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TOSTITOS BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: OHIO STATE v FLORIDAJanuary 7, 2007Jim TresselPHOENIX, ARIZONA COACH TRESSEL: Good morning. I'm not exactly sure what is left to say other than we've had terrific treatment as always. The Fiesta Bowl committee and all of the folks that we've had a chance to interact with have been extraordinary. I have often said that memories that our young people and our coaches and our fans will have forever, and I think it is because of the relationships with the people here and how much the people here care about putting on the best possible event that they can. Our kids have done a good job of preparing. You hope that you have done the right doses of the right things and are prepared, but ultimately it comes down to how well you do things on Monday night. I think our guys are very anxious to tee it up. Q. Jim, health-wise, how are you health-wise? You have a couple guys dinged up a little bit. Will they both be able to play or if there are other guys that are hurt, can you fill us in on that? COACH TRESSEL: At this point in time the one we have been talking about the most is Antonio Smith and I think he will be fine. The other I am not sure will make it is a special teams guy, John Kerr. Outside of that, I think we will be in good shape. Q. Jim, why do you think other quarterbacks seem to receive more attention as far as NFL prospects than Troy Smith? With all the accolades that Troy got, you think he would be number one on that board, too? COACH TRESSEL: I haven't really seen that board. I think a lot of those decisions are yet to be made. Right now the collegiate season has got a couple more days and then those that are going to be battling for draft status have some things to take care of, various All-Star games and Combines and individual interviews and workouts. That's a whole season unto itself. I don't know. I haven't seen any boards, but I have been busy. I'm sure Troy will do fine. Q. Jim, it seems like that teams have treated this game less like a Bowl game and more like a Super Bowl type of event, less extracurricular activities, for want of a better word. Is that the way you wanted this to feel? COACH TRESSEL: I didn't see a significant difference in activities. I know they went to their steakhouses and barbecues and they ate like it was a Bowl game, I will tell you that. I'm not sure what we didn't do that we typically have done. We had our media day and had our practices. So it has felt to me, anyway, to be just like Bowl games, whether they were here or elsewhere. Q. Jim, what will you tell your seniors before this game and a game with this magnitude, not only their last game? COACH TRESSEL: Well, you know, it is a special game for everyone. I think it is an even more special game for those that are playing for their school the last time and we have got a good number of guys who have done a great job over the years. Florida has a group of guys that have done a tremendous job over the years. And so I'm sure it will be special for both groups. What you say to them, you know, hopefully what you have been saying to them all along, is that you have appreciated what they have done for, in our case Ohio State, and that we know they are going to enjoy their last opportunity to put on the silks and of course they have got plans for the future. Q. Jim, when you were out here getting ready for the national championship game four years ago you had some issues to deal with Maurice Clarett and some things going on over the field. How much easier has it been this time around not having things like that and do you appreciate having a team that those are things you don't have to deal with? COACH TRESSEL: Of course, you would always like things to go perfectly. There weren't more media sessions or less activities. They have got you pretty pigeoned in. What you are talking about when you are at various things, you love talking about questions like that of those seniors playing their last game and have done so much for the various schools and so forth as opposed to talking about things that are outside of the way you would want them. Again, you kind of are plugged into a schedule and you invest the time accordingly, and you hope that the time is fun in each situation. It is more fun to talk about seniors. Q. Coach, both you and Urban Meyer have experienced quick success with your respective teams. Do you notice any similarities between you and Coach Meyer that has brought about that success in your coaching? COACH TRESSEL: We are both at great places. We both have excellent coaching staffs, the ability to attract good players, and I'm sure we have both had good fortune. I haven't been in his shoes every day, and I know in my shoes we've had good fortune. Hopefully we have both contributed something to the success. I'm sure there are some things I would do differently over the course of time. But you are as good as the people that surround you and the place you are. And we are both at great places. Q. When people talk about the Cleveland contingent on your team, it is usually about the players. But as a guy who grew up in that area, do you have a sense of how the Buckeyes are followed there, giving the city a little bit of an uplift, something to smile about in sports or anything along those lines? COACH TRESSEL: Cleveland is a place that loves their sports. They have been a historic, professional franchise there. The pro football Hall of Fame is 60 miles down the road or less. They love sports. It is part of the culture there. When the Cavs are going, they are going crazy. When the Indians have a chance, they are going crazy. When some of their own playing for the Buckeyes, they get excited about that. And so any time you can bring joy to people who follow things and those things happen