COACH TRESSEL: This a not a credentialed event? I feel like I'm at team meeting. On behalf of everyone here we want to thank Donatos for that wonderful lunch. If at some of the TV timeouts we are all dashing to the concourse for Donatos this year, you'll have to excuse us. It was wonderful. Thanks for supplying that.

Well, we're finally to a game week and our guys are anxious to get out there and they've been banging against one another all through April and training together and competing with one another all summer long and preseason comes and you get back to competition and now they're chomping at the bit to get out in Ohio Stadium. They had a little taste of the stadium on the Monday night where the fans were allowed to come and the band was playing and cheerleaders were there and all the rest, and so it's anxious.

This is usually one of the longest weeks of the year because when preseason ends, you feel like, okay, it's time to play a game and all of a sudden you line up and you practice four more times. So today we had practice two of the week, and by about Thursday, they'll be so tired of practicing that they'll be ready to go. And right now we're in pretty good health. The guy that won't make the bell, I think, for certain is Kyle Mitchum. He's still a little bit tender on that foot. A lot of the guys miraculously feel better this week than they did last week, so I think -- in fact Brandon Joe never practiced in August, but I think we're in pretty good health and ready to go. I think we've had excellent leadership throughout the summer and throughout the preseason camp, but as we always say, leadership isn't tested until some things don't go your way, and so we'll find out as those moments begin and we're just anxious to get out there and just like you're anxious to figure out who we are, we're anxious to figure out who we are, so I'll throw it open to questions.

REPORTER: Jim, I promise this will hopefully be the last cable-related question you'll ever get but Time Warner and the Big Ten Network got it done. Your reaction and did you think maybe that wasn't going to happen, be a second-straight year of not having that network in Ohio?

COACH TRESSEL: You know, I hadn't given that a tremendous amount of thought these last three weeks because we were focused on other things, but it is exciting. I had the utmost confidence that Gene Smith and Steve Snapp and those folks would get it done with the Big Ten Network folks and Time Warner folks. I overheard Ken Gordon talking about, he had a caller on a show that didn't have any choice in their apartment complex and they maybe would have switched to something else if they didn't have a choice but didn't have it, so now everyone in Ohio will have a chance to watch their Buckeyes playing football, basketball, field hockey, and all the rest. So, yeah, it's an exciting time for us.

REPORTER: Can you give us an update on James Scott?

COACH TRESSEL: Well, James didn't report to camp. Outside of that, I can't give an update. He's not with us.

REPORTER: You've adopted the fierce urgency of "Now" since convention season; any endorsement of the candidate or what did you think about that scheme of thought?

COACH TRESSEL: Which candidate?

REPORTER: That would be Barack Obama.

COACH TRESSEL: I don't do a whole lot of discussions about candidates. I thought you meant like a candidate for one of our positions or something. We do have a fierce urgency for "Now" because we've got an older group and all of us that perhaps will be here longer than just this season want to make sure this season is a great one for those 25 guys that will be playing, two seniors who are medical, so we have 27 seniors that this is it, this is the last time that they get to experience that Horseshoe. So again, I think your urgency is demonstrated in your performance, but so far I've seen good urgency.

REPORTER: Jim, this is the first time Ohio State's ever played Division I-AA or playoff teams, do you see after this contract ends this year that you might ever do this again?

COACH TRESSEL: It could happen. I don't think we have one on the schedule for the next four or five years. If you recall, about four years ago when the legislation passed for a 12th game, there was a mad dash for scheduling, and as we've said all along, it's critical for us, a group that sponsors 36 sports to have home games, but there was a huge inventory gap, if you will, for all the people looking for games when that legislation passed. And so I think you saw a lot of folks playing versus different divisions and so forth. The evolution of how much more that will occur, I'm not sure. But our second criteria, if you recall, was that we wanted to give in-state schools an opportunity to be a part of these types of rivalries. So you know, Youngstown State of course still has that criteria. But I think for the next five years, I think we're nearly set. I don't know if Steve Snapp's here, Steve's kind of our scheduling guy, but I think we're pretty set for the next five.

