Tressel Talk – Week 3
Right: Senator Sweater Vest speaks.
AP Photo
It’s that time of the week when I recap what transpired at the Jack Nicklaus Museum during Jim Tressel’s weekly press conference.
One note, there’s no mention of last Saturday’s game against Ohio. Generally in his opening statements, Coach Tressel talks about the previous game and the key contributors. This week, there’s not once instance where he talks about his Buckeyes and the Bobcats. He goes directly into talking about USC.
Coincidence? I think not, considering how poorly his team played last Saturday. It seems that not only did his players have the Trojans on their mind last week, Coach Tressel did, too.
Early in his opening statements….
I think it starts with the great respect for the tremendous success that USC has had over the course of the last six or seven years. If you think about the age of our players and you think back to when they really started paying close attention to college football, Southern California had to be one of the schools that they said, man, they’re good. So when they saw it on the schedule, that they had the opportunity to play Southern California and go out to the L.A. Coliseum — I’ve never been to the Coliseum, I’m sure most of them have not been there, so the opportunity to go out there and play against a great football team and — I’ve enjoyed watching them on film.”
Coach Tressel continues….
And the thing that jumps out at me about Southern California is you can tell there’s tremendous purpose and intensity in everything they do. You can see why they do what they do. There’s no question about it that everyone on the field is on the same page. I don’t care if it’s the kickoff return or if it’s a blitz and everyone’s responsibility or if it’s an offensive deployment or whatever it happens to be, you can see that every single person on that film knows their purpose, knows their role and knows that they need to do it at a tremendously high level, and it’s been great to watch them.”
Being an offensive coach, Tressel describes what he has seen on film about USC’s defense….
As I have watched their defense more than I’ve watched their offense, the thing I like about what they do on defense is the speed at which they play. They appear maybe at one moment to be one step out of position, and then their ability to retrace, get back headed in the direction they need to go, whatever it happens to be, and enclose on the football is tremendous. The other thing I’ve enjoyed watching their defense is they have fun playing the game. They enjoy playing it. They celebrate together and they get excited and there’s just an energy when you watch the film, which is a neat thing as you go.”
Then he gives his thoughts on USC’s offense…
Over on the offensive side of the ball, I happen to know Mark Sanchez a little bit because we tried like crazy to recruit him, as we tried to recruit who I think is one of the great linemen, Jeff Byars, those are two great young men, and just to watch them on film, to watch the way they compete, the way Mark came off that preseason injury and everyone said, oh, he’s going to do this or not going to do that, to see the way he came back so quickly and there was no question about it, it’s his football team and he stepped in and played at a very, very high level. He’s got great running backs as we all know, and they all compete like mad. There’s not a play in the game that one of those guys isn’t competing to get playing time and to make sure that they excel.”
Coach, what do you think about USC being ranked No. 1? Surprised?
So is it a surprise that they’re a top, top team in America? No. Good talent, good coaching, good discipline. Enjoy the game, so that makes it even more of a thrill. It’s not just a matter of we get to go to Los Angeles and play the game, we get to play against a great team and our guys are excited about that and we’re looking forward to it.”
Then Tressel opens the floor for questions by the media, and one of the first was an inquiry on the health of Beanie Wells and if he will play on Saturday.
You know, I thought Beanie ran well yesterday. In fact, I thought he ran better than I thought he might. Coaches, in some ways, we’re optimists, and in other ways, we’re pessimists, but hopefully we’re realists. I thought he ran really well yesterday. I think the big thing has been Tuesday and Wednesday work and will that create soreness. So I have a lot of confidence in our doctors and trainers and strength guys and not only was he running well, then they put him on the bike and wore him out, so they’re trying to do all the things, he’s been in the underwater treadmill and anything we can do, we’re doing and I feel good about him.”
Coach was later asked about the fact that his team seemed to regress from week 1 to week 2 and how he would motivate his players for this Saturday’s tilt.
I think every experience you have, you can take something from it and you can build on it. I’d rather build on improvement than I would build on not doing as well as we could, because the bottom line is this: The only way we can be successful on the road at Southern Cal is be at our best, I mean, there’s no way that we can do it if we’re not at our best. So I think all of us in the whole locker room recognized after the game that we weren’t at our best. And okay, what didn’t we do and all that, and the question, of course, is why. I wish I knew that answer. If I knew that answer, I wouldn’t have all those games that I didn’t love the outcome, but I think we have to build and understand that we need to be at our best and there’s no two ways about it.”
Following Saturday’s close call against Ohio, the Buckeyes are now 11-point underdogs against the Trojans, amd most of the national meat puppets aren’t giving OSU much of a chance against USC. How does that sound to you, Coach?
It doesn’t sound wonderful, but really what people think is not that important to me. Now, the guys in the locker room, what they’re thinking is what’s key, and so how did not playing as well affect how we’re thinking is more of a concern of mine than, well, people said or they said or — and that’s — as I’ve said to you many times, coaches are in kind of a cacoon. We don’t — we’re in there day and night. I didn’t even know, James Laurinaitis came in today and said, hey, did you see the game last night? I said, no, I didn’t see the game. I said, who won, thinking he’s a Vikings fan, you know. He said, well, the Packers won. He said, A. J. was great. I thought, gee, the last thing I heard A. J. was out with a torn chest muscle or something. He said, no, he had 14 tackles and I wouldn’t have known that because we were right there. So we don’t hear all of what they think and all that. What we think is what’s critical.”
Finally, a question about the Ohio game, and a question I wanted answered, why didn’t Tressel go for two when down 14-12.
Well, I think it was still in the third quarter. Our general rule of thumb is take every point you can get until you’re into the fourth quarter significantly because you never know what they’re going to do, all of a sudden they get a field goal or a touchdown, whatever it happens to be. So you get down into that eight, nine-minute mark of the fourth quarter, then I think those decisions really get a little sticky, but I think when you’ve got two something to go — now, had I known we were going to miss the extra point.”
Back to Beanie, do you think he will be as effective on Saturday as he was before the injury, if he plays?
That I don’t know. I’d like to think that. He said to Coach Bollman and I walking into the meeting room on Monday that he said, I’m ready to carry 45 times on Saturday, and he’s not going to carry 45 if he’s not effective. I think he’s like every other kid, he wants to play and he’s going to do all he can do and his effectiveness will be, in large part, based upon what the other guys do. If they block people, he can be effective. If they don’t, it will be harder.”
Coach Tressel as later asked about Terrelle Pryor, and the fact that he has seen action in the first two games, but as a freshman making his first road trip, will he play less or is there even a plan to get him into the game?
Oh, no, I think we do because I think he brings a lot to the table. In fact, when we were winning by five points or whatever it was and they were punting to us, we were going to put him in. Maybe wouldn’t put him in on our own three. You try to script for success and at least the best chance for it, but, no, I think he’s proven, with his knowledge of what we’re doing — the only thing that holds back a freshman from playing in my mind is if they don’t understand what we’re doing and, therefore, their physical abilities can’t take over, and the thing I’ve been impressed with with Terrelle is he understands what we’re doing, so he’ll have opportunities.”
One last thing, Coach, do you really feel that Beanie will indeed play on Saturday?
Yeah, uh-huh.”