to be important to them, you feel good, especially in my case when you have grown up there. Q. Jim, I am wondering how important timing is to the passing game and whether the 50 days, 51 days, can you expect maybe some adjustment early as the guys get their timing down in the passing game? COACH TRESSEL: I think the timing of catching isn't as important as the timing of what are those guys doing that are chasing you and trying to knock you down before you throw it or catch it. We haven't done live. We haven't sacked our quarterback for 50 days. We haven't splattered our receivers as they catch the balls for 50 days. How well we protect will have more to do with our timing and the 51 days, quite honestly. You know, again, there may be getting used to adjustment for both teams that haven't played in a while. I don't think that's a huge issue. Q. Coach, it is probably day eight or day nine for you here. How do you stay fresh and wind up instead of winding down? COACH TRESSEL: This is a pretty easy place to stay fresh. The way you are treated, just everything has been extraordinary. The weather, we had one day and everyone that is from here is walking around with winter coats and our guys are in shorts and they thought they had a major rainstorm and it rained for, like, four minutes. It is pretty easy to stay fresh here. Especially with the treatment you get. Every day is fun for the kids. And they know what's most important and most fun and that's the game. So that keeps you fresh on its own. Q. When you look at which freshmen are going to enroll early, how do you determine that, which ones should and which ones would be a good fit? COACH TRESSEL: You start off with the ones that are interested in doing it and see if they academically can graduate and take care of things and handle admissions and so forth in midterm. In our particular case, we have two opportunities. We started school as many of you know, this past Wednesday, January 3rd. And so if a guy could graduate in December, could he start then. We didn't really have anyone do that this particular year. We have over the course of time. Or you can start spring quarter, at the end of March in our case. We have had a handful each year. I am sure we are going to have a couple start this spring quarter, but they have to be, first, academically able to handle it. Q. Kirk Barton said if they picked an all-time Ohio State team, just players, that Troy Smith would be the captain of that team because of his leadership abilities. Is he the greatest leader you have had as a player and what makes guys want to follow him? COACH TRESSEL: Well, I think you have to produce before anyone will follow you. So it starts with his production. And then I just think you have to have an aura about you that you back up what you say. You train like you ask others to train. You are as committed to the task at hand as anyone. But I think there is something special about those guys that can step up and lead and there is no question about it. Troy is an outstanding leader. I think he will have that ability to be a leader at the next level and I think that's one of those intangibles that they wouldn't be able to measure at the Combine or at the Senior Bowl or any of that stuff. I was listening to Donnie Nickey and Rob Reynolds talk about Vince Young at Tennessee when they were home for an open date. And they talked about there is something special about that guy, I don't know what it is. We haven't been completing passes that high of a percentage and so forth and so on, but you just have a way of believing in him. And I think Troy has some of those same qualities and I happen to agree with Kirk that he is one of the finest leaders ever. Q. Coach, you have been number one since the preseason. Has there been a point after a certain point in the season or after a certain game that you said to yourself, hey, we are pretty good, we could make the national championship? COACH TRESSEL: You know, the only time we thought for sure that we were going to be in the national championship is when that game ended on November 18th because we knew going in you have to win them all. That's the way we enter each year. And I hope there was never a point where we were saying hey, we are pretty good, we are going to be in the national championship game, because when you play in a conference like ours, anybody can beat you. And most especially in the Ohio State-Michigan game, anything can happen. I guess we didn't rest easy, if you will, until the game was over. Q. Jim, both you and Coach Meyer have talked a lot about preparedness. Last 36 hours now, is it time to sort of put preparing aside and relax a little bit and get focused? COACH TRESSEL: Yeah. I think every phase of it is a different sort of preparation. Right after our season, the part of the preparation was to get some rest and take care of academics. Then there was a part of the preparation that was fundamentals. Then there was a part that was game plan. Then there was a part to take some more rest. And then there was a part to travel and get back at it and refine that game plan. Certainly, these last 36 hours are different than many of the hours leading up to it. But for every moment, there's there are certain things you have to get done. Q. Craig Krenzel had not bench of a runner in his career, but in 2003 Fiesta Bowl he ran a lot. Troy has not run a lot but diminished some as he wound down. Do you anticipate Troy will be used as a runner more this game than he has throughout the season? COACH TRESSEL: I would not anticipate Troy being the leading rusher in the game, you know, like Craig was. That's still one of the great trivia questions, is who was the leading rusher in that particular game, and it was Craig Krenzel. There are some other guy that is could run an it pretty good. I wasn't anticipating that in Troy's