REPORTER: Is Brandon Saine, what's his status going into this game and also Doug Worthington, will he play?

COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, Brandon Saine, the trainers said today they felt he was like 95 to 100%. And sometimes with those injuries, right when they're starting to feel better, it's dangerous, and last week was that week, so we tried to keep him from overdoing it last week. He made a nice play in a live situation which shows the explosion that we all enjoy seeing him have, so I think Brandon will be fine. He's missed practice time and practice is critical, but he's going to be able to ease his way back into it. As far as Worthington goes, Doug will be suited up and ready to go. Exactly when he'll get his car keys back in the course of a game, I don't know that answer at this moment, but it won't be at the beginning.

REPORTER: Is the situation resolved?

COACH TRESSEL: I think it's moving along toward resolution and it is resolved from an institutional standpoint, but he's got some other things to take care of, but I think we're in good shape.

REPORTER: Terrelle is listed as the third-string quarterback, how do you see the snaps being divided?

COACH TRESSEL: If you look at the quarterback situation, I would say there are two guys at number one and two guys sharing the number two snaps, which is the way it's been going on a good bit during the camp. Todd has taken a lot with the ones. Joe has taken a lot of the snaps with the twos and some with the threes. Terrelle has taken a lot of snaps with the threes, but some snaps with the twos. So I would say based on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we'll see just how much each guy will have an opportunity, but I'm hoping it would be nice in the first half of the game -- we always like in the first half of the game to get our quarterbacks in there just so they're not nervous anymore and all that. Perfect scenario for me would be to have all three of them get in the game that first half.

REPORTER: Coach, with regards to Youngstown State, two things, what do you see out of them as an opponent and then personally for you, how does this week maybe differ from last year's experience?

COACH TRESSEL: You know, let me answer the second one first. I think the first time you do anything, it's a little bit different, and especially something as emotional as playing against somewhere where you were for 15 years, it's still a little bit different. You're sitting there last night watching the same field that you used to watch for 15 years before and you wonder if you're Ground Hog's Day or whatever. So it's a little different, but not totally different than a year ago. As far as what do we see from their team, they're a physical bunch, just like we told our guys going into last year's game, their defense is going to fill up the box and they're going to dare you to run and you're going to have to handle more guys being there than you can conceivably block, and if you're going to beat them, you're going to have to throw. Offensively, we gather that they've gone to a new spread offense, so it's a little bit of a guessing game for us. We really don't know what they're going to be doing because there's a whole bunch of different kinds of spread. There's spreads where the pass is primary. There are spreads where the run is primary and there are spreads where you do it all. So we're preparing as if they can do it all.

REPORTER: Jim, talking about loading up the box last year, I know Beanie struggled in the opening, you talked about that the other day. What sort of growth have you seen from him both on the field and maturity-wise since then?

COACH TRESSEL: I think Beanie, if you go back and look at the game, he was so anxious. Every time he got the ball he wanted to just go run for a touchdown and probably didn't have his eyes on the task of how things were unfolding and the blocking scheme and he just wanted to go because he was so excited. What you saw as the season developed was a more patient back, a back who knew more about the schemes. He can stand in the I-back now and he can visualize how it's going to be blocked because he's seen a lot of the different looks. He's had a lot more carries. And as a person, I think he's done a very good job with -- obviously there's a lot more attention paid to him today than there was a year ago today, yet I think he's done a good job keeping his eyes on the task at hand. One of the things that he wanted to accomplish going into last year was to be an Academic All-Big Ten player, to position himself to be so, and he did, and one of the things he talked a lot about this year was he wanted to maintain that because anybody can be something once and he wanted -- and he did, and so I think a lot of things -- he's thinking the right things about all the various things that are happening in his life, but it's tough when you get as much attention as he's going to get both in numbers of people trying to tackle you, there will be a lot of attention on him and on people wanting to talk to you and have you thinking further out than you should be thinking.

REPORTER: You had so many guys that could have left early to go to the NFL last year. As a coach, that kind of sends up a yellow flag. Some guys can react to that differently going into a senior year. I just wondered if you had, as a coaching staff, whether you discussed this, how you would handle those guys perhaps differently going into the last year.

