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PLAYSTATION FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE VS CLEMSON

December 28, 2016

Jeff Scott

Glendale, Arizona

Q. I'm wondering, you guys do an awesome job on social media, creating videos and all that kind of stuff, industry leader. You're talking to these kids, communicating with these kids and sending the videos and products whatever. How effective is that in sort of the battle of the hearts and minds of 16-, 17-year-olds? How on the ground do you think that being effective?
JEFF SCOTT: I think it's very effective. And I give Coach Swinney and our AD, Dan Radakovich, they were both pushing for that several years ago whenever it was just getting started. But the biggest thing in recruiting, it's all about relationships and it's all about communicating.

And maybe 10, 15 years ago, the way you communicated was maybe one phone call a week and handwritten letter. And now everybody walks around with that cell phone in their hands. 18 hours a day. And it's just a great way to get those guys an opportunity to learn more about your program, your brand, the culture, the environment.

Just like this week, we've been sending them a lot of things from this experience, just the view from our practice field, it was incredible. So we sent that picture to a few guys yesterday. But I think you can get instant feedback with those guys and they enjoy. I mean, all those guys are top players. They have dreams of reaching this level and playing in the College Football Playoff, and they want to know what that looks like. So to be able to kind of get that through coaches and players, I think, is very valuable.

Q. Is the phone call dead?
JEFF SCOTT: No, I think it's still an important part of it, important piece. But now because you can text with the guys, I mean, I very rarely have to make the phone call. Usually I can text the guy and say how about give me a call at your convenience. But I do think that the verbal communication still is very important. But it's definitely not the frequency. I mean daily, hourly, that you're texting, communicating with these guys, really, year-round.

Q. What's your assessment of this defense? When you look at these guys, where do they compare to maybe some of the other programs that you faced this season?
JEFF SCOTT: I mean obviously you can look at where they ranked nationally. I believe No. 4 in total defense. No. 3 in scoring defense. So that right there tells you they're right up there in the top three or four in the country and then you turn on the video and the video backs it up.

Very sound. They've got a great scheme. They don't give up any easy plays. You have to earn every yard that you get. That's the biggest thing watching video with the wide receivers is there's not a lot of wide open wide receivers just running around.

Every single catch is a contested catch where they've got a guy in position ready to knock the ball out and the wide receiver just happened to make the catch that time.

But that's open versus this type of defense. And I think they've got great talent in all three areas, up front, defensive line. Very talented. They do a great job getting in the backfield. And the linebackers, talented guys, are very smart. Raekwon McMillan is probably one of the best linebackers in college football.

Just very instinctive. You can tell he reads the play very quickly. You can tell he's probably a guy that studies a lot of video and he knows where the ball's going. He's a guy as a quarterback -- and coaches you've got to always know where he is because he causes problems.

In the secondary, I think they're very long and athletic. They create some matchup issues for you on the perimeter. And it will definitely be a great challenge and one our guys are looking forward to.

Q. Urban Meyer called your defense multiple. Is the Ohio State defense multiple?
JEFF SCOTT: I think what I would say that they do the best job of is they disguise their looks probably as well as anybody that we've ever played, where pre-snap it looks the same. But on the snap they're changing into something else.

And I think when you have that, it really puts a lot of pressure on your quarterback to be able to make those decisions quickly. And also the wide receivers have to be tied in. Because at the beginning of the snap the coverage looks the same just about on every play, but whenever the ball is snapped, there's about four or five different coverages that they can get to right as the ball's snapped.

Now you're talking about quarterback and receiver being on the same page, to be able to execute and it's very difficult to do. That's one reason, along with their athleticism, that I think they've had the success that they've had.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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