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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 19, 2015

Tim Hinton

Columbus, Ohio

COACH HINTON: Good afternoon.

Q. Coach, what's the difference with Marcus Baugh this year? Coach Meyer was talking him up. He said he's come a long way. Specifically, what's different?
COACH HINTON: First of all, coach talking him up, that's a start. The reality is part of the process of college football is understanding the whole realm of college. Academically, socially -- we all know how that kind of started a little bit. You know, the thing is, if you just give it time and you let it -- you love him a lot as a person and kick him in the rear a lot as a person. And your next thing you know, if they have a good heart and a good mind and a good soul, eventually, that --

I'm going to tell you, he was a highly rated tight end coming out of high school. Really, to be honest with you, I thought he was the best in my country by my eyes. That's why we went after him.

And now he's starting to play like it. He's gaining confidence every day. His demeanor is changing, and obviously, we're very pleased with where he is. He and Nick, the last two games -- you know, the last time I spoke here, I told you, and I was honest about it, I didn't think Nick was starting to play like I know Nick potentially can play. The last two games, Nick's played to potential.

By far the best game of his career was Saturday night. The big thing is, obviously, there weren't targets or passes, and in our world, we don't really care. Bottom line is do we have that "W" at the end of the day? And do we have the ability to help our team win. Both of them, I thought, did a great job with that.

Q. Tim, the tight end and also the offensive line, just the way everybody blocked on Saturday, Urban said it was the best offensive line performance of the week. Just what have you seen with all of that? With the progress -- so many guys coming back. But what built up to that performance on Saturday?
COACH HINTON: It's a great question. One thing I find very interesting is -- this is the first time, obviously, I've been through it where come back that next year with different expectations and what people believe we used to be.

The one thing that I've learned is that every team is a new team. Every year you've got to go through the process of -- and I think maybe I mentioned before. Who are the guys that are going to play this role and that role? Who are the guys? What did we do and how can we do it best? You've got to go through those reps in a game to truly know who are those people?

The other thing is now -- let's don't -- there's a lot of people talk for a long time that football is a great game of emotion. A Saturday night game in Ohio Stadium, that's pretty special now, you know what I mean? That's pretty special. And I think the emotion of the game, and I think the ability to get on that national stage again -- I think all those things add to it.

I think we had a great week of preparation. I think we did things that our kids really know how to do well. When we started going north and south and getting the good double-teams that our guys do and all those things, it just -- they gained confidence, and all of a sudden, you could see right there towards the end of the first quarter, beginning of the second quarter, uh-oh, the fire got lit, and here we go.

I think it's a lot of things that go into it. The nice thing is we have phenomenal kids. The work ethic every day is good. Unfortunately, the public is really not seen what we've seen in practice. If you keep practicing as well as we're practicing, good things are going to happen to you in a game, and that's the part for all of us that's probably been a little bit frustrating because we practice pretty well.

We haven't relayed it in a game as well as we'd like, but Saturday night I thought we were able to do that pretty well.

Q. Going back specifically to Nick, did you have to kind of light a fire under him, or are you just seeing sort of a natural progression?
COACH HINTON: I really believe -- and Nick and I -- and really, I even had a long talk with his father. One thing that Coach Meyer really demands out of all of us is to make sure that we have great communication with our parents and significant others around the world because you never know what other influences are going on. Nick and I had some really honest conversations about performance level.

I think most of it is -- doggone it, you get the NFL stuff that goes on. He doesn't care -- I mean, he does care, but people are telling him, you'd better play like that. You'd better play like that. You'd better do this and do that. Next thing you know you're really worried about everything except put your foot on the ground and go four to six seconds, as Coach Meyer says all the time, and just play the game.

I think I addressed this last time. Most of Nick's things were not -- 80 percent of the game he played very, very well. The other part is you just want to pull your hair out. Why did you do that? Most of it was more pressing than anything.

The other thing is you really had to learn because for two years he was the relief pitcher. He was coming in, we had a really good guy working with him every day, and all of a sudden he had to play that role. He was the relief pitcher coming in, and he had to play the starter. And he didn't press as well and things didn't go as well as he wanted them to early in the year.

We had a long talk about it Sunday again, and he said, Coach, I never felt better about preparation for a game. I felt more relaxed. Hey, listen, when they line up like this, I knew exactly what they were going to do. I felt really comfortable about the preparation. That's my job. My job is to make sure he feels very, very comfortable.

Behind the scenes, we probably did more walk-throughs than we have done before. We really -- every guy can learn differently. Some guys learn really well on film. Some guys learn really well on a chalkboard. Some guys really, really learn well by walking through it.

I keep trying every day to say what's the best way to have my two guys that are really playing significant minutes learn it. Nick is probably a better walk-through guy. I changed a little bit what I'm doing and walking through things for so he can get not only a visual look at it but just the physical part. It's just the chalk board on the field walk through, literally walk through. That's why I'm doing more than I was beginning of the year. If it's not working, bottom line, find a way to fix it, and that's what coaching it.

I'm not saying I have all the answers. But we look every day if a guy is not playing to his standards. Nick is a phenomenal talent. Wow, that guy can -- he's 6'6", 262 pounds. He can run and has good power. I really thought that those things are probably making a difference, but more than anything, now he's starting to get a little confidence in what he is too.

