Q. What's been the reaction from people because of your suspensions? When you bump into people are there people who give you a hard time or are there people who are supportive? Is there a mix? How have people responded to you in light of what's happened over the last 10 months?
Dan Herron: Well, people really respond to me good now. We're winning. Winning and we're doing pretty good.
But I got some pretty mean people, but I really didn't kind of listen to them. I stayed positive about everything. Just kept on moving forward.
Q. Obviously an emotional win Saturday. You're playing a team that is not playing well. How do you avoid a let-down, complacency?
Dan Herron: Just keep working hard and keep moving forward, and just go out there and give it our best shot.
Q. Dan, Coach Fickell talked about confidence with you in the backfield, you can sense that on the offense right now. Do you sense that right now that the offense is pretty confident with you back there at tailback?
Dan Herron: I feel they're pretty confident right now. Whenever you can get some of your key guys back, I feel like when you have your whole team together, everyone's pretty much confident. And I think we're playing pretty good right now. We're working hard every day. And like always, we just gotta keep moving forward and keep getting better.
Q. There's no doubt that you're one of the leaders on this team and your teammates look up to you, what is it like for you as one of the leaders of the team to see so many young freshmen stepping up and making plays, guys other than Braxton, guys like Devin Smith and Ryan Shazier, making plays, what is it like for you?
Dan Herron: It's great. You always want to see younger players stepping up and making plays. Whenever you've got a younger player making plays, it's good for the older guys, it takes a little bit off the older guys, so they won't have to do so much, they can all come together and make plays.
Q. You tweeted something about leaving, if you watch the film, you felt you left yards on the field against Wisconsin. When you looked at the film, what did you see? Why did you feel that way considering you had 160 yards in that game?
Dan Herron: After watching the film, sometimes as a running back you're not going to see every hole and hit every hole. I felt like I could have gotten ourselves on a couple of more runs. But with me playing in just my second game I think it was definitely a game I could learn from and get better from.
Q. Coach Fickell always says that you can only worry about what you do and he doesn't look at any other games. Not asking you whether you worry about what other people do, but do you watch, say, a Penn State or the teams you guys are tied with in the Big Ten, watch their results and watch what happens week-to-week?
Dan Herron: Me, myself, honestly, I do kind of watch other teams just to see how they're doing. And kind of see who you -- you play guys later on in the week, I mean, later in the weeks, and I if watch other teams to pick up and see how they're playing and look forward to who we're playing.
Q. You've gotten to know Carlos Hyde pretty well. How have you talked to him in the last couple of weeks? Obviously the pair and the spare thing seems to have kicked in now. But how have you told him to practice patience, et cetera, from the standpoint of his time will come?
Dan Herron: We definitely talked. And I think he's doing a lot better now. And like I told him, you know, when I first got here, I had a lot of guys in front of me, Beanie Wells, Brandon and Maurice Wells, I told him he has a couple of years left. So his time is definitely going to come. He's a great running back, and he's always working hard, always doing a great job. So his time will definitely come.
Q. What do you see from Braxton Miller and what can a game like that where he comes through on that final drive after things went south do for him as a young player and working with you guys, do you see him, I don't know, what do you sense in him and what's ahead of him?
Dan Herron: I see him growing up and getting better as a football player. I think he's getting better every week. And the more experience he gets, the better he gets. And I think he's definitely going to be a great player, a special player.
Q. You've been running a lot on the wildcat since you've been back. Does it give you better vision? Do you like it more? What does it for you as a wildcat?
Dan Herron: The wildcat is pretty good when you play running back. You can also see the whole field but when you're in the wildcat you can kind of see things a little easier and just read things a little easier and it was kind of fun, too. It's kind of like you're playing quarterback and can kind of go anywhere. I can throw a little bit.
Q. You said that people respond well now. And they were kind of mean before. Does it change the way you accept the praise now given all you've been through do you accept praise and adulation different now?
Dan Herron: Not really. I mean, people everybody has their opinion. You really can't worry about what people say. I mean, it's always good if you have people behind you that support you. But as far as what people, with the negative things, you can't really worry about them, because a lot of people don't know your situation all the time so they might go by what they hear. So you just have to kind of just not listen to those things and just keep moving forward and stay positive.
Q. The TV cameras picked you up being pretty emotional before the game. I assume that was during the Anthem. I know this is a personal question but I'm just wondering what struck you? Was it the Anthem itself or playing at home again or what brought that on?
Dan Herron: Just kind of just being at home. Playing at home. Being back in the Ohio State stadium, and just being around the fans and just being there with my teammates. And I was just happy to be back out there and have the opportunity to play back out there, play out there with my teammates.
Q. IU has given up over 200 points in its last four games. When you see that, do you think, wow, what could we possibly do against these guys?
Dan Herron: Yeah, I mean, you gotta look at it that way. Whatever we could do to put points on the board, you know. You keep getting better in practice and listen to what the coaches have for us to do and just go out there and do it.
Q. Do you think there's an opportunity where you could really rack up some points, too, like everybody else's averaging 50 on them?
Dan Herron: I think it's possible. It's definitely possible. I just gotta be patient and play my game.