case. Q. Jim, you have had a month to prepare for Florida. Do you feel like you have a grip on this matchup, meaning what you are facing? In a game like this, does it take a quarter to figure each other out? COACH TRESSEL: I think we have as good a grip as we can to this moment. But I think you have to get on the field and actually get in the ring before you know exactly what's going on. Our guys have had that situation before and I think they will be able to handle the ups and downs that will occur for sure in the course of the game. Will it take a quarter, will it take two quarters, I don't know how long it will take. Our guys will have a handle on what they're up against not until they are up against it. Q. Coach, in 2002, some people called you the "luckeyes" because of the way you were able to get by in some of your games -- COACH TRESSEL: Were you one of those guys? Q. Not a bit. How much, as you put it, good fortune does it take in getting this far and do you see some parallels in the way Florida has managed to get through in its close games? COACH TRESSEL: I think we have both had good fortune in 2006. I think that is a part -- I think you can go back to any team that's had an outstanding season, whether they are champions of the country or just their conference or whatever. And you would find the ball bounce right a couple times. Maybe us throw a ball and it could have been picked and it wasn't or whatever. So I think good fortune -- we would be kidding ourselves if we thought we were the reason for all good things. So now, as far as had they had an inordinate amount of good fortune, I wouldn't say so. They have earned -- you look down their schedule, watch their film throughout the course of the year, they have earned their way to be here. Q. How would you feel about a proposal that would allow athletes who help their teams get to this level, to this kind of Bowl game, get maybe a token, a significant bonus, I guess for lack of any better word, just a small amount of, I guess we call it profit sharing, not a lot but just something significant? How would you feel about that kind of proposal? COACH TRESSEL: I think that would take a lot of discussion, and that's what I think people like about the game of football, is that there are so many components that go on to the success of a team. When you are talking about anything within the collegiate athletic realm, you cannot separate it by sport. So I think it would take a lot of discussion. But I will say this, our guys have certainly enjoyed a lot of the fruits this week because they've -- we have been treated tremendously. Q. Coach, this is your eighth championship game, your first with Youngstown State in 1991. As you get ready for a game like this, talk about those experiences and how they help prepare you for a big game? COACH TRESSEL: I think any time that you are in experience with really good competition, you learn something about yourself and you learn something about what it is to compete at the highest level of wherever you are. Any time you can go up against a number of teams that are every bit as good or better than you and try to figure out a way to compete with them, I think it helps and you learn some things. As you move on, things are different. Nothing is ever the same in the way you prepare. But if you've paid attention and your coaches have, in our case if our players have paid attention over the years of going against great teams like Florida, and we have learned some good lessons, it has got to help us. Q. Coach, Chris Leak took over and had a long playing time in 2003 and in four years has seen a lot more playing time than most quarterbacks. Troy Smith has seen a lot of playing time since 2004. In looking at the film over the past season, can you talk about the emergence of Chris Leak and Urban Meyer's offense as compared to Troy Smith and his maturation process with Ohio State over the same time? COACH TRESSEL: I am a Chris Leak fan. I happen to think he is good. He has done it year after year. He has taken his team to a SEC championship and on to a chance to be the national champions. You look at his figures, they're extraordinary over the course of time. I think it is tough on a quarterback when systems change and staffs change. That's why I was impressed with Craig Krenzel in our particular case that a new world came in and he adapted so well to change. I think Chris has been first class. He has been a guy that academically stands for the right things. He is a guy that stands as a champion. I think he has grown just like Troy has grown. They have both been very serious about becoming better and better and better at their trade. It is kind of a neat thing to see those two guys having a chance to compete for the crystal ball. Q. Jim, how much talk has there been around about being wire to wire, number one, and do you sense these guys really want to do that, be the first Ohio State team to do it? COACH TRESSEL: We haven't had any discussion about it other than at the beginning of the season in preseason, Gene Smith, our athletic director happened to mention that to the team. He said, you know, one thing you always want to do in life is find ways to separate yourself from our greatness. It will take a lot of hard work and so forth, but that type of thing would separate you. We really haven't had any discussion about that ever since. Q. Coach, is there something as you prepare for tomorrow night's game that you have noticed about Florida now that -- or a particular facet of the game that they are a lot better at that you may have not noticed before the week started? COACH TRESSEL: Boy, you know, we got to watch the whole to start with, so we didn't really have any impressions to begin our study. And you don't really make preliminary discussions until you have studied the whole gamut. I'm not surprised by any of their