COACH TRESSEL: I don't think you ever handle individuals that much differently. I think the thing that we did talk -- and we're very conscious of as a staff -- is that, hey, there's a bunch of guys that could have gone on and they really enjoy their time here, they're excited about being here another year, we've got to make sure they get our best. And it was a great reminder to us as a staff that they've risked a little bit, if you will, and we've got to make sure that we do everything we can do to make their risk pay off.

REPORTER: Jim, are Brandon Saine and Boom (Dan) Herron the two starting guys?

COACH TRESSEL: They're the two-deep guys, I haven't seen much of Brandon Saine because he's been out a little bit, but in the spring we saw a lot of great things. The thing that both of those guys do, they take it north and south, they go and if there's a crease, they take it. And they're both pretty physical. One of the things we felt like we needed to improve dramatically was our off returners blocking. Our return guy is going to struggle if the off returner doesn't have a good guy with him. In this room is the leading kickoff returner in the history of Ohio State. Do you know who that is, D? Mo Hall, and Mo will be the first to tell you that the off returner was critical for him, and so both those guys, Boom and Brandon do a good job, not just carrying it, but as the off returner.

REPORTER: Have you seen the progress in the special teams that you've wanted to see?

COACH TRESSEL: I don't know for sure, just like I probably don't know for sure on offense or defense because we haven't faced someone else, but I know the intentions have been good. I think our coaches have worked hard to analyze where we need to get better in some things. I think our players have bought into trying to get better at what their coaches have asked them to do and I'd like to think we'll be better at it because we'll be more experienced in those areas as well as we will in the offense and defense.

REPORTER: Ray Small, is he your number one punt return guy or is Brian Hartline?

COACH TRESSEL: Ray and Brian will be back there together. I would say 90 percent in our scheme we have two deep so Ray and Brian will be the two guys back there. Brian Robiskie is our third guy so I feel like we're in pretty good shape back there.

REPORTER: The depth chart has Robiskie the number two back. How much is that Brandon being out a little bit or how much of that is what Boom showed you during the preseason?

COACH TRESSEL: I think it's both things are realistic. Boom Herron had a hundred percent time to carry it in a scrimmage where Brandon was out. Mo Wells was knicked a little so probably didn't carry it as much, wasn't knicked to the point where he was out, but we felt like we knew what he could do and Boom needed an opportunity. I think Boom has demonstrated that he's ready to go and I know what Doc Tressel hopes is that all of those guys are ready to roll.

REPORTER: Back to Beanie, what did you think of Doc's comparison of Beanie to Jim Brown. Maybe it was just a physical comparison, but --

COACH TRESSEL: You mean way back when?

REPORTER: Yeah, he reiterated it.

COACH TRESSEL: Oh, did he?

REPORTER: Because I asked him.

COACH TRESSEL: He follows instructions well.

REPORTER: You group, I mean --

COACH TRESSEL: Jim Brown is a 6-2, 228 pound guy, for whatever number of years he was in the NFL, nine years or whatever, and if you look at Beanie, he's about the same, you know, body type and punishing kind of runner, so I think the evaluation, it's something I would think that we'd say that he reminds us of and he's aspiring to be like, I don't think it would be one that we'd say, hey, he's just like and he's proven that because I'm not sure anyone has done that, but Beanie is -- he's a lot more like Jim Brown than he is Walter Payton let's say.

REPORTER: Curtis Terry looks like the third man out, why don't you think that worked with him at fullback?

