|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE v TEXASJanuary 5, 2009James LaurinaitisBrian RobiskieJim TresselGLENDALE, ARIZONA COACH TRESSEL: You saw a great football game out there. Two teams going at it extremely hard. Can't tell you how proud I am of the leadership of guys like James and Brian and those other seniors. We wanted so badly to send them out in a big way, and we didn't get that done on the scoreboard, but I think they know by how hard their teammates played and prepared how much we all care about them. And our hats off to Texas. They did a great job. They have a great program. Mack does a phenomenal job and they have got an outstanding football team. It was an exciting Fiesta Bowl, that's for sure. Q. Coach, can you comment how proud you are of these guys? And, secondly, gauge how -- I am sure they all heard, but this one, you guys were so close to not finish. COACH TRESSEL: Well, you know, that's the problem in tight ball games like this. Two outstanding teams, sometimes you finish it -- the game ends when you are the one ahead and sometimes the game ends when you're not. As I said at the outset, so proud of the leadership these guys had, the character they have. What they do on and off the field. Most importantly, who they are. They are first-class people and great ambassadors for college football and for Ohio State. And we are going to miss them very, very, very much. Q. For James, Texas on offense they were doing their plays pretty quickly, getting up there and snapping pretty quick. Did that throw you guys off at all? JAMES LAURINAITIS: No, we had prepared for that. We talked to other teams throughout the year. Our coaching staff knew they try to go at different paces at different times. We were used to that. There is a few teams in the Big Ten that do it as well with Illinois, Michigan. When we played Detroit, they would hurry up and do that as well. You can see on film some plays where the defense isn't even lined up and they are going "hurry up." We had our calls in and ready to play. You just have to be ready for it. Q. Jim, if you can talk about the two quarterback system, what you saw out of that and what you thought you got out of it and the 4th and 3, the spot, what did you see there with that call on Texas's last drive, the 4th and 3? COACH TRESSEL: The guy closest to the ball spotted it one place and the guy from the other side said he had a better vantage point. They reviewed it. As far as both Terrelle and Todd getting an opportunity to help this team, I think they both did the best they could to do what they could for us. And Todd is a special guy. Every one of us wanted to do all we could to make him part of the plan. And when you have a little bit more time and you are not week to week to week game planning, it is a little bit easier to do that. I thought he stepped in and did a good job. And I thought Terrelle in a big game as a true freshman did some very good things. By just like the whole focus of the Bowl experience for us was our appreciation for that senior group and they are a special bunch and we wanted to do anything we could to help them see if they could beat a great Texas team. Q. This one is for Brian. There was talk before the game about maybe the difference in speed in the two teams. Did you find that any problem at all with their defensive backs with the plays you guys were trying to run? BRIAN ROBISKIE: I don't think there was a difference in speed that was causing maybe a lot problems for us. Once in a while. I think a lot of it was them just making great plays. That's what great teams do. They get in the right position and they make plays, and I think as far as the speed and different play calls, I think we had a lot of good stuff for them. I think we did some things pretty good. But obviously a great team is going to make plays and that's what they did. Q. Coach, talk about your first half with the defense. Texas played well as far as in the offense -- or putting up about 40 points a game. Talk about the first half and how you held them to minimal points. COACH TRESSEL: Our guys have done a great job all year preparing for opponents and our defensive staff is outstanding. Our defensive players prepare extremely hard and they play hard. And the offense was doing a pretty good job of keeping the ball a little bit away from them. When we were punting, A.J. Trapasso was doing a nice job of punting it deep. There were things that were contributing, but the biggest thing is we have good defensive coaches and players and they work hard to get ready. In the second half, you know, Texas had the ball a little bit more. We didn't make a first down in the third quarter, which makes it awfully difficult for your defense. But we're awfully proud of how hard our guys prepared and how hard they played tonight. Q. Coach, Quan Cosby isn't the biggest guy or the fastest guy, but he played -- he made a big impact on this game. Can you talk about that and also about what makes him so difficult to cover? COACH TRESSEL: He has got a lot of strength and he is low to the ground. When he catches the ball, I think he does a real nice job yards after catch. I don't know how much he weighs, but he is a physical guy out there. Really has good body control. He and Colt are on the same page as to where to put the ball so that maybe you could run with it a little bit after he throws it. He is just an outstanding guy. What did he have? 70-some catches or something. He is a special receiver. Q. This question is for James and Brian. How would you guys describe your careers at Ohio State in a few sentences? JAMES LAURINAITIS: I think it has been an amazing career for all of us. We have done a lot of special things. Obviously it is not the way you want to go out. But, regardless, I think this class has done a lot of, like I said, special things, being a part of two outranked Big Ten championships, four BCS games, two Colgate Penn championships. We have done some good things, and obviously we wish we would have had this one tonight. BRIAN ROBISKIE: I think it is hard to reflect on an entire career after a game like this. Obviously this is something that we have been talking about for a month for our seniors and for our team and our coaches and our community. This was really big for us. I think if you look back, I mean, obviously this class did a lot of things that nobody else did. Like James said, beating Michigan and going to whatever it was, four, five, straight BCS games, whatever it was, this class did a lot of great things. Obviously we didn't get it done tonight. We didn't achieve kind of what we had set out to, but looking back, we did some good things. Q. James, if you can talk about the defensive game plan tonight, how well you felt you executed in general but also the final drive, particularly the final touchdown pass. JAMES LAURINAITIS: I thought we had a great game plan going in. I thought we executed very well. We did a great job the first half. Obviously you come out of the locker room, we really struggled at it all year. But you got to stop a team. The first drive out of the locker room they were able to go down and score. But you wish the defense to be put in that situation at the end of the game with a chance to win it and we didn't make the plays. They made the plays. That's all there is to it. There is no perfect call for anything. We had a chance to make a tackle. We have a chance to get to the quarterback or do this and that. We got to do it. Q. James, your connection with Colt goes back to '06. The award shows, the breakfast this week, for what he did against your defense, do you even have more appreciation for him? JAMES LAURINAITIS: You can have a great appreciation and just prepare for them all month really. He's a phenomenal player and a great leader for their team and the way he leads with his faith and with his passion for his beliefs, he is a great leader for Texas' program. I can't say enough good things about Colt, the kid he is. And I have a lot of respect for him. COACH TRESSEL: Thanks so much to all the great people at Fiesta Bowl and the folks here in the area. They have been wonderful to us for the last seven or eight days and just proud to have played in their game. Thanks. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|