TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE v MIAMI

December 29, 2002

Chris Gamble

Kenney Peterson

Matt Wilhelm

KENNY PETERSON: He's a great player obviously. He's got great guys running who can help him. He wouldn't have gotten the recognition he did if he wasn't such a great player.

KENNY PETERSON: Yeah, I've played against some players who have done some extraordinary things against me, but I just can't let it affect me.

KENNY PETERSON: No, ain't nobody ever pinched my butt on the field. That ain't normal for me. I don't know about guys who do.

CHRIS GAMBLE: He's a good receiver. I want to go out there and play every play. I want to have fun and go out there and play.

CHRIS GAMBLE: He's fast and physical. I have been watching film and taking notes on him. I'm ready to play against him.

MATT WILHELM: Sure, I think what you saw in the second half is what you've seen throughout the year this season as a carryover effect to handle any adversity necessary; to come back and make it a game and have the game be determined on a last second touchdown or interception. I think we've carried that over even more into the winter and spring workouts. Both physically and on the field, it's the seniors who have been leaders all along, and along with the leadership of Coach Tressel. The things he does sometimes are abstract, but to us it's what's necessary to get us to the point right now.

MATT WILHELM: I mean, he's a big physical running back who has outstanding vision. His vision I think is the one thing that jumps out on the field. The speed that he's able to take around the corner, break a tackle and take a play for 80 yards and run away from defenses.

KENNY PETERSON: Just like Matt said, it's his vision is extraordinary, and, you know, his size, his speed is deadly, you know what I mean, he's a physical runner. If he doesn't see something on the front side, he'll reverse the whole field and make a big play.

CHRIS GAMBLE: He's a good physical running back. He's got good vision. We're going to go out there and try to contain him and keep him under 100 yards.

CHRIS GAMBLE: He's like two years older than me I think, so, no.

KENNY PETERSON: Our defense has done a great job containing a lot of running backs. I mean, we have a great challenge in McGahee, and we know we've got to go out there and play our guys and let it be said and done after the game.

KENNY PETERSON: It helps us a lot. He's a physical runner. We've got other guys that can step up and give us a great look of McGahee; Troy Smith played tailback; guys who have speed and get on the edge and make something happen.

MATT WILHELM: He's got a very large challenge. I think the key factor is Dorsey has full confidence in him to make the catch. The pass might not always be there, but he's able to redirect and make a big play. Chris has a heck of a challenge ahead of him. It's going to be a battle of athleticism, speed jumping ability. They're going to be intangibles of us coming away with a victory.

MATT WILHELM: It's tough. We're comparing them with Penn State. A great quarterback who's patient and efficient. For us as a defense we're focussing on containing Willis McGahee on the get -go. They play action so much. To stop that early is going to be key for us to have success on defense.

MATT WILHELM: I think the key to that is it's all in the past. We're a different team. I think we've shown that every week throughout the season to overcome adversity. We're really not going to have to overcome. You know, it's in the past. We're looking toward the future and looking toward this game and every day in preparation to get ready for this game.

KENNY PETERSON: Exactly what Matt said; it's in the past. Guys aren't dwelling on what happened in the past. We're in a great situation right now and we just got to go out there and play ball and do what we do.

MATT WILHELM: It's exciting for me. All season it's kind of a dream come true, struggling through a junior season, coming back hard, earning my position back; winning some ball games and having some true tests throughout the middle of the season and overcoming those. To win the big games, the home game against Michigan, to top off your career in the

Ohio stadium and have an opportunity to play in this bowl is something you dream about.

KENNY PETERSON: Definitely we have been through the ups and downs. Coming from a tough, you know, season before, you know, as seniors, we said that we wanted to be in a national championship, and we did a great job of setting goals and working hard and each practice getting better and better and each game trying to improve a lot. Now we're in the big game. This is what you dream about.

MATT WILHELM: It's not affecting us. We're preparing for this game as we have all throughout the season. That's for the gamblers; it's not for us. We're going to go out 0-0. We don't feel we're going to go out up 13 points. We're going to prepare for this game to win and to deserve the title of National Champions.

