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leroyjenkins
Choose positivity
ttk;1534045; said:
No, i think were going to see the buckeye leaf, and the Block "O" of old.
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Derek2k3
Banned
Props to ttk, way back on page 130ish, for making a great point. He wrote something to the effect of "the Buckeyes still have great talent...". Paraphrased of course:)
But seriously, some people are going so overboard on this, saying the Bucks have poor talent etc...look, say what you want, but the Bucks are fine when it comes to talent!
I feel like everything that needs to be said has been said in the past 140 pages, so I'll leave it with:
GO BUCKS! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But seriously, some people are going so overboard on this, saying the Bucks have poor talent etc...look, say what you want, but the Bucks are fine when it comes to talent!
I feel like everything that needs to be said has been said in the past 140 pages, so I'll leave it with:
GO BUCKS! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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generaladm
Legend
I have something to say to "PJ" and "Keith the plumber" from the previously posted Dispatch article, all who chimed in with their agreement in the subsequent comments, and anyone here who thinks it's okay to expect defeat based on recent losses: Grow a fucking sack and stand up for your team!
This is THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. Our football tradition did not start when we beat Miami for the national title, nor did it end when we lost to Florida. There is over a century of history that includes more triumphant victories and heartbreaking losses than anyone alive can fully comprehend, and we today are living in one of its greatest periods of excellence. There is one single factor that has played into every great upset achieved by The Ohio State Buckeyes, be it in 1919, 1934, 1951, 1961, 1975, 1985, or any year, and that is the dedication of the athletes who wear The Scarlet and Gray. These kids work their tails off year round to perform to the best of their abilities on every given Saturday. I'm not talking about the known names who are building their resumes for the NFL. For every Terrelle Pryor and Beanie Wells, there are five guys who never see their names in the paper, but work their asses off on the scout team, in the training room, assisting in practice, running errands, doing whatever is asked of them; all with the goal of helping their team win every week. If any member of the OSU organization were to be quoted as saying they didn't think The Buckeyes had a chance to win a game, this board would be afire with comments about how they didn't deserve to be a Buckeye. I'm calling for all of you to hold yourselves to the same standard. If they can do it for several months out of the year, you can do it for one game. All you have to do is believe. I don't give a shit how many big games USC has won, and I don't give a shit how many big games OSU has lost. All that matters, right here right now, is how Ohio State plays this Saturday. Our team needs every advantage they can get, and we as fans have one thing to give, our support. I'm calling on everyone who reads this to give %100 from now until the game clock expires. If you see a Buckeye player walking around campus, give 'em an O-H. If you hear someone talking shit about our Buckeyes, you let them know that we're playing to win. If you're lucky enough to be in the 'Shoe on Sat, be loud and be strong. If you have to watch the game in some bar with a bunch of haters, look them in the eye and say, "I'm a Buckeye, and Buckeyes never die." There's a Woody quote which I can never remember fully (greenies to everyone who provides the full one) which talks about the team that hits the hardest and doesn't make mistakes, but it ends with, "Hell, there's no way anyone can beat 'em!" I expect the best out of our student athletes on Saturday, and if you fully support the team, you will put aside any reservations you have and root like hell for your Ohio State Buckeyes! This isn't Michigan. This is OHIO! Our boys are going to fight like hell to defend our home field, and they deserve the full support of any and all Buckeye fans! Wear the colors, cheer like hell, and never say die. Go Buckeyes!!!
This is THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. Our football tradition did not start when we beat Miami for the national title, nor did it end when we lost to Florida. There is over a century of history that includes more triumphant victories and heartbreaking losses than anyone alive can fully comprehend, and we today are living in one of its greatest periods of excellence. There is one single factor that has played into every great upset achieved by The Ohio State Buckeyes, be it in 1919, 1934, 1951, 1961, 1975, 1985, or any year, and that is the dedication of the athletes who wear The Scarlet and Gray. These kids work their tails off year round to perform to the best of their abilities on every given Saturday. I'm not talking about the known names who are building their resumes for the NFL. For every Terrelle Pryor and Beanie Wells, there are five guys who never see their names in the paper, but work their asses off on the scout team, in the training room, assisting in practice, running errands, doing whatever is asked of them; all with the goal of helping their team win every week. If any member of the OSU organization were to be quoted as saying they didn't think The Buckeyes had a chance to win a game, this board would be afire with comments about how they didn't deserve to be a Buckeye. I'm calling for all of you to hold yourselves to the same standard. If they can do it for several months out of the year, you can do it for one game. All you have to do is believe. I don't give a shit how many big games USC has won, and I don't give a shit how many big games OSU has lost. All that matters, right here right now, is how Ohio State plays this Saturday. Our team needs every advantage they can get, and we as fans have one thing to give, our support. I'm calling on everyone who reads this to give %100 from now until the game clock expires. If you see a Buckeye player walking around campus, give 'em an O-H. If you hear someone talking shit about our Buckeyes, you let them know that we're playing to win. If you're lucky enough to be in the 'Shoe on Sat, be loud and be strong. If you have to watch the game in some bar with a bunch of haters, look them in the eye and say, "I'm a Buckeye, and Buckeyes never die." There's a Woody quote which I can never remember fully (greenies to everyone who provides the full one) which talks about the team that hits the hardest and doesn't make mistakes, but it ends with, "Hell, there's no way anyone can beat 'em!" I expect the best out of our student athletes on Saturday, and if you fully support the team, you will put aside any reservations you have and root like hell for your Ohio State Buckeyes! This isn't Michigan. This is OHIO! Our boys are going to fight like hell to defend our home field, and they deserve the full support of any and all Buckeye fans! Wear the colors, cheer like hell, and never say die. Go Buckeyes!!!
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Buckeyeskickbuttocks;1533595; said:
I think the problem is that we lost badly under Cooper in big games. Then, Tressel comes and we win big games. Then, well, not so much. And, we have been the poster child for playing tough games in the Big Ten.
TSUN has gone down in flames. PSU went through a bad patch. Big Ten teams have choked badly. We can defend this conference as much as we like, the facts speak for themselves.
So, it is not unnatural that the press is talking us down, especially after letting Navy back in the game.
There's one way to shut them up; win.
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I find it hilarious when fans of SEC teams CELEBRATE like their team just won the title when the likes of Florida or LSU wins it
I guess its as close as some of their teams will ever get to a title?
I dont think anyone on here would be celebrating if Michigan or Penn State won the national title......
in my opinion it makes you look like a retard when you come out chanting "SEC SEC SEC" or celebrating a rival team winning a national title
I am an Ohio State fan, I could care the [censored] less what any other Big 10 team does
I guess its as close as some of their teams will ever get to a title?
I dont think anyone on here would be celebrating if Michigan or Penn State won the national title......
in my opinion it makes you look like a retard when you come out chanting "SEC SEC SEC" or celebrating a rival team winning a national title
I am an Ohio State fan, I could care the [censored] less what any other Big 10 team does
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JohnDorian
Junior
generaladm;1534066; said:
It's after this intro, ABC used it a lot in their pregame videos for OSU games
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKPUqSssLNA"]YouTube - Tribute to Woody Hayes Part 1[/ame]
After finding that, I also found another great quote by Woody which is quite appropriate for this team and this game...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNG9mM5EWts"]YouTube - Tribute to Woody Hayes Part 3 Final[/ame]
Woody is the man
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osucollegebuck
Nathan Williams #43
buckeyemania11;1534088; said:
I think its retarded how they chant SEC SEC SEC at the end of all their conference vs. conference games. I didn't see the Oklahoma St. fans chanting Big 12 Big 12 Big 12 when they beat Georgia this weekend. SEC fans are a bizarre breed and they scream of an inferiority complex.