excellence because you don't win that league, you don't position yourself where they are without doing the things they did across the board, in their special units and with their defense and with their offense and with their coaching and creativity and all the rest. So I really wasn't surprised because I got to look at the sum total before I needed to make any generalization in my mind. Q. Coach, as we have talked to the players and the coaches over the past few days, everyone keeps mentioning their conference. We all know the Big 10 and the SEC are two of the best conferences in the country. Is it just a matter of pride with you guys about our conference or do you really think there is a difference between being in the Big 10 or being in the SEC? Is that really part of all this? Or is it just a matter of, hey, we want to have the best conference? COACH TRESSEL: I think one of the fun things about Bowl games, whether they are for the national championship or they are just another Bowl game is being a part of how your conference does. I think that's another thing to get excited about. Our guys take great pride in our conference because they run into those guys all year long and they bang into them and they compete with them and so forth, and they are proud of the people they compete with. And then you get into the postseason and everyone is talking about how did your conference do? And you want to contribute to your conference doing well, and I think that's real. Q. Coach, what's your favorite part of preparing for a national championship game? Is it the game planning? Is it the motivating your players? Or can you really not think about what's your favorite part before the game is finished? What's the most fun about preparing for a national championship game? COACH TRESSEL: The thing I mentioned after the season was over is that the best part about having a chance to play on January 8th was that we were going to get an extra week with all these guys, because spending time with these guys is -- that's what it is all about. The process in my mind is the fun of it. In everything we're doing, whether we are sitting around and having fun or we are sitting behind the film projector trying to figure things out or out on the practice field running around, it is all fun. There is none of it that's not. And I don't know that I could pick anything more exciting than the other, other than the day of the game, you know, the competition. That's what you shoot for. Q. Jim, one of your defensive players this week said you handed out a card with a Confucius saying on it. I was curious what motivational device you used during the year that did or did not work and could you share the Confucius saying with us? COACH TRESSEL: Obviously that one didn't work because it wasn't Confucius (smiling). It happened to be Nelson Mandela. But anyway, so some of them work and some of them don't. Q. Jim, for your fifth-year seniors, being around that '02 championship team and now having a chance to be a major part of this year's possible championship team, how much do you think that experience is going to help those guys when the lights come on, the ball is snapped and the game gets underway? COACH TRESSEL: Maybe it will have helped them on their anticipation of how difficult the task is, although they may not even know how difficult the task was that night because they were cheering. But really once the ball snapped, you are going to have to rely on your preparation and just who you are and what you have to do and are you good enough to get the job done and I don't know if anything from five years ago can make a difference that night. Q. Coach, there are a lot of players in this game that are playing as true freshmen. Not all of them are playing significantly. To compete with lesser programs that might be able to offer more playing time, do you feel like there is a pressure in recruiting to play kids as true freshmen that might have a couple years ago taken a redshirt? COACH TRESSEL: Not really. The thing we talk about in recruiting and follow then when players get here as freshmen is we do what the team needs done. And if the team needs the services of that freshman, then that's what that team needs, because that year, that team is what's most important. If that team can get along without the services of that person and a developmental redshirt can occur, which usually happens with about half your players, then that's fine and well, too. No, I don't feel any pressure to play guys just from a recruiting standpoint. Q. Coach, the BCS, in your opinion, has it worked this season? And if not, would you like to see it changed sometime in the near future? COACH TRESSEL: I think the BCS as it has evolved from the beginning has worked. It will constantly be reviewed and there will be a lot of discussions as to what is the best thing, and it is a very complicated matter because it isn't just about one single thing. But I think the BCS has done a good job and I think it has worked this year without question. Q. Jim, what is it about the demeanor or the makeup of this team that enabled it to handle the pressure of being number one all season? Can you put a finger on what's that been? COACH TRESSEL: I think they have had good leadership from their senior class. There is a lot of those guys that have been here quite some time and a question or two ago they asked was there something that would be an advantage since those guys had been here before. I think the advantage was during the year. And they have done a nice job of keeping our guys focused on the task at hand. I think they did pay attention when they were younger, when we did things well and maybe when we didn't do things as well. To me it has been that group of seniors. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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