They came in in good shape. Probably had as good a fitness testing the first day of camp as we've had and I thought we had a good rugged training camp. And I hear some of the guys saying that it's by far been the most rugged one we've had. I don't have any proof of that, but they seem to be going hard at it and they spent a lot of time together.

We thought one of the important things with this group -- I think somewhere in the 35 to 37 range of people out of 105 had never been to training camp with us and that's a large portion of your team, so we felt as if they needed to spend a lot of time together and they did that during the preseason. They came up with some good ideas to spend even more time together and now they're anxious to get ready to go and play against a great Navy team.

There's a whole bunch of excitement, I think, and you folks can feel it as well as we can, energy and electricity about the United States Naval Academy coming here. Everyone knows about their successes and we talk a lot about those big games that you play in and so forth and I think they've won 12 of their big games in a row when you count their games against Army and Air Force, which is as big as you can get. And eight-win seasons, one after the next, multiple bowl games in a row, and they've been very, very successful and they have good consistency going on, which I think consistency is the key to any operation.

And so our guys are keenly aware as you study the film, it's very unique for our defense and it's an opening game, so you can see as we move each day closer, the younger guys, you can tell they get even more looks in their eyes like 'here it comes,' and they're excited to get out there for the first time.

It's going to be a neat atmosphere. A whole bunch of special things planned. Gene Smith just told me this morning that there's been as much or more interest in Navy tickets as any game on our schedule and perhaps we may have a record crowd here on the 5th of September, which is an exciting thing, and flyovers planned, and it's a special weekend in all of college football. The American College Football Coaches Association and the NCAA has deemed this Sportsmanship Weekend and a big overlying theme about the good things and sportsmanship in the game of football. And football's the most visible game we have in the NCAA, so there are some special things going on in terms of that. And John Glenn coming in to dot the "I" and the alumni band is back and all those things, so it's exciting.

And our guys have been training hard and working hard and I think we're progressing -- I happened to have a chance to get some of that good Donatos pizza today, sit down with this group, and I think the feeling is that we should throw more because there was a youngster here that's a writer or somewhere that's from Marietta College and he reminded me that Marietta was the place where they threw the first forward pass and we might try to do that, something along those -- something. And then I think it was Lori Schmidt said, Coach, did you notice there's 22 sophomores in your two-deep, and I hadn't stopped to count them. But it is exciting. There's a lot of things we can talk about.

I think our guys have gotten better as time has gone on. I thought yesterday's practice was sharp. Sometimes you don't know after a hard training camp and you give guys a couple days off and you don't know if they're going to come back a little sluggish and thinking, okay, I've done the work and it's time to play, but I thought they came back sharp both mentally and bounced around the practice field pretty well. The hardest part about first week game week in my opinion is that it seems like it lasts forever.

And here we sit on Tuesday and have got a lot of work to do. I mentioned to the offensive guys last night as they were in there feverishly planning, I said, you've had like nine months, you can't get any more plays, can you? We just need to find out if any of these great ideas work. So it's that time of year.

We're pretty healthy. We'll be close to full speed ahead. We've got, I think, five or six or seven guys that, for one reason or the other, perhaps doghouse reasons or injury reasons or whatever won't be with us, but really coming off a tough training camp, I feel pretty good. In fact, I even show that I would be accurate in not -- I even highlighted them on my personnel sheet here, of course you know Tyler Moeller, you know, won't be with us all season and that's -- you wish you had a guy like that. It's been good. He came back to town the last couple days and he's doing great and progressing well and there's no question in our minds that he's going to be back playing for us shortly after the new year and into spring practice and so forth.

Melvin Fellows will probably miss a little bit of time. Mike Adams, Orhian Johnson, Travis Howard, Jermale Martin won't be with us probably on Saturday, but outside of that, even some of the guys that as you've been out of practice and so forth that haven't looked like they were full speed seemed like yesterday and in today's report seemed like they're going to be full speed with us. So to have a good, tough training camp and be relatively in good stead, we feel good about that. It's going to be a nice, hot day. We're going to need to make sure we have lots of folks.