Q. You were in the locker room after the game and in the last couple of days, putting 38 on Penn state a team that was No. 10 in the country in total defense and that stuff. What is the feel about this offense? Is it different than a couple of weeks ago? Just your sense of it.
COACH HINTON: I mentioned earlier, the whole practice thing -- I really felt every week of practice for about three weeks, we practiced very well. I felt very comfortable walking out on the field, and some of the execution things just weren't there. Obviously, we're not -- we know that. You guys have certainly mentioned it. I know Coach Meyer addressed it, but you can sense now the confidence in who we are, what we are, what people are doing, how we're going to go about it.

Yeah, there is a different sense to it, a different feeling to it. The hard part is we've got to do it again in New Jersey this week and we've got to do it again the next week and the next week and have great consistency about what we're doing, and that's probably, even in games, we have streaks where we're really moving, and we hit those little lows. What we've really got to do with this offense is get it consistent across the board all the time, including my position and their play.

Q. Coach, you obviously did have a solid offensive performance against Penn State, but it was another slow start offensively. It's kind of been a trend this year. Coach Warner attributed that to what other teams are doing schematically that you haven't seen on film. Is that why guys are starting slow? What have you seen offensively this season?
COACH HINTON: There's a little bit of Xs and Os with it. Obviously, they come in with a game plan too. What they're trying to do is not let momentum get started early. If we get pretty good momentum, I think we're a hard team to handle. They've done a pretty good job of trying to put some pressure on us. You look at most times, they've been some kind of blitz from somewhere. We do need to do a better job of that. It's certainly being addressed. It certainly is one of those things that we're looking at. What are the most significant plays that we have to get that first down to make it six yards, seven yards? All of a sudden, you've got a second and short.

In football, if you play ahead of the chains, that's kind of that common term that everyone uses. If you play head of the chains, you've got a pretty good chance of success all game long. You play behind the chains and you look at third down efficiency, obviously, we've had more third and longs this season than we've had for a long time.

So your third down efficiency is not going to be as good when you're third and long, where there were a couple stretches of -- in our time here at Ohio State, where all of a sudden our first down efficiency was so good, guess what our third down efficiency was? Because everything now your first down efficiency, you're gaining five and six on first down, then all of a sudden you can have an average second down and you're still third and one or two.

Those are really high third down efficiencies. When you're third and eight and third and nine and those situations now, it makes you hustle. It makes you really hustle.

Q. You mentioned the schemes they're throwing at you. How would you assess the staff in terms of making in game adjustments this season?
COACH HINTON: I think that was the part -- I think that's really gotten us to the place we needed to be. Obviously, there's some games that they just -- I was kind of like, are you kidding me? You count that number. How many blitzes did they come in with? I think that that's certainly getting to be where it needs to be. Really, a lot of times what happens is it isn't just what the thought is coming from the press box down or the coaches on the sideline.

The big thing is and still in football is can you get that thought to that player and him understand the adjustment to go on the field and do a great job of it? That's the part that I see really getting better, and that's the part that you can see us doing better and better and better because every defense is going to walk in and make us adjust throughout a game.

Coach Meyer talks about it all the time. Preparation doesn't stop until the foot hits the ball. You've heard him say that slogan and that thing. Then all of a sudden, a game is about adjustments. What are they doing? What's the chess match going on? And that chess match -- and this is where I kind of go back to Tim's question with Nick Vannett is the fact that he felt better about those adjustments than any game so far this year. So we made those adjustments, and all of a sudden, he went back out and said, I've got a clear vision of what this is. Let's go make that.

And really that's what happens throughout a game. It's chaotic in the adjustment part of it. It really isn't what we understand then. It's what our kids understand when they take the field that we're trying to get them to do.

Q. Coach, Larry Johnson had the mike at the session. We see him as maybe more quiet certainly compared with Mike Vrabel, who did the job previously. He brought that fire. Was that because of Penn State?
COACH HINTON: No, that's Larry. Larry is a phenomenal public speaker. He's off the charts. He's really, really good at it. He has a very dynamic way of presenting a thought. That really is Larry.

We all have -- obviously, we all have roles and all have to do the things we do, but I don't know how many guys make it to places like Ohio State that don't have a little bit of that passion in them. So I think certainly that he is -- that was who he was -- who he is, and wasn't that great? I was fired up. I can tell you that. I thought he did a great job with that.

I think the crowd responded very well too. It was a lot of fun.

Q. You were in the press box. You kind of have a clinical view of how the game unfolds. When J.T. went in the game, what did you see? Did you see an offense that just looked like the way this offense is supposed to look?
COACH HINTON: Offense is set up predominantly -- you can beat your head against the wall, or you can take what the defense gives you. One thing that J.T. was able to do was the things that the defense was giving us. Probably, when you look at it in that way -- because we add a few more quarterback runs, and we did some things with him that was probably a little more strength at times, I think, than maybe Cardale.

But the bottom line is they both have excellent skills. They both bring a skill set to this football team that makes us able to win and continue to win and do the things they do. I just thought probably more than anything on Saturday, was more of, hey, here's what the defense gives us. Sometimes they'll give us different things. I thought that was -- it probably fit a little more maybe into J.T.'s wheelhouse than Cardale's. That doesn't mean Cardale doesn't have strength J.T. doesn't. They're excellent players. They both do great things. That was probably more than anything. You can try to beat your head against the wall and run things at the defense, or defensing, or you can do things that hopefully hurt the defense. That's what we were trying to accomplish.

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