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osucollegebuck;1534092; said:
If I were ever at a game, and the person next to be started chanting a conference, I would seriously punch them in the face
I dont think they realize how stupid it makes them look.....
or maybe I just dont get the "conference pride" crap, I could never get an ounce of joy out of Michigan or Penn State winning
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NateG
Can't waste the day when the night brings a hearse
Key points from Jim Tressel media luncheon on Tues. per BCast of theozone.net.
O-Zone: Updates from Tuesday Tressel Luncheon
O-Zone: Updates from Tuesday Tressel Luncheon
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NateG
Can't waste the day when the night brings a hearse
Jim's full transcript from 9/8/09 media luncheon.
From ohiostatebuckeyes.com
COACH TRESSEL: Hope all of you had a great Labor Day. Got to labor on my 35th straight Labor Day. Coach Bruce used to always come in every year and tell us what year number it was in a row he was laboring on Labor Day. It was a great weekend to be a part of last weekend. I think all of our players and coaches and fans alike will remember the 5th of September in 2009 as being a special time in Ohio Stadium. The opportunity to host the Naval Academy and all the energy and excitement that that brought with it, I thought our administration did a great job of creating the atmosphere that was tremendous for everyone involved, fans alike, and there was something special about that opening, you see those planes fly over and if that didn't give you a little perspective, then I'm not sure you were breathing.
And I thought the game was a good opportunity for us as well. You knew that we had some young guys who were excited to see how they could do and you knew that Navy would come in and bring to you some things that you don't face every day. And we said to our scout team before we left the building on Friday to begin the weekend, we gave them a standing ovation because they did the best job they could possibly do not doing their normal techniques to prepare us, and I thought that our players then responded.
Navy's a tough one. Last year 12 out of 13 games they scored in the opening drive and we made it one for one for them this year, and you knew they were never going to stop playing. And I thought that we did some good things in the ball game. We did some things that we've got to get better at. And now we have all that film. I think we had 64 plays on offense and maybe 57 on the defensive side to grow from.
Some people might ask, well, what's the carryover for our defense, and no matter what scheme you're playing against, there's no question about it, you have to play it perfectly, your techniques, your assignments, your reads and so forth, and anytime we weren't successful on defense, it was those fundamental things.
Offensively we got to go against a little bit different look, probably not as unconventional as their offense is, and so our young people, for the first time in a game being together with those units had that chance to grow from that. Probably didn't play quite as many guys as I thought we might. You never know how the flow of a game is going. And when you play in a game against Navy, there's probably less possessions that you have in a ball game, and so it's a little bit harder to substitute.
We were able to get Joe Bauserman in, which I thought was critical to make sure we did that because we feel as if you always have to have two quarterbacks ready to step in front of that huddle. So all in all, I thought it was a good experience. I'll be the first to admit we have a long way to go and our guys came back anxious on Monday to labor on Labor Day and get ready for a great Southern Cal team.
And Southern Cal was obviously very impressive in their opening game. They're going to be a great football team again. I thought their young quarterback demonstrated a command that might have been beyond his years for a youngster that just came in in the spring and had some spring practice and probably had some increased reps a little bit this preseason because of the injury to the other fellow and took advantage of that, grabbed the job, and stepped up and was very efficient. He's got some great people around him and he recognizes that and distributes the ball very, very well, gets them in the right plays, make the checks and all those things.
And their offensive line is a veteran group. They had a couple injuries off and on last year, so they're probably deeper right now than might be normal because they've had some other guys play. And we understand that their outstanding center, O'Dowd, will probably be back, which he's a heck of a football player. And their receiver corps is very, very talented and dangerous and they spread it around whether it's throwing to the backs or throwing to the tight ends or throwing to the wide people. They have a great group of running backs. Joe McKnight is as talented as perhaps they've had, and so our defense has got a tremendous challenge.
Offensively we face a group that conceptually is very, very similar to what they've been. They do have a significant number of new faces, although those faces were on the field a year ago, a lot of them in the special teams and some of them in back-up roles and throughout the course of the year did have some opportunities to play, very talented, great speed, great team defensive speed, excellent knowledge of what they're doing. They're not extremely complicated, but they are extremely good at what they do and you're going to have to earn every yard you can possibly get.
From a specialist standpoint, their returners are frightening. They have any one of two or three guys that could bring a punt back on you and the same on the kickoffs and the pressure they can put on you with the speed they have on their field is outstanding. Their specialists that kick and punt are a little bit newer, but did a solid job. I think they had three touchbacks on kickoffs which, when they moved the kickoff back, it became a lot more difficult to get touchbacks and they got three of them there.
So all in all, it's what all of us would expect from a Southern Cal team. They're going to be very polished, very confident in their system. I think when you're confident in your system, you're capable of executing and it will be an exciting time. I think our guys are excited to have a ball game like this. It's one of the things, I think, when our kids looked at coming to Ohio State over the last four or five years when they could look at playing in a great conference in the Big Ten and also having some of these national stage games sprinkled through the schedule over the years, it's what makes it special.
So obviously we need all the help we can get from the folks being nice and loud and we were thinking about imposing a curfew for all the fans all week long so they come with a lot of energy and be louder than they've ever been in their entire lives. But our guys will be excited and they came in yesterday, I thought, with a good attentiveness to be willing to look at what they need to be better at on the film from the Navy game, but also to look forward and see if they can take the next step in becoming a good football team.
REPORTER: Jim, with Bradley, have they broken him in slowly or --
COACH TRESSEL: Barkley?
REPORTER: I'm sorry, Barkley, have they thrown him into everything or have they broken him in slowly?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, their ball game against San Jose State, I don't know that they did an extraordinary number of things, but as you look at them throughout the course of the years, I don't know that they have a six-inch thick playbook, and I think they do what they do and you better stop what they do.
He has obviously grasped what they do, but I thought it was -- I thought it was a typical opening game amount, they didn't overdo it, which sometimes when you overdo it with genius, you don't get execution. So it looks to me like they had the right formula for the ball game.
REPORTER: With any freshman quarterback, how much of a difference does it make, the fact that Barkley had spring ball, had a lot of reps with the ones in preseason compared to, for instance, Terrelle last year didn't have spring ball, wasn't taking all the reps with the ones in preseason, is that a big deal?
COACH TRESSEL: I think repetitions are huge in no matter what you do. You could go all the way back, they have spring practice all through high school and seven-on-seven passing leagues and I think the more you experience things the better you can become at them. But most especially when you're trying to grasp a new system, having that spring, having that preseason, and he had a little bit of the bonus when the other fellow got hurt, so all of a sudden there's less arms in there to take the reps, so absolutely. And that's why it's important, the more reps we can get for guys, whether they're quarterbacks or whatever, you'd like to think they'll grow.
REPORTER: Where did they hurt you the most last year offensively? When you look back on it, what really hurt you the most with their offense?
