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ALLSTATE SUGAR BOWL: OHIO STATE v ALABAMADecember 30, 2014Joey BosaNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA JOEY BOSA: I mean I knew it was going to be a short period of my life, and I'm going to have the rest of my life to do what I want, live where I want, and this is the most important years of my life to set up my future and it doesn't matter the weather, whatever, it matters what is the best fit for me and what's going to help me the most in my future. And I felt like Ohio State was that place. Q. Now not four years, 40 years, right? JOEY BOSA: Right, exactly. Q. Do you see more presence down there? Are you just the tip of the iceberg here of Ohio State getting down there? Because Urban Meyer has always said, I want to get some players from the south back into Ohio. JOEY BOSA: Coach Meyer is such a good recruiter and coach, he does whatever he needs to to get the players he wants. He just has that‑‑ he's just talented enough to go wherever he wants and get who he wants. So he'll be doing that as long as he's here. Q. Do you hear of more players down there that he's after? Has anybody reached out to you about whether they should go there or not, Ohio State? JOEY BOSA: I don't pay attention to recruiting that much. Obviously my brother and some of his buddies on the team came up here for some visits, but no, I don't really pay attention that much. Q. Got a chance to come there at Saint Augustine, right, they're at your high school. JOEY BOSA: St. Thomas Aquinas. Q. Have a chance to come in to Ohio State? JOEY BOSA: Yeah. Q. Talk about the matchup with Alabama's offensive line, what do you see from them and what kind of challenge is that going to be? JOEY BOSA: Big talented guys. Athletic. Big, big dudes. And we haven't really matched up with someone like this before, this athletic, this big, but like I said yesterday, I don't think they've seen someone‑‑ a D line as consistent as us and as physical as we're going to be. It's going to be interesting to see. Q. You guys haven't worn down really in any games. Alabama has worn down defenses. Is that pretty much where we're headed, you guys can stay at? JOEY BOSA: Hopefully we're just going to try to go at it consistently the whole game. We saw some games where D lines start off well and slowly get worn down. I haven't seen it from us once this year. I can't really give a good example of that. So I think we play very consistently and hard throughout games. A good example is the Penn State game. I mean, we were still getting after it in the second overtime. Intense, long game. So that's definitely going to be a goal of ours. Q. What are your impressions of Nick Saban and have they changed at all, looking closely at Alabama and how they do what they do? JOEY BOSA: I see in him and Coach Meyer similarly. They're great coaches. Good guys. Super intense. They know how to win. They'll do whatever it takes to win. Q. Being down here in New Orleans for a couple of days obviously there's a lot of distractions in the Bourbon Street area, how are you guys able to sort of deal with that? JOEY BOSA: We had our one night of fun. We went out the first night we had a decent curfew. Q. What was the curfew? JOEY BOSA: It was 1:00. But none of us are here for partying. We're here to play a football game. And last night we were all in watching a movie together. We weren't doing anything. Some guys went to the casino, maybe, for an hour. But we're all here to play football. We're not here to party. Q. When are you guys checking in from this point? JOEY BOSA: We were all in by 10:00last night. Q. You've had an unbelievable season. Big Ten defensive player of the year. What was the transition like from freshman year to sophomore year, because clearly you've made a giant leap? JOEY BOSA: I gotta thank Coach Johnson big time for it because he's come in and changed all of us so much, the whole "D" line, and the progress we've made it's almost unbelievable watching us play last year and watching us play this year. Just such a big jump, and I hope it keeps going. Q. You mentioned Coach Johnson, legendary coaching career at Penn State, comes over to Ohio State. What specifically has he taught you that's made you so much better? JOEY BOSA: Just the biggest thing it's not what he's really taught us about playing football, it's just how close he's brought us together and when you're not playing for yourself and you're playing for the guy next to you, you play that much harder and you play that much better. Q. So a lot of the off‑the‑field chemistry? JOEY BOSA: Definitely. We're closer than we've ever been before. Q. Coach Meyer said that, said this is the closest team he's had since the 2006 Florida Gators, that ironically won the National Championship against Ohio State. Can you sense that as an entire team how close you guys are? JOEY BOSA: Yeah, not just even the D line. We are super close in that room. But it's the whole team, especially the defense. I mean, I don't see it as much of‑‑ I don't get to experience it as much as my offense. But I mean all of us are so close and we're all in it together. Q. Last year, a lot of fresh faces were on that defensive line and Shazier and Roby and the back seven were seen as the strength of the defense. Do you feel like the front this year is the strength of that entire side of the ball? JOEY BOSA: I think the whole defense is really the strength. And obviously we try to take over the game up front. That's our goal every game. But I think we've played very consistently as a defense at least in the last few games and we just try to be consistent all over from the front seven to the back four. Q. You were saying a moment ago to some other media members that you feel like there are a lot of similarities between Urban Meyer and Nick Saban, why? JOEY BOSA: Just because they know how to win. They're good guys, they're intense guys, they're just great coaches. And you just, you see the similarities in their programs obviously because they win and they win national championships. Q. What impresses you the most about their offense, speed, size, strength, what is it? JOEY BOSA: It's Alabama, it's pretty much all those. It's kind of like looking at our own offense how many there's so many different weapons to attack you with, and they're just big, athletic dudes, and it's going to be tough, but I'm excited for the challenge. Q. What's the mentality coming in here this week and how you focus to really capture this moment for you and your teammates? JOEY BOSA: We just try to keep the same mentality, just prepare hard, practice hard, keep focused and don't blow all your energy before the game, just take it one day at a time and we've had some great weeks of practice and we're going to be ready. Q. As you look at this offense for Alabama, what do you think stands out to you on film? JOEY BOSA: They just have weapons everywhere with their quarterback, their running backs and their big O line and obviously Amari Cooper, we're going to have to look at all them and figure out a way to shut them down. Q. Talked to T.J. Yeldon, he said it's important for them to keep their running game going early. I would imagine likewise you would want to stop it early? JOEY BOSA: Always, to win a big game you always got to stop the running game. And we will obviously think about Amari, too. Q. How much advice do you get from your dad, played in big games and big stages before? JOEY BOSA: He kind of lets the coaches do the coaching and tries to help me more off the field. Q. So soaking up this experience right now? JOEY BOSA: Yeah, it's been more relaxed than anything just hanging out with my guys. Q. Relaxing? Have you gone out and had a little bit of fun at all? JOEY BOSA: We had our one night but we're all here to focus on the game and we're pretty over partying. Q. This experience, being part of this first inaugural playoff, did you ever picture yourself‑‑ I know grown up as a kid and now playing for Ohio State, there was a chance that you might go to Alabama, but you're here and you're getting ready to face the team that you almost went to. What's that like in your mind? JOEY BOSA: You really never see something like that coming. It's just such an awesome experience, and I'm so blessed to get a chance to play in a game like this. Q. What are some of the biggest challenges you see in facing a team like Alabama? JOEY BOSA: It's just Alabama. Just saying that they're just, they have weapons all over the place and they're big, physical guys and they've been on top of college football for a long time now and it's exciting to get a shot against them. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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