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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 13, 2011

Mike Brewster

Q. Coach Fickell has talked about simplifying things a lot and that seems to be a consistent message. Even the next-man-up-mantra, it's quick and punchy. And then some guys I talked to after the game said in the defensive huddle before the final stand and before the final time out, the message was, don't let them score. I mean, what I'm getting at is, do you sense with this coaching staff with Luke at the forefront that the message has been simplified a little bit and I wonder why that seems to be the approach.
MIKE BREWSTER: I think people forget to look at how many young starters we have. I mean, there's three guys on the O-line that started their first two games, receivers, I mean cornerbacks, even big Hank, it's his first time as a full-time starter so. There's guys across the board that don't have much starting experience and you need to be simple, because if it's not simple, you can't play as fast. They are rolling with the punches right now and doing a great job.
The more simple it is, the easier it is for them to grasp.

Q. Do you think as a former player in this program, realizing that the terminology and all of the surroundings can get to be a little much more a young player?
MIKE BREWSTER: Definitely. I remember going back to my young day, when you're not sure what you're doing you can't play as fast and he wants us to play fast. By making it more simple, you can play fast, sure.

Q. How tough is that for you as a senior who obviously is available to do the full offense and do whatever is called upon to be able to have an offense right now that seems to be doing not all that it's capable of. There were several times on Saturday night, guys in the box, you were running into it, as opposed to checking out and finding some passing options.
MIKE BREWSTER: Yeah, definitely. There's definitely things we are going to be adding every week, things we worked on in camp that we don't want to show yet. And I think we'll start getting into that now as we get in some of the hard games in the season. We are doing quite a bit. It was just a rough day Saturday, but we'll get back at it this week.

Q. As one of the clear leaders of this team, how frustrating is it with the suspension situation, you just can't get out from under that cloud it seems, you personally as a leader how frustrating is that?
MIKE BREWSTER: After everything we've gone through, it's got to a point now where I feel like nothing can break us. We have gone through so much, we have handled so much, we just keep getting closer, and at this point nothing can affect us.

Q. I know that Florida more or less has factions around where different areas hate other parts of the state and things like that; where you grew up, what was your thinking about Miami and its program?
MIKE BREWSTER: I was born in Kansas at this time city and moved to Orlando when I was about three or four, so I don't really have any ties to any teams in Florida. But when I was younger in middle school in ninth grade, I was like, I want to play in Miami and I had gone down to camp down there, and then the coaching thing kind of fell apart and kind of lost interest after that.
But they were a great team when I was growing up. They have always had great players, but where I'm at in Orlando, people like Florida State, people like Miami and people like Florida, it's kind of a mix.

Q. The 30 for 30, did you watch that?
MIKE BREWSTER: Oh, definitely. It kind of highlighted a great time for the Miami Hurricanes and the greatness. They were a amazing for a period of time, and I think they are getting back there now.

Q. That first series against Toledo, you talk about earlier, the speed, it seems like the first series against Toledo, plays were getting in fast, snaps coming off fast but after that the pace slowed down offensively. Is that something the rockets were doing or something you changed offensively at that point?
MIKE BREWSTER: You know, after watching the film, a lot of little things, cleaning up little things. Their safety made a bunch of big plays. Just flying down, we can't account for all those guys.
So you know, just got to give them a lot of credit. They have some coaches on that staff that have been here for years, and you know just really game planned us well. Just really glad we made it out of that one on top and just kind of have to use that adversity as a plus and getting some of those young guys on defense in that pressure situation.

Q. Spending your formative years at Florida -- when Jacory and those kids were at Miami and Northwestern and they went to Miami, the thought down there was that that was going to be another start of something pretty special at Miami. What do you remember about those Miami Northwestern teams that a lot of these kids that ended up at the U played at, and when they all went, was the feeling where you went to high school that Miami perhaps would be back on the way up with those kids all going there?
MIKE BREWSTER: I remember it was my senior year, a team in central Florida that we had lost to play them in the state championship, and I remember they had seven or eight guys I believe that maybe went there on scholarship.
You know, they were the big talk around at that time, and so I do remember some of the guys that are still there, and like Marcus Forston and Jacory, guys like that, so it is kind of neat to play against them now, especially being a senior, they were the talk of the town.