COACH TRESSEL: What did their offense do to hurt our defense?
REPORTER: Last year.
COACH TRESSEL: They have an excellent knack of coming up with what we call explosive games. They might go a couple plays and it's business as usual and then, boom, all of a sudden it's a 17-yarder. And so they hit us with a couple big ones, but probably the thing that affected our defense as much as anything was the fact that we turned it over on offense. And we always talk about the marriage between the offense and the defense and the special teams. You could probably go back and study a lot of good defenses that all of a sudden the kick teams killed them because there was great field position all the time or the offensive teams killed them because they turned the ball over back in their own end or like in our case we had one for a touchdown. But it was some of those explosive gains at opportune times. They have a tremendous ability and knack of doing that.
REPORTER: From a psychological standpoint, Coach, do you have the guys forget last year? Do you use it as motivation? How do you approach that part of this game?
COACH TRESSEL: I'm sure the guys that played in the game last year have a little bit different vantage point than the guys that didn't, and I think motivation at the end of the day ends up how does it motivate you personally. So there will be some guys that say, hey, I could have done this or that better the last time we played, but I hope they said that the week following that game and started working on that. But as a whole, will we sit and pound on the fact that we weren't successful? No.
REPORTER: Jim, what is your policy on, for want of a better word, maybe on personal expressions such as the Michael Vick eye black, I know you weren't aware of it during the game, but do you have a policy about that?
COACH TRESSEL: Right. You know, I really don't. In fact we talked a little bit about that because it's not the first time that we've had letters and emails and so forth about something that someone has personally expressed, whether it's on their eye patches or someone might write something on their shoe, or on the tape on their wrist and those kinds of things.
So it's a little bit tough in this country to have too much of a policy on personal expression, but it's unfortunate when that distracts from situations that were so extraordinary as the weekend we had. And I guess you'd have to know Terrelle like I know Terrelle. There's probably not a more compassionate human being in the world than Terrelle. We were sitting watching film last night and a text came in from Terrelle and he said, hey, Coach, we've got to pump up T-Wash. He's a little bit down. He dropped a ball or whatever. And that's just the way he thinks all day long.
I remember about 1:00 in the morning after we lost the National Championship to LSU I got a text from Terrelle saying, hey, don't worry about it, Coach, we're going to get it done in the future. And unfortunately I couldn't text him back, but --
REPORTER: He's a kid, but he had to perhaps expect that this could be controversial.
COACH TRESSEL: I think that's probably -- you would think, but on the other hand, Terrelle's of the opinion that, you know what, I'm not any big deal, I haven't done anything, and like anything else, whether it was a coverage read or a defensive guy not playing a gap or whatever, these are all moments that we can learn from, but again, I guess I would refer back to the fact that you have -- you would have to know him the way I know him to understand that he didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, to be insensitive to something that someone feels strongly about, that's just not him.
If there's ever anyone that feels bad about something or downtrodden about something, he's the first one there with his arms around them, that's just the way he is. So as they say, it is what it is and you learn from what you learn from and it's -- to go back to your original question, I don't know the answer to that because if someone came in and wanted to put "Mom" on their eye patch or their wrist, I've got a tough time questioning that.
And so that's part of life and I'm sure Terrelle -- he's one of those guys that he feels terrible about anything that's not just right. And I know he doesn't feel good that that disappointed someone. And his intention would never be to make anyone disappointed about something and that's just his nature and we all sometimes miss the mark, but as I say, teachable, learnable moment.
REPORTER: Will you tell the players, though, that their eye black now will be subject to review before they go out?
COACH TRESSEL: No, haven't even had a discussion about it, and I'm open for suggestions from the body of free speech. Anyone have a suggestion?
REPORTER: You used to have big Buckeyes on those things at one point or Ohio State emblems, now they're blank.
COACH TRESSEL: Are they? I've got to be honest with you, I am a micromanager, but I haven't micromanaged that one honestly. So I apologize, I'll get a little more hands-on. But we live and learn. And as time goes on, you'll grow to understand Terrelle like I do and there's not a more compassionate, caring person than I've ever run into.
REPORTER: Can you give updates on DeVier Posey and Ray Small?
COACH TRESSEL: Ray looked a little peaked on Sunday when he came into the training room and yesterday looked like he was getting a little more life back in him, but he had a good case of it whatever it was, so I think he's coming along. DeVier didn't work much yesterday. I expect him to here in the next day or so.
REPORTER: Dane is listed as the number one punt returner, but do you expect Ray will be the number one punt returner?
COACH TRESSEL: That will be something I can answer a little bit better on Thursday.
REPORTER: Aside from Terrelle's eye black issue, could you assess his day? The pick after the game, he said he thought that was a grabbable pass.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, we always talk about the fact that we're sure nothing poor's going to happen if the ball's delivered from the numbers or lower because even if we err, the error lands on the ground. Sometimes guys go up and make a play for you, maybe save you. Other times you hit them in the breadbasket and they don't come through for you. We keep talking about the fact that we need a ball -- whenever there's a defender behind a receiver, the ball needs to be delivered numbers or lower. That's just what we work on.
So obviously that was a mistake that we've got to eliminate. But all in all, I thought Terrelle had a command of what we were doing. He did a good job leading the group. He was into it and understood what they were trying to do against us, which sometimes in an opening game -- they were probably a 12% blitz team coming into the game and I don't know if they ended up 65% blitz or I don't know what, and handled that change and those kinds of things. I thought all in all, he had a very efficient day.
REPORTER: In your mind, Jim, is this bigger than just this season, this game kind of thing, they've beaten you six straight times, the school, not many schools have that success rate against Ohio State. In your mind, is this -- will this have a bigger scope Big Ten-wise?
COACH TRESSEL: I probably don't think that far out. The opening kickoff, if we're kicking to them, is going to be the biggest thing going on in the world and the next play and the next play. And at the end of the game, if we're successful, all of a sudden the world isn't perfect because we're still going to have to grade the film and come in and get ready to do it again. And if we're not successful, chances are, as long as there's no tragedies, the world won't end. But we're excited about this opportunity and we think this is a big deal. If you put our guys under hypnosis or whatever in the summertime and ask them the question, what game are you thinking about, you know, I'm sure it would be Ohio State/USC and that's -- it's big.
REPORTER: You want Terrelle to progress basically along the lines Troy did instead of beating guys with his legs --
COACH TRESSEL: I'd like him to beat them with both. Absolutely.
REPORTER: I was wondering, even in football terms if Vick is what you want him to be.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I haven't studied his style of play or anything, but I think and have always felt, hope Craig wouldn't get mad at me, but I even wanted Craig with his legs to beat people with legs. That adds a dimension to your offense that I think is difficult for the defense to deal with. So I hope he can do it with both and I hope he gets very, very good at both and he sure works like he wants to be.
REPORTER: Pete Carroll seems to have indicated with Barkley that for all the great quarterbacks he's had at USC there's just something about this kid that he's doing things as a freshman that he hasn't seen before. At a place where you have great talent all the time, do all coaches in your career have just a couple of those guys that just have a little something extra, and if so, who's on your list of the guys that just are a cut above?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, there are guys that come in and just seem to have a seamless transition. Chris Spielman, who was just honored at our game, was a guy that came in and we didn't put him in the game, when, until you made him, right, Coach Bruce? And then he made about 26 tackles.
