TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE v MIAMI

January 2, 2003

Larry Coker

COACH LARRY COKER: Good morning, this is a good time to have this, because everybody has a bagel in their mouth and they can't talk. This will be perfect. Somebody said, you know, I wish we could delay this game for a week to enjoy the festivities. Not us. We need to play. I know you're as excited about it as we are. Our players are really tired of practices as I'm sure the Buckeyes are tired of practicing also. It's time to play the game and we're glad to be on this stage. I'll open it up to you.

COACH LARRY COKER: We can't turn the football over and give Ohio State the field position. I think with their style of play and their personnel, I think field position is very key. Again, they have been able to control the clock, grind it out. They've got a great field goal kicker. I think this will be key for us. We can't turn the football over.

COACH LARRY COKER: I think they're ready to play. Our team has been very focused. I think that's one advantage we have had, that we have been able to play pretty well every week. We focus on the time when it's time. Then they're ready to play. Their preparation is good. We had much -- two days ago at our practice we looked a little tired. Yesterday we were very quick. Our players had a lot of fun at practice yesterday. It's timing out very well for us. I like what I see. Again, today will be 30, 40 minutes and go to our hotel and play the next day. I think our timing is perfect. I think our players will be ready to play when it's time.

COACH LARRY COKER: It's very good. I recruited him. I'm very close to his high school coach. His parents, terrific people. From our camp; probably not. We know what our team is and is not with and without Ken Dorsey. You know his record as well as I do. He's only fallen short one time. Everyone knows that game was my fault; not Ken's, because I called the plays that day. Whatever respect he gets he earns. I think for what he gives our offense, you just can't say enough what Ken Dorsey has done for our football team and our program.

COACH LARRY COKER: I think you can see that as an advantage. As it gets down to it, if you look at Ohio State, their advantage, their excitement, they haven't played in this game since 1968. I don't know that we have a particular advantage. Our players are not overwhelmed by the magnitude of the game. They're not overwhelmed by playing for a national championship. Hopefully that's an advantage.

COACH LARRY COKER: We're normally a pretty relaxed team. I think some people have made comments. We got on the bus to leave for the airport from Miami. I know some of the media people there talked about "your guys don't seem real fired up." That was ten days ago. I think we're normally a pretty relaxed team. I don't know if we're more relaxed a year ago than this time. I think -- I don't know if it's more this year than a year ago.

COACH LARRY COKER: When I hired Rob, Rob and I were together for six years. I knew if I was named the head coach that I would want Rob with me. When that happened, there was a lot of criticism for hiring a young coach who had never been a coordinator. Now the situation is, "well, how are we going to be able to keep this guy." That's a good problem to have. Rob is a brilliant young man, business major from the University of Miami. Played on national championship teams. I don't know if being from Toledo makes a lot of difference. Definitely he certainly wants to beat Ohio State, for sure.

COACH LARRY COKER: We can't let them make first downs. When we've gotten in trouble is when we've allowed teams to control the clock. We can't allow them to do that. If they first down us, obviously they have big play opportunities with their wide receiver and Clarett. We've got to control the line of scrimmage and we've got to not allow them to make first downs and control the clock.

COACH LARRY COKER: Willis is a lot personality wise like Barry Sanders; very quiet, unassuming-type person. I don't think he sees this as a challenge. "Well, I'm better than their back"; I don't see that at all. I think Willis just wants to play great and have a great day and see us win.

COACH LARRY COKER: Yes.

COACH LARRY COKER: We always do that. I want our players to have an opportunity to see their families. Being around these type situations and again, being around it a year ago. When you first arrived there is basically nobody there. As it get closer to the game time, we'll have a lot of former players. We love these layers, and like I told our team yesterday, they have a national championship ring. They have good jobs now. They're focus is not on Ohio State. Our focus has to be on Ohio State. We have to do that. That's the only thing we can control. As families come in, all the friends come in, the hotel gets to be really a bus station. We want to move our players away from that at least one night before the game.

COACH LARRY COKER: It's always probable. Jim didn't tell me he was there, that he was going to see us in a national championship game. I don't know if he thought it was possible at the time. It was a very generic spring practice. We did have some scrimmage time. It was an early spring practice for us. He probably got more out of that afternoon at practice. He was probably seeing our 12 game tapes that we played this year. Also I think something we try to do is we always try to -- when somebody comes in to visit, we try to gain more than we give.

COACH LARRY COKER: I can't really speak for Maurice very well. I don't know him off the field. On the field I know what I see on tape. Will is very unassuming. He's a quiet player, a great leader. When he talks, our players listen because he works so hard. I'm sure if I knew Maurice he's got the same type of work ethic. I know Willis has that.