It's going to be interesting to watch our special teams. I think you'll see, A, you know we've put a lot of focus on that, but, B, you'll see some jerseys maybe that haven't been in there before that we're really counting on and so it's going to be exciting for them and so obviously our defense has got a tremendous challenge. It's not something we face every week. Someone asked me on the Big Ten call what makes it so difficult and I think first and foremost is that they really know what they're doing with their offense. Not that many people do it. We have not faced it for many, many years here. It's tough to emulate it.

Our guys, I think, are working hard. In fact, some of you were there a week or so ago when our scout team busted a long touchdown against us. So our scout teams are working extremely hard with it, but I don't think you know what you're in for when you face this offense until you're out on the field and it's going to be a tremendous challenge. Our guys are going to have to stay on their feet, because if they're not on their feet, they're in trouble. But our guys are preparing hard, our defense, I think, has a good plan.

Offensively, we face a little bit different look than many teams, but there's enough that's similar conceptually that I don't think it's as much of a different preparation and there will be perhaps more carryover. The difficult thing perhaps about playing against Navy's offense is there's really not much carryover, after that you probably don't use that package the rest of the year. But offensively the defense we face from Navy, there will be some carryover through the rest of the season. What I love about the Midshipmen and it's what I'm sure we all love about them is they play extremely hard, they never stop playing, they play low, they play tough, they play fast. Every special unit is full speed and they're never going to stop playing. So it's going to be a tremendous challenge for us. They've got a number of kids back on both sides of the ball. They played multiple quarterbacks last year.

In fact, Earle and I were just talking, who knows, that young man that they've got now might be better than the one that played most of last year and that's just what you do when you play that offense, you keep training those great players at that position and so it's a great challenge for us.

We're looking forward to it. Can't wait to get in the Horseshoe. Can't wait to be a part of all the festivities and the atmosphere and the things that are going to -- Gene Smith told me to give you this message, I wrote this down, when your boss gives you something, you write it down. Here's a tip for you. "Get there 20 minutes, in your seat, before the game starts. You won't be disappointed." That was his message. So I'll be there. Yes, sir?

REPORTER: Coach, with all the talk of the respect and appreciation for what the Naval Academy kids do, how do you get your guys to maintain the level of aggression that they need to play ferociously and, quote, unquote, take their heads off when the time comes if needed on the field?

COACH TRESSEL: To me the greatest respect you can give to a competitor is compete just as hard or harder. I mean, that's what the competitor wants. A competitor doesn't want any quarter or whatever they say, competitors want to compete. So the greatest respect you can give is play over your heads and out of your minds. That's just -- that's how you show respect.

REPORTER: Jim, in regards to the true freshmen on your roster, can you give us an idea of who's going to probably play, who's going to redshirt, maybe who's on the bubble?

COACH TRESSEL: Glad I brought my little sheet here. Okay. Let's see here. I would say Jamie Woods at safety is probably on the bubble. He's on some special units in two deep but we'll see. C. J. Barnett probably will, because he's on a couple special units. Right near the top we'll have to see this week of practice. Dorian Bell probably will. Again he's on some special units. Jonathan Newsome probably is on the bubble as to whether he will or won't. Obviously all of it's based on health and everything else. Storm Klein will probably play. Jordan Whiting is probably on the bubble.

Adam Bellamy probably will not based upon our depth inside there. John Simon probably will. Let's see who else we've got here. Melvin Fellows, I mentioned won't. Jack Mewhort is probably on the bubble in the offensive line, he's in the two-deep but we'll see how that unfolds. One thing Coach Bollman is comfortable with is we've got three or four guys that can play center. Sometimes you get nervous about you don't have enough centers, make the calls and snap the ball and all the rest, so Jack's been doing a good job in there.