COACH BRUCE: Halftime.
COACH TRESSEL: He made a great transition. Duron Carter and I were laughing about the fact that Cris Carter's first pass, Coach Bruce, do you remember?
COACH BRUCE: Remember well.
COACH TRESSEL: Dropped it. Wide open. But after that it was special. Obviously Maurice Clarett came in and was outstanding. We've had a number of guys that have come in and made a difference. But it's a long year. And we have to weather whether it's one of those freshman jumping in there and helping us or whether it's one of the sophomores that you need to raise up that level that you need to win. You just keep plugging away.
But I can see why Pete's talking that way about Barkley. I saw him a little bit in the all-star game he was in and I can't remember which one it was, either the Army or the Under Armour or one of those, and I mean you could see he was really good there and he hasn't disappointed.
REPORTER: Might this be a week that you assemble a tape or a package of clips or stories of the overwhelming sentiment that seems to be that you can't win the game?
COACH TRESSEL: No.
REPORTER: Is that something you would remind them of?
COACH TRESSEL: I don't think so.
REPORTER: You've done that in the past.
COACH TRESSEL: At times.
REPORTER: Jim, you mentioned that Terrelle said to you, T-Wash maybe needs to be pumped up a little bit. Do you get that feeling with Anderson Russell after getting beat the last game and going back to Texas too, that's two games in a row.
COACH TRESSEL: I think anytime you feel as if you could have done something that the group needed -- I mean, I should have texted Terrelle back that I needed to be pumped up for not going for a field goal. I mean, anytime you do something that you wish you could have done better, you hope you don't need to be pumped up for long because you've got to pump yourself up and I don't mean that in any negative way. But you have to handle adversity. If you're fortunate to get off on a great start in a season, I don't know if you need someone to remind you to pump you down because you've got to handle success too. But that's something that hopefully we can help our guys understand that that's part of life is that when there are disappointments, how you react to it is everything.
REPORTER: Jim, you dropped two spots on the AP poll. Are you surprised by that? Do you think it's fair?
COACH TRESSEL: Gosh, I don't know. Yeah, I guess. I'm trying to remember, I catapulted someone way up, I think Ole Miss moved up significantly and Oklahoma State had a heck of a win. To me there were some impressive wins. Boise State had -- Cincinnati had an impressive win. You know, it's so early that those are irrelevant unless you win all your games or nearly all your games.
REPORTER: How do you feel the guys up front offensively did in this game and speak of the challenge that they go into against USC.
COACH TRESSEL: I thought there were some moments where we did some pretty good things up front. I thought there was some indecisive moments. There's so much to the communication that goes on in the course of the trenches there. You had a couple critical penalties and the one that comes to mind most is we go out second half saying, hey, we've got to -- we better understand what Navy's all about, we've got to come storming. So, boom, the kickoff team stormed, three and out, we get the ball on the plus side of the field, five yards on the first play, boy, that's just what you want, then all of a sudden, you know, penalty, penalty, penalty. And you talk about taking the momentum away. And a couple of those were on the offensive line. We had a holding, then an off-sides, so we have to eliminate those. We had another penalty down in. We were going down in. So there were some things that looked like we had a chance and then there were some things that make you recognize that you've got a ways to get better.
REPORTER: How critical is it to recruit the state of California?
COACH TRESSEL: How difficult is it? It depends on where you're located. For us, it's a long way. If you get on a plane, you're passing over a whole bunch of schools that are very, very good and that's real.
REPORTER: Is the difference more of a factor in recruiting the state of Florida which you guys have done decently well in the last few years?
COACH TRESSEL: Florida's much closer, I mean, it is, significantly closer and less schools in Florida. I mean, that whole state of California is chalk full of Pac-10 schools, and Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State are right there too, but when you recruit California, you've got to fly over a bunch of good schools, and that's not easy.
REPORTER: How much is the team aware of what this game can or can't do for your reputation nationally?
COACH TRESSEL: Gosh, I hope they're not thinking about that, because if you're thinking about something that's at the end of those 60 minutes, I'm not sure you're going to play each of those minutes the way that you should. As they watch the film and you ask them what they're thinking, I hope they ask you, what play was called, because that's what's important. What play's called? What defense is called? What's the situation. And not, well, I was thinking if we win this game that will be awesome.
Well, you know, we can't -- we've got to think about the moment. And good teams have that ability to stay in the moment and ignore anything positive or negative or anything along the way and just stay in the moment of what's going on. And that's a great lesson, in my mind, to try to teach people because no different in our lives. If you don't stay in the moment and start wishing this and, oh, my gosh, if that happens, you won't do very well in the moment.
So that's critical for us, especially at a young age, sometimes maybe for an older guy, he's been through so many ups and downs and so forth that he's got a perspective, but sometimes for the younger guys, maybe you could get caught thinking that way and to me, that's dangerous thinking.
REPORTER: Is that something you need to address because the team's a little bit younger?
COACH TRESSEL: We address often about staying in the moment, and it's today's practice, it's period three, the player in practice that keeps glancing up to see what period number it is tells me he's looking forward to the end of the C period 24 up there, and what good is that doing in period seven, so we talk about that constantly.
REPORTER: Do you think the defense got out of that, for example, Saturday a 89-yard drive, an 85-yard touchdown?
COACH TRESSEL: As I listened, and I'm far from an expert on anything, but most certainly that as I listened to Jim and Luke and Taver and those guys talk, when we stepped away from simply playing our responsibility and playing our technique was when we didn't play well, and when we did do that, we really played pretty well. So, yeah, I'm sure Jim could probably pull you out seven snaps and say, you know what, if we had played this technique and if we'd have just stayed home or whatever you do, we might have been more successful. But that's exactly what you have to do when you show the film, and you hope that -- one might have thought, well, let's not even grade the Navy film for our defense because they'll never see that again, at least for 11 more games, but that's not the case. We had to talk about what we taught, what we executed, why we succeeded, why we didn't in the big picture. Now let's go talk about Southern Cal because they've got a whole different set of problems that you have to have solutions for.
REPORTER: Do you sense what he was asking about, that over the summer maybe and maybe leading up to the game that the guys have been talking about, thinking about, how important this game was?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, sure.
REPORTER: In terms of their perception and all that stuff?
COACH TRESSEL: There's nowhere they'd rather be than playing Ohio State and USC. I'm sure that that was in the forefront of their mind. To me that's one of the exciting things about having a schedule like we have is that you get to -- you get to daydream for a moment about, man, I better get ready. This is going to be something right off the bat, so --
REPORTER: Do you think they know in terms of national perception and all that that it's important to -- really important to win a game like this?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, I would like to think that they do, but I don't know if that's the most important thing I want them thinking about, that's the problem, is that okay, fellows, this is important. Okay, now, on the first play you better do this. Forget what I just talked about, you know, you better do this or that might never happen, you know. So I don't know that -- I don't know that you can talk in those abstract ways. To me that's an abstract. Reputation? I mean, to me that's an abstract. Now, did you block that guy? I can grade that.
REPORTER: Are you familiar with this Taylor Mays quote that, I'm the big deuce, Terrelle's the little deuce?
