Big Ten play begins this week for Ohio State as they host Iowa at Noon EST at
the Horseshoe, and to kick off the usual Tuesday media sessions, OSU head coach
Jim Tressel and Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz both fielded questions at this
week's Big Ten coaches teleconference. Tressel began with some thoughts on this
week's game against Iowa.
"We're anxious to get into Big Ten play," Tressel said. "I
think the Big Ten is going to be a very, very tough conference this year. As you
look at everybody from side to side and throughout the conference, they've had
some tough ball games, they've had some great wins. I just think it's going to
be a very strong league, and we start out with an awfully strong one with the
university of Iowa. They're a physical football team. They have dropped a game,
but they didn't have their quarterback that day. They're just an outstanding
team as they've shown over the years, and we have to be ready to compete."
Both teams have plenty of question marks entering this game. Iowa (2-1) is coming off a 45-21 win over Northern Iowa after losing on the road to Iowa State. The Hawkeyes seem to be a
team still searching for an overall identity.
"First of all, we're happy to get the win on Saturday... It was just a
good outing for our team to get back," Ferentz said. "I thought we
looked a little bit sharper. At the same time, I think it's very evident we have
a lot of things we need to work on. That's a big focus for us this week. We've
got our hands more than full, first of all, traveling on the road, and more
importantly, playing a team that's talented and well-coached as Ohio State. So
we've got a lot of work to do between now and game time. With all that being
said, we're looking forward to the weekend."
For Ohio State, the problems have come on offense. The Buckeyes have
struggled to score touchdowns, and Tressel was asked if the difficulties on
offense were a concern at this point.
"Absolutely," Tressel said. "I think the consistency, or lack
thereof -- where we are at this moment is not where you'd like to be after three
games. We haven't done little things across the board. Everyone likes to discuss
what we haven't done at quarterback, but we could talk a little bit about all
the way down the line, where we need to get a lot better. We need to get a lot
better fast, because when you start playing against the Big Ten defenses, yards
and first downs and points are even more difficult. So we've got a lot of work
to do and we've just got to get at it."
Tressel also suggested that some of the struggles may have come as a result
of Troy Smith not yet being completely settled in after having to miss games due
to suspension.
"I don't think I've seen Troy yet totally in command and relaxed,"
Tressel said. "He really wants to do well and couldn't wait to get in and
play after sitting out a couple games there when we were playing two weeks ago.
This week I thought was very, very valuable in that he got 71 snaps and that he
got a lot of plays on tape and a lot of things he can learn from. I just think
it's just relaxing and being in command with the whole situation. To me, that's
the biggest task that he has to tackle."
Smith has seen plenty of carries from the quarterback position throughout his
first two games. Tressel was asked if he felt Smith needed to look to throw more
this week against Iowa.
"What's most important is that the quarterback takes what the defense
gives and not make up his mind before maybe which it's going to be,"
Tressel said. "We have to find out what happens after the ball is snapped.
There is a time where 'Hey, they've got them all covered and I have to let my
legs take over,' and that's fine. But as I mentioned to one of the earlier
callers, having that relaxation and that calm and that command to take what they
give you, to make those decisions, and sometimes it's to take off running, which
is fine.
"A lot of the games I've watched over the years, the unnoticed things
are that 3rd-and-7 play where there's bracket coverage and everyone was tied up,
and that quarterback ran for a first down and changed the momentum of the game.
So we don't discount the importance of that, but you have to do things in
progression. I just think Troy needs to be a little bit better from his
progression standpoint."
Iowa has faced a different set of struggles throughout their first two games. Ferentz discussed
what has been disappointing so far in this team's performance.
"The first and most obvious thing is just turnovers," Ferentz said.
"If we turn the football over -- and this has been true traditionally and
we're not unique to anyone in football for this one -- but when we turn it over,
we're asking for bad things to happen. So that would be certainly first and
foremost, and we're making too many mental errors right now in all categories
and haven't been consistent. It's hard to be consistent when you make mental
errors, and we just haven't had the kind of consistency you like to have. I
don't think we've found a rhythm at all as a football team yet.
"I think turnovers a lot of time are, first of all, you give credit to
your opponent; they also have a hand in it. Then also, a lot of times it's
concentration, so we need to do better there. As far as the rhythm, I think
we're still developing as a football team. We've got some very experienced
players playing for us who are for the most part doing a very good job, but we
have a lot of new guys trying to fit their way in too. When you're doing that,
you're always trying to establish your identity as a football team. I don't know
how it is at other places, but I know if you look back at our teams the past
three or four years, it's really been a process for us. We haven't just come out
of the gate and been clicking right off the bat; it's been more of a process
than anything else. Hopefully we'll bring resolution to some of our problems
here in the next week or two or a couple weeks."