COACH TRESSEL: He's going to probably end up playing some fullback and I don't know that he's third string end. When you put out one of those depth charts you put it out based upon you're going to be in base package against a base offense, which might be a little antiquated because nowadays, 60% of the time you're in nickel and you're in a number of different kind of schemes that you use. So really he runs with the twos most of the time in the non-base things. If someone's just going to line up and run Iso or something at you, he'd probably be the third end, but if they're going to do what most people are doing this day and age, he's going to be in that second unit at some of the things. But he's also going to be that guy at fullback. I don't know if he was ever, quote, the starting fullback, we were working him over there, we wanted to give him a concentrated period, compare him to this and that and give him a little taste of it. He's probably going to be a little bit of our emergency guy there. We feel as if Brandon Smith, because of his knowledge of the offense and his ability to do fullback stuff, H back, tight end, we can mix and match a lot of things, is the starting guy. Ryan Lukens is a guy that probably, of those two, is the next, but I would think if Brandon got nicked at all, that you might see us practicing Curtis more the at fullback than we are right now. Right now we're just working with him a little bit at fullback, so he's not really an odd man out. He's kind of like the utility infielder. He's on every special team or nearly every. He's in a lot of those packages on defense and our fullback that gives us the depth we need. We always say we need a pair and a spare.

REPORTER: I think in the scrimmage you ran a few plays without a fullback. Beanie did quite well last year with a blocking back, are you comfortable if 80% of the time he's in the single back this year?

COACH TRESSEL: I don't know the exact numbers, but I'll bet you that it wasn't more than 78% of the time we were without a fullback last year. We were maybe 22% in what we call regular people. It's just the nature of what we do now, two wides, three wides, four wides. Now, some of Beanie's long runs that we all recall and enjoy and all that happened to be with a fullback, but probably not more than 20, 22, 23% of the time did we have a fullback in the game.

REPORTER: Jim, in regards to the nickel back, how's the nickel back shaping up and where might Torrence fit in back there?

COACH TRESSEL: Devon Torrence is playing at corner and probably wouldn't have any nickel. We think Devon is coming along and he needs to be in our two-deep and do it well. He needs to be on our special teams. He's a very explosive guy. That's why we kind of took the wide receiver stuff off his plate so he could really get good on defense and special teams, but it will be primarily as a corner. As far as the nickel situation, right now Tyler Moeller and Jermale Hines have probably played the most. Anderson Russell can play it. Those are probably the guys that have played it the most and of which we'll use that a lot this week because we don't know exactly what their spread looks like. We know they have a great tight end, so I don't know that it's going to be a spread that's simply a line up and throw it all over because that tight end, Bush, of theirs is special, so they're going to still do some conventional tight end type things so we may be in some base, may be in some nickel and some dime.

REPORTER: Todd led the Big Ten in passing efficiency, but what areas of improvement do you think he needs here, what areas do you hope that he --

COACH TRESSEL: I think over all what Todd needs to do to take it to the next level is consistency. He had good efficiency. Efficiency is a real complicated formula. A lot of it has to do with your TD to interception ratio. If he can even improve that, he's going to improve his efficiency. I think he ended up 12th or something like that. We as a team ended up 12th, I don't know what he ended up. But yards per attempt is huge in that formula. Your completion percentage is important. So consistency in all those areas, I think, will do nothing but increase his efficiency. I think he's done a nice job of assuming that leadership role without forcing it. He was a runaway selection for captain and so if he can just inch-by-inch get better at everything that he does, the consistency at that position is the hallmark of the real good ones.

REPORTER: Last year Antonio Henton was suspended until his court case was resolved, from games, that is. I know you judge every case differently. Is there a difference in the Worthington case now?

COACH TRESSEL: Yeah.

REPORTER: Okay.

REPORTER: To not take this case for granted being I-AA and the fact they beat them pretty good this year, what do you do or what do you reference?

COACH TRESSEL: The thing that we've talked a lot about with our guys is managing those expectations and the only way you can manage expectations is be focused on what's going on this moment. And if you don't, you're not going to get better. And if you don't get better, you're not going to reach your potential and then you're not going to manage the expectations. So I hope the maturity of the team and listening to the guys talk to the younger guys about what needs to be done and that anxiousness that I feel that our guys have of wanting to get better that hopefully that will allow us every ball game to stare right at that game and say, hey, here's what needs to be done. I walked down the hallway on the way here today and the meeting rooms were full of guys watching film on their own and didn't have to be there, and so, is that an indication? We'll find out. I think the fact that we played Youngstown State a year ago and all of our guys know that they came to play and they brought it and they're for real, I'm sure all of our guys, if you ask them if they remember if any of the football championship series teams beat the football bowl subdivision teams last year they might be able to recall. So I think they'll understand.