Marcus Hall is on the bubble, but, you know, probably closer side of the bubble, whatever that means. Corey Linsley probably will. Reid Fragel probably will. Duron Carter probably will. James Jackson and Chris Fields, probably on the bubble, maybe more towards the side of the bubble that might not, according to how our depth is going out wide and so forth. Kenny Guiton right now is number three, so we'll see. Jordan Hall and Jaamal Berry probably will. Zach Boren and Adam Homan will. Who have I missed there?

REPORTER: Dominic Clarke?

COACH TRESSEL: Dominic Clarke probably won't. Probably won't.

REPORTER: Will means will play, right?

COACH TRESSEL: Probably will play, yeah.

REPORTER: Corey Brown?

COACH TRESSEL: Corey Brown, on the bubble, probably closer to the bubble not this week, but we hope we stay -- you never know. And you never know how guys progress.

REPORTER: You can activate mid-season if you'd like to.

COACH TRESSEL: You can activate a guy whenever you want to. One is developmental redshirt, you can activate a guy until you think he's ready, and as soon as he plays one play that counts as one year. And then there's medical red shirts where if he's played in less than 50 percent of the games in the front half of the season, he can be medically redshirted.

REPORTER: How big of a change do you see in Terrelle as he gets ready to start his second year and just what's his reaction, or excitement level, I guess, heading into this game?

COACH TRESSEL: I think his excitement level is about the same because he's always excited to play. I think his basis of what he knows and what he's experienced and so forth is dramatically different. A year ago this time, he was getting, I don't know, 15, 20% of the snaps and just doing a very limited amount of things and just trying to figure out what the formations meant.

Now, he's studying film like crazy, really -- has really progressed. But he'll be excited, he'll still be nervous, he's still a sophomore but he's got a tremendous amount more vantage point than he had a year ago.

REPORTER: Do you hold anything back at this point or does he pretty much have it all?

COACH TRESSEL: You know, he's got all the changes at the line of scrimmage and protection calls, sight adjustments and based upon what we'll do, the better you get you probably do less, and so we'll hold back from a standpoint of what we don't think we're executing yet very well, but as to what needs to do to play his position, he's got to do it all.

REPORTER: Where do you think he is transitioning from -- to become a great athlete to a great quarterback?

COACH TRESSEL: Well, you know, he's obviously been a great athlete for a long time and he was a great high school quarterback. I think no one would question that. And he came in and did a highly unusual job for a true freshman quarterback, so when you lead the league in passing efficiency and all those kinds of things, that's pretty darn good as a freshman. He's progressed from that point. He's got a different cast of characters around him and so forth. He's got to adjust to that. But I think he's progressing.

I don't know when you make that determination that a guy reaches the level you want him to reach because whenever he -- I'm sure Colt McCoy wants to get better than he is right now, Bradford wants to, Tebow wants to get better than they are right now, we're going to keep progressing but he's progressing.

REPORTER: Have you said he's got to get this a little better?

COACH TRESSEL: Oh, we've got to get a lot of things a little better. We haven't arrived. But we're not to the point where we say, well, there's just a couple little things we've got to do better. We've got to significantly get better. We think that it always starts with your decision making in your feet and he's working hard on those two things and the better his decision making and his feet get, he's got all the tools to do everything else.

REPORTER: Jim, number one, why did you decide not to name a permanent offensive captain this year and number two, do you have one already for this game or a temporary captain, whatever you call it, a week-to-week captain? I forgot what you called it.

COACH TRESSEL: Let me answer number two, I don't know what we call it, but the fourth guy that walks out to the toss. You're only allowed four, so to answer that one, no, not yet. The reason we did it just like we do every year when we look at the voting and you see what the voting tells you to do, I think there was one year here when Donnie Nicky and Michael Doss were the captains and offensively we walked two other guys out. One year I think James Laurinaitis was captain and a different defensive guy walked to the toss. So it just varies. But the voting kind of shows you who the team would like for sure and then there's a whole smattering of other guys that say, man, you know, they got significant votes so they ought to get to do this some, but you can't walk nine guys out there.

REPORTER: Will younger guys like Terrelle or Dan Herron be in the mix?