COACH TRESSEL: He said that? Today?
REPORTER: It's online.
COACH TRESSEL: They're both big deuces if you ask me, man.
REPORTER: What about his contribution on the defense, two time All-American?
COACH TRESSEL: He's kind of quarterback of the defense there and he can make up for errors that occur, the way he closes on the ball when it's in the air, the way he closes on a runner if they would happen to wiggle through. I'm sure he gives that whole group confidence as he's standing right behind them like, hey, don't worry about it, I've got your back, and he truly has their back, he's a good player.
REPORTER: How important is it for your defense to get pressure on Barkley.
COACH TRESSEL: How important? We should get those little cards that -- Bill Livingston -- to us, the key to the game of defensive football is applying pressure and applying pressure to pass protections which, therefore, ultimately you want to apply pressure to the guy that's got the ball in his hands, what it's a back that sees four silver helmets coming or a quarterback who feels a lot of pressure. So without a doubt, that young man is far enough along that if he has a chance to just stand around, he's not going to miss. He's a good -- he knows where his guys are going. He knows what you're in. And if he has time, he's going to complete them. Bill Livingston. Oh, I'm sorry, my bad. You were just his agent.
REPORTER: He's 0 for 23.
COACH TRESSEL: I'm sorry.
REPORTER: Going back to the abstract of reputation, whenever Ohio State faces one of these national games as you mentioned, invariably, even with all the success Ohio State has, you'll lose, does that bother you personally, is it fair that only winning one of these things will end all that?
COACH TRESSEL: It's a fact, so it's fair. So outside of that and as you look at what you need to do to win this game or any of "those" games or those X number of games in between, you have to go to work at what you need to do to get better. And no one spends any more time trying to figure out how to fix their world they live in than we do.
REPORTER: Jim, they go five deep at running back, we talked so much last week about the Air Force offense being a unique challenge for you guys --
COACH TRESSEL: That was Air Force we played?
REPORTER: I'm sorry, Navy. But they seemed to run the ball right at people, you guys don't see a lot of that during the course of the season. Is this almost as unique of a challenge?
COACH TRESSEL: I think what makes Southern Cal a challenge, talent aside, they're so talented, but they're so balanced. You can't say we're going to force them to pass, we're going to put 16 guys in the box and they're not going to run it, well, then they're going to pass it. And just the opposite, oh, we're going to double those great receivers and all that stuff. Well, if you're doubling those great receivers you don't have many guys in the box and they're going to hurt you running. So to me the fact that they're so balanced and they do run at you and misdirect you and have got lots of speed lots of places, speed is crucial, so real challenging.
REPORTER: It's not very often that Ohio State is an underdog at home. You guys are six and a half, seven-point underdogs, do you like the underdog role and are you surprised that the line is that big?
COACH TRESSEL: I learn something from you guys every day I come. I had no idea on the line, other than their line, their line is darn good, on both sides by the way. I don't know. The role I like is that I'm on Ohio State and we're playing USC, that's what I like. Lori, last question. My guys are chomping at the bit.
REPORTER: USC outscored opponents 94 to 7 in the third quarter of games last year and I'm wondering when a team comes in with that kind of track record does it make you willing to consider more dramatic halftime adjustments than you otherwise would?
COACH TRESSEL: Be more animated and --
REPORTER: Does it change anything you do at halftime knowing they make great adjustments?
COACH TRESSEL: I haven't studied exactly the different things maybe that they do in the third quarter, I would venture to say they run the same things they ran in the first and second quarter and maybe have learned what the defense is doing and so forth, or maybe their defense has learned what the offense is doing and they get turnovers or they saw how you were covering the kickoff so they adjust well because I think they know what they're doing. I think their players have a clear understanding of what their system is, as do ours, and I think they do a nice job of having confidence. They do a good job of playing a lot of guys, which you can get a little bit stronger the fresher you are, but they're a very explosive team and that exact number I didn't know, I knew it was dramatic, but that doesn't mean we're going to do nothing other than work on third-quarter stuff, you know, because we struggled in the second quarter last year. But they're good across the board. It's a great challenge. It's great to have Youngstown -- I'm getting old, Columbus, Ohio highlighted and the whole world coming to watch us. They're a great football team. We're trying to become one
From ohiostatebuckeyes.com
COACH TRESSEL: Hope all of you had a great Labor Day. Got to labor on my 35th straight Labor Day. Coach Bruce used to always come in every year and tell us what year number it was in a row he was laboring on Labor Day. It was a great weekend to be a part of last weekend. I think all of our players and coaches and fans alike will remember the 5th of September in 2009 as being a special time in Ohio Stadium. The opportunity to host the Naval Academy and all the energy and excitement that that brought with it, I thought our administration did a great job of creating the atmosphere that was tremendous for everyone involved, fans alike, and there was something special about that opening, you see those planes fly over and if that didn't give you a little perspective, then I'm not sure you were breathing.
And I thought the game was a good opportunity for us as well. You knew that we had some young guys who were excited to see how they could do and you knew that Navy would come in and bring to you some things that you don't face every day. And we said to our scout team before we left the building on Friday to begin the weekend, we gave them a standing ovation because they did the best job they could possibly do not doing their normal techniques to prepare us, and I thought that our players then responded.
Navy's a tough one. Last year 12 out of 13 games they scored in the opening drive and we made it one for one for them this year, and you knew they were never going to stop playing. And I thought that we did some good things in the ball game. We did some things that we've got to get better at. And now we have all that film. I think we had 64 plays on offense and maybe 57 on the defensive side to grow from.
Some people might ask, well, what's the carryover for our defense, and no matter what scheme you're playing against, there's no question about it, you have to play it perfectly, your techniques, your assignments, your reads and so forth, and anytime we weren't successful on defense, it was those fundamental things.
Offensively we got to go against a little bit different look, probably not as unconventional as their offense is, and so our young people, for the first time in a game being together with those units had that chance to grow from that. Probably didn't play quite as many guys as I thought we might. You never know how the flow of a game is going. And when you play in a game against Navy, there's probably less possessions that you have in a ball game, and so it's a little bit harder to substitute.
We were able to get Joe Bauserman in, which I thought was critical to make sure we did that because we feel as if you always have to have two quarterbacks ready to step in front of that huddle. So all in all, I thought it was a good experience. I'll be the first to admit we have a long way to go and our guys came back anxious on Monday to labor on Labor Day and get ready for a great Southern Cal team.
And Southern Cal was obviously very impressive in their opening game. They're going to be a great football team again. I thought their young quarterback demonstrated a command that might have been beyond his years for a youngster that just came in in the spring and had some spring practice and probably had some increased reps a little bit this preseason because of the injury to the other fellow and took advantage of that, grabbed the job, and stepped up and was very efficient. He's got some great people around him and he recognizes that and distributes the ball very, very well, gets them in the right plays, make the checks and all those things.
And their offensive line is a veteran group. They had a couple injuries off and on last year, so they're probably deeper right now than might be normal because they've had some other guys play. And we understand that their outstanding center, O'Dowd, will probably be back, which he's a heck of a football player. And their receiver corps is very, very talented and dangerous and they spread it around whether it's throwing to the backs or throwing to the tight ends or throwing to the wide people. They have a great group of running backs. Joe McKnight is as talented as perhaps they've had, and so our defense has got a tremendous challenge.
