and years at Ohio State is that, you know, we normally have a target. I think once you get started, though, you don't really know. You're just trying to get better, adn we try to focus to become as good as we can be. I think we're a very capable team, adn I think we should be a team that's being targeted, and I know we will be a team that's being targeted. We'll always get everyone's best shot, and with that in mind, we better make sure out best shot's ready each Saturday. You know, it's just part of the deal."
Q - "Jim, could you talk about Terrelle Pryor's growth process, his learning curve last year. He was the preseason player of the year, and had more turnovers early in the year, and then seemed to grow as the year went on. Where is he right now, and how do you feel about him?"
JT - "Well, I've kinda talked through that journey a few times, and I don't want to bore the people that I've done that with. But, Terrelle has had an interesting career, in that his freshmen year he was kind of thrust in there a little bit more than any of us had planned, himself included. And he was thrust in with a veteran team, and trying to find his way and his identity, and his acceptance, if you will. And I thought by the end of the year he really progressed. And then his sophomore year, all of a sudden it was a brand new huddle. And he was supposedly the veteran, and supposedly the guy that was gonna, kinda lead that group. I thought he had to figure out the difference between what he had experienced before and what he was then experiencing in his sophomore year.
"I thought he learned a great deal throughout the regular season his sophomore year, and then I thought it really started to really crystalize in his mind during bowl practice. And that's the beauty of if you have the opportunity to earn a bowl, getting that extra practice, and guys come along. And I thought he really was able to focus in on what he needed to do better, and he knew his place amongst the group, and all that. So I thought he perfromed fairly well in the bowl game. And then I thought he did the same thing in the spring. He really focused on becoming the best he could be. And now he has a new team that he's, without question, looked to for leadership. And I thought his summer was good as well. So I feel good about where he is right now, he's always thinking about football, he's you know ... I was sittin' over there in the ESPN truck, and he called and had an idea. So I let Herbstreit answer the phone - let those quarterbacks talk to one another. He's just always thinking about it, and I think he's anxious to get this season underway."
Q - "Coach, given your win in the Rose Bowl last season, and Iowa's in the Orange Bowl, and the expectations for those two programs coming into this season, along with Wisconsin, do you think the national perception of the conference has been altered a little bit, and can you sort of magnify on that a little bit?"
JT - "You know, I think you're only thought of as your most recent performances. And I think if you look at the Big Ten as a whole, our recent performances, our bowl game performances, whether we won or we lost, 'cause we lost a couple tough ones. I thought what people remember most recently about our football is pretty darn good. Then I think if you really look and see how many people are coming back from those teams, this will be as veteran and as tough, and as excellent a Big Ten, in the 10 years that I've been here. And I think we do have a number of teams that can compete against anyone in America. And I think what the world remembers is what we did most recently. Now they may, you know, love to think back, and do some historical perspective of what we haven't done, or whatever, but I think the most recent evidence of Big Ten football is pretty good from this past December and January."
Q - "The Ohio State-Michigan rivalry has always meant a great deal to you. In a landscape that will include expansion, and divisional play, and a conference title game probably; are you worried at all that something might be taken from that game, and what do you want to see the Big Ten do to make sure that doesn't happen?"
JT - "Well, there's always gonna be change. I don't think, I can't imagine that there'd ever be a change from the fact that Ohio State and Michigan are gonna square off and it's gonna be exciting and meaningful and all the rest. How it will be done, exactly, and where within the year, and all those things - I'm sure if we look back in our history, you know, most recently it's been in the last regular season game. Prior to that, you know, it wasn't. So where it will be in the future I'm nor sure, but I don't think it will ever change in its importance, and the people involved in it especially, what it means to all of them and all of us. But it's going to be interesting to watch the change unfold, whether it's what 12-team division setup we have, or are we gonna even not worry about that because we're gonna be expanding to more teams or whatever. I don't know, I'm not part of those discussions. But I think change is exciting, and any time you add someone like Nebraska to the fold, in our case, I know that's a year from now, and it's not really relevant to today's press conference. But when you add Nebraska and their tradition and their academic excellence and all the rest. There a lot of neat things going on, and I'm looking forward to watching how that change unfolds.
But I have no trepidation at all that it will affect the great Ohio State-Michigan rivalry."
Q - "Jim, to follow on that a little bit, so Ohio State and Michigan need to staty in the same division? How would you do it?"
JT - "How would I do it? Man, no one that has any power has asked me how I would do it, so I guess amongst friends here ... I guess you could go one of a couple ways. You could just go strictly geographical, which would be us and Penn State and the 2 Michigans and the 2 Indianas there; and the Western side with, you know, Nebraska and Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois, Minnesota. You know, that type of thing, which would be logical and so forth. Or you could not want to get too geographical, and then you could do all those computations of how you think people should be aligned and cross over and so forth.
"But however they do it, it's gonna be exciting. however they do it, it's gonna create new things for us. I'm sure the people in charge of that, our athletic directors, our college presidents, they're gonna set us up with the best possible deal we can have."