COACH TRESSEL: That will be an offensive decision. I know a year ago or two years ago when James was the only one on defense, the defensive staff and team and seniors decided each week. That will be an offensive decision each week.

REPORTER: Jim, you had mentioned the guys who are not going to be available this game. Mike Adams specifically, is he suspended?

COACH TRESSEL: Is he suspended?

REPORTER: Yeah.

COACH TRESSEL: Well, he won't be with us this week, I can't really talk too much more about --

REPORTER: Will he be with you for the USC game?

COACH TRESSEL: We'll have to see.

REPORTER: So that has not been determined yet.

COACH TRESSEL: Not yet.

REPORTER: You talked about all the young guys on the roster, do you have more or fewer questions as you head into this season than other seasons or how would you compare your level of, I guess, comfort and confidence?

COACH TRESSEL: I think you have more questions the more people you had out there doing what you're asking them to do on a Saturday, so I think you have more. Now, do I think we can do the things that we'd like to do? I'm sure we can. Not will we. To me, that's the biggest question. But what you hope when you have a veteran coming back is you'd like to say, well, he's going to be better. Rusty's been here a long time, you'd think he'd be better by now, you know. Maybe you assume, you know, that they'll progress but still that's a question, will he? So we just don't have as much film data. We have a lot of practice, but boy, as you know, it's different when you get over there.

REPORTER: I guess does that make this week or this game a little more interesting for you personally? Last year you had some of your established guys back and probably had an expectation, does it just add to the --

COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, I think a variety of things make this game really interesting. One is that. We've got a lot of new guys that we've got high hopes for and they've been working hard and let's see how they do. And it's Navy, which is a special thing. And so to me, there's a lot of neat things and all the things outside of the festivities involved and so forth, there's a lot of things that make this a pretty special opener. But, yes, those questions are -- that's one of them.

REPORTER: Can you talk a little bit about Ricky Dobbs and what kind of an option quarterback he is, on film, what does he look like he likes to do? How does he run the attack.

COACH TRESSEL: I have not spent a whole bunch of time studying him on film. I've listened to our defensive guys talk about the fact that he throws it extremely well. Obviously he runs it well. He's had huge games running the ball. He brings back experience. He stepped in and took advantage of his opportunities, but the thing that I keep hearing as I listen is he's a very, very good passer and that's scary in this offense because if you don't have the play action covered, there could be a sinking feeling when you see that ball flying out there knowing none of our guys are around.

REPORTER: Is it hard getting your secondary prepared for Navy?

COACH TRESSEL: Oh, absolutely. There's to me, two huge things about the secondary. One is that they will never have seen so many guys flying at them at the speed at which it happens here and the number of cut blocks and so forth they're going to have to deal with and number two is the speed of hard play action and you're on your horse heading into the pursuit lanes and all of the sudden the quarterback's off the line of scrimmage and here goes a receiver running by you. Maybe a guy you were running away from, so you didn't get cut by him, now all of a sudden he's running by you so, yeah, it's tough for the secondary.

REPORTER: Are you moving any of your coaches from the sidelines to the press box or vice-versa, any changes like that?

COACH TRESSEL: I think there's two changes. Obviously Joe Daniels. Nick Siciliano I don't know is going to be on the field. Doc Tressel is going to go up in the press box and then Luke's coming down on defense and Jim Heacock's going up.

REPORTER: Can you talk about why you're moving guys around? Is there a benefit to being on the field?

COACH TRESSEL: Some people feel as if they can see it much better upstairs. Other people feel as if they need to feel the game from the side line, it's a little more difficult to feel it from upstairs. I think the two staffs did it more on the makeup of their staffs as to who they wanted doing what at this moment.

REPORTER: Is it important to have Nick down on the sideline in your opinion so he can talk face-to-face with Terrelle and the receivers, et cetera? What's your feel on that.

COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, I think Nick does a great job. He's got a tremendous relationship with Terrelle and I think that will be a real positive thing. Doc has probably not been upstairs recently because he was a head coach for 20 some years and then here he's always been down, I think he's always been down, but Jim Heacock has the been up in a while, but the two staffs decided that that's the way they wanted to go and usually before every year I always have to ask them, now, which one of you guys are down and which are up, I'm kind of busy what I'm doing, and I can hear them all so I don't know where they are.

REPORTER: Jim, where would you put your feelings or emotions about your offensive line right now from the standpoint of progress? What do you see that you like? What do you see that still needs to come around and specifically is Miller really -- has he stepped up in the last couple of weeks, become a solid left tackle? What are your feelings there?

COACH TRESSEL: I mentioned to Earle when we were outside enjoying that good Donatos pizza that I thought yesterday's practice -- and again, we had kind of limited down, sometimes in preseason you get to doing so many different things, we'll be doing this against this kind of looks or doing this -- or doing a million things and how do you do any of it fast? So we had narrowed down a little bit of what we might do. And I thought yesterday in full pads, it wasn't like it was shorts or anything, in full pads, that our offensive line looked a little bit crisper and quicker and more confident in what they were doing than I had seen them in the last week or so.

So, now, we've got to block the real guys coming up and all that type of thing, but I think -- you know, I think I mentioned to you a week or so ago, I thought they were showing some signs, you mentioned Andrew Miller, I think really going as far back as last spring, he was coming along and taking advantage of opportunities and he's a tough guy. To me the key with the offensive line is no different than with the quarterback. If you do what they can do, then they're going to have a lot better chance of being successful because the other guys are allowed to try too. But you've got to do what they do best.

REPORTER: It's funny, you've got three starters back, but Brewster's the only one who's in the same spot he was. Justin was a starter at Michigan of course a couple years ago. But is that kind of strange to you to think that kind of mix? What does Brewster bring, I guess, that gives you kind of a settling feeling there?

COACH TRESSEL: Well, Michael did a good job stepping in as a freshman and he had some tough moments. Every play wasn't wonderful. Every game wasn't wonderful. And I'm sure we have to remind ourselves that he's a sophomore. But I think he's pretty darn solid and understanding what we want to do. Jimmy Cordle has made the move outside, which a little bit like what Doug Datish did, and Jim Bollman felt Doug had his finest year, the year that his quickness could kind of take over and not have those 320-pounders over him all the time and that type of thing. But Mike has been solid this summer and Jimmy's move outside seems to be a good thing and Bryant is steady. Bryant is good at tackle and I think even better at guard.

Justin's been back now for five or six practices and looks very good. We tease him a little bit because he's got fresh legs, everyone else is exhausted, he's out there because he didn't practice for a while. So I'm sure that as you look at any lineup in game one, it isn't going to look exactly the same throughout the year, if you're lucky to have no injuries or something, you're awfully fortunate, but hopefully we can build a little bit of depth, but that's going to be key. Coach Bruce reminded me today that the key is in the trenches and he's right.

REPORTER: How far is Adams from being a factor, what he has to do on the field and what he might have to do off the field if that's an issue?

COACH TRESSEL: I think he's coming along in all aspects. He's a young guy and I'm not sure, especially when you play those tackle positions whether he or J.B. Shugarts or any of those guys that are extremely young, there's a lot buzzing around on those edges, especially when it's Thaddeus Gibson and Nathan Williams and Lawrence Wilson. They've been going spring and fall through all that but I think they're coming along.

REPORTER: But is he in the discussion right now?

COACH TRESSEL: Yeah.

REPORTER: He is?

COACH TRESSEL: Absolutely.

REPORTER: You'd still consider him third?

COACH TRESSEL: Yeah.

REPORTER: Is Cameron healthy a hundred percent?

COACH TRESSEL: I don't know a hundred percent because he turned an ankle or whatever, but he won't leave the practice -- they kept saying let's give him two/thirds of the reps yesterday and Jim Heacock couldn't get him out of there, so he seemed awfully good yesterday.

REPORTER: What are some of the most recognizable names off your defense, could you talk about the progress these guys made in kind of accepting responsibility?