KENNY PETERSON: We don't ^worry ^ wore about what the critics say or whatever say about our 13-point deficit. That's for people in Vegas, and we got to go out there and practice. We're not practicing to overcome a 13-point deficit, but we're going to go out and play ball.

CHRIS GAMBLE: It's like a 0-0 ballgame. We're going to go out there and play hard and come up with the win.

MATT WILHELM: I think it's great. The type of season we had will always be remembered. We were the first team to win 13 games in Ohio State history. To top it off, to play in the national championship and have an opportunity to win the national championship against a great team like Miami, I think will be remembered for a very long time.

KENNY PETERSON: I think we're going to leave something great as far as leadership and the young guys see how it's supposed to be done and they can take that into next season or seasons to come and know what it takes to get it done and how it's supposed to be done.

MATT WILHELM: Sure, I'll play that role. I've done it throughout my career. It's great. He's a leader. He's a senior. He's going to step up and speak his mind, and, like I said, I'll do it on behalf of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

MATT WILHELM: No, they're confident with me as a mature adult to do what's right and necessary.

CHRIS GAMBLE: I can handle it. At the Penn State game, I was doing half offense and half defense. I can handle it. I just want to help the team and go out there to keep doing what I have been doing.

CHRIS GAMBLE: I just want to play both ways and help the team. The coach has seen what I can do and luckily they put me in and I made big plays. I want to keep doing that.

CHRIS GAMBLE: I'm ready to play right now. It's been a long layoff for me. I'm ready to play.

KENNY PETERSON: The layoff to me, it obviously helped to let some of our players get healthy and it helped us get our legs back up under each other. I mean, I've really got no comment on that.

KENNY PETERSON: You always want to watch the big game and obviously Miami was the big game. We knew we had a chance to play them. We focused in on them a little bit. They were not the only team we focused on, but we did that a lot over the break and on the time we were off. Now Miami is here and we've got to get ready to play.

MATT WILHELM: I think it's good. Again it goes back to the type of camaraderie. Being out in the middle of nowhere, we have to go and do everything together. It helps us focus more so on the game, and there is not a lot of distractions.

KENNY PETERSON: Just like Matt said, no matter where you go or look, there are your teammates. That's doing a great job for us. And us being out in the boonies, that's great for us. Guys can actually sit down and focus on the game and don't forget why we're out here. Of course, you want to go out and have a good time, but this is a business trip.

CHRIS GAMBLE: I'm glad they have us out there in nowhere. We can stay focus and be out there and practice as a team, and, you know, just go out and get ready for the game.

CHRIS GAMBLE: It's like a Friday night high school game under the lights. I just want to go out there and play Andre Johnson very well and play hard.

KENNY PETERSON: Of course. You don't want to go into a fight saying I'm going to lose. Of course you've got confidence going into any game, no matter playing Play Station or football. I'm confident in our offense and defense. We are putting together a pretty good scheme. We've got to go out and see what happens on Friday.

KENNY PETERSON: Each team they played, had great athletes. We have tremendous athletes too. Holy smokes, I'm ^sorry ^ sore.

KENNY PETERSON: We play well as a team. We overcame a lot of adversity. We had great leadership with the seniors and the coach. You put all those together and you've got a pretty dangerous group of guys.

KENNY PETERSON: He's very quick. After he catches the ball, he tries to make something happen. I mean, on him I'll go against him and try to get used to the quicks.

MATT WILHELM: No, we've seen a wide open offense throughout the season. Especially early. So, athletically, they match up very well with what we've seen earlier in the year. We're not going to be surprised to see wide open offense.

MATT WILHELM: The question she just asked.

KENNY PETERSON: Right. That was the weirdest thing.

MATT WILHELM: Do we feel confident we're going to win? I don't think if any of us were not confident, we would have never gotten on a plane to come to Tempe.

KENNY PETERSON: You should ask Matt that question; not me. Matt will tell you how it is.