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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 16, 2013Mike VrabelQ. Mike, any concern with Washington? COACH VRABEL: No, I don't think so. I think we trust our training staff. We trust our doctors and we are just going to put him out there and see when he can do. We are not going to push him, but when he is ready to play we'll have him back in there. Q. What is the line that you have to walk with being tough guys and not rushing themselves back? COACH VRABEL: I think it's a combination of the player, the injury.  There's a lot of things that go involved, and when you can play and when you can't play and when you shouldn't play. Every time we go out, whether it's practice or the games, we have to understand what we can do and what we can't. I think that we have to be careful, you know, with guys‑‑ you talk about groins and going out there and practicing a little too soon, or whatever we may have as injuries as players, I think that you have to be careful and make sure that you worry about what you can't do as opposed to what you can't do. I think as a player, you get caught up in, I can't do this, I can't do that; but if you can worry and focus on what you can do, so I can do this, so I can do these individual drills, so I can do this team period, but concentrate on what you can do as opposed to what you can't. Q. You plugged Joey Bosa in and he had a tremendous game. Can you talk about Joey a little bit? COACH VRABEL: His development was much faster than I think a lot of people thought it would be. Certainly he's a much smarter football player as a freshman than I had ever envisioned. I think physically, we thought he could come in here and play, play at this level, play at Ohio State, play against the type of opponents that we are going to play against. But it was his mental approach and how quick he picked it up mentally that surprised me. Q. Does it make your job more difficult this week because you're not playing Wisconsin or Michigan; you're playing an FCS team and the players know it? COACH VRABEL: Everybody knows, the players know it, but our job is to go out and play 60 minutes of tough, Ohio State football. We got run around a little bit last week with the amount of plays we played, and who we played against and the offense we played against. It doesn't matter. Every week is a new opponent and new challenge. Regardless, you want to go out there, we only have guys, Michael Bennett started four football games at Ohio State. Noah Spence started three football games at Ohio State. From our standpoint, it's going to be real easy. There's a lot to fix. There's a lot to work on and that's going to continue on Saturday. Q. You had to replace four starters. How far along in that progression of the development are you? Are you happy with the growth of the line? COACH VRABEL: We are all happy. Started in the spring, we had most of those guys here in the spring. Joey was not here in the spring and Michael Hill wasn't here, but we had most of those plays that are playing for us in the spring. And it really started then focusing in on what we would need to do, have to do and treating every weekend like a game, every Saturday scrimmage like a game, wasn't a game, but that's how we approached it in our mind‑set and it's helped us. Now, I think we have gotten off to a good start. Q. You said there's a lot of work to do. What's the one or two things that you want to see next? COACH VRABEL: Well, I think technique is always important. I think you look at pass rush technique as things that we are always going to continue to work on; run game fundamentals, where our hands are, are our hands inside, are we hitting on the rise, all those little things. We talk effort, toughness, the ability to strain and also the ability to play with some technique. So those are the things we work on every day. Doesn't change. Q. Is there concern coming out of this game about the tacklingthat went on Saturday night or do you couch it with the attack you were facing with the wide stuff? COACH VRABEL: Well, everybody is going to force you to tackle in space. I think that's what happens in the National Football League. It happens in college. Teams are going to force you to tackle in space. Nobody‑‑ it's easy to tackle a guy in the B gap. But when you get players that are displaced and you get, you know, receivers that are split out, the defenders, the space between defenders gets further and further. So we all have to tackle in space. There's times where defensive ends have to tackle in space or cornerbacks or slots or safeties that we all have to tackle in space. So we talk about, you know, trying to close the gap, trying to be aggressive, trying to get other guys running the ball and a lot of times, we did that, and the times that we didn't do that and get a lot of guys running the ball, you give up yards after those missed tackles. We talk about trying to keep teams under‑‑ having less than ten missed tackles a game and if he can do that, we are probably going to win the game. But the yards after those missed tackles is kind of what kills you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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