COACH TRESSEL: I think one thing that's a little bit of an indication of how that defense has come along, in fact, in about two minutes I'll bring them up, is the fact that when you have Austin Spitler, Kurt Coleman and Doug Worthington clearly voted as three guys that the team wanted out front, that just goes to show you that there's pretty good -- they've made a pretty good impact on everyone through their training, through the leadership, through the things you do in the summer when no coaches are around. They have done a good job and when you have leadership, that was probably one of the questions as we talked about, okay, what are some things that need to happen as we go into 2009, one was going to be see where the leadership emerges and through the voting for captains, it seems like it really emerged with some key guys. And as was mentioned many times, it isn't the most recognize age names, but I think they'll be very recognizable as time goes.

REPORTER: There have been the allegations at Michigan recently about them going over the limit of practice time in the 20-hour week. How does Ohio State monitor itself to stay within that 20-hour limit and walking the line between what is mandatory for players and what is voluntary on their behalf? How do you do that? Is that ever a difficult thing to do?

COACH TRESSEL: Well, we all have compliance forms and so forth that we fill out and so forth. I mentioned on the Big Ten call when someone asked a similar question is that what makes it difficult is how good these kids want to be. Sometimes you have to chain the doors of the Woody Hayes center, you know, to get them out of there. Act like you're cleaning the floor of the weight room or something because these kids want to be good. They want to train. They want to get their buddies in there and throw the ball around, those kinds of things.

So what's important is, A, we're not around and, B, we don't prescribe things. Do kids ask, hey, what do I need to do to get better? Okay, son, you need to work on your foot work, you need to do these things and so forth and if they go out and do them, it'd be like telling our med students, we're going to close the library, you've got to let them go to the library, you've got to let them train. There is a fine line, but the safeguards we have are we have set schedules and forms that we fill out, just like everyone.

REPORTER: Have you ever had any indication from players of guys saying, this is too much or getting an idea that too much is expected of them? Too much time is expected of them?

COACH TRESSEL: Oh, I think we all have those moments in our lives that we feel a little bit like maybe more is asked of me than is fair or whatever, but I haven't seen -- you know, I've never had anyone come into my office and say, hey, Coach, I think too much is being asked of me. In fact, honestly, I've taken over two programs and been an assistant for a third and whenever you go to a program and you interview each kid that comes in, he says, you know, Coach, we lost our discipline, we lost our toughness, we need to work harder, we didn't spend enough time at it, you know, all those things, and we need to work more at it.

So I think deep down kids want to work hard and I haven't had anyone come in and say, you know what, Coach, we spent too much time at it and that's why we didn't do as well as we wanted to do. You've got Branden Joe a former player back there and I'm sure he could answer it if you get a chance to get an exclusive with him, but --

REPORTER: Have you followed then what Michigan has been dealing with?

COACH TRESSEL: I really haven't, other than I heard that -- you know.

REPORTER: Do you think a distraction like that affects every team in the Big Ten or have you been able to curtail its impact on your team?

COACH TRESSEL: A distraction?

REPORTER: Yeah. Is it a distraction for the entire Big Ten?

COACH TRESSEL: Oh, no, the only distraction we have right now is Navy and figuring out how to stop that option and all that stuff. Got to give Lori the last call. I've got three captains all dressed up in their Sunday go-to-meeting clothes, so --

REPORTER: What are the things that you feel your offense is doing best right now?

COACH TRESSEL: I think we're playing with a little more confidence now that we've played together a little more. I don't know that I could truly answer that until we do it against someone and it's for real and it's every down and distance. Sometimes when you're practicing, you don't make third down, okay, you go over to the side line and the second unit goes in and tries to make third down or whatever.

So until there are consequences, I don't know for sure, but I think they're a little more confident in what they can do and their confidence will get shaken at moments in the first game, second game, third game and beyond. How they'll adapt to what the other people are doing will be another step we need to take, but I think they're getting confident in believing in they have a chance to be a good group and I think they're doing a good job doing it as a group.