Offensively we face a group that conceptually is very, very similar to what they've been. They do have a significant number of new faces, although those faces were on the field a year ago, a lot of them in the special teams and some of them in back-up roles and throughout the course of the year did have some opportunities to play, very talented, great speed, great team defensive speed, excellent knowledge of what they're doing. They're not extremely complicated, but they are extremely good at what they do and you're going to have to earn every yard you can possibly get.
From a specialist standpoint, their returners are frightening. They have any one of two or three guys that could bring a punt back on you and the same on the kickoffs and the pressure they can put on you with the speed they have on their field is outstanding. Their specialists that kick and punt are a little bit newer, but did a solid job. I think they had three touchbacks on kickoffs which, when they moved the kickoff back, it became a lot more difficult to get touchbacks and they got three of them there.
So all in all, it's what all of us would expect from a Southern Cal team. They're going to be very polished, very confident in their system. I think when you're confident in your system, you're capable of executing and it will be an exciting time. I think our guys are excited to have a ball game like this. It's one of the things, I think, when our kids looked at coming to Ohio State over the last four or five years when they could look at playing in a great conference in the Big Ten and also having some of these national stage games sprinkled through the schedule over the years, it's what makes it special.
So obviously we need all the help we can get from the folks being nice and loud and we were thinking about imposing a curfew for all the fans all week long so they come with a lot of energy and be louder than they've ever been in their entire lives. But our guys will be excited and they came in yesterday, I thought, with a good attentiveness to be willing to look at what they need to be better at on the film from the Navy game, but also to look forward and see if they can take the next step in becoming a good football team.
REPORTER: Jim, with Bradley, have they broken him in slowly or --
COACH TRESSEL: Barkley?
REPORTER: I'm sorry, Barkley, have they thrown him into everything or have they broken him in slowly?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, their ball game against San Jose State, I don't know that they did an extraordinary number of things, but as you look at them throughout the course of the years, I don't know that they have a six-inch thick playbook, and I think they do what they do and you better stop what they do.
He has obviously grasped what they do, but I thought it was -- I thought it was a typical opening game amount, they didn't overdo it, which sometimes when you overdo it with genius, you don't get execution. So it looks to me like they had the right formula for the ball game.
REPORTER: With any freshman quarterback, how much of a difference does it make, the fact that Barkley had spring ball, had a lot of reps with the ones in preseason compared to, for instance, Terrelle last year didn't have spring ball, wasn't taking all the reps with the ones in preseason, is that a big deal?
COACH TRESSEL: I think repetitions are huge in no matter what you do. You could go all the way back, they have spring practice all through high school and seven-on-seven passing leagues and I think the more you experience things the better you can become at them. But most especially when you're trying to grasp a new system, having that spring, having that preseason, and he had a little bit of the bonus when the other fellow got hurt, so all of a sudden there's less arms in there to take the reps, so absolutely. And that's why it's important, the more reps we can get for guys, whether they're quarterbacks or whatever, you'd like to think they'll grow.
REPORTER: Where did they hurt you the most last year offensively? When you look back on it, what really hurt you the most with their offense?
COACH TRESSEL: What did their offense do to hurt our defense?
REPORTER: Last year.
COACH TRESSEL: They have an excellent knack of coming up with what we call explosive games. They might go a couple plays and it's business as usual and then, boom, all of a sudden it's a 17-yarder. And so they hit us with a couple big ones, but probably the thing that affected our defense as much as anything was the fact that we turned it over on offense. And we always talk about the marriage between the offense and the defense and the special teams. You could probably go back and study a lot of good defenses that all of a sudden the kick teams killed them because there was great field position all the time or the offensive teams killed them because they turned the ball over back in their own end or like in our case we had one for a touchdown. But it was some of those explosive gains at opportune times. They have a tremendous ability and knack of doing that.
REPORTER: From a psychological standpoint, Coach, do you have the guys forget last year? Do you use it as motivation? How do you approach that part of this game?
COACH TRESSEL: I'm sure the guys that played in the game last year have a little bit different vantage point than the guys that didn't, and I think motivation at the end of the day ends up how does it motivate you personally. So there will be some guys that say, hey, I could have done this or that better the last time we played, but I hope they said that the week following that game and started working on that. But as a whole, will we sit and pound on the fact that we weren't successful? No.
REPORTER: Jim, what is your policy on, for want of a better word, maybe on personal expressions such as the Michael Vick eye black, I know you weren't aware of it during the game, but do you have a policy about that?
COACH TRESSEL: Right. You know, I really don't. In fact we talked a little bit about that because it's not the first time that we've had letters and emails and so forth about something that someone has personally expressed, whether it's on their eye patches or someone might write something on their shoe, or on the tape on their wrist and those kinds of things.
So it's a little bit tough in this country to have too much of a policy on personal expression, but it's unfortunate when that distracts from situations that were so extraordinary as the weekend we had. And I guess you'd have to know Terrelle like I know Terrelle. There's probably not a more compassionate human being in the world than Terrelle. We were sitting watching film last night and a text came in from Terrelle and he said, hey, Coach, we've got to pump up T-Wash. He's a little bit down. He dropped a ball or whatever. And that's just the way he thinks all day long.
I remember about 1:00 in the morning after we lost the National Championship to LSU I got a text from Terrelle saying, hey, don't worry about it, Coach, we're going to get it done in the future. And unfortunately I couldn't text him back, but --
REPORTER: He's a kid, but he had to perhaps expect that this could be controversial.
COACH TRESSEL: I think that's probably -- you would think, but on the other hand, Terrelle's of the opinion that, you know what, I'm not any big deal, I haven't done anything, and like anything else, whether it was a coverage read or a defensive guy not playing a gap or whatever, these are all moments that we can learn from, but again, I guess I would refer back to the fact that you have -- you would have to know him the way I know him to understand that he didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, to be insensitive to something that someone feels strongly about, that's just not him.
If there's ever anyone that feels bad about something or downtrodden about something, he's the first one there with his arms around them, that's just the way he is. So as they say, it is what it is and you learn from what you learn from and it's -- to go back to your original question, I don't know the answer to that because if someone came in and wanted to put "Mom" on their eye patch or their wrist, I've got a tough time questioning that.
And so that's part of life and I'm sure Terrelle -- he's one of those guys that he feels terrible about anything that's not just right. And I know he doesn't feel good that that disappointed someone. And his intention would never be to make anyone disappointed about something and that's just his nature and we all sometimes miss the mark, but as I say, teachable, learnable moment.
REPORTER: Will you tell the players, though, that their eye black now will be subject to review before they go out?
COACH TRESSEL: No, haven't even had a discussion about it, and I'm open for suggestions from the body of free speech. Anyone have a suggestion?
REPORTER: You used to have big Buckeyes on those things at one point or Ohio State emblems, now they're blank.
COACH TRESSEL: Are they? I've got to be honest with you, I am a micromanager, but I haven't micromanaged that one honestly. So I apologize, I'll get a little more hands-on. But we live and learn. And as time goes on, you'll grow to understand Terrelle like I do and there's not a more compassionate, caring person than I've ever run into.
REPORTER: Can you give updates on DeVier Posey and Ray Small?
