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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 2, 2013Stan DraytonQ. He referred a couple of times to giving Ezekiel touches, when you look at the running back depth that you have, how tough is it for guys to get in there? COACH DRAYTON: Well, you know, it's tough because you don't have control of the actual events that take place during the course of the game. You know, if I can sit there and have a crystal ball and say I'm going to have this exact amount of plays and that I can sit there and say, okay, well, these guys are going to get that number of plays within that set number, but it doesn't work that way. I'm always a firm believer if a running back gets the hot foot and gets in the rhythm during the course of the game, then it does that back an injustice for me to take him out at that time when he's got a rhythm going. So we had a little bit of those two scenarios going on this past weekend. Jordan got into a nice real rhythm. The game slowed down for him. He ripped off a couple of explosive runs and I felt real comfortable with him during the course of the game. Was not the initial game plan for me going in with those backs. I really had the thought process of getting those guys in early on. But I've got to give credit to Buffalo. Buffalo presented some things to us that got us a little off‑rhythm at times and I had a veteran in there that I felt good about. Q. Bri'onte Dunn, we heard all week about second, third guy in, and I don't think he played a snap at all. Was it a performance issue? Discipline issue? COACH DRAYTON: Again, it was just the flow of the game, I did not get him in there. You know, he's a young man who works his butt off every single day. Those are the tough decisions that I have to make as a positional coach at times, and it doesn't feel good. You know, when you sit there on a daily basis and you watch a kid like Bri'onte work his tail off. We have a thing around here, that all of our players are held to the standard of, if you find your way on special teams, then you can find your way on the offense or on the defensive side of the ball, and Bri'onte needs to continue to compete with his teammates to find a little bit more of a role on special teams so that he gets an opportunity to play on offense, it's justified. Q. Jordan Hall obviously had a big game, such a tough year for him last year. What kind of changes have you seen in him, as a player, as a person, this year? COACH DRAYTON: Well, he's made an unbelievable change as a person. He's grown tremendously. All the adversities that he had to face with the injuries and some of the things that he quite honestly put on himself with the consequences that he had to face, he's really grown and embraced all those things and now it's transferring into his football play. He's a mature individual on the football field, very smart. You know, he can sit there and come out of a series of the game and sit down on the bench and tell you exactly what goes on. And again, that's a very comfortable thing for a positional coach that's out there who doesn't quite have the vision that the players have while they are out there playing and come back to the sideline and provide the information that he does, really helps us to keep the flow of our game day adjustments going and puts us in good position to have success. So, you know, that by itself is a tremendous quality to have in an individual during the course of the game. Q. He was originally going to be the hybrid and now he's the tailback; how do you see his role evolving, especially with Smith coming back and Carlos Hyde coming back? COACH DRAYTON: The beauty of Jordan, again, like I said, his strength is his intelligence on the football field and he has been cross‑trained and he is continually being cross‑trained at both of those positions. So with the addition of Rod Smith coming back, it doesn't necessarily mean that Jordan Hall's role gets lesser. No, it just may be distributed a little bit differently throughout the scheme. We'll see as we get a better feel for San Diego State and what they present to us, and we will define those roles real soon here. Q. What do you want to see, Coach Meyer was talking about Rod Smith, if he has a good week of practice, whatever, he could be in the mix. What do you want to see from him in this week of practice? COACH DRAYTON: Well, Rod Smith is an energy provider and like anything else, Rod Smith has to show his value on special teams rather early this week in practice. But Rod Smith, he brings the power component. He's a guy who plays on contact. He plays through contact. You know, he gives you a nice match‑up against bigger backers coming through the line of scrimmage and sometimes those backs are forced to block on their defensive ends, and he's a big body type, as well. You know, really, all phases. Rod is a commodity to this football team and having him back is definitely a plus for us. Q. And then Saturday, like with Bri'onte Dunn not getting to play and stuff, but with Dontre Wilson, y'all wanted to see some things from him and Ezekiel, was that part of the mix going in? Talk about how you played that I guess. COACH DRAYTON: Well, we went into the game, you know, with the mind‑set if we can get these freshmen in the ballgame, you know, in the shoe, in front of 107,000 fans, we really wanted to see how they respond to that. You never know what you're going to get from a true freshman in that environment. So, yeah, we definitely wanted to see if they were going to be an individual that gets in there and just kind of goes with the flow and gets in the rhythm, attacks the game or if it's going to be an individual who flinches because of the threat of the atmosphere. But no, both of those two kids passed the test. Got to find a way to get them more involved. But we are extremely excited about the God‑given talent that they present to this offense, there's no doubt about that. Q. Is there such a thing as telling Dontre Wilson slowdown? COACH DRAYTON: I've never seen him slow down. No, everything is a hundred miles an hour. Q. When he dropped the ball, he seemed a little frantic, excited maybe is the word. COACH DRAYTON: Yeah, that's the word. That kid is not afraid of anything. He is not fazed