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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 10, 2018Greg SchianoColumbus, Ohio Q. You've talked a lot about Jordan Fuller and his ability to erase plays; what is it about him in that role? COACH GREG SCHIANO: Well, he's a very good athlete, No. 1 and has good anticipation, about vision. You know, Jordan would be good whatever he did. He came here as a corner. He could play corner. He's got that kind of coverage skills. He could play receiver and he was a quarterback in high school. He has a real good spatial awareness and he's a good tackler. Q. You guys talked throughout the off-season about that other spot next to him being a big concern or maybe the biggest on the team. Do you feel like it's settled at this point or do you still have some questions about that going, even into Game 3? COACH GREG SCHIANO: Well, Isaiah, I thought he played well on Saturday. He's still a young guy. Doesn't have a lot of reps underneath him. You know, Shaun Wade is getting better and better, so he's kind of -- we're trying to find a place for him. But I'm encouraged by Isaiah, and I think Jahsen is going to continue, and other guys, too, at the position, that are kind of young. They are all the same age, so we're going to keep that thing going for a bit and see if one of them can pull away. Q. Switching over to the NFL, I don't know if you got to see Denzel play at all, what were your thoughts on his two interceptions in his first-ever NFL game? COACH GREG SCHIANO: I did not get to see it because we were working, but did hear from the players a lot. Really excited for him. There's not a nicer guy in the world and he's a tremendous athlete and to do it in his hometown has to be pretty cool for him. Q. Middle linebacker, you're doing some shuffling there. What's your assessment? Only two games. What's your assessment so far? COACH GREG SCHIANO: As I said throughout, I think we have more than three linebackers, so more than three will play. Both those guys I think are getting better and better. Tuf, obviously, coming back off the injury and Baron getting his feet underneath him as a middle linebacker. I anticipate that to continue; that they will both play. Tuf has got just such a sense for the football. He seems to be around the ball all the time, and Baron has an unbelievable ability to cover ground. If you look at him, for a big man, or for anybody, he runs extremely well. Q. Shaun Wade, can you explain what his role is, and how do you envision his role going forward? COACH GREG SCHIANO: We are just going to try to find ways to get him on the field. So he can play corner, he can play in the nickel as he did this week and I think eventually he'll be able to play at the safety position. That's good for him because that's as many opportunities as you can have in the secondary to play. Q. Tyreke, is he hurt? I don't think he's played yet. COACH GREG SCHIANO: No, Tyreke is just -- not everybody can play. It's a competitive environment. He's doing well, though, especially in the last ten days, I think he's really catching on. Hopefully somewhere down the road he will play. Q. What do you see in the TCU offense? COACH GREG SCHIANO: They are a really talented offense. It all starts with the offense and defensive lines. Their offensive line is as good as any in the Big Ten. It is that kind of offensive line, very, very good. Skill people. They are fast. It's a very fast football team. You look at their receivers, you know, it's one, it's two, and these are really athletic kids in the backfield. 33 and 6 are really good running backs; and their quarterback, the guy is new this year. Johnson, No. 3, I mean, we recruited him. He's a really good player who is multi-dimensional, who can throw, he's a strong arm guy. He's a huge test for our defense. This is a very athletic, fast, productive offense. Q. He's the first real running quarterback you've faced this year. How does that challenge your defense? COACH GREG SCHIANO: Well, it's a big challenge. No. 1, it changes all the math. When the quarterback carries the ball and can do it well, then you know, the defensive math changes and really, playing good defense is getting people to the point of attack and then making the tackle. So when the quarterback runs it you need to get another guy to the point of attack and obviously he doesn't run it all the time. He reads it. It's like option football. So it changes. And on the passing downs, if he has the ability to scramble, you have to account for that, and what I've noticed, and it's really -- I think you had one start last year and obviously these two this year and -- he's a very good runner. But it's not where he just tucks it to run right away. We're going to have to hold coverage when he does start to move out of the pocket and be ready once he crosses the line of scrimmage to come up and try to come down which is easier said than done. He's a 230-pound man who runs very well. Q. With that said, Turpin (ph) their punt return guy, what special problems does he spent from a speed standpoint, etc.? COACH GREG SCHIANO: It's speed, elusiveness, he's as quick as a cat. Like I said, their three wide outs all present different issues but the common denominator is they all can run and that's usually not a good thing. We've really got