REPORTER: How has Terrelle handled everything that's been thrown at him so far?

COACH TRESSEL: I think he's done a good job. I think he's nervous because he's the kind of guy that wants everyone to be pleased with his performance, starting with himself and he's a perfectionist. But I think when it comes down to the concepts that our people have asked him to understand, the true Xs and Os that people have asked him to understand, I think he's done an excellent job. Now, I know he's going to be nervous when he goes out there on Saturday, but he just needs to get hit a few times and then his competitive juices and focus and all will take over. But I think he's done a very, very good job for a young guy coming in and picking up conceptually because he has such a passion for that. I mean, he loves the chess game. And when you like something, it's a lot easier to learn.

REPORTER: Has he been working with the full play book that Todd and Joe use or when he's in there, is he limited at all or maybe focusing on certain types of formations or situations?

COACH TRESSEL: There's not anything that we've been doing this summer that he's not done. There's no play that people have said, okay, well, Terrelle can't do this one, he's never done this one before, because that's what practice is, this is his chance to do it, so, no. One thing that we're asking our coaches to do regardless of position, but I think especially for quarterbacks is go into this game and say, okay, what are the best five things Joe Bauserman does because we want Joe to be successful, and he's going to be nervous. What are the best five things that Terrelle Pryor does? We want him to go in and have a chance to do the things that he's really comfortable with, and after all that is out of the way, then we do what we have to do, but I think you want guys to have a chance to be successful.

REPORTER: In that regard, this is no slam on Joe Bauserman, but are you eager to see Terrelle basically in the flesh playing for your team? I mean, do you have a sense of anticipation?

COACH TRESSEL: Oh, absolutely. But I don't want to limit it to Terrelle. I'm anxious to see Mike Brewster. I'm anxious to see Etienne Sabino, Posey, all those young guys, Keith Wells, because they've come in and done a nice job, we've never seen them in a game. How many of the freshmen are going to play and how many are going to redshirt, I think we're still in those discussion phases. But I like watching any guy the first time he goes out in that stadium. I was here the first day that Tom Tupa was out there. Jim, were you still here? Do you remember that first punt? That ball hit him in the hands and he dropped it and they had it on the 20 and we had a problem, and Cris Carter's first route, he went across the middle and he dropped it and Jim Lachey made his first block, just so you know, but it's fun to watch guys have that first experience. It's fun to see their eyes the day of that first game. I've walked by the meeting room and Terrelle was in there watching film this morning and I asked him if he was nervous and he just had that big smile and trying to act that he wasn't going to be, but he'll be nervous.

REPORTER: Is Mike Adams full go or is he still working?

COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, Mike's full go. We had to be a little conservative in the preseason, but he's been full go probably the last four or five practices.

REPORTER: Jim, because you have so many veterans, if given the chance, might you rest maybe some of those starters more and try to get more of a look at maybe the second, third-team guys because you've seen so much of some of the starters?

COACH TRESSEL: No, the first thing we want to do is go in and play well and be successful in the football game. That's goal one. We always go into early games wanting to play more than the first unit. Sometimes heat is an issue, like when we went to Texas, we said, hey, we're going to -- third series, we're playing the whole second unit offense, the whole second unit defense, we're going to go every other with the kickoff team. So we want to get as many looks at other people as we can, but not at the expense of playing Youngstown State the best we can play, and I think that's critical for all of us to know.

REPORTER: I know you said that you're still talking about this, but are there any freshmen you're certain are going to play in this game?

COACH TRESSEL: Certain?

REPORTER: You named Keith Wells a minute ago.

REPORTER: Anybody you feel is better than 50% chance?

COACH TRESSEL: Better than 50% chance? I'd say better than 50% chance that Pryor will play, Lamaar, Brewster would play, Adams would play, Shugarts will play, defensively Sabino, Wells, I think it's still 50/50 with Nathan Williams, although I think it's starting to push towards the 50 to play. I think he's going to be really good. Sweat, I think it's still 50/50. Who am I missing here? Zach Domicone? Probably 50/50, but I think he's going to be good. He's got a presence about him.

