March 27, 2007
Jim Tressel, head coach
On Ohio State young players in the secondary
"One guy who is a good player is Anderson Russell. He is a "no contact" this spring and is working his way back (after injury in 2006). He is ahead of schedule, but he will not scrimmage. We do expect a lot from him in the fall.
Jaramio O'Neal, we hope he is one of the old guys now with his experience level. Nick Patterson is progressing well and Aaron Gant did not redshirt last year and was a major contributor on special teams. Kurt Coleman can play inside or outside. He is a heck of a player. Grant Schwartz will get his first look at running our stuff and get used to our defensive looks. Tyler Moeller moved from linebacker. He has the potential to be an outstanding downhill safety.
If you look at it last year, we played 75 percent of our snaps in nickel and 100 in base. The world (of football) is so spread out now."
On replacing several standouts in the receiving corps
"We lose three guys - Ted Ginn Jr., Anthony Gonzalez and Roy Hall - who have been doing good things here for a longtime. Robiskie and Hartline come back and we expect them to raise their games. They are both skilled, tough and precise receivers." Some guys will have to fight it out to get in the game. Last year we had three-plus receivers in the game for 75 percent of the time. Are we going to be that way this year? I don't know. But, guys like Albert Dukes and Devon Lyons, who have been in the background the last couple years, will have an opportunity. Ray Small is a guy who we decided not to redshirt last year because he helped us immediately. He has a lot to offer and last year will help him.
It will be interesting to watch. We want to be deep at receiver. We'll see if these guys can do the things the three we lost did the last couple years. It will be fun to watch them progress."
On replacing experience lost at defensive tackle
"When you lose Quinn Pitckock, David Patterson and Joel Penton, you're losing some great players. We have high expectations for Doug Worthington, who is moving inside and doing so nicely. Todd Denlinger is a guy who was between 0-12 snaps last year depending on the game. He is coming along well too.
Dexter Larimore is coming into his own and has been very impressive. When you talk to guys on the offensive line, they tell me he is a load.
Juan Garnier is working in there and Nader Abdallah did a good job from the last 1/2 of last season, through the bowl and in the winter. He weighed in at 291 and has added lateral quickness. I absolutely look for him to have opportunities in games this year. Rob (Rose) primarily would be at end at this point. He could emerge as a Kenny Peterson type player and make an impact at both positions. I could see Rob doing that down the road."
On the linebackers
"Right now, I would say James Laurinaitis and Austin Spitler at Mike (middle linebacker). Marcus Freeman and Ross Homan at the Will spots (weakside linebacker). Larry Grant and Curtis Terry at Sam (strongside). I'm impressed with Thaddeus Gibson, too. Mark Johnson is coming along. He had good bowl workouts and a solid winter."
On the spring and moving back into the Woody Hayes Athletic Center
"We have been told that by April 2 the Woody Hayes Athletic Center will be completed. We are already in the weight room and the training room and just today our coaches moved into their offices. The meeting rooms are being completed now. We spent four to five years planning, three to four years fundraising and one year of construction.
"As I talked with our players and coaches in February and March about where we can improve, the No. 1 thing that became apparent was the players missed the one-on-one time with coaches. This past year they really had no place to sit down and talk one-on-one. We didn't plan for that and I guess we could have used the Fawcett Center more, but that is a very important thing and something I didn't account for. With all of us being back together, I hope the new faces will begin to get connected and we'll begin teaching."
On looking back on the 2006 season and preparing for 2007
"As you go back and look at the whole picture, I think about how the NCAA (basketball) tournament selection committee decides the 65 teams and how you hear about them looking at the entire body of work. That's what we did in February and March. We thought we did a whole lot of things well. And we did some things that we need to get better at, too, but we need to make sure we don't forget how we got good at those things and that we don't lose them. We'll look at the formula, but the thing is that there will be a different group of people doing it. That group needs to be integrated with the returners and hopefully they have grown."
"We will go back to square one this spring. The thing you lead with is conceptually going back and teaching and learning. Our young guys need to grow and learn how we do things, why we do things and how to play with the tempo and velocity you need. Spring is a great evaluation time."
On the quarterback position
"If we had a game today, Todd Boeckman would line up and be our quarterback, but there's not a game today, so there will be a competition with Robbie Schoenhoft and Antonio Henton. We have 15 spring practices and 29 preseason practices, then several games before the Big Ten season starts. So the evaluation period will be long. Todd has the experience advantage for sure. And another advantage he has is that he didn't spend the whole last year reading cards and running plays on the scout team like Antonio and Robbie did.
"Troy was very meticulous and loved learning. He would also let loose and just play, but when he did that he was still very careful with the football. The pro scouts have said that, too. But Todd Boeckman had the best 40-yard dash time last year among our quarterbacks and that included Troy. He has the advantage of having been here a little longer. I have thought Todd is very mature and an even-keel guy from the get-go. He handled the gray shirt with this season in mind--that he would sit and watch for a couple years."
On the offense in 2007 without Troy Smith
"You know there was very little that we didn't run last year. Will we be able to do all that? I doubt it. I don't want to ask these guys to do everything Troy Smith did because it's a building process. But I don't want to be limited, either, and I still want to give our defense a lot of different looks in practice, too."
On the leadership situation for the team now
"That is our biggest challenge right now. Last year we had 18 seniors, 17 of whom were fifth-year guys, and we also lost three juniors who played a bunch. That is a tremendous loss of leadership. The one challenge for the 2007 team is for leaders to emerge. And the thing about it is that remember Troy Smith wasn't a leader until he produced. Mike Nugent was a tremendous leader because he produced in his role. Leadership is also about who prepares. If you remember a year ago at this time I said that we would have a chance to be a good team because, even though we lost nine starters on defense, we had so many producers back. This year, guys have to emerge for us to be good."