to be on top of our game. Q. When you take a team back to where it just won a game, like nine months ago and stuff, is that better than going on a true road test, or road trip, to that other team's stadium? That's a chance that the stands could be half and half with the Buckeye fans. What's your take on that? COACH GREG SCHIANO: I haven't given that a lot of thought. It's a good point. It's a good question. Certainly there will be a familiarity with the stadium and having played there, the locker rooms, all that stuff. So I guess any time that you're more familiar with something, it's a little bit easier, but it's really a home game for them. It's 30 minutes down the road, so I wouldn't get too excited about it. Q. Chase Young, what lesson do you want him to learn out of a game like that with the emotions? COACH GREG SCHIANO: I don't want to make too big of a deal of it to be honest. I think just you need to control yourself so you don't get a penalty. Like I said after the game, if it were a tight ballgame, a penalty or losing a player of that magnitude could really hurt us. But I love the excitement that he plays with, the passion that he plays with. Just got to kind of harness it just a little bit. Let's not -- but my thing to the defense is I want us to play with that edge. You know, I think playing great defense, part of it is having an edge. So just got to be careful we don't overdo it in tempering it. Q. How have you seen opponents block Nick so far? Are they doubling him? Are they helping? Is he getting a lot of one-on-ones? What's the first two games? COACH GREG SCHIANO: He's not getting a ton of one-on-ones. If you saw Saturday, Rutgers started their tight end out wide and motioned him down and really cracked him once pretty hard. So Nick is going to have to be aware of that. We are going to have to be aware of that because I think it will get more and more creative every week because he is such a special player. We need to do a good job of moving him around and not just leaving him in one spot because then you can target him, right. But if you put your tight end out there to bring him in and all of sudden he's not there, it gets hard to block him. So we need to help him and he needs to be a little bit more aware; his teammates need to help him. When there's someone motioning that's in a position to crack him, we have to let him know because they are doing things special for sure. Q. Just as things progress, especially on third down packages, when they are performing do they make it harder for teams to put people on Nick? COACH GREG SCHIANO: As I was saying defensively, it's all about math, the numbers. It's the same thing in protection. If you commit six to protection or you commit seven to protection, it's less people in the route; and less people in the route means that you can cover them better because there's more people that are able to get in the throwing lanes and that kind of thing. It is a trade off in everything you do on offense, as well as on defense and so if they choose to keep a double on Nick and a double on Chase, then the single on Dre'Mont. And they have to kind of pick which ones they want to double on. But a lot of that is based on concept of passing game, how fast the ball is coming out and where the ball is coming out. You always want to protect the blind side of your quarterback. All that goes into it in the protection scheme and that's what we try to attack. We try to attack the protection scheme with the players we have. Q. Just context on Nick, he looks good through two games. What's the context on how much he is affecting games as a pass rusher and how good he's splaying? COACH GREG SCHIANO: He's playing at a high level, very high level. He affects -- as on offensive coach, you're going to know where he is all the time. But as you mentioned, there's other guys out there, too, and that's the beauty of it when it comes to rushing the passer; so what we are seeing is some things in the run game to try to slow him down. When you face a player of Nick's talents, it's not just that play where you've got to protect him and what people try to do is slow him down on other plays, on run plays and make him play off this block and that block and just try to distract him. So that, I'm sure Nick will see more and more of. Q. Not here to launch a Heisman campaign, but when a guy like Nick can change a game, is it time for a defensive guy to be in that discussion? What are your thoughts on the Heisman and a defensive player? COACH GREG SCHIANO: I'd love to say, yeah, let's get a defensive player in there but I think there's been one in how many years. The reality is it's more of an offensive award because it's easier to chart. It's easier to make a big deal of touchdowns and rushing yardage and passing yardage, and I understand that. Nick is a dominant player in college football right now for sure. There's awards for that, as well. Now, usually what happens in a year, when -- well, it's happened once -- what am I saying, usually, but it would take a year where no one really had tremendous stats offensively for a defensive player to win it, but -- Q. Best player in America -- COACH GREG SCHIANO: I like him on our team, I know that. Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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