REPORTER: How about Martin at fullback?

COACH TRESSEL: Probably not. Fullback-wise we're probably going to be with Brandon Smith, Ryan Lukens and Curtis at this moment, but we're happy with Jermil Martin and Georgiades, we think one day they're going to be good fullbacks but just for this moment, going into this game with the current health of our team, hopefully we stay healthy through the next three days. All of these percentages, obviously there's an asterisk based upon the next three practices.

REPORTER: Travis Howard, is he another one that might play?

COACH TRESSEL: Travis has been out with a little bit of an injury, so, no, he probably hasn't had enough work.

REPORTER: Jim, how is Terrelle handling the nonfootball side of this transition? In other words, the celebrity status, the media pressures, the things he didn't have to deal with in high school and are you guys helping him with that so that he doesn't get himself into a situation where you've got a problem off field?

COACH TRESSEL: I think the seniors are helping the most with that because they must get after him pretty good because every once in a while I'll get a text from him saying, "Are we supposed to get up at 5:30 or is this another senior prank on me?" So I think the seniors are helping him cope with that. Plus his buddies, his buddies kind of jab at him a little bit and remind him that there's more than one freshman on the team. I think he's getting along fine. Now, we've got to add to his plate the academic segment of it with the football. We had it in the summer and he did great, but now you add that full load academically and all that, but so far so good.

REPORTER: Who's the MVP when it comes to the academic success you've had over the last year or two? There are so many links in the chain and so many support people you have; is that the strength of it? Because it seems like you give them every opportunity to succeed.

COACH TRESSEL: I think in anything that has extraordinary results, there's got to be a lot of people that have to be a part of that. Darrin Meeker has been a guy that has kind of spearheaded it from the student athlete support services standpoint. David Graham runs the whole department, but Darrin specifically is the guy that is our day-to-day guy from a football standpoint. Stan Jefferson works with him constantly. That was the area that Doc Tressel started in our first two or three years here and he kind of got that system going, so he, I think, deserves some of the kudos there. And then really the whole group. But if you have guys that are interested in achieving academically and that's important to them when they came here, to have their degree, that's the MVP is the attitude towards education. All the support and all the rest is the bonus, but I think our players' attitude is the MVP.

REPORTER: And they can also lose privileges?

COACH TRESSEL: We have incentives. It's not all negative. We have academic incentives and we have academic disincentives, so you can gain some things, like guys occasionally will get a nice sweatshirt or something and if you don't do what you're supposed to do you might have some other privileges revoked.

REPORTER: Lose tickets?

COACH TRESSEL: Perhaps. That's a good idea.

REPORTER: Jim, knowing how competitive Beanie is, is this much of a red-letter game for him based on his struggles a year ago?

COACH TRESSEL: I'm sure that knowing Beanie the way that I do and we all do and how good he would like to be, he'll think back to his first game of '07 and say, you know, I wasn't as good as I needed to be, but I hope that doesn't dominate his thinking. I hope his thinking is really focused on the little things that he has to do, and he really is -- he is an attentive guy, very attentive to detail, but hopefully that will take over and I don't know if it needs to be painted as a red-letter game, it's just another game in the progression of him trying to get better. That's what I hope our team looks at, because you start getting too cranked up because it's the opener or too cranked up for whatever reason, you lose a little bit of the focus of what needs to be done.

REPORTER: Is Lawrence Wilson 100%?

COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, he seems like it. It's good to see him flying around. He looks trim and so forth. Lori?

REPORTER: How important is this game from the standpoint it's your first look at the new clock rules?

COACH TRESSEL: It's going to be interesting to see the impact of the clock rules on the game. There are people instituting it that say we're going to end up with more plays in a game in a less period of time than we did past years. There are other people saying that with a couple of the rules we're going to end up with less plays in the game. Obviously it's all tailored so that we can get as many football games on TV that we possibly can, which is a good thing for the fans. So it will be interesting. We've been working hard anticipating the fact that the game's going to be shorter, so we've got to be faster, and we can't run out of time. So it's going to be anxious for all of us to see how that works and we're just anxious to get the clock started.