Below is the transcript from Ohio State coach Jim Tressel's address to the media on Nov.10.
COACH TRESSEL: Okay, Lori, last question.
REPORTER: I'd like the opening statement first.
COACH TRESSEL: We appreciated your patience last week with our announcement of thechild I.D. kits. That was a big deal to us and sorry that it held you over, but it was a goodthing. It's an exciting week for us. It's Veterans Day week, which our young people have beenstudying a lot about the military over time and tomorrow we don't have school, but we'll have someeducation and have some of our guys hear from some of our great veterans and also it's senior weekfor us, which kind of is our veterans, guys that have been going at it for quite some time. Ourfifth-year guys, this will be their 35th and final ball game in Ohio Stadium and the fourth-yearguys, their 28th. So it's an exciting week for us. It's a great opponent in Iowa. We thought ourkids went over ready to go to State College last weekend. They prepared hard and they knew thatthey were against a very, very good team in a great atmosphere and that it would be an afternoonthat they would remember because, A, it was part of November and November is always a time that youremember vividly; and also it was just a great electric environment, two teams going at it veryphysically and they knew that a play here or a play there would make the difference in the ballgame. And I thought as we've talked many times, the thing you have to do if you want to have achance on the road is see if you can do something with your special teams and I thought Ray Small'sreturns were huge. I thought we had solid play along the way in our special teams. Devin Barclaystepping up and hitting a good field goal, stepping in for Aaron Pettrey was a real plus. JonThoma's first punt kind of set the stage for the field position for the whole first quarter whichwas very, very important. So that was something that we were able to, we thought, do fairly well.And then from a defensive standpoint, we knew we would have to be relentless and keep going nomatter what they got going, no matter how much their crowd got behind them or whatever it would be,we'd have to handle all comers and I thought our defense kept coming after them. And offensively wealways say whether home or away, but maybe more important on the road, is that you've got to makesure you don't make mistakes and you've got to take advantage anytime you do get an opportunity andI thought our guys did a pretty darn good job in both those categories. And finally, when you havea chance to run the ball a little bit, you're going to have a much, much better chance of beingsuccessful in the game. So I thought our guys put together pretty darn good effort. They knew oncethe ball game was over that although that was awfully tough, what lies ahead is even tougher andthey're going to prepare hard this week and get ready for an excellent Iowa team. Iowa, I think, isas solid as anyone in our conference across the board on the special teams. Their specialists arevery good, but as important and maybe less discussed, the people that do all the other jobs in thespecial teams, the protecting guys, the coverage guys, the blockers and so forth do an excellentjob with what they do. Everyone is very tuned into their defense. Their defense is rock solid.You're not going to get any free yards. You're not going to get any free first downs. They don'tgive up big plays for the most part, and they're a very, very good defense. Going into their ninthgame, they had 11 guys started all nine games, and then they had one different starter last week,not sure if he'll be back or not, and so they've got a ton of experience, and they're very, verygood. Offensively they've been banged up a little bit. Their offensive line they've had to shufflearound a couple different times, I believe. And not unlike many, many people in the country, whenyou're playing on that offensive front, it's a physical place to practice and it's a physical placeto play on Saturdays and you're going to get some guys banged up and they have, we have, they'vedone a good job of rearranging whatever the best combination would be and they've got a very goodoffensive line group. Quarterback-wise, obviously the word we have is that Stanzi is out. We'regoing to prepare for what Iowa does because they're not going to change who they are if indeed theydo change quarterbacks, they're still going to be who they are. That's what, in our estimation, hasmade Iowa such a solid program is that they know what they believe in, they know what they teach,their young people do a good job of learning what they teach, so I don't know that they'll changedramatically if indeed they have a difference at quarterback. Receiver-wise, they've really comealong. They have some young guys who are relatively unknown perhaps coming into the season thathave done an excellent job and made big plays and they do an excellent job with their play actiongame and their misdirection pass game and their deep throwing game and they use their tight endextremely well, so their receiver corps, what they do with that group is very, very good. Runningback-wise, they got banged up and lost a guy or two there and the youngsters that they've got inthere playing now do what they do and are -- I think it makes you a little bit easier to handlethat adversity of injury if you're very, very solid on what you do and everyone, whether you're onthe first unit, second unit or third unit, everyone's doing the same things and understands theexpectations of the position. And so they're going to be loaded up and ready to go there and itwill be a heck of a challenge for us and an important day on our senior day and we're anxious toget to work this afternoon because there's a lot of work to do when you start preparing forIowa.
REPORTER: Jim, it wouldn't seem like there would be very much surprise with ayoung quarterback like Vandenberg, I mean, anybody would want to put pressure, is that your bigobjective?