by much at all. It's a matter of him getting in the rhythm of things, and, you know, I'll be disappointed if he's not better this week than he was last week, and I think that will continue to progress throughout the whole entire year for that young man. Q. Warren Ball was the first running back in the game, I know he only got two carries, what does that say that he was the top backup in there? COACH DRAYTON: These guys get what they deserve, and he obviously made me feel comfortable during the course of last week's practice for me to put him in the ballgame. He's a young man who is very conscientious and does a lot right. Hey, you know, he's a freshman out there, too, last week. It was his first time getting the chance to play, so I didn't know what to expect there, either. But very, very pleased with the way he responded out there and the way he played and his aggressiveness with the ball, without the ball. He really proved to me that he can be trustworthy out there in a game situation. Q. With Bri'onte, he came in such a talented recruit, do you have to keep his head up when he's not getting carries‑‑ COACH DRAYTON: That group is very, very competitive, no doubt about it. So the answer is yes, you have to keep them encouraged. You have to keep them on the grind. They have to just put their head down and just grind and earn what it is they want, and that is a message that is delivered to them from the moment they walk through this door. I mean, this is Ohio State, and we pride ourselves on loading up our positional groups with the best talent in the country. I think he understands that. So as long as he continues to work and keep on pushing forward, I think Bri'onte did you know will be more than fine here at Ohio State. Q. Urban said after the game Saturday, 40 points, almost a little disappointing; how many points should this team score? COACH DRAYTON: Well, you know, I don't know if it's a matter of points. I think it is with Urban, but I think it was more a matter of how we played at times. We weren't very consistent at times. You know, just some fundamental things reared its head, or lack thereof, for that matter. I thought we played extremely level. Our pad level was high across the board. Buffalo played underneath us. And then there was times when we kind of got off of rhythm and the response wasn't quite the way we wanted it from our football players. And if we had everything lined up and the stars were perfect, I think that, yes, we had plenty of opportunity to put more points on the board but the thing that we need to address immediately is just fundamentally where did the breakdowns take place and why. We didn't see those issues in practice; why in a game setting does it rear its head and that's the maturity of the team, and that's the leadership of the team and that's just people stepping up in those roles and making sure that that doesn't happen again. Q. Fifty? COACH DRAYTON: Fifty sounds good, as long as we are at least one or two more points more than our opponent. Q. Dealing with it this week and you'll deal with it again with Carlos Hyde a couple weeks; is there an overall staff philosophy or philosophy you have with guys coming off suspensions and getting them back in the mix? Are they just back or do they have to prove something? COACH DRAYTON: What they do is they have to come in and earn their position back. Nothing is given to these guys. Again, it starts with special teams. We have a philosophy that if you want to play your respective position, you have to provide some value to this team on special teams, and that is truly our philosophy here. So if Carlos Hyde gets reinstated, and he can add some value to our special teams, then great. Then we'll sit there and we'll take a good look at where he stands in that running back group. Q. What are your early impressions of San Diego State, and how much can you glean from their opening tape? COACH DRAYTON: Yeah, they lost a tough one this past week against Eastern Illinois, but I'm going to tell you, they bring some speed to the table defensively. I think they have a disruptive nose. They like to play similar to what Buffalo plays in their defensive scheme as far as some odd fronts, some three‑do you know fronts. They are a 3‑3 mentality football team and they just do some things from a blitz standpoint that can cause some problems if we are not up on our game. But the one thing I can see on film is that they are well coached, they get off blocks on defense, they run around and they are always around the football. So we have got to be very, very tight with our game plan so that our players can play extremely fast against all the different looks that San Diego State will present. Q. The as tech position, he can be on the defensive line and then playing at safety the next; how much does that increase the difficulty of reading what they are presenting? COACH DRAYTON: It presents a lot of, you know, complications if, again, if we are not on point with what we are telling our kids to look at. But no, he's a very disruptive football player. He's run support and like you said, sometimes he plays the center of the field. But if you are going to play the center of the field against us with the speed that we have on the perimeter, you'd better‑‑ at some point declare one or the other. We are going to take a good look at that. The one thing that I can say is that he is a smart football player. He is a very physical football player and we definitely need to be aware of where he is every player. Q. Does it look like everything is called for him or does he have carte blanche? COACH DRAYTON: You can definitely tell that the scheme is built around his talents, no doubt about it. He's playing right down the middle of that defense. So he's definitely an important piece to that scheme. Q. Who gets in at what order‑‑ do they read a lot of that as well as we do? COACH DRAYTON: I'm sure they do but the one thing I try to be with these kids is fair, and I don't want things hitting them sideways. So they know what's expected of them. They know what's expected of them in their role to this football team. So a lot of those concerns are addressed before the game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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