TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE v MIAMI

January 1, 2003

Tim Anderson

Ben Hartsock

Alex Stepanovich

TIM ANDERSON: It's actually good today. It's on a freshly charged battery. I charged it up last night.

TIM ANDERSON: Oh, yeah, it's a great trip. It's beautiful out here. We're enjoying our time and at the same time working, and using some videotape up to show the people back home.

ALEX STEPANOVICH: I don't know if it's that much different. Wherever a national championship game is, that's where we want to be. I'm sure that since we were young having the BCS come in, changes things up. You go with the flow. We're happy with where we're at obviously.

BEN HARTSOCK: Yeah, I think that's the same thing. You grow up watching the Rose Bowl. You understand that's where the big ten team goes, but the way things are right now, you've got to adapt, and we're having a great experience here in Arizona, and this has been a whole lot of fun. We've done a whole lot of great things. I'm not really concerned about the Rose Bowl right now.

ALEX STEPANOVICH: I think we have free time in the middle of the day. We'll have some chance to watch some games. We're more worried about preparing for ours. We'll have a lot of meetings during today's games. We'll catch part of them but we're not really too worried about what else happens.

BEN HARTSOCK: Guys have been watching and tuning in. At the hospitality room in the hotel we have been watching different games to see how the season wraps up. Really, it's close enough to game time so it will be a little more time spent by yourself; not as much goofing off.

TIM ANDERSON: Well, the day's drawing closer and closer. We're getting excited. We're looking forward to it. We have been looking forward to it since our win over Michigan. It's finally here. The talk's over with. We take the field in two days, and all the talk about Miami being this great team and the talk between individual players, it's going to be finally settled on the field.

TIM ANDERSON: He puts himself out there. He's not afraid to put himself out on the limb to sacrifice for the team. A lot of people believe in him. He's obviously a great player. Guys follow that.

TIM ANDERSON: He's one of the guys. He's a great player, but to us he's another player on this team and another link in our chain.

TIM ANDERSON: I think they're probably the best we'll see all season. Obviously, they're led by their center Romberg who's an All-American. Their tackles are pretty good tackles. Their guards are pretty good too. It's going to be a big challenge for the defensive line. We're looking forward to it. They're threatening whether they throw the ball or running it.

TIM ANDERSON: What do you mean by reputation?

TIM ANDERSON: That's fine. With everything I've seen he's a pretty big jokester. I'm a jokester too. I'm looking forward to Friday night's game. Me and him, we're going to have a good time out there.

TIM ANDERSON: Their diversity probably impresses me most. If you go in there and shut down the run, you still have to play the pass and vice versa. They're equally effective in both areas of the game. That's very hard to stop and also very impressive at the same time. Not too many teams can throw the ball and run the ball successfully.

ALEX STEPANOVICH: I think momentumwise it's huge for us. As good as our defense is, we can't be crazy and think if we give Miami 80 plays on offense, we can expect our defense to shut them down. We've got to realize that in a game like this we need to control the clock. Miami has so many weapons.

BEN HARTSOCK: I've lost all track of time. You really do. Once you get down here, the day after Christmas, you really start losing track of what day it is. To be honest with you, it's Thursday, it's Wednesday, honestly, we've lost track of time. It's Groundhog Day, over and over. It's a preseason camp kind of thing. You wake up the same time, do the same thing, see the same guys. You kind of get lost in it all.

BEN HARTSOCK: I'm not overly concerned about watching what goes on on TV, what's being said about the game. I think why this team has had success is because they haven't been too concerned about what's happening outside the immediate family of the team. I think that's the way we have been handling things right now. We've shut ourselves in, gone to practice come back home, goofed around in the hotel a little while. That's about it. You don't worry too much. Not too anxious.