SPECIAL SECTION: Ohio StateFootball
COACH TRESSEL: We go into every game with the primary objective of our defense isto make sure we affect the quarterback, affect him with his decision-making, whether that be withdisguise or looks or whatever it happens to be, affect him with his ability to throw the ball,which you can do that with your rush, your coverage, so forth, are and affect him from a physicalstandpoint. You want to get to the quarterback and you want to get after him and so we won't all ofa sudden say, hey, this week let's get after the quarterback more, because we do it -- that's whatwe do.
REPORTER: Speaking of a physical quarterback, how's Terrelle's situation rightnow? I mean, physically, Jim, and J.B. Shugarts?
COACH TRESSEL: I haven't seen Terrelle do anything because we haven't practicedyet since Saturday. In talking to him yesterday, it seemed like he was doing great. J.B. Shugarts,the report I got this morning on the medical report was that they thought he was coming along good,that the best plan might be not to overdo today and perhaps get lots of work beginning tomorrow.That's the plan, I can't promise you that will happen. But Dexter Larimore got in a play or twoSaturday and should be a lot further along this weekend. Who else has been out?
REPORTER: You said after the game that Boom Herron was someone you were concernedabout?
COACH TRESSEL: He didn't show up on the medical report about a guy having aninjury. He's on that long list of guys that are nursing things because we get constant rehab andconstant treatment on things even if they don't keep you from the game, but he just showed up onthat "All you others" list.
REPORTER: He appeared on the sideline ready to go back in.
COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, they said he could have gone back in.
REPORTER: If Shugarts can't go today, how do you play that situation at righttackle? Does Jimmy move over there or Marcus Hall?
COACH TRESSEL: You would have Cordle, Miller and Hall for your tackles and Adamscomes back this week probably with limited volume, probably maybe a third of today's practice, andthen see how he handles it. It would be a heck of a bonus for us if all of a sudden he got back tothe point where he could help us on Saturday.
REPORTER: How did Terrelle grade out against Penn State?
COACH TRESSEL: His decision-making grade was, I think, one of the best he's had.It was in the high '80's. He needs to do some of the little things better, things like carrying outfakes and this and that, but his decision-making grade was very good.
REPORTER: Winning performance?
COACH TRESSEL: Overall, no.
REPORTER: Talk about what makes this senior class special, not necessarily themost Heralded bunch, but if they win out, then they could become the winningest class ever here,including a bowl.
COACH TRESSEL: I didn't know that one. See, I'm in there watching film when you'refiguring out all those stats. The thing I've enjoyed about this group is that they've really takenon the challenge that everyone said they would have that all this leadership graduated when theJames Laurinaitises and the Malcolm Jenkins and Brian Robiskies, they were great leaders, you know,graduated, they really took that on as a challenge that they were going to do the types of thingsthat leaders do which is serve others, do whatever they had to do for the group. So I've beenreally pleased with just the way that they've attacked the challenge of doing that. They've all,from a performance standpoint, I think, worked like crazy to try to become the best they could beand whatever role that was that they were able to earn, they worked at it hard and they have seemedto be pretty darn focused group with a young group -- with really a young overall team, whichsometimes when you get older you have a little less patience with the young and I think they'vedone a pretty good job of having patience with overall a fairly young team.
REPORTER: In this string of shared or outright Big Ten Championships, this is thefirst time you're playing for one if you for sure go to the Rose Bowl. You've talked in the pastabout winning the Michigan game, has the BCS compromised that in any way and what do you rememberabout playing UCLA out there.
COACH TRESSEL: I'll do the UCLA one first. The thing I remember about that wasthat was the first game after 9/11 and that was a very tenuous time from a travel standpoint, youcould just tell our young people -- it wasn't like a normal away trip and I also remember we didn'twin. As far as what do I remember or I guess the question was, does the BCS compromise theexcitement of the opportunity.
REPORTER: When it was everything to the Big Ten.
COACH TRESSEL: I suppose the BCS has added something to your overall thinking,something to your set of goals. I think it would be hard if you have the opportunity to earn achance to play in that bowl game to minimize the excitement of that. We haven't gone in a longtime. It's an important thing to Ohio State. It's an important thing to Iowa. I'm not sure whatyear was the last time they went, but it's a big deal and I don't know that the BCS minimizes whatexcitement you would gain from that and what an honor that would be.
REPORTER: You talked about watching the Michigan game as your father's season wasusually over, was there anything like that with the Rose Bowl?
COACH TRESSEL: Oh, gosh, yeah. January 1st in our house, two black and white TVsset upside by side, that old 30-pot coffee, that little silver thing, my dad never got off thecouch, man, we were taking him coffee and switching stations. I mean, that was -- shoot, you wereliving on January 1st.
