Right: Coach Tressel spoke with reporters earlier this week.
AP Photo
I must say after having to pass a kidney stone last week, it’s a pain I wouldn’t wish on a Michigan fan. So after the bye and the absolutely perfect weather this week, it’s time to get back to work.
Each week, Coach Tressel holds a secret press conference at an undisclosed location in hopes that I don’t crash the party. Anyway, some of the questions get repetitive so I wll give you the condensed version.
Since there was no game last Saturday, Coach Tressel did not name any players of the week, but delved in Ohio State’s next opponent, Northwestern, just moments into his opening statements.
As usual, there’s a lot of fluff without much substance. It seems Ohio State plays the 1972 Miami Dolphins every week. But let’s get on to the press conference.
Coach Tressel’s Opening Statements:
We’re anxious to get ready to go play a good Northwestern team that had an excellent road win, an emotional victory for them happening in the last play of the game, and an opportunity to move to 7-2. And what I’ve been impressed with amongst many things with Northwestern is if you watch them in the first half of a ball game, they’re much better in the second half of a ball game, which means that they’re glued into what’s going on in the game. They understand their system. They grow to understand what you’re trying to do against them. They’ve outscored their opponents in the second half like 111-50 or something and played excellent football.
Every film you watch, you can see that someone has maybe had something that works once or twice against them and they try it again in the second half and it’s snuffed. So they obviously know who they are and they learn who you are.”
Last Saturday, junior quarterback Mike Kafka, who started in place of the injured C.J.Bachér at Minnesota, turned in a spectacular performance against the Golden Gophers by setting a Big Ten modern-era record for rushing yards by a quarterback (217 yards on 27 carries) and finish with 360 yards of total offense.
Kafka completed 12-of-16 passes for 143 yards with two TDs and two interceptions, while averaging 8.0 yards per carry, and was named the Big Ten Conference’s Co-Offensive Player of the Week.
Coach Tressel talks about Northwestern’s quarterbacks:
Their quarterback situation, you have to appreciate the fact that when the number two guy had to come in and win a big game on the road, he did it, he rushed for over 200 yards, and I would expect that we would see both guys in the course of the game. I would expect Bacher probably to return as the starter, maybe not, but I would expect that with all his experience and successes and so forth, but I would bet you that Kafka’s going to come in there and certainly be a part of what they do.”
Later when Coach Tressel opens the floor for questions, he was asked how Terrelle has handled the time off since the last game:
“I think we were all down after a hard fought battle and we came up short. That’s not the easiest thing in the world when you’ve invested a lot of time and effort. I’m sure some of the guys that have been here five years, it was just as deep or deeper. From a practice standpoint, all of them, Terrelle included, came out on Wednesday when we had our first practice and went to work and I thought really focused in on what we asked them to do, which was their fundamental work.”
Further along in the press conference, Tressel was asked if he cautioned Terrelle to not try to do too much or to not try to press to move past a loss:
I think we have to face that, every one of us, individually. You have to evaluate what could we have done better. You can’t kid yourself and think that it was one thing you did or didn’t do that was the difference because that makes the assumption that you think one thing you did in a win was everything.”
At one point, Coach Tressel was asked about Thaddeus Gibson and his development:
Thaddeus is an active guy. He plays both the end and one of those 30 front we call a viper, so there’s a lot of dropping a lot of blitzing, a lot of playing gaps and so forth. Going into the Penn State game, the question was, are you going to be able to hold up against a power-type group, and I thought he have very active and held his own from that standpoint. So the more he plays, the more he experiences and those kinds of things. I think Thaddeus is going to be a good player.”
And Brandon Saine…
Brandon’s been evolving more into playing the fullback positions and slot positions and some slot things. We think that he can do some of the things that a fullback needs to do. And so his evolution really is finding ways to get on field. He’s on some special teams and so what you hope is that he’s the kind of guy that can be on the field 25 plus plays a game because he can do a lot of different things and he is a threat as a pass receiver but yet I also think it’s not like you can say, well he’s in at fullback and they can’t run their “I” formation stuff, because I think we can.”
One of the final questions that was asked was has this season just been harder than Coach Tressel thought it would be:
Not at all. In fact, one of the things we talked a lot about beginning last March is that 2008 was going to be much more challenging than 2007. I mean, it wasn’t even going to be close, all the way from the schedule to the expectations to the individual expectations, all of those things, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.”
Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
Comments Off