COACH LARRY COKER: His contact with the team has been a lot. As the pro teams do, they come in and contact and time our players. Of course, when he's there and Pete Garcia and the Cleveland staff is there. Then the younger players. Then our team is a lot better than the other pro personnel people coming in. From that point the contact is there. We have several former players that play for the browns. I have had contact with several of those players. I don't contact Butch often. He's busy and I'm busy. When I do he's certainly very helpful. I don't know that I've really climbed out of the shadows of Butch Davis. I think I learned a lot from him. I've never had the privilege of playing or coaching in the national football league. That's one was reason I really relish the opportunity to come to Miami. He had been on a 1-and-15 staff at Dallas and I thought I could gain a lot of experience like being on a professional staff from Butch. There is no doubt about it. We still do a lot of things, the organization, the preparation that we did with Butch. I'm proud of that. I don't have a problem with that at all.

COACH LARRY COKER: We're still the favorite; we really won't address the underdog issue. The thing we've addressed is that it really doesn't matter in this game. When you play a one-game series, as you said, we've seen underdogs throughout sport history that have been very, very successful. I think that has very little relevance in Friday's game. I think, as we know, and the only thing we can control is how well we play. I really don't want our players to worry about losing a game or be concerned about winning a game. I want us to play as well as we can play. That's probably coaching rhetoric but I really believe that. Whatever happens happens.

COACH LARRY COKER: We really don't warn them. We don't really talk about losing. I have been asked this. We really prepare to win. We expect to win every time we play, and, you know, I think that's realistic for us. We have a chance to win every time. That's really all we focus on is winning.

COACH LARRY COKER: I would like to have an answer on that one myself. Could we take a vote. I'll tell you one thing, we lost every defensive back we had last year. As you know, defensive backs are involved a lot in the running game. If you look at Michael Doss from Ohio State, I believe in 13 games I never saw him his miss a tackle. You block everybody perfectly and you gain three yards. I think we miss a little bit of that. People are attacking us better because they've seen us for a year on our schedule. We're probably the benchmark team for some teams to play. Throughout their work in the spring, I understood some people spent in the spring practice three days working against our defense. I think all of those things have to be involved with it. There are a lot of things involved. The running backs and the guys we've played, they're good players also.

COACH LARRY COKER: I don't know that it's that much different. I think this, they're extremely well-coached. I know that's easy to say, but they are. They play very well together. I know the middle linebacker is an All-American and they have good players. They look and play extremely well together, they fit in with their secondary extremely well. They fit well together with the front. They don't allow big plays. Scheme-wise, they didn't invent football. They didn't invent defense. What they do they do extremely well.

COACH LARRY COKER: We won't do a lot differently at all. We'll have the nature of the game, and the things we're involved in. We won't take the team to a pep rally. There is some timing things, a lot of small logistical things we'll do. We'll go and have a 40-minute workout, very light workout. We'll go from there to our auxiliary hotel. We'll have meetings tonight, a highlight video. If we win, our video coordinator makes not a motivational video but has a lot of real nice shots of our players from TV angles. They probably enjoy that as much as anything. It makes a nice little motivational tool for guys. We'll get a good night's sleep, have our meetings tomorrow and go to the stadium tomorrow afternoon.

COACH LARRY COKER: I don't know that I would really tell him anything. Those are things as a coach -- one thing I did learn in the visit is he's very organized and meticulous in what he does. I don't think anything is going to surprise him as far as the preparation for this game. To say it's another game, it sort of is not just another game. We both have a lot to win and a lot to lose. You don't have these opportunities every year to play for a national championship. I'm just along that line, just thinking myself what would it be like to play in a playoff system. Jim had to beat Miami this week and the next week he had to beat Oklahoma. Somebody asked me last year, said, "well, do you like this system?" I love this system. That's good for us this year.

COACH LARRY COKER: Probably their defensive front and our offensive line is a concern, because again as I said, they're very good at what they do, and they really -- we're going to have to be patient. We're going to have to not get frustrated if we don't get big plays. They don't allow many big plays.

COACH LARRY COKER: We are healthy. This year we're healthy with what we have. Cornelius Green and Kevin Beard are injured and will not play in this game. They were injured before we actually came here. What we came here prepared to play with we're in great shape.

COACH LARRY COKER: Not really. We tried to research a little bit some of the personality that Jim might have or had back in those days, maybe some of the special things he did to win those games. As far as studying those film or breaking them down for our players, we haven't done that. We have a spy from Youngstown so we can infiltrate that area. That's about as far as we have been able to go back.