COACH TRESSEL: Ray looked a little peaked on Sunday when he came into the training room and yesterday looked like he was getting a little more life back in him, but he had a good case of it whatever it was, so I think he's coming along. DeVier didn't work much yesterday. I expect him to here in the next day or so.
REPORTER: Dane is listed as the number one punt returner, but do you expect Ray will be the number one punt returner?
COACH TRESSEL: That will be something I can answer a little bit better on Thursday.
REPORTER: Aside from Terrelle's eye black issue, could you assess his day? The pick after the game, he said he thought that was a grabbable pass.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, we always talk about the fact that we're sure nothing poor's going to happen if the ball's delivered from the numbers or lower because even if we err, the error lands on the ground. Sometimes guys go up and make a play for you, maybe save you. Other times you hit them in the breadbasket and they don't come through for you. We keep talking about the fact that we need a ball -- whenever there's a defender behind a receiver, the ball needs to be delivered numbers or lower. That's just what we work on.
So obviously that was a mistake that we've got to eliminate. But all in all, I thought Terrelle had a command of what we were doing. He did a good job leading the group. He was into it and understood what they were trying to do against us, which sometimes in an opening game -- they were probably a 12% blitz team coming into the game and I don't know if they ended up 65% blitz or I don't know what, and handled that change and those kinds of things. I thought all in all, he had a very efficient day.
REPORTER: In your mind, Jim, is this bigger than just this season, this game kind of thing, they've beaten you six straight times, the school, not many schools have that success rate against Ohio State. In your mind, is this -- will this have a bigger scope Big Ten-wise?
COACH TRESSEL: I probably don't think that far out. The opening kickoff, if we're kicking to them, is going to be the biggest thing going on in the world and the next play and the next play. And at the end of the game, if we're successful, all of a sudden the world isn't perfect because we're still going to have to grade the film and come in and get ready to do it again. And if we're not successful, chances are, as long as there's no tragedies, the world won't end. But we're excited about this opportunity and we think this is a big deal. If you put our guys under hypnosis or whatever in the summertime and ask them the question, what game are you thinking about, you know, I'm sure it would be Ohio State/USC and that's -- it's big.
REPORTER: You want Terrelle to progress basically along the lines Troy did instead of beating guys with his legs --
COACH TRESSEL: I'd like him to beat them with both. Absolutely.
REPORTER: I was wondering, even in football terms if Vick is what you want him to be.
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I haven't studied his style of play or anything, but I think and have always felt, hope Craig wouldn't get mad at me, but I even wanted Craig with his legs to beat people with legs. That adds a dimension to your offense that I think is difficult for the defense to deal with. So I hope he can do it with both and I hope he gets very, very good at both and he sure works like he wants to be.
REPORTER: Pete Carroll seems to have indicated with Barkley that for all the great quarterbacks he's had at USC there's just something about this kid that he's doing things as a freshman that he hasn't seen before. At a place where you have great talent all the time, do all coaches in your career have just a couple of those guys that just have a little something extra, and if so, who's on your list of the guys that just are a cut above?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, there are guys that come in and just seem to have a seamless transition. Chris Spielman, who was just honored at our game, was a guy that came in and we didn't put him in the game, when, until you made him, right, Coach Bruce? And then he made about 26 tackles.
COACH BRUCE: Halftime.
COACH TRESSEL: He made a great transition. Duron Carter and I were laughing about the fact that Cris Carter's first pass, Coach Bruce, do you remember?
COACH BRUCE: Remember well.
COACH TRESSEL: Dropped it. Wide open. But after that it was special. Obviously Maurice Clarett came in and was outstanding. We've had a number of guys that have come in and made a difference. But it's a long year. And we have to weather whether it's one of those freshman jumping in there and helping us or whether it's one of the sophomores that you need to raise up that level that you need to win. You just keep plugging away.
But I can see why Pete's talking that way about Barkley. I saw him a little bit in the all-star game he was in and I can't remember which one it was, either the Army or the Under Armour or one of those, and I mean you could see he was really good there and he hasn't disappointed.
REPORTER: Might this be a week that you assemble a tape or a package of clips or stories of the overwhelming sentiment that seems to be that you can't win the game?
COACH TRESSEL: No.
REPORTER: Is that something you would remind them of?
COACH TRESSEL: I don't think so.
REPORTER: You've done that in the past.
COACH TRESSEL: At times.
REPORTER: Jim, you mentioned that Terrelle said to you, T-Wash maybe needs to be pumped up a little bit. Do you get that feeling with Anderson Russell after getting beat the last game and going back to Texas too, that's two games in a row.
COACH TRESSEL: I think anytime you feel as if you could have done something that the group needed -- I mean, I should have texted Terrelle back that I needed to be pumped up for not going for a field goal. I mean, anytime you do something that you wish you could have done better, you hope you don't need to be pumped up for long because you've got to pump yourself up and I don't mean that in any negative way. But you have to handle adversity. If you're fortunate to get off on a great start in a season, I don't know if you need someone to remind you to pump you down because you've got to handle success too. But that's something that hopefully we can help our guys understand that that's part of life is that when there are disappointments, how you react to it is everything.
REPORTER: Jim, you dropped two spots on the AP poll. Are you surprised by that? Do you think it's fair?
COACH TRESSEL: Gosh, I don't know. Yeah, I guess. I'm trying to remember, I catapulted someone way up, I think Ole Miss moved up significantly and Oklahoma State had a heck of a win. To me there were some impressive wins. Boise State had -- Cincinnati had an impressive win. You know, it's so early that those are irrelevant unless you win all your games or nearly all your games.
REPORTER: How do you feel the guys up front offensively did in this game and speak of the challenge that they go into against USC.
COACH TRESSEL: I thought there were some moments where we did some pretty good things up front. I thought there was some indecisive moments. There's so much to the communication that goes on in the course of the trenches there. You had a couple critical penalties and the one that comes to mind most is we go out second half saying, hey, we've got to -- we better understand what Navy's all about, we've got to come storming. So, boom, the kickoff team stormed, three and out, we get the ball on the plus side of the field, five yards on the first play, boy, that's just what you want, then all of a sudden, you know, penalty, penalty, penalty. And you talk about taking the momentum away. And a couple of those were on the offensive line. We had a holding, then an off-sides, so we have to eliminate those. We had another penalty down in. We were going down in. So there were some things that looked like we had a chance and then there were some things that make you recognize that you've got a ways to get better.
REPORTER: How critical is it to recruit the state of California?
COACH TRESSEL: How difficult is it? It depends on where you're located. For us, it's a long way. If you get on a plane, you're passing over a whole bunch of schools that are very, very good and that's real.
REPORTER: Is the difference more of a factor in recruiting the state of Florida which you guys have done decently well in the last few years?
COACH TRESSEL: Florida's much closer, I mean, it is, significantly closer and less schools in Florida. I mean, that whole state of California is chalk full of Pac-10 schools, and Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State are right there too, but when you recruit California, you've got to fly over a bunch of good schools, and that's not easy.
REPORTER: How much is the team aware of what this game can or can't do for your reputation nationally?
COACH TRESSEL: Gosh, I hope they're not thinking about that, because if you're thinking about something that's at the end of those 60 minutes, I'm not sure you're going to play each of those minutes the way that you should. As they watch the film and you ask them what they're thinking, I hope they ask you, what play was called, because that's what's important. What play's called? What defense is called? What's the situation. And not, well, I was thinking if we win this game that will be awesome.