REPORTER: You were talking about your senior class --
COACH TRESSEL: That was it for the year, by the way.
REPORTER: Is there anybody in that class that's really surprised you with aleadership role or someone you've seen take step this year that you necessarily didn't see cominginto the year?
COACH TRESSEL: I think everyone fully expected Kurt Coleman because he had a firmhandle on who he was on the field and just in his personality, I found it very interesting to seejust the influence that a guy like Doug Worthington could have. It's not just that big, deep voice,but it's the respect that the kids have for him, and it's a little but unusual for a guy that neverstarted to be named a captain in Austin Spitler. Here's a guy that's going to be your Sam backerwhich what percentage of the time are you in base defense, hadn't started before, yet the playerselected him the captain. So it was an unusual group. The offensive voting was all over the placeand so that's why we made the decision to go with weekly captains. I think that Jimmy Cordle andJake Ballard, Ray Small in his own way, have done a good job showing their teammates that they wantto do all they can do to help the group in their senior year and so I think, in general, like Isaid at the outset, it these guys have done a good job taking the challenge of what everyonethought might be one of our biggest challenges was going to be that void and in leadership thatjust graduated I think they've rolled up their sleeves and filled that void.
REPORTER: Ray Small in his own way. What does that mean?
COACH TRESSEL: Ray has grown and hung in there and taken it right in the nose andmade it very obvious to everyone involved that he wants to figure out a way to help and even if itwas -- you know, he took the long road. He's, in his own way, I think shown some guys, and I'veheard him in whether team settings, unit settings, whichever say to guys, you don't want to do someof the things I did and that takes a little bit of leadership in its own rite.
REPORTER: He said Saturday night he was basically thanking you for giving himanother shot, I don't know how many shots it's been, but --
COACH TRESSEL: More than LeBron takes.
REPORTER: But what is your view of that. Obviously you could have said -- washedyour hands of -- what is your view of that like, dealing with players that have those sorts ofchallenges?
COACH TRESSEL: We're here to help the kids and we're here to prepare them for downthe road and if they're not here, we can't help anymore. If it ever gets to a point where it'scounter-productive to the group and you have to make that agonizing decision that, can't have thisanymore, you don't like those days so you do all you can, but I always felt about Ray, is that Raydeep down is a good, young man and at times would be distracted and never anything premeditated,never anything, I'll show everyone, just didn't always stay on task, and hopefully he'll keepgrowing.
REPORTER: With everything that's on stake this week, the Big Ten title and a tripto the Rose Bowl, the Big Ten doesn't have a championship game like other conferences, does it havethat feel this week and what have you said to the guys about what's at stake?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, we met Sunday real briefly, but that was really more to wrapup Penn State and grade ourselves and make sure that we understood that everything wasn't perfect,we got to enjoy the evening after the game and so forth, now it's time to go back to work and getbetter. We talked more, quite honestly, about Iowa and about the fact that it is senior week forus, which is a big deal to us, and I don't recall even talking about what was beyond that and I'mnot sure it needed to be talked about because everyone seemed to know that already.
REPORTER: Jim, you've talked in the past about how it's human nature maybe tohandle adversity, to know how to handle adversity more than success. As a coach are you almost morenervous a week like this where you got the big victory last week, yet you still have more to do. Doyou get a little uneasy about how the guys respond to that?
COACH TRESSEL: It's pretty hard to be more nervous than I am normally, so I don'tknow how you'd get more nervous, but I don't -- I mean, I agree with you because you obviouslyquoted me, it is harder to handle success, it's just the truth, but I'm probably most concernedwith the fact that I know how good Iowa is and it's not so much about how we're going to handlewhatever. The challenge we've got in front of us is a great challenge.
REPORTER: Obviously Iowa had a tough week last week with the loss and losing thequarterback, but where did you sort of -- what have you taken note of this season with them, allthe comebacks, just the way they've sort of gone about getting to this point? What maybe has stoodout about how they've gotten there?
COACH TRESSEL: I kind of enjoyed the discussion there in the latter half of theseason about how they were comparing them to the 2002 Buckeyes and all that kind of thing and to methat was a compliment. That was talking about a team that figured out how you win. And they knowhow to win. You can watch them on film. Everyone's doing what they're supposed to be doing and whenthat happens, the ball is going to bounce your way. When you're supposed to be in that zone and ithits off a guy's helmet and lands in your zone, well if you're supposed to be there then thatwasn't luck, you were in the right place. So I just kind of smiled that that is what Iowa's about,they're well prepared, they find a way to win, people want to call them lucky, let them call themlucky, but they're a good football team.
