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BIG TEN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: OHIO STATE v WISCONSINDecember 6, 2014Gary AndersenMelvin GordonMarcus TrotterINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA OHIO STATE – 59 THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach Andersen to make an opening statement. COACH ANDERSEN: First of all, I'm proud of this team. They fought like crazy. We get an opportunity to play together one more time. Ohio State, tremendous football team. They showed that tonight. All the credit in the world goes to them for the way they played, the way they competed. They deserved to win the football game. We're going to bounce back, take care of business. I'll do a lot better job as a head football coach. I failed the kids tonight. So I'll come back, fight, and away we go. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Marcus, were you surprised at all with anything that Cardale Jones did today? MARCUS TROTTER: Not at all. We knew coming into the game he's a great quarterback. Every player that plays for Ohio State is a great athlete. They were a great team. But it was just more of us mis‑fitting runs. Kudos to Ohio State. They're a great football team. A lot of things they gained were on our mistakes, definitely, so... Q. Melvin, two games against Ohio State in the last two years. You had a tough going. What is it they brought tonight that you guys weren't expecting? MELVIN GORDON: I don't think they brought anything surprising. When it came down to it, we just wasn't playing Wisconsin football. Just one of those days. But we just got to regroup, get back together, get ready for this bowl game. Q. How do you overcome something like this to get ready for the bowl game? MELVIN GORDON: When we get the team, when we know who we're going to face, we have to put it aside and get ready for that. It hurts. It's going to stick with us for a while. We can't let Ohio State beat us two games. So mentally we just got to get over this hurdle. It's adversity. We good with that. Like I said, we got leaders on this team that will help us overcome this. We'll get together. Like I said, when we know who we're facing, we'll be ready to go. MARCUS TROTTER: I mean, exactly what Melvin said. Just in life you go through a lot of hurdles, a lot of adversity. You got to be a man and stand up to it. That's what this team is. We have a lot of men that handle adversity on and off the field. We're excited to go back in the film room, make the corrections of what we did wrong. Use this to burn a fire, to be motivated, to prove to everyone the team that we can be, because this wasn't Wisconsin football today and we're going to prove that the next game we play. Q. The physical nature of the last three weeks, did that have some carryover on what happened on the field tonight? MELVIN GORDON: I don't know. It was a big‑time game. When you're out there, you're not thinking about injuries. My body was fine. The coaches took care of me during the week. We do what we had to do. I was going through practice fine. Like I said, we just didn't play Wisconsin football today. Obviously that showed with the score and how we performed. Q. You have been in holes a couple of times the last couple of games. 17‑3 in particular. What made this game different in terms of getting out of that hole? MELVIN GORDON: We didn't make any explosive plays. We lacked that today. Usually we have some explosive plays from somewhere. We just couldn't string them together today. It's just that type of day. The plays were going their way today. All we can hope to do is hope to do better again soon. Q. Melvin, talk about the fumble in the first half. MELVIN GORDON: Yeah, we was just down. Honestly I was desperate to make a big play. Lost focus on the ball. That's how it came out. I was just trying so hard to make a play, get the team going. Like I said, just lost focus of the ball. I can't do that. That fumble's on me 100%. They score right off it. That didn't help us at all, so... That's on me. Q. Marcus, you guys as a defense haven't had a game like that in a while. What was it like there out on the field? MARCUS TROTTER: As a senior, I tried to have the defense stay calm, even though what was going on. I feel like I take full responsibility of what was going on on the field in regards to not rallying the troops together. I felt like the defense today was in some parts playing a little timid. We're a bunch of guys who are blue‑collar workers with a chip on our shoulder. Something about day, we didn't have that attitude. Me and the other guys really try to implement that today. I put that on myself. I think the biggest thing for us is just to stay calm. We always had the belief that we could come back in this game if we just kept on working hard, not get scared, keep on attacking them. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, fellows. We'll continue with questions for coach. Q. Marcus alluded to timid play a little bit defensively. Would you say this is kind of an uncharacteristic day for your defense? Were you surprised by what Jones was able to do? COACH ANDERSEN: Yeah, very uncharacteristic day for our defense. You would know that I guess. If you hadn't seen us play, you wouldn't know that. But completely uncharacteristic of our defense. I thought they played hard. Didn't see loafs, didn't see any quit. Saw an offensive line that locked us up really good at the point of attack. I saw some talented players making some plays. You know, went the right direction all the time. They played hard. Meant a lot to them. They kept fighting. Q. Coach, how do you get this team's confidence back after that? COACH ANDERSEN: They'll be fine. They'll get confidence right now. They got beat by a good team. I don't worry about this team fighting back. I don't worry about their toughness. I don't worry about their care factor. They got knocked down, took a big shot tonight. They'll be excited to go play. Like I said, no kid in that room has won a bowl game. The opportunity is there for them to do that on a big‑time stage, big‑time environment. We reacted well in the past to situations that haven't gone our way, and those that have gone our way. It will hurt. You want to get back in this game, then we better figure out what went wrong tonight. This league is getting better and better and better. We got to find a way to chase those guys that beat us tonight. If that's what we want to be, everybody's going to be there every single year now. So away we go. Q. Philosophically, how do great teams like yours sometimes just not have it on a given night? COACH ANDERSEN: I don't think it has anything to do with us not having it. I'm not going to agree with any of we didn't do this, we didn't do that. Marcus Trotter is my guy. But the word 'timid' doesn't come into my vocabulary in any way, shape or form. It was a physical game. We played with physicality. So did they. I think the key is you look back and say, What went wrong? Like I said, when it's wrong and it's bad, it's my fault, okay? So no assistant coach, no nothing else. I got to do a better job. I'll take a long, hard look at the tape on both sides of the football. We played a very talented football team. We didn't execute in key moments. There were a lot of balls in the air contested on both sides. Tremendous players on Ohio State's side came down with those balls. Again, need to do a better job of coaching them. Q. Was there a specific point in the game where you felt like it was getting away from you? COACH ANDERSEN: Oh, I don't know. No, I don't remember a specific time when I sat back and said, Hey, this game has gotten away from us. I wanted the kids to keep fighting and battling all the way through, try to stay focused. As the score got farther and farther out of reach, at that point it's out of reach. My mind doesn't work that way. I don't sit down and say I'm going to cave in, lay down, let you whip me. It's not going to happen. You might beat me. You might beat these guys. But we're not going to stop fighting. Got out of hand at some point, but got to keep on battling. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. COACH ANDERSEN: Go Badgers. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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