Last year, Ohio State traveled to Iowa City in October to take on a Hawkeye
team that had started 3-2 and had not looked like the co-Big Ten champions they
would eventually become. The Hawkeyes crushed the Buckeyes in a 33-7 win, one
which featured a great performance from quarterback Drew Tate, who at the time
was a rising star on his way to becoming Big Ten player of the year.
"I think it's probably safe to say his breakthrough game would have been
the Michigan State game (one game before the Ohio State game)," Ferentz
said. "We just got totally thwarted down in Arizona -- played at Arizona State, came back after that and did some good things at Michigan State, but we
turned it over a bunch up there too. We came back after that ball game -- we
were 2-2 at the time -- and he really had an outstanding game the next week.
Since that time, he's done a lot of good things for us. Again, I think it
was just a great challenge for him. What he did a year ago was amazing to me
because of his lack of experience and just our lack of being a balanced attack.
We had no realistic opportunity to ever establish a running game last year, so
to me, that just puts more pressure as a quarterback. We had to put more on his
shoulders and I thought he responded in a very admirable fashion.
"Now the big challenge probably is to make sure he doesn't feel like he
has to do too much, just has to play his position but doesn't have to be the
hero every play or every game. We don't want any of our guys thinking
that."
Tate was able to accomplish his feat last season despite the unusual amount
of injuries the Hawkeyes suffered at the running back position. By the time the
Ohio State game had come around, Iowa had resorted to using a walk-on as well as
a player they originally intended on redshirting to run the football. This year,
the Hawkeyes are healthy at tailback and led by Albert Young, who has 298 yards
on 36 carries (8.3 average) and three touchdowns.
"We're real pleased with Albert's start to the season, certainly, and
we've had good feelings about him for three years now," Ferentz said.
"It's exciting to have him out there on the field, but all it does is
enable us to have a better chance to be more balanced. We certainly weren't able
to get that done last year for obvious reasons, and I think this year, all of
our running backs have really done a good job. They've been practicing well and
it's probably been a bright spot on our football team."
While the win over Ohio State was a high point for the Iowa season, the game
was one of the lowest points in recent years for the Buckeye football program.
Ohio State improved after the Iowa game, however, and were one of the top teams
in the Big Ten by the end of the year. Tressel was asked about that game and how
OSU was able to improve since then.
"Like all Big Ten games, if you go in and don't play great, you're going
to learn some very difficult lessons and have some harsh realities brought
forward no matter who you are, whether you're a lineman, one of the receivers,
one of the backs, one of the quarterbacks or one of the coaches," Tressel
said. "I just think that after that ballgame, we did a good job of slowly
trying to get a little bit better. I don't know that it was anything
instantaneous. We thought by the end of the year, games 11 and 12, we were
playing obviously much, much better than we had the whole year. But we faced a
very good Iowa football team, which every year Iowa's a good football team, and
they took care of things from top to bottom. It was certainly a learning thing.
Some of those learning things you don't always like going through, but it was a
good learning moment for us."
This year's game marks the start of the Big Ten schedule for each team. With
each team having already lost one game, this week's matchup carries great
significance for the postseason hopes of each team as well as with the race for
the Big Ten title. Tressel was asked about the subject and agreed that a loss
this week would destroy national championship hopes but said it would not mean
the end of Big Ten title contention for either team.
"What I think we're going to find is that in the Big Ten, all these
games are big," Tressel said. "Someone may be 7-1 and win it, you
never know. I think your point about any thoughts that one would have of playing
for the national championship certainly would end, but I don't know that the Big
Ten world as we know it would end because I think last year, Iowa opened the Big
Ten season, lost to Michigan, and ended up being the co-champions. I think you
go day by day and game by game, and certainly it's a big game, but I'm sure
they're over there at various other stadiums saying "Hey, that
Michigan/Wisconsin game's a big one." As we begin conference play, I think
it's always important to get off to a good start."
Ferentz, however, was quite frank when he was asked about his team's views of
the national championship and Big Ten title.
"I don't know if you're familiar with the way we've played the first
three weeks," Ferentz said. "We've been playing okay at best and
certainly not okay a couple weeks ago. We really haven't played very well. We
did a lot of good things, but there's a lot of things that need attention and
urgency, so we're not even thinking about that. We don't do that anyway; we're a
little bit more of a smaller focus kind of football team. I'm more focused on
starting conference play, knowing the strength in our conference. Obviously Ohio
State has every right to be thinking national title picture; they're used to
that and they've earned that right We look at their football team and the
challenges they present, and we've got our hands more than full just worrying
about this weekend, so really that's kind of what we're focused on. We just know
that it's going to be a very challenging eight-game stretch that we have in
front of us. If we don't start improving a little quicker here, it's not going
to be good.