Q - "Jim, coming off a win in the Rose Bowl, as opposed to the previous couple years where you didn't end the season with a win. Did you really notice anything with the players or the staff, through spring ball, or maybe over the summer, or did you fell anything differently, to end on an up note, as opposed to maybe finishing with a loss, and then maybe having a different motivation over the summer ... was there any difference?"
JT - "Or a different staff. Who knows, they could have run us out if we didn't. I don't know. I think when you go back and you watch the film, you see that nothin's as good as it seems and nothin's as bad, Earle used to always tell us. I thought we did some good things there. I'm not so sure we didn't play as good a game the year before that when we played Texas and lost in the last second. I'm not sure if you added up all the plays and all the performance and so forth, we didnt play just as well that day, and didn't happen to win, but .. obviously it feels better to win.
We felt very strongly that that was a signal for the Big Ten. You know, that we were gonna step up and win that game. I think we were ranked 7th or 8th and Oregon was ranked 7th or 8th, so that was a good nose-to-nose battle, and we were representing Ohio State, but we were representing the Big Ten. Especially after we'd watched some of our Big Ten brethren do a great job earlier in the bowl time. So it felt terrific to win that ball game, but when you go back to work, you have to look at the realities to see where we've gotta get better if we want to progress here in 2010."
Q - "Coach, how do you feel about the possibility of a 9-game conference slate, and do you feel like there's much of a chance that the league could switch from 8 to 9?"
JT - "You know, probably the thing that in my mind I've always thought wasn't a great idea for a 9-game, was that we may have 1 of our Big Ten teams that, they could be one of those special teams that year. And maybe make a run at winning the whole thing, and then it just so happens that they've got that 5 away games in conference play scheduled, and they end up dropping maybe one of those, that hurts them and keeps them from the national spotlight. So I've never been sure that it was the best thing for the conference. I understand from a scheduling standpoint and all that. I know us, with 36 sports, and we need to raise quite a bit of money to fund an athletic program like we have - it's really important to have home games. And if you're assigned 5 away games from the get go, and then you're in the midst of a home-and-home with somebody like we like to do, all of a sudden now you have 6 away games. That might be difficult for us to do our 36 sports. So I guess, just Ohio State-wise, I'm not sure it's a great financial thing. For the league, I worry a little bit about it falling wrong at the wrong time.
Q - " You talked a few minutes ago about the rising junior class that you have. I wonder, when you started putting that class together, could you tell that maybe it was a different class, did things feel differently when you were getting that group of guys?"
JT - "Well, that's the fun part of recruiting and coaching. There's really no two groups that are the same. The makeup of our classes typically, is about 60 to 65% Ohio guys, and 35 to 40% guys from either states that touch us or even further. And this group was a little bit more far and wide. I think it was even, it was like 50-50. A lot of them were very well thought of, which is a challenge of its own. You know, as a young man tries to progress, to meet those expectations. But it's, you know, it was a situation where a handful of them were thrown into the lineup in 2008, you know, as real young guys. It's been fun watching them progress, and I just see a lot of growth in them and that's the fun of what we do. We get all nervous and so forth, and we talk a lot about how we do, whether we won the Rose Bowl or won this many gams or that many games. I know what coaches get nervous about is how did a young person progress? And are we getting him ready for the rest of his life? It's fun to see those moments when you see the evidence that guys are coming along. That class just seems to me that they're giving us more and more evidence that they're coming along. You know, you're only 1 phone call away from not feeling that way, but I feel good about that group."
Q - "Coach, in the expansion question. Do you find youself and your coaching staff getting caught up and theorizing about what could happen and what may happen, the same way the media ends up doing. And do you guys, are you worried about what may happen and how it's goping to impact Ohio State, and is that something that you guys actively discuss?
JT - "Interestingly enough, our staff, I'm not sure we've spent 3 minutes talking about expansion, because there's really nothing we have to do with it. But I know our players ... for instance, we have 3 seniors here this couple days, and we have 25 seniors who are ... and they don't really care one bit about expansion. In 2010, we know what the deal is. Now are some younger guys thinking about it? Maybe, but I don't think ... the time I spend with young people, the furute to them is next Friday. The future to them isn't 2011, that's just not the way they think. So, no we haven't worried too much about it, nor talked too much about it. I think it's exciting when the time is right and the moment's happened, it's going to be fun to see it unfold, but I think our guys are wired up about 2010."
Q - "You just mentioned about being nervous about how a young person progresses. I'm just curious, now that Maurice Clarett is back on campus taking classes, is there any participation for him in the football program - not officially, but just coming by the office and seeing people, or is he just like any other undergrad there?"
JT - "Well, just from ... he's not on a scholarship or anything, so he's just like any other undergrad from that standpoint. He knows he's certainly welcome to stop by, and he also knows we're very busy and so forth. One of the first things that he said when he came back, 'cause I told him 'You ought to let people know what your intentions are, and so forth', and he said 'The biggest intention I have is to not disrupt this 2010 football season that's coming up'. So he wants to be in the background, but he wants to be a student, and he wants to grow. Just like anything else, day by day, we'll see how we progess."