REPORTER: But they couldn't find a way to win once Stanzi was out, clearly hisimpact now or the impact that that has on their team has got to be huge in their mind, doesn't it?As a leadership guy, they couldn't move the ball after he --
COACH TRESSEL: Well, I would say this, it's a lot harder in the middle of the roadto, when you lose someone like that, it has to be an unusual situation for you to just shake thatoff. I think when you have some time to prepare and get a mindset and so forth and say, hey, here'sthe hand we've got, sometimes in the middle of a game that's harder. So, again, because of howsolid they are, I wouldn't -- I told someone earlier on the Big Ten call or whatever that with Iowayou don't even need to put jersey numbers on, just put their black jerseys or white this week andthey're going to be -- doesn't matter who it is, they're going to be lined up where they'resupposed to be, doing what they're supposed to do and you're going to see if you're good enough tocompete with them.
REPORTER: Do you see a lot of similarities with Iowa in terms of philosophies ingeneral?
COACH TRESSEL: I think in some ways. X and O-wise, in some ways as well, but I'veknown Kirk for a long, long time and I know what he teaches, which is a total team concept in thatevery component is important and it's not what others are saying outside of the room that'simportant, it's what's being said and felt and done within the practice field or meeting room orwhatever it happens to be and he believes in his system and is willing to change his system basedupon who's on his team even if it's something that you don't even notice, but they might be doingsome things differently than they did two years ago because they just have a little bit differentpersonnel in different spots. But from a grand scheme of things, you're going to see them veryconsistent and similar over the course of time, that's why they've been successful.
REPORTER: Jim, do you get a sense that you guys are battling more distractionsthis week than usual, senior week, chance to go to the Rose Bowl, Michigan week is around thecorner, is it a tough week to not become distracted?
COACH TRESSEL: Either that or it's a good week to get focused because, I mean, youonly named two of the things you named are relevant, the other, I'm not sure that that's relevantright now because that's 10 days from now or whatever, and the picture is very clear, you'replaying against a good team, as you said, with a lot at stake. The fact is, the seniors are playingtheir last ball game here and their last two in their whole career, regular season-wise, you know,so to me it's maybe even less distracting than sometimes when there's more time out there, there'smore mind wandering. When you get a little closer to the edge of the diving board it becomes moreapparent that, there's the water, you know, so --
REPORTER: It looked like, Coach, last week Zach Boren was out there a little more.Was that game plan-wise for Penn State or were you finding ways to work him in a little bit morefor what you're doing in the run game?
COACH TRESSEL: Having a fullback in the game situationally with what we were doingwith a little bit more and Adam Homan was a little bit banged, not such that he couldn't be in thegame and he couldn't be in special teams and so forth, but we didn't think he was a hundredpercent, so those maybe five or eight plays that Adam typically shared with him, Zach reallycarried the whole thing, I think was in the high 20s, 28, 29 plays, and he'd probably been an 18 to20-play guy, some games maybe 15, who knows, according to what we were doing, but I thought Zachdid a very solid job. He catches the ball well, blocks well, and learns things well and fullback isa position that you have to do all the pass protection things both at fullback and at tailback. Youhave to know everything that the guys up front are doing so you know where you fit in and he's donea good job of picking all that up.
REPORTER: Cam Heyward had the big game Saturday.
COACH TRESSEL: In fact, cam's out here. We've got Cam and who is the other one?Jake Ballard, all right. I promised them we wouldn't be like we were last week. Lori you're upnext. Sorry.
REPORTER: What's standing out to you about Cam's play at this point in hiscareer?
COACH TRESSEL: Cam loves to prepare. You hear us say that about so many of theguys but you ask questions about pretty good guys. Cam's over there in the building all the time.It seems you can't walk by the locker room or one of the film rooms and cam's sitting there with abag of groceries and watching film or he's in the weight room a little bit extra and he loves toprepare. He's very talented. The more he has learned about the game, obviously the more effectivehe is. He's going to be a very, very good player. He's a special one.
REPORTER: How much can your offensive game plan negate the impact of a player likeClayborn and how much are you just going to have to counter your tackles to step up and keep himfrom being disruptive?
COACH TRESSEL: Well, the tackles are going to get most of the battle becausethey're going to line up over him every play. There are going to be times when there's a tight endnext to him. There are going to be times there are two tight ends next to him, there's going to betimes where the fullback gets involved, there's going to be times where the tailback gets involvedin blocking, but you can't overdo trying to help out on one guy because they've got 10 other guysthat are going to be in the right place who are going to be able to make plays, but he's a heck ofa player. He plays with great enthusiasm. I mean, he turned the Penn State-Iowa game around withhis blocked punt. It was just sheer effort. He's a playmaker and you better know where he is, so Ihope we're as healthy as we can be. I hope we have all of our tackles available because they'regoing to have a heck of a challenge.