Q. With the amount of youth that there is on your offense, going into this environment, first road game, even Joe has never started on the road -- just dealing with what they are going to deal with 7:30 on Saturday?
MIKE BREWSTER: Curious to see how many Buckeye fans will be there and what the atmosphere will be like. We need to have a good week of practice. We all need to be on the same page, have our checks in, make sure the assignments are clean, kind of get out there for a series and get comfortable and get everything moving in the right direction.
I'm not worried about it. This team has handled themselves very well this off-season and even in the first couple of weeks with the stuff we have had to go through. So to be honest, I'm not worried about it. I'm more worried about having a good week of practice.

Q. How surprised were you that Braxton didn't play Saturday and when coach talks about this thing of flow, can you describe what that means, what he's getting at where the flow of the game wasn't right?
MIKE BREWSTER: As far as Braxton, there was so much going on during the game, I didn't really have a chance to pay attention to that or worry about that. And then the flow, you just couldn't really ever get in a rhythm. Getting three-and-outs on Saturday, not getting the defense much rest, it does get frustrating. But if you can use that as a positive and just move on, and just get better, really evaluate yourself on film, I think we can use that as a stride.

Q. What's your scouting report on the Miami defense?
MIKE BREWSTER: You know, still watching film. Trying to look for keys and blitzes and stuff. They are definitely fast, so Marcus will be back, he's a great interior guy. They have got some big guys inside, some fast ends. Just pretty solid all around.

Q. How do you think you've played so far in the first two games?
MIKE BREWSTER: For myself, I'm always just trying to get better. I only remember the bad plays, just trying to clean things up. I think I'm going in the right direction.

Q. And how big of a deal is this actually going to Florida, do you have friends or family that have not seen you here that might see you down there?
MIKE BREWSTER: I have some friends coming to the game, people have been contacting me and saying they are going to be down there, and I'm excited, get a chance to play in my home state, never having gotten to do that since high school.
I'm very excited to get to go home.

Q. It's been made pretty clear that everybody has a great deal of confidence in the guys you're putting on the field right now. But for you being a senior going into that type of environment, big national stage, you're to the going in with a lot of your playmakers; is that frustrating at all?
MIKE BREWSTER: I think we are used to it at this point. We'll hear back today about those three other guys. Kind of anxious to see how that goes.
But I'm not really worried about it. These young receivers have really been surprising me. They have really been stepping up and doing a great job just getting better every day. I thank Coach for recruiting those guys. I think Joe's been doing a great job not trying to force anything. People don't like it when he throw it is away but I would rather him throw it away ten times and throw one pick any day of the week.
So just keep managing the game, and we have got to clean up these fumbles and if we clean those fumbles up, we have zero turnovers for two weeks.

Q. You lead me to the next question, how do you feel like Joe is playing, because there was consternation from fans that Braxton didn't get into, how do you evaluate how he did against Toledo?
MIKE BREWSTER: I think he's been doing great. He has not thrown any interceptions in two games and when you can do that, on your first two starts, I think that's impressive. He's not trying to force anything.
I'm sure there's a couple of passes that he wishes he could have back, one he missed I note guard got pushed pack into him and just let go of it when he was trying to -- when he got hit. I think he's been doing a great job of managing the game, getting us the checks in the huddle and like I said not trying to force anything, throwing that away when he doesn't have anything.

Q. Is it to the point with you guys where on a week-to-week basis you feel like you're ready for anything, and by that, I mean, in week one, two guys were listed as starters and you find out Thursday they are not going to play and last week all three guys were supposed to be back, you find out Friday at five that they are not going to play. Is it to the point where nothing would surprise you now?
MIKE BREWSTER: Yeah, I think it's to the point where not only will nothing surprise us, but it won't affect us. We have gone through so much, and we have a great head coach that just pushes forward no matter what happens and doesn't let anything affect him. And he doesn't get nervous. He just -- he's full speed ahead at all times.

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