Well, you know, we can't -- we've got to think about the moment. And good teams have that ability to stay in the moment and ignore anything positive or negative or anything along the way and just stay in the moment of what's going on. And that's a great lesson, in my mind, to try to teach people because no different in our lives. If you don't stay in the moment and start wishing this and, oh, my gosh, if that happens, you won't do very well in the moment.
So that's critical for us, especially at a young age, sometimes maybe for an older guy, he's been through so many ups and downs and so forth that he's got a perspective, but sometimes for the younger guys, maybe you could get caught thinking that way and to me, that's dangerous thinking.
REPORTER: Is that something you need to address because the team's a little bit younger?
COACH TRESSEL: We address often about staying in the moment, and it's today's practice, it's period three, the player in practice that keeps glancing up to see what period number it is tells me he's looking forward to the end of the C period 24 up there, and what good is that doing in period seven, so we talk about that constantly.
REPORTER: Do you think the defense got out of that, for example, Saturday a 89-yard drive, an 85-yard touchdown?
COACH TRESSEL: As I listened, and I'm far from an expert on anything, but most certainly that as I listened to Jim and Luke and Taver and those guys talk, when we stepped away from simply playing our responsibility and playing our technique was when we didn't play well, and when we did do that, we really played pretty well. So, yeah, I'm sure Jim could probably pull you out seven snaps and say, you know what, if we had played this technique and if we'd have just stayed home or whatever you do, we might have been more successful. But that's exactly what you have to do when you show the film, and you hope that -- one might have thought, well, let's not even grade the Navy film for our defense because they'll never see that again, at least for 11 more games, but that's not the case. We had to talk about what we taught, what we executed, why we succeeded, why we didn't in the big picture. Now let's go talk about Southern Cal because they've got a whole different set of problems that you have to have solutions for.
REPORTER: Do you sense what he was asking about, that over the summer maybe and maybe leading up to the game that the guys have been talking about, thinking about, how important this game was?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, sure.
REPORTER: In terms of their perception and all that stuff?
COACH TRESSEL: There's nowhere they'd rather be than playing Ohio State and USC. I'm sure that that was in the forefront of their mind. To me that's one of the exciting things about having a schedule like we have is that you get to -- you get to daydream for a moment about, man, I better get ready. This is going to be something right off the bat, so --
REPORTER: Do you think they know in terms of national perception and all that that it's important to -- really important to win a game like this?
COACH TRESSEL: You know, I would like to think that they do, but I don't know if that's the most important thing I want them thinking about, that's the problem, is that okay, fellows, this is important. Okay, now, on the first play you better do this. Forget what I just talked about, you know, you better do this or that might never happen, you know. So I don't know that -- I don't know that you can talk in those abstract ways. To me that's an abstract. Reputation? I mean, to me that's an abstract. Now, did you block that guy? I can grade that.
REPORTER: Are you familiar with this Taylor Mays quote that, I'm the big deuce, Terrelle's the little deuce?
COACH TRESSEL: He said that? Today?
REPORTER: It's online.
COACH TRESSEL: They're both big deuces if you ask me, man.
REPORTER: What about his contribution on the defense, two time All-American?
COACH TRESSEL: He's kind of quarterback of the defense there and he can make up for errors that occur, the way he closes on the ball when it's in the air, the way he closes on a runner if they would happen to wiggle through. I'm sure he gives that whole group confidence as he's standing right behind them like, hey, don't worry about it, I've got your back, and he truly has their back, he's a good player.
REPORTER: How important is it for your defense to get pressure on Barkley.
COACH TRESSEL: How important? We should get those little cards that -- Bill Livingston -- to us, the key to the game of defensive football is applying pressure and applying pressure to pass protections which, therefore, ultimately you want to apply pressure to the guy that's got the ball in his hands, what it's a back that sees four silver helmets coming or a quarterback who feels a lot of pressure. So without a doubt, that young man is far enough along that if he has a chance to just stand around, he's not going to miss. He's a good -- he knows where his guys are going. He knows what you're in. And if he has time, he's going to complete them. Bill Livingston. Oh, I'm sorry, my bad. You were just his agent.
REPORTER: He's 0 for 23.
COACH TRESSEL: I'm sorry.
REPORTER: Going back to the abstract of reputation, whenever Ohio State faces one of these national games as you mentioned, invariably, even with all the success Ohio State has, you'll lose, does that bother you personally, is it fair that only winning one of these things will end all that?
COACH TRESSEL: It's a fact, so it's fair. So outside of that and as you look at what you need to do to win this game or any of "those" games or those X number of games in between, you have to go to work at what you need to do to get better. And no one spends any more time trying to figure out how to fix their world they live in than we do.
REPORTER: Jim, they go five deep at running back, we talked so much last week about the Air Force offense being a unique challenge for you guys --
COACH TRESSEL: That was Air Force we played?
REPORTER: I'm sorry, Navy. But they seemed to run the ball right at people, you guys don't see a lot of that during the course of the season. Is this almost as unique of a challenge?
COACH TRESSEL: I think what makes Southern Cal a challenge, talent aside, they're so talented, but they're so balanced. You can't say we're going to force them to pass, we're going to put 16 guys in the box and they're not going to run it, well, then they're going to pass it. And just the opposite, oh, we're going to double those great receivers and all that stuff. Well, if you're doubling those great receivers you don't have many guys in the box and they're going to hurt you running. So to me the fact that they're so balanced and they do run at you and misdirect you and have got lots of speed lots of places, speed is crucial, so real challenging.
REPORTER: It's not very often that Ohio State is an underdog at home. You guys are six and a half, seven-point underdogs, do you like the underdog role and are you surprised that the line is that big?
COACH TRESSEL: I learn something from you guys every day I come. I had no idea on the line, other than their line, their line is darn good, on both sides by the way. I don't know. The role I like is that I'm on Ohio State and we're playing USC, that's what I like. Lori, last question. My guys are chomping at the bit.
REPORTER: USC outscored opponents 94 to 7 in the third quarter of games last year and I'm wondering when a team comes in with that kind of track record does it make you willing to consider more dramatic halftime adjustments than you otherwise would?
COACH TRESSEL: Be more animated and --
REPORTER: Does it change anything you do at halftime knowing they make great adjustments?
COACH TRESSEL: I haven't studied exactly the different things maybe that they do in the third quarter, I would venture to say they run the same things they ran in the first and second quarter and maybe have learned what the defense is doing and so forth, or maybe their defense has learned what the offense is doing and they get turnovers or they saw how you were covering the kickoff so they adjust well because I think they know what they're doing. I think their players have a clear understanding of what their system is, as do ours, and I think they do a nice job of having confidence. They do a good job of playing a lot of guys, which you can get a little bit stronger the fresher you are, but they're a very explosive team and that exact number I didn't know, I knew it was dramatic, but that doesn't mean we're going to do nothing other than work on third-quarter stuff, you know, because we struggled in the second quarter last year. But they're good across the board. It's a great challenge. It's great to have Youngstown -- I'm getting old, Columbus, Ohio highlighted and the whole world coming to watch us. They're a great football team. We're trying to become one
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