"I think that's more media talk and fan talk. All I know is that if
you're going to have a chance to win a title, that really becomes apparent in
November if you're in the race or not. If you don't take care of business in
September or October, none of that's going to matter. I'm just more in tune to
what our concern areas are right now, and hopefully we can improve those real
quick because again, knowing the strength of the conference, if we don't get
moving here, we're going to get left behind real fast."
Ferentz was asked if there was a ban on talking about the Big Ten title
within the team.
"I don't think we ban it; we just don't do that," he said. "We
never really have. I think it's very obvious every team in our conference -- we
have eleven of them -- every one of us wants to win the title, so to me, it's
almost silly to talk about it because if you don't want to do that, why the heck
are you playing? So we just don't spend much time talking about it. I just
know this -- the more games you win early, the better chances you have to be in
position at the end of the season, so to me, you're better off just focusing on
what's in front of you."
Iowa teams, in recent years, have shown the ability to rebound from an early
loss and play better as the year goes along. Ferentz discussed his team's
approach to rebounding from an early loss.
"I think the bottom line is it's a long season, and even though you want
to win them all, most times that doesn't happen if you look at it over 117 teams
or whatever it is that plays football," he said. "Whether you win or
lose, pretty much you just put that game to bed and you focus on what's in front
of you. Obviously you go back and critique the things that are keeping you from
being successful and try to get those straightened out, and then after that, you
move on to you're next opponent. I just think you try to invest weekly as much
as you possibly can into each and every game and then try to count them up at
the end of the season. I think if you get too focused on the big picture --
maybe it works for other folks, but it really hasn't worked for us too
well."
Each coach was also asked about the spread offense and why more teams are
using more towards the spread attack.
"I think in this day and age, you've got to be able to attack with a lot
of different things," Tressel said. "There are so many good guys out
there that can throw and catch, and the evolution of football -- there's so many
good ideas. Sometimes, things trickle down a little bit from the pros. Now, the
pros don't allow their quarterback to get hit quite as much as we do in college
football in our spread offenses and so forth, but I just think because people
are so well-schooled on defense, you've got to give them more problems. I think
if you have that as part of your package, it can give you a chance. Some of the
people in our league do it very, very well."
"I just think that's football in general," Ferentz answered.
"I think you're seeing more and more of it. It started back when Coach Fry
came to Iowa in the late '70s; he threw it around a little bit. Then Mike White
came to Illinois, and they threw it around a bunch, and I think more and more of
it spread. I think right now, if you just look nationally, you are seeing a lot
more of the "spread offense" then you are the old conventional
two-back, two-receiver type thing. It seems that's the direction football's
moving in right now."
Tressel was asked why Ohio State in particular has moved to the spread look.
"We feel like we've got some guys, we'd like to get the ball in their
hands," Tressel said. "Plus, we also think that if you can prove that
you can do a good job throwing it, there aren't quite as many people in the box
when you are trying to run it. Then I think when you add the quarterbacks into
the run package, that's another bit of pressure you can put on the opposing
defenses. So you'd like to be able to do it all, and I think that's why you see
so many people doing it, and specifically the guys that we've got that are
capable of making things happen when we deploy that way."
Ferentz concurred with a reporter who asked if the Big Ten was no longer a
power football conference.
"I think you're right on target," Ferentz said. "It depends on
the teams you're looking at. Nobody in the country runs the ball as well as
Minnesota. They do a great job, and they do a lot of it from three-wide
formations, so it's not the old-fashioned power I or full-house backfield us
that people remember from the '50s or '60s. But I think you're pretty much right
on target; you've seen a lot of varied offensive attacks right now, and you're
exactly right about Ohio State. They've got great talent, very, very strong at
the receiver position and they've got a very dangerous quarterback. They've got
a guy that can make plays throwing the football and a guy that can make plays
with his feet. But it changes week-to-week, game to game. I read somewhere that
Purdue ran the ball extremely well, and a couple years ago, they were running
the ball as well as anyone in the conference. Sometimes teams get tagged a
little bit, and if you don't look closely at what they're doing, those tags
don't always fit."
Tressel was also asked a recruiting question -- one regarding his thoughts on
the high school talent in the state of Ohio and why the talent is so plentiful.
"I think we're extremely fortunate to have great talent," he said.
"I think culturally, youngsters grow up wanting to play this game, and so
that gives those outstanding coaching staffs people who are listening closely
and training in the offseason and studying video. I just think if you wrap in
all of the reasons people love football in this state, all of those add to
helping our high school football be very good. I think last year, if I'm not
mistaken, I think there were 90 guys signed at BCS schools or something out of
the state of Ohio. It's amazing, and then you look at rosters and guys, every
week we have to watch someone from Ohio playing for another team, and we say
'Boy, we wish we had all those guys.'"